Fencing

 

Photo by Artem Podrez (Pexels)

A little unknown fact about me is that I fence as a hobby. What frustrates me is that every time I look up fencing online, I have to type fencing sport otherwise I will just get pictures of someone´s boring garden fence.

Jokes aside, people always seem pleasantly surprised by the fact that I fence since it is a pretty uncommon sport to pursue but an interesting sport nonetheless. That is one of the main reasons I continue to fence until this day.

Besides hating to fence during the summer months, I actually adore fencing and not even a strict fencing instructor could change that. Quite the opposite a tough fencing trainer made me like fencing even more even if I end up working myself to death sometimes.

After five years, I just thought that it is time to look back and reflect since I found that reflecting made the future clearer. Having everything in writing also made memories live on even if mine should fade someday.

This fencing trip of mine started when I moved to Germany with my family. The first year, I was pretty much just getting used to this brand new environment for me. It did take some time to get used to a new place.

A new place comes with new formalities and customs. Learning and memorising all those formalities and customs take time and I am not the biggest fan of messing up. It was not a necessity to get used to the new normal but I did hate standing out so I did what I had to do.

Some days after getting used to a new country, my parents complained that I didn’t go out at all. Stuck at home all day, studying and chilling. Therefore, my parents urged me to choose an afterschool activity.

My brother was not doing me any favours by hanging out with his friends and constantly playing football. He was an active little child who was happiest when he was moving. Using my own brother against me, my parents convinced me to start a new activity.

It did take some time to find what I truly wanted to do since I don’t want to learn a new instrument. For four years, I was learning piano. With Ukulele, Guitar and Flute jam sessions in between. I had enough of instruments for a while.

Another thing that discouraged me from continuing piano or pursuing another instrument was the constant need to practice. My mother would be breathing down my neck and constantly reminded me to practice even if I didn’t want to. I don’t want that again.

Back then, I also had some self-esteem issues since I thought I was fat for some reason therefore my parents urged me to pursue a sport since I already spend most days sitting in school, learning all the irrelevant information that was needed to pass an exam.

My parents also wanted me to pursue a combat sport since they know that this world is a dangerous place for women. Frankly, I didn’t want to disagree with them because they only had my best interest in mind, and I hated the feeling of defenselessness.

Therefore, I was encouraged to look into combat sports. In all honesty, I knew that learning hand-to-hand combat was important since there are no weapons needed however I always found weapon combat so much more interesting.

Nothing against martial arts. I did use to do martial arts when I was a child. Frankly, I enjoyed martial arts. It was fun. Not the discipline part though (since I was a child). However, the rest was fun. Once the trainer introduced us to weapons as an excursus, I was swept away and could never go back.

Choosing a weapon combat sport was also somewhat an act of rebellion as well since I knew what my parents meant when they said they wanted me to do a combat sport. However, with that, I just stepped on my own foot so my parents can´t complain too much. I digress…

During one garden party, I believed someone mentioned fencing which ended up with me promising my father if he would find a weapons combat sport in our area, I would go with no questions asked and no resistance. Guess what happened next.

My father found a fencing club and I couldn’t say no. He called up the fencing club and managed to get me into a trail course. Normally, my father is not this organized but when it came to kicking me out of the house for a few hours, he managed to pull out all the stops.

On the day of the course, my father just drove with me to the sports hall. I cannot deny that I am excited and nervous. It is going to be fun but I was just scared socially. Back then and even now, I am socially a bit shy and don’t want to impose on already existing group structures.

Once there, I was thrown into the deep end. There was no watch, it was just doing. A nice girl from the course showed me the stances and the exercise. Quickly, I managed to catch on but it was something to get used to.

During the Olympics, the fencers made the whole fencing shtick look easy. Moving so flawlessly and their weapon movements so subtle. It looked like an art form. Turns out that art form took a lot of time to perfect, and even now, my stance is working against me instead of with me.

The course was fun and everyone was so nice, which made me stay the full two hours. It was fun to see a whole new sport and learn all the different rules. Learning new tactics and strategies to outsmart your opponent. It was interesting.

