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Fencing at the high school level has varied in popularity.
| | This article needs additional citations for verification .(August 2023) |
Fencing at the high school level has varied in popularity.
In many European countries fencing is growing more popular each year. In Scotland many new competitions have arisen to get these new fencers into fencing at higher levels, such as the Leon Paul Youth Development series where fencers fit in as much fencing as possible against as many of those in their age and weapon group to gain experience.[ citation needed ]
Fencing was once a part of many schools' physical education (PE) curriculum, and many schools had clubs and would compete in inter-school tournaments. In the second half of the 20th century, fencing gradually faded from physical education curricula in the United States. This has been attributed to worries about 'weapons in schools' or that it requires expensive equipment. Fencers dispute the characterization of fencing foils as weapons since they fail to meet the applicable criteria - a tool of injury or destruction - since foils are engineered specifically to contact the human body without injury.[ citation needed ]
However, youth fencing has remained a club sport at some schools, and the last several years have seen an increase in fencing clubs and tournaments at the high school level. The United States Fencing Association has encouraged this through the Regional Youth Circuit program. [1] High school fencing season is generally in winter. [2]
High school fencing has also gained a renewed following in the United States, evidenced by the establishment of state leagues, and an increase in Junior level national competitors.[ citation needed ]
High school competitive fencing has grown significantly in the state of New Jersey, one of the few states where it remains a varsity sport. The league is growing steadily, and there are currently 55 varsity programs in the state. [3] The New Jersey Interscholastic Fencing Association includes Montgomery High School, The Pingry School, Voorhees High School, and more.
Georgia in particular has seen growing interest in high school fencing. The Georgia High School Fencing League was founded in 2004 and in the 2013–14 season numbers 17 schools and over 350 fencers. Member schools hold their own practices and come together about once a month during the fall and winter seasons to fence other member schools, primarily in épée. Additionally, the On Guard High School League of Georgia was created to allow high school fencers to fence all three weapons (épée, foil and sabre). This league was formed in 2010 in the 2012–13 season numbered seven schools and over 150 fencers.[ citation needed ]
The North Carolina Fencing League has grown to include Chapel Hill High School, Elkin High School, Morehead High School, East Chapel Hill High School, the North Carolina School of Science and Mathematics, Bishop McGuinness High School in Kernersville, Cape Fear Fencing Association of Wilmington, Salem Academy, Epiphany School of Global Studies, Reynolds High School and even a non-North Carolina school, Carlisle Preparatory Academy in Martinsville, Virginia. The latest champion of the league is East Chapel Hill High.
The Great Lakes High School Fencing Conference, consisting of schools in Illinois, Wisconsin and Indiana, was founded in 1981. Current information about GLHSFC membership, rules and competition schedules can be found on the New Trier HS Fencing Team page. [4]
There is also a detailed history of high school fencing in Illinois from 1903–2013, written by Robert Prueter, on the web site of the IHSA (Illinois High School Association) [5] - "Fencing: A Long-time Illinois Sport". [6]
Fencing is a combat sport that features sword fighting. The three disciplines of modern fencing are the foil, the épée, and the sabre ; each discipline uses a different kind of blade, which shares the same name, and employs its own rules. Most competitive fencers specialise in one discipline. The modern sport gained prominence near the end of the 19th century and is based on the traditional skill set of swordsmanship. The Italian school altered the historical European martial art of classical fencing, and the French school later refined that system. Scoring points in a fencing competition is done by making contact with an opponent.
A foil is one of the three weapons used in the sport of fencing. It is a flexible sword of total length 110 cm (43 in) or under, rectangular in cross section, weighing under 500 g (18 oz), with a blunt tip. As with the épée, points are only scored by making contact with the tip. The foil is the most commonly used weapon in fencing.
The épée, also rendered as epee in English, is the largest and heaviest of the three weapons used in the sport of fencing. The modern épée derives from the 19th-century épée de combat, a weapon which itself derives from the French small sword.
