By Jackie Pollack
I decided to join the school’s fencing team as a freshman last year to challenge myself with a unique sport. Though it was widely unpopular, I was determined to recruit more fencers to take advantage of the variety of sports the school offers. After improving during each practice and having an overall successful season last year, I knew I was interested in continuing to fence during my sophomore year.
This year the team had tripled in size, enabling the formation of a boys and girls foil and epee team unlike last year where we only were able to have a boys and girls foil team. The difference between a foil team and an epee team is the size of the target on the opponent’s body. Epee fencing allows your whole body to be a target, from your chest down to your feet. On the other hand for foil fencing, the target is just the abdomen. Further, foil has more complicated rules involved which determines which player earns a point during a match.
Although the epee team was an option I continued with foil this year and convinced many of my friends to join. To their surprise, they enjoyed fencing because it gave them an outlet which relieved their stress from school with an exciting, new sport.
Our team is fortunate enough to have a coach who has participated in the World Cup. Coach Ibrahima Ndiaye has a long commute to practice but arrives eager to teach us new skills and techniques. Ndiaye’s passion for the sport truly motivates each of the players.
Practice is held for an hour and a half every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday and allows us enough time to prepare for the all-day tournaments every Saturday. The teams who we compete against often practice year round and can be very challenging but having the right coach has allowed me to defeat some of the toughest opponents.
Ibrahima always told us that fencing is just a mind game. With layers of equipment and a dark helmet on, you cannot even identify your opponent; making it easy to just focus on your target. However, watching their footwork is enough to tell if they are experienced fencer. Looking intimidating and being aggressive is half the battle.
This season was a first for a lot of the team but with lots of practice we improve our skills and the foil and epee teams did really well. I am very hopeful for the next season and to see what it brings.
