Wednesday, July 28, 2010

Fencing.

My 8 and (nearly) 10 year old boys are taking fencing. Fencing?! How cool!?
He will mess. You. Up. He's 8.

They are doing a week-long fencing camp in the mornings. It is run by a very nice man from Bulgaria. My boys really like and respect him - and they dig his accent. This is the first time the boys have done this, and they LOVE IT!
8 yr old S. is ready for action.

And here it is.
They started out with the epee and have also used the sabre. I'm not sure if they will also use the foil or not. They are being taught all kinds of things about fencing.

Almost 10 yr old B (on the right) using the sabre.
It's awesome to see them lunge and jab. I don't know all the terms for what they are doing, but they do. And they shake hands at the end of each... match? bout? fight? round?

B fencing (right).
My chess player B likes the strategy involved. My gymnast and soccer player S likes the footwork and athleticism. And what boy doesn't like to swing a sword? I mean really? The clang of metal hitting metal is just cool. I'd enjoy it myself. Although I don't think I could resist saying, "Touche, Pussy Cat!" from the Tom and Jerry cartoon.

Here's S getting a little sabre schoolin'.

2 comments:

Daniela Swider said...

That's so cool! And the instructor is from Bulgaria - how neat is that! Fencing became pretty popular in Bulgaria in the 1980s and 1990s because of twin brothers Vassil and Hristo Etropolski, who went on to become the best fencing masters in the world. Vassil was the more successful of the two, winning the fencing world cup three times. They apparently live somewhere in the US and have their own fencing school. Could that be who's teaching your sons?

Steph B said...

I love it! They look so cute in their uniforms!