Category: Spirit Page 1 of 24

The sheer volume of fencing videos on social media channels like YouTube, Tiktok, and Instagram Reels, offers us a gold mine for analysts doing theoretical research on the sport of fencing.

A couple of such recent studies inspired me to conduct my own research. I decided to take a deep dive into the videos I saw online, and today I’m proudly announcing the outcome of my rigorous study of these fencing materials.

This groundbreaking, unprecedented, data-driven analysis details the influence of Yelling in Fencing on the Final Result! It’s something we’ve all seen happen in matches, but until now, we didn’t know how prevalent it was or what influence it had on the players and observers. 

I believe this deeper understanding of a singular aspect of matches will revolutionize the sport of fencing and drastically change its future. 

Let’s dive in. 

Research Methodology

Unlike other studies that limited their scope to a single weapon, I set a goal to expand the boundaries of my research and address all three weapons – foil, sabre, and epee. This choice is rooted in my belief that all three weapons are vital to our sport. 

But that’s not all. My research also expands to age groups beyond Seniors, who are usually the subject of the most intense research, to all Modern Fencers  – Youth, Cadet, Junior, Senior and Veterans, And in light of the recent decision of the USA Fencing Board of Directors to include the Y8 events at the regional level, it addresses the youngest group too.

Getting good data is the heart of quality quantitative research. That’s why I watched hours and hours of fencing bouts online and in person. Keeping meticulous notes, I was careful only to take down information that was directly relevant to the subject matter, ensuring clean data. In addition, I had support from fact-checkers, who double-checked my material consistently to ensure that the information was accurate. 

Several factors were of particular interest to this research: the number of times a fencer yells, the sequence of yells, the strength of yells (measured in decibels), the duration of yells (measured in seconds), the repetition of yells (measured in a number of yells separated by an inhale).

Here we go!

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Every January 1st we come around to the tried and true tradition of setting New Year’s resolutions that we may or may not keep. Too often, we don’t keep them – they’re more of a joke than anything else. 

Setting New Year’s goals that don’t come true might be a running gag, but for kids especially it can be a negative experience to set their sights on something only to fall short. When 80% of resolutions set in January (per data from US News) are abandoned within weeks, what’s the point? 

None of this is a big secret – everyone kind of collectively agrees that this is a tradition in the same way that we all support kids’ belief in Santa Claus. The resolution might as well be as fictional as the jolly guy in the red suit who, according to astrophysicist Neil DeGrasse Tyson, would have to visit 25,000 homes a second in order to accomplish his Christmas Eve mission.

Despite everyone’s knowledge that resolutions don’t work, we still continue to make them year after year. There’s always a lot of talk about how to set good New Year’s resolutions, and we’ve written about it before right here. This year, we wanted to offer our readers something a little different in order to support those New Year’s goals.

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If you’ve ever struggled to find the right gift for that very special fencer in your life, you’re not alone. Figuring out what to give is a struggle, especially because none of us wants to give a present that will go unused. 

Choosing the right piece of fencing gear, the perfect accessory, or the right add on experience is a challenge, even for the most present fencing parent or fellow fencer. This year, our MEGA HOLIDAY GIFT GUIDE is bigger than ever before, with sixty gift ideas!

This year, we’re looking at our annual AFM Holiday Gift Guide from a different perspective and breaking it down by age. Every parent knows that different ages have wildly different needs, and fencers of different ages have different needs as well. We’re taking the guesswork out of finding the right gift for your fencer by giving you the best gifts for all ages! Of course, many of the gift ideas below are cross-generational, so you might want to scroll through the entire collection when looking for something that fits your choice, even if it is in a different age bracket from your fencer.

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Thanksgiving is not only a time for being thankful for what we have, it’s also a time that we can reflect on WHY being thankful is so important. That’s why we’re coming to you with a thankfulness challenge this year. 

Our own experience in fencing is centered around being thankful for our community. While we are constantly aware that fencing brings us positive support and helps us become better people, it’s also true that being grateful for all of that brings us closer to our goals. We want you all to become the best possible fencers you can be, and by extension the best possible version of yourselves you can be. 

As we celebrate Thanksgiving this year, we thought it would be a good moment to look at how showing grace and finding gratitude can help us to grow and how we can practically use thankfulness to enrich our lives between now and the end of 2022. 

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Age is truly a relative thing. When you are a little kid, you can’t wait to be a teenager. When you’re a teenager, you can’t wait to be an adult. When you’re an adult, you wonder why your childhood and teenage self were in such a hurry to rush through to adulthood. 

When you think about it in the bigger picture like this, it’s easy to see that it’s a no-win situation. At every age, you could see something wrong with the stage that you’re at. This is really true in sport, because the limitations and strengths of our physical bodies change so clearly with time.

Fencing is different than many sports because it is possible to enjoy the sport fully even as we age. There’s a reason that the Veteran category of fencing has age ranges all the way up to the eighties! Even with that reality, it’s not uncommon to hear fencers comment on how they are limited by their age in this way or that way. It even happens to younger fencers, who must grapple with bodies that grow four inches in a year and force them to change the way they approach the sport. 

Learning to recalibrate how you think about aging in fencing will make it easier to reach those fencing goals, and what’s more, it will make you a happier fencer. 

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