Lessons for life.

Fencing teaches us much more than the art of defence with a sword. It teaches us how to be disciplined, set goals, make split second decisions and deal with the consequences. Fencing is really the art of negotiating. It is the art of negotiating for position, for cooperation and for learning to give and take in order to achieve your goals. The path to success is rarely a straight one. Fencing teaches us how to travel that path, make wise choices and enjoy the journey whether it is to world champion fencer or just exploring a new adventure.

The skills learned in fencing will change the life of the fencer and empower him/her to lead a richer, fuller life regardless of whether he/she continues fencing for the rest of life.

Simple is Genius

Fencing is a sport of art, grace, refinement, beauty, and perfection of efficient movement and form. When we first learn fencing we learn the simple things: stepping forward, stepping backward, extending our weapons to hit a target. As we journey through the circle of training we add increasing complexity and refinement to our skill. We perform beautiful, complex actions woven together as our own musical composition of blade and foot, creating rhythms and patterns to hit or deceive our opponents. We must learn these skills to be good fencers, however, in the end we find our greatest success in returning to our now perfected roots: simple actions, simple phrases.

The fencing piste is the mirror of life. We follow the same model, starting at a very basic level and adding complexity. But isn’t it always the simple things, the little things that mean the most and provide the most success? After we have learned the complexity of our lives, we return to the roots of our lives: simplicity.

Simple is elegant. Simple is beautiful. Simple is genius.