Mental health is just as important as physical health. Though fencing in particular and sports in general are well known for how they benefit us physically, there are also a huge number of ways that they boost mental health. 

Mood improvement

Mood happens on a spectrum, from being far down in the dumps to being elated and excited. What we want is to stay in the middle somewhere for the most part. The low lows can help us to learn resilience, and the high highs can of course boost us tremendously. 

The trouble with the high highs is that, if we become too attached to them, we can spend too much time chasing them. This keeps us from being able to live in the present, as we’re always thinking about how great it felt to have that big experience. The trouble with the low lows is of course that they bring us down. Both can be disruptive to our mood and throw our life off course. 

Being relaxed allows you to be present in the moment, without worrying too much about the future or fretting too much about the past. Physical activity of any kind releases brain chemicals that relax our minds and even our moods. 

Regular fencing gives you an additional mood boost because of the constant competitive nature. Point, point, point – sometimes for the opponent and sometimes for yourself. It gives you a consistent sense of being in that middle, even as you are excited and ready to go. This isn’t just about the physical benefits that fuel mood improvement, it’s also how the highly competitive nature of fencing gives us a regular mood boost. The highs and lows aren’t so drastic, but they are still exciting enough to engage us. 

Beyond those, there’s also the mood boost from the social nature of the sport. Though this is an individual sport, it’s also in direct competition with an opponent. The camaraderie, even with the person on the other side of the strip, is a great boost for a fencer’s mood.

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Did you know that elite athletes use napping to help them perform better? Napping isn’t just for little kids, it’s a powerful tool for anyone at any age. 

Adding napping into your fencing routine, both during training and on competition days, can really up your game and improve your all around health as well as your performance. This goes for youth fencers all the way through veterans. 

People are often judgemental about napping. Shouldn’t you be doing something more productive with your time? The thing is, napping is absolutely a productive activity. If you are sluggish or groggy during a fencing lesson with your coach, you’re going to get less out of it than if you’re alert and feeling strong. This is even exaggerated in competition. If you’re not able to perform to your optimum level because your body needs some rest, how is that helping anyone? 

Using napping is about training smarter rather than harder. 

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One of the most common injuries that fencers get is commonly called “fencer’s elbow”, or tendinitis if we’re being technical. 

A tender, painful spike of sensation that hangs in the dull curve of the elbow joint is how people usually experience it. Like a pinch that can progress into a fiery, throbbing ache. Without the right kind of support and precautions, it’ll only get worse. 

It’s the same thing as tennis elbow or golfer’s elbow, except of course that those come from holding a tennis racket or a golf club. In fact, any repetitive motion or long-term action that uses the arm can cause the same thing. It could happen to hairdressers or plumbers, to carpenters or artists – anyone who uses their arm over and over again in the same motion. The medical term for it is lateral epicondylitis.  

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The goal of fencing is to stab someone else with a sharp metal object. Our sport grew out of war and actual duels to the death, so it’s natural to assume that there is some danger involved and one of the opponents would die. How could there not be?

In the movies, sword fights often end with one person thrusting their opponent through the chest with a blade, a red trickle running from beneath the metal while the unlucky loser crumples to the ground and whispers a few words in hushed tones. It’s all incredibly dramatic when it plays out onscreen, and the tableau of that tragic death is so familiar that it’s almost comforting. The movies are not the real world, thankfully. 

We do all enjoy the thrill of the sport that is inherent in holding a weapon towards another human being with a weapon and seeing who can best the other person. That adrenaline rush is a big draw for everyone, and there is a bracing sense of excitement.

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