The following information will be helpful as you begin this new sport.

Getting Started with the Las Positas Fencing Center

Click here to download the Legal Agreement, and the Student Application.

Resources for Parents of New Fencers

A Parent's Guide to Fencing, 2007 Edition (394K PDF, 24 pages), courtesy of fencing.net

Hi, I'm a parent of two junior fencers. From my experiences over the last three years, I've put together some tips below for you and your children that will make your tournament experiences more enjoyable. Our family extends our warmest wishes to you for an exciting and productive sporting season.
- Dieter Schlaepfer , 9/00

• Equipment and Clothing
  Every fencer should bring two working weapons, two body cords, protective gear (mask, fencing glove, plastron or breast protector), and regulation fencing clothing for safety. I recommend having the weapons and body cords tested by your club armorer beforehand if possible because these items need frequent attention. Bring at least two clean and dry T-shirts, a towel for wiping off, and at least one change of socks.
  
  
• Food and Drink
  Bring at least two quarts of bottled spring water. Gatorade is fine when diluted and consumed in small quantities but it tends to make fencers feel bloated. Snacks such as energy bars, crackers, Fig Newtons, peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, oranges, bananas, and grapes are good to have with you. Your kids might like them too.
  
  Bringing a lunch is a good idea because not all fencing clubs are near grocery stores or restaurants. Avoid greasy or fatty foods!
  
  
• Time Considerations
  Plan to arrive about 45 minutes to an hour before check-in closes. This will ensure that you have plenty of time for registering and for weapons, body cord, and mask testing by the armorers.
  
  Fencing tournaments rarely start on time and have never been known to finish on time. Except for small divisional or club tournaments, expect a tournament to last all day -- don't expect to be done before 6-8 pm. There is lots of waiting between bouts so bring a book or some magazines but don't let your child leave the fencing area for any length of time. There's no way of knowing when your child's name will be called. Be sure to watch some of the fencing, too. It can be very exciting!
  
  
• First Aid
  Small cuts, bruises, and sprains happen occasionally, so bring a small first-aid kit with Band-Aids and Polysporin for cuts on fingers, an Ace bandage and cold pack for a sprained wrist or ankle, and aspirin or an aspirin substitute for your headache. Fencing has an excellent safety record and the worst that most fencers take home from a tournament is a few bruises.
  
  
• Warming up
  Fencers should have a gentle warm up session before competing. Have them do some jogging followed by jumping jacks, mild stretching, footwork, and finally perhaps a couple of short practice bouts.
  
  
• Tournament Organization
  Tournaments are typically divided into two phases: pools and direct elimination (DE) bouts. Fencers are first divided into several groups of 5-7 fencers each called pools. The tournament bout committee takes great pains to make sure each pool consists of equal numbers of beginning, intermediate, and advanced fencers so that all pools are about the same strength. The fencers in each pool fence every other member of their pool in a series of five-touch bouts. The win-loss records and "indicators" (touches scored minus touches against) for all fencers are used to rank or "seed" the players in the direct elimination table.
  
  In some tournaments, several fencers at the bottom of the seeding list may be cut, thus not being promoted to the direct elimination table. During the pools, all fencers should remain in close proximity of their pool's fencing strip.
  
  After the pools, there will usually be about a half-hour delay until the seeding results are posted and the direct elimination bouts are announced. Direct elimination bouts are fenced to 15 touches or the best of two of three 5-touch bouts and the winners continue to the next round of bouts. When your child loses a DE bout (remember, only one person per event in a tournament is undefeated), he or she is eliminated from competing and should then concentrate on watching the winners getting beaten, especially in the semi-final or final rounds. You'll all see some terrific fencing and I'd recommend sticking around, especially for morale. If your child finishes as one of the top four fencers of the event, he or she will be presented with a medal. If you have to leave early, please check with the bout committee before leaving – your child may have won a medal or another award!
  
  
• Watching a Fencing Bout
  The more you watch fencing and understand the rules of each weapon, the more enjoyment you will get out of it. With an electric scoring machine, if the left colored (red or green) light goes off, the left fencer has scored. The referee then raises his or her left hand indicating that the fencer receives a point. In foil, a white light indicates that the touch is off target (not on the torso) and invalid. The reverse is true if the right colored light goes off. In foil and saber, the referee will sometimes make a ruling based on "right-of-way," which gives precedence to the attacking fencer if both lights go off regardless of which light went off first. These right-of-way calls are sometimes very difficult to see or judge correctly.
  
  
• Sportsmanship
  It's not easy to lose. Even adults have difficulty in this area (I know I do), but it is a great opportunity for character growth and maturity. Also, a critical component to progress in fencing skill is the experience that can only come from competitive bouting. As I mentioned before, in any event in a tournament, everyone loses except for one person and it is unlikely that your child or mine will be that person every time. So, I recommend setting achievable intermediate goals such as scoring a certain number of touches, finishing at a certain level in the seeding, or finishing at a certain level in the final results. For example, if a beginner can get an average of one touch per fencer in his or her pool, that can be an achievable milestone. A more experienced fencer might set a goal of finishing in the top eight of that event. Winning a medal should be viewed only as frosting on the cake of steady, consistent advancement of physical conditioning and fencing skill.
  
  Coaching from the sidelines is not allowed while a bout is in progress, but cheering and encouraging is great! Go Jennifer, go Randy! Filling a fencer's head full of suggestions just before a bout doesn't work. Bouting is more like a musical or dance performance where all the months of work that a fencer has invested pays dividends one touch or parry at a time.

Conclusions
Fencing is an exciting, wonderful, and productive sport that will give your child realistic life experiences, maturity, and physical and mental training for life!

Come prepared, enjoy the process, and encourage your child to keep trying.