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...
Academy of Fencing Masters Blog
Art of Fencing, Art of Life
Spirit
Recalibrating as you Age in Fencing
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. ...
Starting Fencing as an Adult: Why It’s Worth It
Recently we received a lot of calls from adults inquiring about starting fencing. Is that even possible, they asked, isn't this a skill that you must learn in your childhood to be able to be even remotely good? Can you compete as an adult? The answer is simple - it's...
Ownership and Responsibility as Fencers
Silhouetted electricity pylon grid Who owns your performance in fencing? How much responsibility does your coach/club/family have for your success? What responsibility does the fencer have to their club, to their fellow fencers, to their support network, and to...
September 10 is World Fencing Day! How to Celebrate
Fencing is not just a sport that we love, it’s a sport that we live. World Fencing Day is a fantastic moment to celebrate fencing and to join the wider fencing community. This year, it falls on September 10, 2022, and we’re incredibly excited to have a reason to share...
Quitting for the Right Reasons, Quitting for the Wrong Reasons
“You cannot fail unless you quit.” - Abraham Lincoln. “Once you learn to quit, it becomes a habit.” - Vince Lombardi. “Quitters don’t win and winners don’t quit.” - Elliott Gouldi “Nothing I ever want to accomplish will ever become a reality if I always quit.” -...
Thanking mothers for doing what they do – everything
There’s a little anecdote about mothers that’s been going around the internet for some time, and it pops up in many variations. It goes something like this: When I was a child, my mother would always run back into the house when we were getting ready to leave for...
Daring Greatly – The Man in the Arena
On a recent quiet night, I found myself reading a book by Michael Dell called Play Nice but Win, in which he quoted Theodore Roosevelt. Though I stumbled upon this quote many years ago, for some reason it resonated with me in a different way than before. It is not...
We Must Stand United Against Injustice in Ukraine
Humanity must stand strong in the face of oppression. Humanity must win. Good must prevail over evil. These are not just words, they are words with meaning and depth. We are sitting at a crisis point in which the world has to stand united against injustice. The...
Why You Aren’t Done When You Get to the Top of the Mountain
It’s very difficult to climb the mountain. It’s very easy to fall down. I recently had the privilege of seeing a fencer get his A-rating. It’s a long, hard road that goes over a lot of years to get to this point, and it’s a huge accomplishment. There’s a feeling about...