Classical fencing is the style of fencing as it existed during the 19th and early 20th centuries. According to the 19th-century fencing master Louis Rondelle,
A classical fencer is supposed to be one who observes a fine position, whose attacks are fully developed, whose hits are marvelously accurate, his parries firm, and his ripostes executed with precision. One must not forget that this regularity is not possible unless the adversary is a party to it. It is a conventional bout, which consists of parries, attacks, and returns, all rhyming together.
The sabre is one of the three disciplines of modern fencing. The sabre weapon is for thrusting and cutting with both the cutting edge and the back of the blade.
The following outline is provided as an overview of and topical guide to fencing:
In fencing, the grip is the part of the weapon which is gripped by the fencer's hand.
The flèche is an aggressive attacking technique in fencing, used with foil and épée.
Essex Catholic Boys High School was a four-year Catholic high school located in Newark and East Orange, in Essex County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey. The high school opened in 1957. It was run by the Congregation of Christian Brothers and sponsored by the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Newark until its closure in 2003.
The Amateur Fencers League of America (AFLA) was founded on April 22, 1891, in New York City by a group of fencers seeking independence from the Amateur Athletic Union. As early as 1940, the AFLA was recognized by the Fédération Internationale d'Escrime (FIE) and the United States Olympic Committee as the national governing body for fencing in the United States.
The Intercollegiate Fencing Association (IFA) was the oldest collegiate fencing conference in the United States. It was affiliated with the Eastern College Athletic Conference (ECAC).
Soren Hunter Miles S Thompson is an American épée fencer, team world champion, and two-time Olympian. He represented the United States in the 2004 Olympics in Athens, Greece, where he reached the quarterfinals and came in 7th, the best US result in the event since 1956 and at the time the second-best US result of all time. He also represented the US in the 2012 Olympics in London. Thompson won a gold medal and world championship in the team épée event at the 2012 World Fencing Championships. He was inducted into the USA Fencing Hall of Fame in 2018, and the Southern California Jewish Sports Hall of Fame in 2020.
Fencing practice and techniques of modern competitive fencing are governed by the Fédération Internationale d'Escrime (FIE), though they developed from conventions developed in 18th- and 19th-century Europe to govern fencing as a martial art and a gentlemanly pursuit. The modern weapons for sport fencing are the foil, épée, and sabre.
Byron Lester Krieger was an American foil, sabre and épée fencer. Krieger represented the United States in the Olympics in 1952 in Helsinki and 1956 in Melbourne, and in the 1951 Pan American Games where he won two gold medals.
NYU Violets is the nickname of the sports teams and other competitive teams at New York University. The school colors are purple and white. Although officially known as the Violets, the school mascot is a bobcat. The Violets compete as a member of NCAA Division III in the University Athletic Association conference. The university sponsors 23 varsity sports, as well as club teams and intramural sports.
The oldest surviving manual on western swordsmanship dates back to the 14th century, although historical references date fencing schools back to the 12th century.
Collegiate fencing in the United States can be traced back to as early as 1941. Some of the earliest programs in the US came from the Ivy League schools, with the first Ivy League fencing championships taking place in 1956. As of 2023, there are 112 club teams, 43 women's varsity fencing programs and 33 men's varsity teams in the US. Both clubs and varsity teams participate in the sport, however only the varsity teams may participate in the NCAA championship tournament. Due to the limited number of colleges that have fencing teams, NCAA fencing combines the three divisions into a combined National Collegiate sport, all participating in one NCAA Championship.
Timothy Frank Morehouse is an American fencer who won a Silver Medal competing in the men's sabre as a member of the United States fencing team at the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing. Morehouse is coached by Yury Gelman. He is the founder of the Fencing in the Schools program.
Abram "Abe" DreyerCohen was an American Olympic foil, épée, and sabre fencer.
VRI Fencing Club located near the heart of Melbourne at 141 Burnley Street Richmond, Victoria is an Australian fencing club distinguished as being the only club in any Olympic sport to have continuously produced athletes for every Olympiad between 1952 and 2008.
