Academy of Fencing Masters Blog

Helicopter parenting has been a much buzzed about style of raising children for the last several years. For those of you who might not know, helicopter parents are overly involved in their child’s lives. They step in to solve their kid’s problems from name calling on the playground to college professors who don’t give the grades they think their kids deserve. The problem with helicopter parenting is that kid never learn how to handle situations on their own. Life is full of problems and...

Many fencers find their way into the sport after trial and error with other sports, or through a genuine interest in fencing. Some may have watched a competition online or saw an Olympics bout that was exciting. Many discover fencing because of siblings, or other family members who encouraged them to check it out. Whatever the reason, many students don’t know at first whether or not it will click for them.   When it does it can feel like lightning in a bottle. And that feeling is something...

Down time after the fencing season is over can be both a blessing and a curse. It’s a blessing because the pressure is off in many ways, allowing fencers to take a breath and get their heads together. It’s a curse because finding that motivation to train when there is no competition ahead is challenging for many fencers. Lots of fencers plan ahead to the next year or are fresh out of Fencing Summer Nationals that to help them stay uber motivated over the summer, but there are plenty who...

Once you have children, it’s never quite ever about you anymore. Your life revolves for the better (and rarely for the worse) around your child and their development into healthy, well functioning human beings. And most parents agree that all of this is not only worth it but immensely gratifying and even fun! Having what it takes to be a fencing dad isn’t much different. When it comes to being involved in a sport like fencing, your job as a father can often be thankless, exhausting, and also...

Stepping into the tournament venue at the start of a fencing competition is exhilarating. The air is saturated with possibility, because truly anything is possible for a competitive fencer on a tournament day. Failure is a natural part of competition, and it’s a natural part of life. Fencers face little failures every day in training, not just in competition. Overcoming setbacks is a skill that we as people must develop. We don’t want to paint it as a big monster to be frightened of, but we do...

Fencing is a tough mental game that requires as much focus and concentration as it does physical strength and endurance. Many fencers wrongly believe that by continually checking other opponents seeding, they will somehow develop a leg up. That they will be able to assess some magic formula to figure out who they will play in the next round and sometimes even three or four rounds from now. But to check your opponents seeding time and again means that you’re not focusing on the right thing. And...