February 2008 Activity -- Fencing

Saturday, February 16, 1:00-3:00pm
Cost: $135 for private group lesson for four
Fairfax Fencers Health Club, LLC
4433 Brookfield Corporate Drive, Suite J
Chantilly, Virginia 20151
703-352-2642
http://www.fxfencers.com/

We all met at the Fairfax Fencers Club -- located in an office park in Chantilly. Our instructor (and president of the club), Tom, had decorated the entire club with movie posters, tapestries, swords and a million other fencing-related effects.

Tom provided some history of fencing and the different types of weapons -- sabre, epee and foil -- and passed some of his swords around for us to hold and look at.

Wearing our lames and masks, we took our place on the strip and were introduced to the "en garde" stance, parries 4, 6, 7 and 8, and footwork. We learned to salute, the ballestra, the (running one) advance/retreat, extend, thrust, lunge, recover, and riposte.

We went through some drills. One in particular was quite hilarious -- we had to full at full speed and try to hit a tiny circle with the tips of our foils. We were approximately 0 for 72 with that.

Then, we fenced against each other. Dilettantes Kathleen and Nicole were up first, followed by Amanda and Amy. The videos we took during these duels really helped us study and improve our form will never see the light of day.