Fencing Camp

Some months ago, Brandt expressed an interest in learning how to fence.  He has been watching old reruns of Zorro on the old guy TV station, and he wanted to know how to do all the cool moves Zorro does.  Blythe, of course, said, "Me too!"  So I did a bit of research and discovered that there is a fencing club in Sandy, and they do fencing camps.  So I signed the kids up.  The first time we went, at the beginning of July, we drove to Sandy through nightmarish traffic only to arrive and be told that there weren't enough people signed up to do the session, and we would need to come back in two weeks.  Two weeks later didn't work, and the kids were very disappointed that they didn't get to do anything.

Fortunately, there was a third session which began on Monday and so the kids have been fencing all week.  It has been great fun; both Brandt and Blythe have really enjoyed it.  The first day, Blythe came over to me as I sat on the side of the gym reading to ask when they would be through, to tell me she was thirsty, and to say she wanted to be done, but I didn't let her stop.  I very firmly told her that she said she wanted to be there, I had paid for her to be there, and she was going to be there.  But the first day was the only problem, and both Blythe and Brandt have enjoyed their experience.

The guys teaching are from Ukraine and have pretty strong accents, so there was some difficulty in understanding what they were being told.  The first day, Blythe kept turning to me, a quizzical look on her face, with no idea what she should be doing.  I jumped up and "translated."  That first day they didn't get to do anything with actual swords, but by day two, they were in "armor" and wielding actual sabers!  So exciting!

They learned how to stand and move their feet, how to parry and thrust, and then they got to practice against each other and the other kids in the class.  They did running and arm waving, as well as jumping and following commands for conditioning and training in following commands/instruction.  Brandt and Blythe were the youngest and smallest, but they held their own and participated well.  They liked it too.  I don't think we're going to make a regular drive to Sandy for additional lessons at this point, but the camp gave them a taste of fencing.  I think they are a bit young to really begin training--Konstantin would probably disagree with me--but in a couple more years, if they still want to pursue fencing, we can look into it again.  Brandt was very, very keen to get a sword following this four camp experience.  That's all he wanted though.  Just a sword.  And one for Blythe, too.  He said if they both had one, they could practice together.  Against each other.  I said no.  So did Kent.  The last thing we need is weapons in the house with the potential to do someone serious mischief.

I took really a lot of picture throughout the week, and rather than divide them up into certain days, I'm going to include them all in one post.

 

 

   

Brandt is dueling Konstantin.

 

   

 

Brandt is dueling with Savannah, who filled in for Konstantin one day.

The children could understand her.