Try Something New: Fencing

Swashbuckle Your Way to Fitness

Ever since Johnny Depp made being a bad, bad pirate look oh so good, interest in fencing has surged. If clanking swords and fancy footwork appeal to you, step up to the challenge of fencing. It’s a fun way to improve your fitness, posture, and poise and sharpen your wits.

Fencing is a modern combat sport derived from the ancient art of swordplay. The sparring you might have seen in The Three Musketeers or Zorro—or even in Star Wars, with light sabers—isn’t terribly different from that which characterized a 16th-century duel.
When enjoyed by modern-day practitioners, however, fencing is more about fitness and discipline than combat. “It’s good for muscle tone and hand-eye coordination, and fencing provides a mind-body workout, similar to that achieved in martial arts,” says Jim Bernitt, president of West Chester Fitness Club in New York. “Unlike weight-lifting you aren’t building bulk. You use your muscles but you are moving a lot so it’s between aerobic and anaerobic.”

Fencing improves flexibility, endurance, agility, speed, and reaction times. It’s believed to improve cognitive skills such as problem solving, manage stress, and sharpen focus and concentration. And the composure gained during the practice of fencing carries over into the real world, according to Bernitt. “It truly builds your confidence since you directly face an opponent. You learn strategy and how to read a person.”

To get started, find a club. “Simply show up and take lessons,” says Bernitt. There are hundreds of fencing clubs across the country and many community colleges offer fencing instruction as well. You can read instructional books until you are blue in the face, Bernitt observes, but fencing “is very much a hands-on, interactive, one-on-one sport.” Once you’re hooked and accomplished, he notes, competitive levels are offered for every age group.

As with the practice of most sports, beginners can expect a certain level of soreness since they’ll be using many muscles they don’t engage in daily activities. It will take about a month to adjust and develop the muscle tissue, flexibility, and muscle memory with which to perform fencing movements accurately. Time invested, as with most activities, directly correlates with skill level, says Bernitt.

“Fencing used to be part of artistocratic training during the Renaissance but now it’s for everyone.” Fencing at many clubs can be a family activity with classes offered for mom and dad as well as kids. Plus, you can deduct up to $500 per child under age 16 as a tax credit against personal income taxes. All beginner programs, day camps, and lesson plans qualify for the Children's Fitness Tax Credit. Stanford University’s Fencing Club offers Pirate Camp every summer. Part of the fun, aside from dodge ball and ice pops, is fencing instruction taught by the university’s varsity team and coaching staff.

But fencing isn’t definitely not just for kids. “I know people well into their seventies and eighties who are still fencing,” says Bernitt, a self-proclaimed “fencing junkie.” “I started when I was 17 and I’m still crazy about it.”