College Fencing - What's Best For You?

College Fencing: The Drawbacks of Division 1 

By Zack Brown

The biggest reason people do fencing is to get into a good school (or because you actually ENJOY fencing… NERD!). Too many people rule out smaller schools because of their fencing teams!

While the reveries of joining an NCAA championship team are appetizing, there are some cold, unsavory truths to consider when looking at the school you’ll spend 4 years of your life fencing for. 

It’s not going to be pretty, but here are some deets to deliberate on when weighing your college teams of choice!

Realistically: 

Most people are NOT going to get a scholarship for fencing! 

Unless you are on the national team (for the USA, not just... Siberia), a full ride to any high-powered athletic school for fencing is going to be out of reach. Fencing isn’t a lucrative sport, so even partial scholarship availability is going to be QUITE limited to very specific athletes (unless you’re at Harvard……. Or is it too soon to make that joke?). 

If you are on that short list, fantastic! Enjoy free money! Otherwise, consider smaller schools like NJIT or LIU, both of which have programs where their coaches (Jason Henderson and Ivan Lee, respectively) can grant TONS of scholarships to athletes. 

Realistically:

The big teams are STACKED!

The teams that typically win NCAAs (Notre Dame, Columbia, PSU) have a LOT of people gunning to be on their starting lineup. There are only 9 bouts for your weapon each match. Unless you’re a consistently impressive starter, you will have to choose: Do you want to juggle strip time with 10 other competent fencers and spend most of the matches as a cheerleader? Or do you want to be the superstar on your team and fence every match? Look at how Tim Morehouse left a LEGACY at Brandeis!

Weigh the bout opportunity of a smaller team roster versus becoming a faceless sparring partner at a big-name school. Is a potential championship ring worth not ACTUALLY fencing?

Realistically:

Most people are NOT going to fence after college! 

At the last Div 1 I fenced, I counted 8 people in the field of 170 who were out of college. Along with the hefty price tag, fencing is VERY HARD to do recreationally without a strong club nearby. Unless you are fighting for a national team spot, the justification to continue fencing past graduation becomes harder to find when there’s not an endgame. 

Put your hard work in now, but be cautious about picking a university PURELY for fencing when you might not pick up a weapon post-graduation. 

Realistically:

Decide what’s best for YOU!

Choose your college because it FEELS right! Whichever school you pick, the camaraderie and adventures you’ll experience with your team last a lifetime. The low-stress environment of a club team is as much fun as the intense focus needed in every bout of NCAA fencing. Select YOUR right fit. You’ll love the college fencing trip regardless of the path you take. 

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4 Ways to Keep Fencing Fun and Safe in the Age of Covid

As our nation considers another round of lockdowns, we at TMFC thought we should share our list of 4 ways to keep fencing safe and fun in the age of Covid-19

Number one: Purchase athletic, reusable, washable, masks.  Brands from Adidas and Nike all the way down to the tiniest Etsy craftsman are designing better, more comfortable, more stylish masks every day.  

Number two: purchase multiple sets of masks!  Keep extra masks in fencing bags, in the car, in your gym bag or locker, wherever you have easy access to.  There is nothing worse than traveling to practice only for a mask to break, be forgotten, or left out of reach!  

Number three, and this is for coaches as well as for parents: make reminding students to cover noses and faces a matter of fact delivery – no drama aloud!  Everybody loses track of their noses from time to time, especially children.  But if being told to “cover your nose” becomes normalized, fixing a mask stops disrupting practice, keeps everyone safe, and keeps everything running smoothly.  

Number four: Make Covid specific rituals at the club.  Each ritual will have to be discovered organically and be appropriate to the look and feel of each club and community.  Personally, I have picked up my father’s penchant for over dramatization, the occasionally made up word or phrase (He loved reading Dr. Seuss to me when I was little), and self-deprecating humor.  So, perhaps unsurprisingly, I have found myself shouting made the made-up phrase: “Squirt-Squirt!” to signal time to wash hands.  “Mask break!” has replaced water break – after of course training children to walk outside and social distance before removing their masks.  And the ritual that I had the least control over: the Sabre Shake.  

The Sabre Shake was developed by our students at the club.  After I explained to a particularly bright eyed eight year old named Sophia that we don’t shake hands at the end of the bout, little Sophia took off her glove, stuck it on the end of a sabre, and offered it to me as a replacement for her hand.  Very quickly everyone in class followed suit and started offering their gloves from the end of a sabre (and within social distance parameters), and a new ritual was born.  It required a quick reminder about the importance of not waving even a gloved sabre around at an unmasked teammate – but you can understand how much fun the children had with their new habit.  

These recommendations are of course not the end all be all – they are simply a starting point for making the best of the terrible, no good, rotten virus.  But if we can turn safety practices into fun, lighthearted rituals, then we might be able to make it through the coming winter.

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