Fencing News

Now, along with the football player who lives at my house, there is a Sabre Fencer. Adam's old fencing center is undergoing some transitions, so he has found a new fencing home. It's been almost a year since he started fencing. He began his career fencing foil, but has been begging to switch to sabre for the past several months. We discouraged it at the old center because we wanted him to get a good basis in foil before he made the switch.

Since we had to move to a new Fencing academy, we decided to let Adam try his hand at Sabre. For those, like me, who don't know very much about fencing, you may not understand the difference. Last night was Adam's first class at the new academy, and his first Sabre lesson. It appears to be a much more aggressive style of fencing, less controlled looking and more akin to trying to chop someone's head or arm off. I'm not sure if I like it yet, but Adam sure does. All of those hours of swashbuckling around the back yard seem to be paying off. He even won a few bouts last night. The new class he's in contains four other twelve and thirteen year old boys who, like Adam, seem to march to the beat of their own drummer. By the end of the class he had a huge smile on his face and was singing Monte Python tunes with his new Sabre buddies.

It's so fun to watch our children try and enjoy new things. Change can be difficult for kids like Adam, so when it turns out OK it makes a Mom's heart very happy.

A note to any bad guys who may be thinking about breaking in to the Hendey home - I'd think twice! You'll meet up with a football player and a Sabre fencer!