Students learned the fundamentals of fencing at Halfmoon Bay Elementary School this week.
Eleven students between the ages of seven and 11 donned safety equipment and practised their newfound skills during the Sunshine Coast Regional District's Fencing for Kids workshop on Nov. 22.
Instructor Laura Marshall taught the youth the unique style of the sport, complete with regulations, safety cautions and unfamiliar wording like foil, epee and sabre.
"Foils, epees and sabres are the different types of weapons that can be used in fencing in different disciplines," said Marshall.
"The foil can be one of the more physically demanding events, the sabre is acknowledged as the quickest event, and the epee is considered a game of tactics and precision."
Students used foils provided by Marshall for the workshop. Before they even got to hold the weapons, Marshall made sure they understood the sport and the difference between fencing as a sport and as seen in the movies.
"When you see people fencing on TV, they're jumping over chairs and battling down hallways, but that's not what we're learning here today," said Marshall, who also teaches a six-week theatre-fencing course complete with costumes and tricky stunts seen in the movies.
But students didn't seem to mind the discipline needed to get their hands on the foil and begin a match.
"I think it's really fun," said Hannah Stanhope. Her sister Grace agreed, saying, "I think it's a cool sport."
Students spent the first half of the day practising their footwork, advancing and retreating, learning the language used in fencing and working on their form.
Once Marshall saw the students understood the basics of fencing, she handed out the safety equipment and then the foils to the students, pairing them by height with each other to practise their fencing skills.
Marshall has been teaching the sport for four years on the Coast and she said the enthusiasm in this class wasn't surprising."I think definitely it's a growing sport, especially now that we had an Olympic fencer from Alberta at the games. A lot of the students told me they saw her on TV, and that's where they got the idea to try it," said Marshall. She added, "The other half of the students said they saw sword play on film and they loved it."
Marshall has six years of provincial and international level fencing under her belt, and she loves teaching the sport to new enthusiastic athletes.
Students who attended Marshall's workshop who want to continue in the sport can enroll in one of the longer programs she teaches through the Parks and Recreation department, and Marshall hopes to create a fencing club on the Coast in the future.
"Right now we're not competing or anything, but if I could get enough people interested, I would love to establish a club on the Coast," said Marshall.
For more information on fencing programs, contact Parks and Recreation at 604-885-6801.
