Why fencing for kids

If you like puzzles, you'll love fencing too. To be a good fencer you need to have a balance of skills. It's not enough to simply be the fastest or the strongest...

A good fencer adjusts their game, adapting, minimizing their opponent's strengths and maximizing their own. FENCING IS A THINKER'S SPORT. It is about choosing tactics, how and when they are implemented, and how you continually adjust your game before your opponent can adjust his/hers.

Too much patience and you become passive and worn out. Too much aggression and you become your own worst enemy, throwing yourself on your opponent's blade.

Fencing is a great cardio workout, gets your heart pumping! By moving back and forth on the strip, doing lunges and quick recoveries, your child will naturally develop lung capacity and endurance.

Fencing can also be resistance training. A fencer must keep the weapon within reach at all times, and maintaining this position will develop muscle strength. The challenge of maintaining the correct stance, while holding your chosen sword, while making a lunge, striking or avoiding a blow, develops muscle. That means core strength, leg and arm strength, and muscle control. The movements support a healthy back, improving your child's overall posture and entire muscle mass.

Studies show how the impact of sports participation can positively influence your child. Fencing is one of the best in this respect, combining elements of both an individual sport (such as tennis or gymnastics) and a team sport (such as football or handball).

As an individual sport, the child learns responsibility for their own wins and losses (although there are some elements they can't fully control). How they manage to apply what they learn in training, over and over again, in competition, will make them feel great. Whether they lose or win, your children can step back and look at their performance and say: "You know what? I did the best I could! And now I know what I need to do better next time!"

It's similar to a team sport in that they are constantly training against and alongside club mates, building relationships with regular opponents and creating camaraderie through shared experiences. As their club mates improve, they will improve and vice versa. And, of course, don't forget that there are team fencing competitions, which are super fun in their own right!

Signing your child up for fencing lessons has nothing to do with their ability to win an Olympic gold medal. It has nothing to do with him winning a match or completing the extra-curricular section of his college application.

Fencing teaches kids how to push themselves to train for an hour. It forces them to learn how to stand when they're too tired to do it. How to wear equipment that is often not very comfortable. They learn that life doesn't always have to be easy and that when you push yourself, you grow and that makes you feel fantastic.

Fencers must learn to control their bodies, thoughts and emotions. Once a fencer learns to regulate these three things through the structured world of a fencing club, he can then take these skills anywhere in the world. Whether it's looking for a new job, improving interpersonal relationships, or pursuing an academic goal, self-discipline is an essential piece of the puzzle.

Fencing is often referred to as a game of physical chess. It requires both physically aggressive moves when you're on the offensive and mental agility in reading your opponent to make defensive moves. Often these need to happen at the same time or within seconds of each other. It's a constant back-and-forth that keeps not only the mind, but also the fencer's feet alert.

An assault can end very quickly. Children need to learn to react quickly, both physically and mentally. They learn to read subtle clues in their opponent, interpret them and use them to their advantage, all within seconds. Your child thus learns to trust their instincts. Fencing provides exactly the kind of challenge children need to develop.

Like self-esteem, studies have shown the positive impact of sport on academic performance. The combination of exercise, competition and mental stimulation creates a lasting change in children's ability to work across disciplines. A ten-year-old who can train and compete in a fencing tournament turns into an eighteen-year-old who can consistently study for exams.

Children borrow skills learned on the strip when put under pressure during academic tasks. The adrenaline of competition, kept in check with a clear head, is strikingly similar to the adrenaline of tests or difficult schoolwork.

After training, children sleep better because their muscles are tired, which leads to better concentration during homework and class time. Fencers also learn methods of analysing situations and make complex decisions quickly.

There is the interesting finding that pointing a sword at an opponent attracts children who love to play video games. In other words, almost all children. The buzzing, and beeping of the scoring systems during competition also complements this feeling that kids chase in their electronic games. Some children even commented that fencing makes them feel like they are playing a video game, only with fencing their whole body is moving, not just their fingers. Why sit on the couch and press buttons when you can get up and do the things that exist in video games?

If your child is passionate about 'Star Wars', this feeling is also present. Some fencers feel like they're playing with real lightsabers, a feeling complemented by the light that comes on after a successful touch.

Whether it's games or movies, fencing allows children to incorporate things into real life that they might otherwise only imagine.

The fencing community is large and small at the same time. Over the years, many young fencers grow through the sport alongside their peers. They can then go on to play the sport in college and beyond. It's not uncommon to see some of your high school or middle school fencing peers at a college match.

It's not just kids who are on the same team who become close friends, and it's not even kids who are fencing with the same weapon. We have found that fencers become friends with older fencers, who mentor them, and then with younger fencers, whom they mentor. There is a camaraderie in fencing between those who train together that is unlike anything else.

At the same time, the trips involved in fencing give children the opportunity to befriend children from all over the country and, in some cases, the world. The fencing community is rich in connections, and in the age of social media, they remain even stronger over time. However, it's the personal interactions that are most important, and young fencers meet repeatedly on the tournament circuit once they reach a certain level in the sport. They become friends even if they are opponents, a special thing among competitive sports.

Many parents are worried about their child's chances of getting injured, however slight, which can spoil their enjoyment of watching their child grow and win.

However, when it comes to injuries during a competition, fencing is relatively safe. Compared to other sports, such as football or gymnastics, fencing has an incredibly low injury rate. For one thing, your child is protected by a lot of padding and equipment. The equipment is loaded with sensors that allow him to score points. This is an important aspect, because the purpose of fencing is not to hit your opponent, but to get a score that is detected by those sensors.

Then, the blades are not sharp. In fact, most of them have a blunt end. Also, your child will be wearing a full-face mask, so there's no risk of eye or face injury.

Extremely rare, most injuries are related to the physicality of the fencing and are, like those in any other sport, caused, for example, by improper warm-ups. These injuries are the kind that can be prevented through training and better practice.

Nowadays, many children have come to believe that everyone must always be a winner. As a result, they find it hard to learn how to deal with defeat.

Fencing gives them this opportunity in a safe environment so that they can then have a constructive discussion and learn to react appropriately and then set achievable goals.

Most of the top colleges overseas have fencing programs and offer fencing scholarships. These include Stanford, Notre Dame, Duke, Penn State, Yale, Princeton and Harvard. Schools with NCAA programs are looking for fencing students, and this increases your child's chances of attending a top university.