I adored the sport so much that I continued. At first, I was shy but once I got more comfortable, I started to get to know the people and even made some friends. Fencing wasn’t only a sport anymore; it was a time to socialize with people who have the same interest.

What I found incredibly sad was the fact that I see people come and go. The trainers would constantly worry about dropping participant numbers. The prospect of the sport ending in this town was just sad but that never stopped me from going.

After some convincing, my parents got me the fencing kit for Christmas including the safety wear, the mask, the weapons and the electronics. This just got me more and more invested in the sport that started as a hobby.

Once a week of training turned into two. At first, I hated that I needed to go out on a Friday afternoon but now I wish that option would be available to me now. Going twice a week didn’t only shut up my parents but also made me physically fitter, which I found advantageous.

Then came the pandemic. Well, that and the fact that I needed to go to uni. My future in fencing was looking impossible since no fencing club was open and I had to get used to the uni first before I look into free time activity.

It was a two-year break from the sport which got me out of the house. During the lockdowns, going out and fencing would have been ideal but impossible. Not being able to fence just made the lockdown worse than they already were.

Everything came crumbling down so suddenly. I didn’t even say goodbye to the fencing partners at the club. I just disappeared. It took two years before I started to fence again in the new city where I attended uni.

At first, I tried to join a fencing club again but due to time and spatial difficulties, I couldn’t. I did go to a trail course for the fencing club but due to lack of training and social anxiety, it was not as fun as it used to be.

Another thing that bothered me about the fencing club was the age gap between each fencer. Back during my high school days, I was under 18 which meant I fenced with the under 18´s. Now I am over 18 and I fence with over 18´s. That means any age above 18 fits into that category.

Luckily for me, one of the trainers in the club was also a trainer for the university fencing course. At first, I didn’t make much of that piece of information. But when I looked into it, a whole world opened up for me.

Turns out the university provides a range of different sports courses that university students could just attend for free (well not really for free because you had to pay a tuition fee). Fencing was among the sports offered.

This time, I even managed to convince one of my uni friends to attend the course with me since I didn’t want to go alone. Again, like all the times before, I had a bit of social anxiety but the uni students were nice.

After some time, I just fell into the rhythm of going fencing on Wednesday like I used to do back in high school. It just felt like before when I, not only exercised and trained a bit but also socialized and gossiped with my fellow fencers.

Until now, I never joined any fencing tournaments even though I desperately wanted to. However, again, self-esteem issues and all that. I never believe that I was good at fencing, I just managed to beat some student fencers due to years of experience.

Most fencers in tournaments also started when they were children which meant that they had plenty of experience up their sleeves and I could never compete with that. However, if an opportunity opens up, I would like to give it a try.

Honestly, I made the fencing license for a reason. I want to go to a tournament in the future. However, there are also some smaller things that I want to change in the future. For instance, my moves.

My movements are not subtle at all. It is not quick and small but slow and big. I want to change that. There are also some parries that I wanted to learn since most of the time specific fencing terminology does not mean anything to me.

If I have anything to say about this, I wouldn’t stop fencing anytime soon since there are still so many things that I want to accomplish in my fencing career, some tricks I want to add to my fencing repertoire but most importantly just some time I get to spend away from life.

Besides being a sport that trains agility and reaction time, fencing also became an activity, I could release all my energy and frustrations. Back in my golden teenage years, I never had a healthy way to release my anger. This led to an emotional explosion which drained me and devastated others.

Now, I have a healthy way to release the frustrations and energy I have pent up during the day. Not only is that a great way to release anger but also a great way to build muscles and physical fitness while doing so.

Fencing also became proof that I can be a different kind of person if I wanted. The people in the fencing course have a different perception of the person I am than most people who I come across during the day.

To a certain extent, I also believed that fencing helped build confidence and made me push my limits a bit. The sport just made me feel more confident since I do like this newfound confidence, I try to push limits to maintain this confidence in my life.

I guess what I am trying to say with this article is that fencing has changed my life in certain areas and now looking back, I cannot believe how far I have come and how far I still need to go.