Letter to a Sport Fencer After His Visit to My University Fencing Club in 2015

Letter to a Sport Fencer After His Visit to My University Fencing Club in 2015

By Nick Evangelista

Hello,

It was an interesting experience meeting you earlier this week. But I have to be honest with you, the aggressive fencing you have been taught and displayed on Tuesday does not even remotely fit into what I teach, and I cannot permit it in my club for a number of reasons. 

First, our fencing club was created to be a place where individuals could come to learn to fence, not fight for their lives. We do not charge opponents, we do not flick, we do not yell, and we most certainly do not pin our opponents against walls in an effort to demolish them. These things fly in the face of everything I believe fencing should be. This is not the Middle Ages. Nor is it Fencing Fight Club. It may be common fare elsewhere, but I do not deal in that type of sport sensibility. 

By the way, it is very poor fencing etiquette to come into a school, and tell students they are doing things wrong, because they are doing what I have taught them-- at least to the best of their abilities-- and in criticizing them, you are likewise criticizing me. Also, I give my students the opportunity to make mistakes, because this is part of the learning process. I have been fencing for 47 years--between me and my fencing master we share 110 years of unbroken fencing experience--and I do not make up what I teach. There is tradition and logic in what we do here. If you have experienced something else, I can only say you are in error.

I teach a long-established system of fencing based on finesse and strategy, not the anything-for-a-touch approach, sometimes described as “the inspiration of the individual fencer,” that is prevalent in the present competitive fencing world. This is not the Olympics or the World Championships, and I really don't care how "champions" do it. Where students eventually take their fencing when they leave me is up to them, but from the starting point of this club, I require behavior that absolutely no one is allowed to violate.

Moreover, I believe the type of fencing you have been trained in to be dangerous.  With the amount of aggressive energy, you put into your attacks—as an example, the exchange where my student's foil blade was bent backward into an L shape in the forte when you ran onto it—someone will eventually be injured. I have to say, I have never seen anything like that particular blade bend in almost 48 years of fencing. * I can do nothing less than maintain the highest level of safety for everyone in the group, including you. This should be obvious. Not only because a serious injury would result in the club being shut down, but also, most certainly, because of law suits, which would be disastrous for all concerned. In all the years I have been teaching, I have never had a student injured beyond the occasional bruise or welt. This is because one of the hallmarks of my teaching is personal control. I plan to keep my safety record intact.

In a way, I blame myself for what transpired when you were here. I should have checked you out before I let you fence with anyone. I did not, which was my error. But I will not repeat my mistake. I cannot let you bout in the fencing club again until we have sufficiently modified what you have been taught. The only thing I can offer you now is for you to take lessons with me in the club setting until we have accomplished this. I am speaking of learning the measured skills of the traditional French school of fencing. Needless to say, this regimen excludes all forms of pistol grips, French weapons only. The alternative is to not fence with us again. This is for the safety of all concerned, yourself included. **

You have to understand I founded this club, I am the fencing master, and so my word and judgement—based on traditional fencing principles and critical thinking--are the law of the land in this matter, no exceptions.

 Sincerely,  

Nick Evangelista

Maitre d’Armes

Explanatory Notes:

 *With some judicious pounding from my five pound maul, after about an hour I was able to straighten out the L shaped blade. It surprised me! My student is still using it. Two more miracles and I’m going for sainthood.

 **Not surprisingly, the individual in question did not return to the club.