Fencing Training: Learning, Recreational, Competitive, Elite

February 20, 12:44 PMBaltimore Fencing ExaminerGreg Paye

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Fencing bout at Baltimore Fencing Center, Timonium

Many new fencers do not come from another athletic discipline. I teach beginners of all ages, and anecdotally speaking, I estimate that about 3/4s of my students were not seriously involved in any kind of athletics before they got involved in fencing. These fencers vary from the very sedentary to the very active, but generally speaking they have not had the experience of taking on a complex, physical discipline that requires years to become fluent in. For those fencers, I offer some categories of fencing training for use in determining your own path in fencing. These categories are not rules of any sort, just some general labels and guidelines I've come up with over the years for newcomers to the sport.

Learning

This is the first phase of development. Learners fence once or twice per week. Typically they only participate in group classes. They do not bout (spar) much, and generally they do so only in the context of class. They may or may not cross-train or have some kind of athletic regimen. The Learning phase is usually a 2 to 4 month one - enough time for someone to decide whether they want to take up the sport seriously. Typically the fencer only buys those bits of equipment that are required by his school or club, while all other equipment is rented or borrowed.

Recreational 

Once a fencer has gotten his feet wet, he generally becomes a recreational fencer. A recreational fencer usually participates in one or two group classes a week, and may take the occasional private lesson. They do open bouting time at their school/club for an hour or two a week. Recreational fencers start to buy more of their own equipment, and participate in low-end, beginner tournaments. After some time a Recreational fencer may elect to do a large tournament, perhaps a trip to Summer Nationals, with the express intent of just participating and having fun. Some fencers stay Recreational fencers for the rest of their fencing lives. This is the plateau for the casual hobbyist.

Competitive

Once tournaments become a monthly or semi-monthly activity, open bouting training ups to a 5+ hours a week, and private lessons start becoming more frequent, the fencer is well on his way to becoming Competitive. Competitive fencers  start to set ambitious goals and train towards them. They start to do a couple national events each season. Often times a Competitive fencer  will cross-train or undertake a general fitness regimen to compliment his fencing training, developing agility, increasing cardiovascular capacity, and adding overall muscle strength.  Competitive fencers will, on average, put in 10+ hours a week in fencing training.

Elite

Fencers with national and/or international aspirations need to have a serious devotion to fencing. Fencing starts to become a job (a pleasant one, granted, but a job nonetheless), and the fencer needs to have the discipline to take two or more private lessons per week, train on his own for general and fencing fitness, start setting training schedules to major competitions, and start travelling to compete, a lot. An Elite fencer can expect to be training anywhere from 20 to 40 hours a week, depending on his particular goals and support/infrastructure.

I think that to get the most out of fencing, new fencers should start slow and work their way up. Many times I've seen fencers race from Learning to Competitive, skipping a crucial few months of Recreational, only to find themselves disenchanted with the game, and not appreciating how long it takes to do well in it.

Sometimes fencers don't think about where they are, and where they want to go, and are surprised at where they wind up. A friend of mine was a Recreational fencer for most of his high school years. He had some Competitive phases (mostly at his parents' urging) but for the most part he was a happy-go-lucky hobbyist.  Since he was very smart and academically accomplished, he got accepted to a very prestigious school, and said school had a strong fencing team. He tried out for the team and in less than a season he gave it up. He, the happy-go-lucky hobbyist, was quite alarmed and unhappy, finding himself surrounded by Competitive and Elite fencers.

Of course these categories have a lot of gray area in-between themselves, and each person's situation is different. I encourage all fencers to think about what it is about fencing they like, and figure out what path they need to take to get more of what they like. I also encourage making your coach's input part of your deliberations.