Academy of Fencing Masters Blog

Always connected - Gadget addiction “Money can buy material things, but real happiness must be earned.”  Jean-Jacques Rousseau, 1750 “Money, so they say, is the root of all evil today.” - Pink Floyd, Dark Side of the Moon, 1973 “Mo money, no problems.” - Notorious B.I.G., 1997 It’s a cliche for a reason, because it’s true. Money can do a lot of good things for people, but it can also cause a whole lot of big problems. It’s at the point that you start to think that money can buy you out of...

Mallard duck with chicks In fencing, there are these two extremes that we often see in parenting. There are coddling parents and hard driving parents, and each is on the opposite end of the spectrum. Most of the parents that we see fall somewhere in-between, which is a good thing, but everyone can venture to one extreme or the other at times. Coddling parents are thought of as those who pamper their fencers. They are highly concerned about feelings. They want to prevent their children from...

The distance from 0 to 1 is not the same as the distance from 1 to 2. At least, not in fencing. It’s something that we’ve noticed when new fencers come in and start learning fencing, then competing. Initially, there’s this explosive growth. A fencer comes in to joining in Y10 and they are gangbusters right from the beginning. They start out with zero fencing and within just a year they progress to being a one - to being a fencer! This jump from zero to one seemingly happens overnight. Then...

Long wooden bridge crossing Ria Formosa at Quinta do Lago beach in Algarve, Portugal - the longest wooden bridge in Europe 65% of the school aged kids will work in a profession that doesn’t exist yet. That’s according to numbers from the United States Department of Labor. It’s an extraordinary number! How can parents possibly prepare their kids for things that we can’t possibly know? This may sound like one of those questions that doesn’t have a good answer, but after a conversation with a...

Don't Quit Showing Keep Trying And Quitter Fencing isn’t for everyone. We don’t assume that it is, and we don’t expect anyone to stay with it should they figure out that it’s not their thing. But how can you know that it’s not your thing? When is the right time to quit fencing? How do you know that you’re quitting for the right reasons? There is a very simple answer to this: quit fencing only when you’re winning. What? Isn’t the whole thing that if your child isn’t winning in fencing, then...

Cozy and adorable black and white bulldog puppy dozing off in a soft, fluffy grey blanket Getting lost in the role of parenting is easy to do - we want to give the absolute best to our children naturally. That’s especially true if you’re a parent who is heavily involved in fostering your child’s success, a thing that fencing parents tend to do naturally and often. The more time a child invests into becoming a better fencer, the more you as a fencing parent disappear into that role. It’s of...