fencing in Italy

[anotheranon]

Yes, I did do this crazy thing :P Would have done more too but things got complicated. Short ok, not so short version:

I'd discarded the idea of taking my gear on vacation just as soon as I'd thought it up (I swear!) but D. did a fabulous job of enabling: he said "Aren't you bringing your gear to Italy?" So this spurred the necessary purchasing of hard golf bag off Ebay for protection and packing my gear minus all but one weapon and body cord in order to get under the 44lb Lufthansa checked luggage limit.

Those ~44lbs also included an extra jacket because of plotting with belfebe, stanci, shemhazai and others to visit a historic fencing practice - we had planned only to watch, but now had gear! Or at least a jacket for me and another to share :)

Well....

The historic practice did not happen. I was so enthused about it right up to the point that jet lag hit me very hard, on the night I'd been planning to do this. Later stanci, shemhazai and M. found ourselves in the neighborhood of the club and tried to find it, to no avail - unfortunately between the time of finding out about the group and the trip they had taken down their website and didn't return any of my subsequent emails :( I didn't try to find them later as I wasn't keen on wandering around a dark street by myself with a heavy bag on my back!

I did make it to the modern club I'd corresponded with, with the kind help of one of the waitstaff at Da Garibardi who called a cab for me (they were a good 5km or so outside the historic city center).

With all the usual disclaimers of: one club doesn't represent a whole nation or even a whole city, I was tired/sore/eating-drinking more-differently than usual/don't speak Italian well, the short version is: They've got nice clubs and good fencers :)

The club was about the size of the largest one I've been to near home, a dedicated site with locker rooms and permanent metal strips. I went on a Friday evening, which I was typically the 10-12yr old's evening (this I learned from a "fencing grandad" who I talked to. Between his weak English and my weaker Italian, I still managed to learn quite a bit, from him and from one of the coaches who had some English).

I have fairly strong parries but didn't get a chance to use them much! All 3-4 of the kids I fenced disengaged well and often - the only touches I scored were attacks into their preparation, and I think it was luck at that! Fast, tiny footwork, and subtle wrist motion.

The coach I talked to believes in starting them out young; in his opinion an elite fencer has to start at age 5 (which sounds like a recipe for liability Stateside, but I digress) and I'd just missed the 6 year old group when I came in. Fencing isn't a much bigger (in numbers) sport in Italy than it is here, but there's reverence for it out of tradition and Italians pretty much expect their fencers to bring home Olympic medals every 4 years. There as here fencers go to different clubs to practice and compete. Everyone was very friendly, and welcome any Americans to come visit and fence them (the coach did wonder why I hadn't shown up during first week in Florence. Isn't that just like a coach? :P) :)

Tiny triumph of that evening - I DID manage to call a cab on my own to get home!

Now the sucky part: transporting the bag was a PITA - even getting it to and from the airport was a pill given the unwieldy shape and no elevators :( Ultimately D. hated this and I don't blame him terribly - the logistics aren't something I'd inflict on him or any other non-fencer again, especially when I only ended up using the gear once. Besides, the Florence airport charged me 80Euros to get it home - some "sporting equipment fee" that I was not charged on the way over, and when I was standing there at check in it wasn't as if I could really argue with them.

So - glad I did it, but am not sure I'd do it again!

Comments

[stanci.livejournal.com]

Starting at age 5 or 6 actually sounds right from the guy I know with an Italian fencer for a dad. Think of how early kids start here for soccer, or baseball, or gymnastics....
One summer I got to fence with a kid from some eastern European country - and my fencing instructor spent a lot of time making him learn techniques so that when he got old and broken he'd have more than just speed... It was fun, though!

[belfebe.livejournal.com]

Wow. That was awesome. I didn't know that you had actually gotten to a fencing academy after all.

And yes, 5 years old sounds right. We have trained kids as young as 12, and they are like little sponges. They learn fast, and they are more vicious than any adults. Fighting them is like fighting a mosquito. No matter what you do, there they are.

Pity that there are so many hangups over here and that we can't train them early.

Then again, we lose them to other activities such as varsity sports as soon as they hit junior high.

Sigh.

[anotheranon.livejournal.com]

Interestingly, one of the local coaches I've talked to is more worried about the liability of training Tweens and teens more than kindergarteners because they're less likely to know their own strength and less likely to listen to their coaches :P

And yeah - no way we're ever going to be as fast as a teenager! I suspect at least one reason fencing loses kids to school related sports because they're trying to pad out college applications and the like.

[anotheranon.livejournal.com]

Learning strategy is essential at any age simply because EVERYONE slows down eventually - if all the kid had was speed he'd be washed up by 20! It's one of the things I love about the sport - what one loses in speed one gains in experience / strategy - keeps it interesting for years :)

[belfebe.livejournal.com]

That, and they have the attention span of a mosquito . . .