Why I pay so much money for fencing

Sports in general and fencing in particular can be an expensive venture for families to embark on. There are the lessons to pay for, the equipment to buy, the travel to consider, the competition fees, the uniforms, the nights eating out when there’s not time to make it home before practice, on and on.

So why should parents put all of this into a sport for a child? And why fencing in particular? Here’s a clue: it’s not so that they can learn to swing a sword. This whole thing isn’t about what the sport is, it’s about something far deeper. Here are the reasons that we believe in spending precious resources on fencing.

• We pay for our kids to learn to push themselves further than they ever thought they could.
• We pay for self confidence, garnered through trusting our kids with a weapon.
• We pay for lessons in dedication, focus and grit.
• We pay for the thrill of competition.
• We pay for our kids to be part of a larger legacy, something that’s bigger than they are.
• We pay for responsibility, learned through taking care of their swords and their uniforms.
• We pay for kids to learn how to be part of a team, while also standing up on their own two feet.
• We pay for goal setting, and figuring out how to accomplish those goals.
• We pay for kids to learn that it takes hour after hour, year after year to learn how to master a sword.
• We pay for it not to come easy.
• We pay for the times when our kids lose a match, only to stand up again.
• We pay to for transformation through fencing.
• We pay for our kids to learn to learn and to learn to teach.
• We pay for kids to have real accomplishment, not to have things handed to them.
• We pay to pull our kids away from the screens and into the real world.
• We pay bring a positive force into the lives of our kids.
• We pay for sore muscles, dirty knickers and hard work
• We pay for joy.
• We pay for connections with other adults that we respect – coaches and athletes.
• We pay for loss, and the lessons in humility that it brings.
• We pay for our kids to pick themselves up again when they fall down.
• We pay for the chance to develop long term friendships, connections that will last for a lifetime.
• We pay for opportunity.
• We pay for our kids to have something to be proud of.

This post was inspired by the post of another mom – Jenifer Armstrong – who first posted https://rundown.maruccisports.com/2016/02/05/why-i-dont-pay-for-sports/ about why she chooses to pay so much for her son to participate in sports. It rang so true, and it continues to ring so true, that we simply felt compelled to share our own thoughts about this subject!

Fencing is most definitely an expensive sport. It’s one that some families wonder whether it’s worth the investment, whether there will be any benefits from all of the sacrifices that are made by the whole family in pursuit of this sport. We can say unequivocally that there are plenty of compelling, amazing reasons to make those sacrifices in fencing. The benefits are absolutely there.

There are so many reasons that fencing is worth the price, so many reasons that are bigger than trophies or scholarships or prestige. This isn’t about any of those things – it’s about so much more! It’s about art of life.

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