The sport of fencing began to take form when firearms entered the battlefield. Back then, sword fighting was simply a war tool. Whoever made the other bleed first won. But with firearms, the sword ceased to be used primarily for war, but as a symbol for officers. It was only used in close range combat when reloading the firearms would take too much time. Over time, the sword gradually became smaller from the two-handed broadsword to the single-handed rapier. At that point, the Italians and the French sword masters began to transform use of the sword from a war tool into an art form. This is when the standard lunge, parries, and others fencing actions took form. The weapons were blunted so students could be trained without shedding blood and it took the form of a sport. In 1896, fencing was one of the first 9 sports of the First Modern Olympiad. It has become a fast growing sport and in June of 1998, I discovered fencing as a sport.
My first competition took place in January 2000, and in the time since, I have gone up and down the ladder on placements. But since the Spring Semester 2010, I began to have a stronger emphasis on coaching and as a result, my skills have dramatically increased. Today, I had my first competition of the 2010-2011 season. I fencing in Foil then Epee for 8 hours. In foil, I was a very respectable 6th out of 12. But in Epee, in spite of exhaustion from the first event, I got hot. I seeded 6th going into the direction elimination round with a match against the #3 seed in the quarter-final round. I took an early lead I never lost and won 15-10. I lost in the semi-finals 15-9, but fought a fierce match for 3rd place. After falling behind 5-1, I rallied with 6 straight touches then traded hits all the way until I had a 14-12 lead. But my opponent slowly figured me out and rallied to beat me 15-14. I took 4th out of 12, a personal best in a local meet in 2 1/2 years.
It will be four weeks until my next tournament, when I have two in two weeks. One will be another local meet. Then the next week I will be going to Albuquerque New Mexico for a large regional tournament. The last time I traveled that direction, I took 3rd place in a small meet. But there is more down the road. My UTEP Fencing Team is strongly considering going to a Collegiate Recreational Sport Club Team Tournament in Chicago in April. This is a national tournament UTEP has been invited to. In January 2009, Albuquerque hosted a regional collegiate club tournament and my team took Gold as I won the deciding bout. One of my teammates from that meet will be coming with me, so we just need to find a viable third teammate and we will be ready to make a big run for this meet.
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