Fencing

pjgh said:

Some of them do ... the American kids in the middle are good mates. Having a laugh ... and getting away with it.

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That makes it even more enjoyable. Very good entertainment.

pjgh said:

Aside from foilists being argumentative (yes, we are) and epeeists being slow and old, I think my favourite was the use of screaming to persuade the referee that both his judgement and the electric box might be wrong and the loudest scream denotes the winner of the point.

One of the competitions I was at recently was being held after the British Ranking Championships for U18 (a serious business for all involved) for which the Women's Foil final became the most incredible competitive display of mountain lion impersonations!

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My grandson rowed in high school. My daughter, while waiting for a practice to end, was once talking to another mother who had a son who rowed and one who fenced. This women told my daughter that it was so nice to talk to a rowing parent for, as parents group goe, the fencing parents were the most unpleasant, meddlesome group she ever came across. This was in San Francisco, where youth fencing is taking pretty seriously and where apparently the future of the club's coach can depend on the whims of these capricious parents. In spite of this environment, I understand the San Francisco has produced some world class fencers. Also some pretty good rowers. Interestingly enough, Pacific Rowing Club changed their coach in my grandson's senior year, so it's just not fencing parents who have ideas what their coach should look like.