Starting fencing as an adult can be both intimidating and also immensely rewarding. In the last few years, we’ve seen a lot of adult fencers come into our club and really make the sport their own. Oftentimes they come in just looking for something physical and interesting to do as a hobby, then they end up being caught up in the fun of competition. It starts off with a local tournament, then they find out how rewarding it is to push themselves and they end up going to regional, and sometimes eventually national tournaments. 

1. Define success for yourself

The goals are different for adult fencers than they are for youth fencers. Where youth fencers tend to have an eye towards leveraging fencing for getting into college or they might have dreams of one day going to the Olympics, neither of those is the driving force behind fencing as an adult. So how do you define success as an adult fencer?

This is the real question, because if you’re going to enjoy fencing, then you need to define goals that help you progress and make you feel positive about the direction you’re going. Do you want to compete in a certain number of tournaments? Achieve a certain rating or rank? Qualify for a specific competition such as national championship?

We see this question often about “when will I become a good fencer?” and the answer is always “how do you define what a good fencer is?”

Setting achievable goals is crucial to staying motivated as you measure your progress. Break down your long-term goals into smaller, manageable milestones. Celebrate each achievement along the way, as it will boost your confidence and fuel your passion for the sport.

Tracking your progress in a meaningful way is important. Don’t just have a feel for what you’re doing – actually write it down so that you can see it in perspective. You’ll be able to find patterns in how you prepare and how that affects how you do. 

One excellent suggestion that I saw online is to focus on a couple of tournaments initially that you want to really succeed in. Then, think of all of the other tournaments in the season as a dress rehearsal or a practice run for those two competitions. When you give yourself something very detailed and specific, you’ll have a much better time of trying to reach that goal. Keep it achievable and keep it simple.

You might not ever get all the way to the top in American fencing if you start when you’re and adult, and that’s ok. You don’t have to be in the top 8 or the top 16 in order to enjoy this sport and get a lot out of it. When you’re an adult fencer, you get this great opportunity to define what you want to get out of it and then to go after it. There’s no one to tell you what to do and no defined path ahead of you. If you think about it in a certain way, that’s incredibly freeing. 

There is no definitive way that you’ll be a success unless you define it for yourself. If you just say that you want to be a “good fencer” and never say what that is, you’re setting yourself up to be disappointed. And if you do plateau, then you need to look at your expectations for yourself and figure out how to adjust. 

2. Understand plateaus

Whether you’re just starting out or returning to the sport as an adult, we see more plateaus in adult fencers than in youth fencers. Adults have an upward curve in their development, but it’s just not as steep as it is for kids, which is arguably true for any activity that people start in adult age versus when they were young. 

The progress that you make in fencing is all dependent upon your unique situation, on your physical fitness level and prior experience with sports. In addition, adult fencers don’t have the same kind of clockwork training progress that kids do – youth sports are fundamentally different from training as an adult. 

Sometimes, plateaus can be ok for fencers. The plan is for you to have many years in the sport, and all of that time can’t have huge growth going on. In addition, adult fencers have lots of things going on in life besides fencing that can slow them down. 

• College/school
• Family responsibilities
• Work
• Physical conditions
• Life events

Adult fencers are not only carving out time to do this sport, but that time is competing with all kinds of other things. One of the great things about fencing is the way that it can give us fuel and help us find balance, but the same way that our fencing affects our lives, so too does our life affect our fencing progress.

Look at all of the factors if you’re experiencing a plateau in fencing competition. What does your pre-competition schedule look like? Are you resting, eating well, hydrating? You might be performing great in training and then not so well in competitions, so is that due to some difference in the lead up to tournaments given work and family commitments? Look at the whole picture as much as possible. 

It’s common for us to see fencers plateau because they have other things going on in life that are slowing down their ability to train in terms of showing up in the club, but also their ability to focus completely when they’re here. That’s why the first thing you should do if you hit a plateau is to evaluate how everything else in your life is affecting your fencing. 

3. Stop comparing yourself to teenagers

The way that fencing is structured and because of the size of our sport, if you’re an adult fencer then you’re most definitely competing against teenagers in the club and in tournaments. 

We see this so often – teenage fencers who have only been training for a little while surpass adult fencers who have put a lot of hard work and dedication into their fencing for a much longer amount of time. It’s not easy to be up on the strip with someone who is less experienced than you are in fencing and in life get point after point on you. 

