Fencing at South Forsyth

Team captain Liam Duyvelaar displays the fencing outfit. “I liked the thought of playing with swords,” Liam Duyvelaar. “So I tried it and loved it.”

October 23, 2018

The fencing season started recently, and the team has two tournaments under their belt. In the first round, Arnav Singh placed third out 72 male fencers, and Liam Duyvelaar placed fourth. They put their best foot forward in the second round when Alex Early placed third out of 35 females on September 29.

The athletes fence on a strip that is 14 meters long and 1 meter wide. They have to stay on the strip, and they don’t get the point if they step outside of it. South Forsyth fences Epee, a style of fencing. In Epee, the whole body is a target; the top of their head to the bottom of their foot can be scored on if hit. The athletes are hooked up to a scoring machine through a series of cords that move with them up and down the strip. The scoring machine makes a loud beep and lights up on the side of the fencer who scored the touch. The machines are very accurate, and can measure a point down to an one hundredth of a second. When to fencers score at the same time, it’s called a double touch; in this instance, both athletes get the point. The penalties consist of cards, a yellow card is for minor offenses: a weapon being broken, turning your back on an opponent, or not following general sportsmanship rules. Red cards are gained by being penalized with two yellow cards or conducting very poor sportsmanship.

“They can be frustrating to receive,” Austin Pasley explains. “They get in your head and make you think you’re doing everything wrong.”

Red cards will give an extra point to the opponent. Black cards are the most severe penalty, which leads to being removed from the tournament and possibly the next one. Black cards are given to people for cheating, brutality, or multiple red cards.

Drill practice. The South Forsyth Fencing team practices stances and other techniques on Wednesdays. The team won their recent match, but still has room to grow.

Fencing is a really challenging sport that takes a lot of mental skill.Everything happens so fast that they can have the lead one second and lose it the next. The bout is unpredictable athletes need to have every action and reaction down pat and be able to do them in a split second. In practice the athletes focus on form so when they are in a bout they don’t have to think about the movements so they only have to think when to do them.Once they get in the bout the athletes put all of themselves in the bout or risk losing. They have to take everything one point at a time.

They are trained every Wednesday right after after school in the cafeteria by Coach Ahmed who is an national coach for Egypt . Coach Ahmed is the head coach of iMasters Academy. Coach focuses on their physical abilities as well as their techniques so they can be the best athlete they can be.

A proud coach. The South Forsyth Fencing coach, Ahmed, poses for a picture after practice. Ahmed has helped the team improve for the past three years.

Fencing is a very unique and interesting sport that happens at breakneck speed. Even though fencing is a competitive sport the competition is only on the strip.

“It’s different and it’s a fun sport,” Liam Duyvelaar.  “…[Another] thing is all the friends I’ve made, cheesy I know, but some of my most trusted friends are in fencing.”

The fencing community is a place that is full of people ready to help each other out regardless of what team they are in.