The picture above is a real registration schedule for a Y10 fencer that I came across recently. Twelve competition events in 7 very big and significant tournaments between October and mid-January. That’s basically every other weekend for three months straight, often competing in both Y10/Y12 age categories back-to-back.

When I saw this schedule, it looked painfully familiar. 

It always begins reasonably. “We’ll do 5-6 competitions this season. The important ones.” But then the additions start:

• “Just one more regional – good for points”
• “Their friend is going to this one”
• “What if we need one more result for qualifying in the higher age category?”
• “This tournament is only 3 hours away”

Before you know it, you’re competing every single weekend. You’re on the competition treadmill – running faster and faster, but not necessarily getting anywhere.

I believe every coach saw this play out too many times. The promising cadet whose parents hit every possible RJCC and ROC around the country ends up burned out by April. When Summer Nationals arrives – the event they trained for all year – they’re done. Mentally exhausted. Dreading the strip.

All that investment, all that travel, all that money painfully feels wasted. When it mattered most, the fencer had nothing left.

I want to do a little analysis from two perspectives – financial and developmental.

Let’s do the math based on the registration above. Let’s talk about what those twelve competitions actually cost in $$:

Local tournaments (4 events, reasonable driving distance of 1 hour):

• $50-80 entry fee each
• Total: ~$400-$500 (including gas, tolls, parking, food)

Travel tournaments (5 tournaments with 8 events):

• $75-100 entry fee, totaling about $600-$800
• Hotel: $150-200 per night, at least 8 nights, totalling $1,500
• Gas/tolls/Ubers: $50-60 each min, totaling to about $300-$400
• Food: $50-100 per day, totalling about $800
• At least 2 flights for at least 2 people, each ticket at least $200, totalling $800-$1,000
• Total: ~$3,500-$4,000 (very optimistic estimate)

Grand total: $4,000-$4,500

Frankly I think this is a super optimistic estimate, more probably you should add another $1,000+ to the final cost. 

But money isn’t even the biggest cost. There are other much more important factors in play here.

Physical toll. Ever tried to fence well after a 6-hour flight delay? Or when you slept in a hotel bed that felt like concrete? Or when you didn’t recover yet from the previous event and need to run to the next? Or something started to hurt and you just waive it off for now and it aggravates with time.

Academic pressure. Making up missed school every Monday. Teachers who start giving you that look when you ask for homework in advance again.

Family strain. One parent is constantly traveling with the fencing kid while the other stays home with siblings. Date nights? Family dinners? What are those?

Lost training time. Travel weekends mean no practice. You spend Thursday or Friday travelling, Saturday and Sunday competing, then Monday recovering and catching up on school. By Tuesday you’re back in the club, but you’ve lost 4-5 days of actual training.

Mental exhaustion. One of our juniors told me: “I feel like I haven’t had a normal weekend in months. I’m either competing or recovering from competing or preparing for the next competition.”

By no means I’m saying you child doesn’t need to compete! They must! But the competitions must be carefully planned, have enough time for physical and mental recovery, and allow an adequate period for analysing, internalizing, and training.

What Actually Develops Fencers

It is very important to always keep in mind that you need time between competitions. Not just to recover and rest, but to actually improve. To work on the weaknesses you discovered. To drill the actions until they become automatic. To build the conditioning that competition reveals you need.

The most successful fencers compete in fewer tournaments than their peers, not more.

They do 4-6 core competitions (far flung regional and national) per season and a few more local ones. All these tournaments are strategically chosen and allow at least 3-4 weeks of training between them. THese intentional off-periods allow the focus to return entirely to skill building. The most successful fencers arrive at their target competitions mentally fresh, technically sharp, and actually excited to fence.

Of course, if your fencer is high level competitor attending both domestic and international competitions, your calendar might be a bit busier during some periods, but nevertheless it should be strategically thought off and balanced with enough rest.

As a parent, there are some clear signs when you can see that your fencer is over-competing. Their enthusiasm for tournaments is disappearing, their performance plateaus or becoming wildly inconsistent, they start to express anxiety before competition that they never showed before. 

But it is not only about your fencer! Your family starts to feel it too! Tournament prep creates family tension as your family calendar is basically just a fencing competition calendar.

And actually your coach would rather see your fencer at fewer, strategic competitions where your child is prepared and rested than at every possible event on the calendar. I don’t believe most coaches would celebrate the registration table that I shared above as a sign of the fencer and family dedication. I believe many would rather be worried about their fencer’s development and potential drawbacks.

And the truth is it is actually very easy to fix. Sit down with your coach at the beginning of a season (and maybe in mid season too) and have an honest discussion about which competitions matter most for your fencer right now, how many are ideal for their current stage, and what specific goals you should have for the season, short and long term. Maybe the last question should be the first to discuss.

I’ve rarely heard a good coach say “as many as possible” when asked how many competitions a developing fencer should attend.

Of course, every fencer is different. Some handle frequent competition better than others. But most need more recovery and training time than they’re getting.

I’ve seen the best results when families have the courage to step off the treadmill. When they choose 6 right competitions instead of 12 random ones. When they can actually afford better training because they’re not spending everything on travel, not only in terms of money, but also in terms of energy and time.

Look at your fencer’s schedule for this season. Then ask yourself if your fencer is competing strategically or your family is just following the crowd? And then be honest with yourself about sustainability of this effort in every aspect – financial and emotional too – on your family and, last but not least, developmental for your fencer.

Think honestly (or ask your coach) what would happen if you do half as many competitions, choosing them wisely, but twice as much focused training?

Sometimes the most important thing you can do as a fencing parent is say “no” to overcompeting. Even when everyone else is saying “yes.”

Because in competitive fencing, less really can be more if the less is well thought of.