Adult fencers and teenage fencers are simply on different wavelengths. There is something about youth that has more plasticity and adaptability than being an adult, and it’s just a natural part of the growing and maturing process. Teenage fencers will pick up the skills faster, and they have more bandwidth to take in all of the information that goes with fencing training. As an adult fencer, if you try to measure your success and growth against teenagers, you are likely to be very disappointed.

There’s a reason that the Veteran division is split into decade sections. Fencing is a mental sport, absolutely, but the physical is equally present. It’s a privilege to grow older, but those years passing has an effect on how far and how fast we can go in athletic activities. If your measure of how well you’re doing has anything to do with how well you are against high school fencers, then you need to change your metric and evaluate what you want to get out of it. 

When you get bowled over by a teenager (and it will happen to every adult fencer), try to take a step back and appreciate their talents rather than being demoralized by the loss. Direct your attention to the growth you’re making, and try to put that in context. We live in a youth obsessed world that puts a huge emphasis on being stronger, faster, and always having the umpf of a teenager. You don’t have to have that. Adult fencers are worthwhile, and what you get out of and bring to the sport is just as valuable.

Their excellence doesn’t indicate that you’re not amazing. 

Rather than comparing yourself to those teenage powerhouses in your club and avoiding them like the plague, seek them out for bouting and practicing. When you go up against those tough opponents, that’s how you’ll grow most effectively. Don’t shy away from them, but embrace the growth that you’ll get from training alongside them. 

4. Match with the right coach

We have so many stories of fencers who started this sport in their 20’s, 30’s, 40’s, 50’s and beyond who have gone on to do extremely well. Those individuals almost always matched with a coach who didn’t just treat them like another youth fencer, and instead focus on the strengths that come with age like strategic thinking and analysis. 

The fencing coach you’re working with will make all the difference in how you progress. Who do you go to when you hit one of those plateaus and what advice do they give you? Who helps you pivot when you are in the depths and struggling to stay on the same level, much less improve? The test of a coach is not in competition, but in the day to day training when fencers are most likely to fall away. 

Your coach should be able to help you find new styles of movement that match your personality and abilities. Adults have a whole different set of possibilities than youth fencers, and  your coach should be able to offer you a cache of techniques that support your individual development. Working with someone who is experienced and willing to look outside of the box will make all the difference for you. 

It’s worth it to seek out the right fit for you in a coach, especially if you have aspirations to get a high rating and compete in high level competitions. Not everyone will be able to get an adult fencer there, not every coach will have the patience to work with adults, but if you found such coach who’s capable of giving you what you need, you hit a jackspot. 

Getting an outside perspective can come through many places. Find places to network to find the best possible support for you, and know that you’ll get the best information from fellow adult fencers. Network at competitions to find out what’s working for others, and keep on pushing yourself forward through the amazing camaraderie in our sport. 

5. Branch out

Don’t just fence the people in your club, but branch out. It can be mind blowing to fence against someone from another club or region for the first time, when you realize that not everyone fences the way that you do where you are. The best way to do it is to attend some local competitions. Look for easy ones at first, such as Div2, Div3 or Open Senior tournaments or Veteran events if you are older than 40. This is where you meet your fellow adult fencers, can get some advice and encouragement. And it is just a fun way to spend your Sunday.

When you push yourself to start going to competitions, you can often break through plateaus as your creativity is sparked and you experience different ways to do things. Plus your expand your fencing network and support group. The tempo that you thought was just part of fencing might be thrown for a real loop. 

6. 10,000 hours to mastery?

You’ve probably heard the concept that it takes 10,000 hours to master a new skill. It’s not exactly science, but it’s a great general way to think about how long it takes to get to the top of any hobby (like fencing!). 

If you wanted to master fencing and were taking one two hour class per week, that’s 5,000 classes or about ten years! Putting in more hours will obviously decrease the amount of time it’ll take, and that’s why you should look into putting more time into it if you want to get better faster. 

Consistency is key in any sport, and fencing is no exception. Making a commitment to practicing regularly and sticking to a consistent training schedule is just what it takes. Dedicating time for both physical conditioning and technical training to develop a well-rounded skill set is how it needs to be.

Doing more competitions, starting to go to open fencing, cross training, and taking private lessons will just help you get there faster. One reason we see youth fencers progress so much faster than adults sometimes is simply because they put so many more hours into the sport. They might come for three or more days after school, take private lessons, do camps, fence with their friends at open fencing and attend tons of tournaments. 

 As an adult, you just don’t have the same amount of disposable hours to commit to fencing, so it’s going to take you a lot longer to progress than it will take a youth fencer. Here are some ideas about how to spend that 10,000 hours effectively.

• Private lessons are your best way to maximize your time if you want to really improve your fencing. There’s nothing like one-on-one attention from a coach to help you level up. They can catch things that are going on and give you direction in this setting in such a substantively different and focused way that it changes the game.
• Warm ups matter for adults as much or more than for kids. Your body needs time to get ready for what’s about to come, and warming up prevents injuries. It’s tempting to skip them because, well how many times can you do the same stretches? Every time – it’s always better than the alternative of getting hurt at worst or not maximizing your training session at best.
• Footwork and drills should always be a part of your process. They are basics that build up fencers. Though it can be monotonous to continue to do the same things over and over again, it’s an important part of honing your skills and technique. For adults, this is especially important because it can take longer for you to master skills than your younger counterparts.

Getting yourself in the best possible physical shape is going to help your fencing tremendously. Interval training is a great complement to fencing, as it mimics the same start/stop experience that we have in a bout. Bursts of energy combined with agility are what you want to focus on. You can also talk to your coach about doing target drills or footwork exercises at home to improve your fencing in competition. 

Embracing tactical thinking is also a major part of developing mastery. Fencing is as much a mental game as it is a physical one. Learn to read your opponent, anticipate their moves, and strategize your attacks by being actively engaged in those training hours. Observe experienced fencers, watch fencing matches, and analyze tactics to enhance your own strategic thinking.

When you look at the really long term way that you’re training in fencing, keeping in mind the massive mountain that it is to climb to the top, it makes the steps along the way seem more reasonable.

7. Accept your progress

There is nothing fair about how people progress in sports. 

Sometimes you’ll see other fencers jump ahead of you in rank or in skill. You have to learn that everyone is on their own unique path with their own unique progress. It’s not fair how fast or slow people go through fencing, but it is very much individual.

You could train diligently for years and still get stuck at a specific level in fencing as an adult, but that doesn’t mean that your progress is not valid. It just means that the particular pressures in your life and the opportunities you have are putting you in this specific place right now. Getting overly upset about where you are in comparison to others won’t push you forward, it will only hold you back. Putting that energy instead into coming at your training from a different angle will make all the difference. 

Most of us are in the middle of the pack in fencing – we aren’t super amazing and we aren’t terrible. Being in the middle can be frustrating for some of us, and that’s understandable, especially if you’re used to charging hard and being excellent. Try to do two things:

• Measure yourself against yourself
• Look at people on either side of you

You are the only person who you’re competing against. No one else really matters as a measure for you, because they have a wholly different experience than you. 

On the other side, if you are going to look at others, make sure you’re looking at the fencers who are progressing a whole lot faster than you as well as those who are moving at a slower pace. You aren’t alone in feeling out of sync at times, so seeing others can make a big difference. 

You get to make sense of your progress. If you’re getting a lot out of training and competing but never progress past a D rating, that’s still progress. If fencing is making your life better but you aren’t necessarily moving up in the competitive sphere, then fencing is still valuable in your life. 

Adult fencers are up for ultimately a long term, rewarding experience

Building relationships with fellow fencers creates a supportive network that can motivate and inspire you. Join a local fencing club, attend workshops or camps, and engage with other fencers both online and offline. Surrounding yourself with like-minded individuals will enhance your fencing journey.

Remember, fencing is a journey, not just a destination. Embrace the ups and downs, learn from both victories and defeats, and enjoy the process of self-improvement as an adult fencer. Keeping your mindset positive by surrounding yourself with a coaching staff that’s supportive of adult fencing will help you develop a long term relationship with the sport. 

Embarking on the fencing journey as an adult can be an exciting and rewarding experience. By following these seven tips, you can set yourself up for success and get the most out of your fencing. With dedication, consistency, and a willingness to learn, you’ll progress in your skills, develop your own unique style, and discover the joy that comes with mastering the art of fencing.