Sword Fighting/Fencing

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My son took fencing lessons today. It seems to be a very aspy thing. He loved it!

I very much enjoyed my fencing classes in college. I was awful at it, uncoordinated, but I had a very good time and got in very good shape over time. My instructor's teacher had been the same guy who taught Errol Flynn to fight for the movies, so there were always plenty of stories - and she taught us how to be just a bit flashy, on the side, for fun!

It's excellent exercise (oh, my legs still hurt) and good for the coordination. I hope your son enjoys them and keeps up with it.

It looks like very good exercise. Also it's structured socializing. The teacher said that fencing is like a maze, a moving maze where you try to weave your sword through obsticles to the torso.

You could think of it as a maze, yes. Or a dance. Good luck to your son!

My daughter and I took a few lessons before Christmas, then the instructor went to NY to train with his "master"?
Since he's been back, we haven't signed up for any lessons... it's a bit of a drive, in a cold building, on a school night.

We both liked it though, and I hope to get a club started at my daughter's high school (they used to have one long ago).

I'm glad you have something like this available for your son.
It's nice to have options for physical activity that aren't all about running, catching/throwing/kicking a ball, being on a team and remembering plays, etc.

Fencing does have very specific things to learn... and the muscles I used were not ones I've been using so my shoulder would get tired and sore just from holding the foil up engard!

Hope he enjoys it enough to keep on with it.

Thanks for sharing!

I wanted to do fencing when I was younger.

Then my quack psychologist told me it would be helpful to learn ballet in addition, because evidentally fencing requires some similar movements.

Found that out and changed my mind.

Not going to do it now.

I'm 47 and I enjoyed the few lessons my daughter and I had together.
I can't imagine any 'similar' movements between ballet and fencing.
In fencing you have very few and particular movements you do (fencing with a foil that is, not sabers), and none of these resemble anything I have ever seen in ballet!

As I said, my psych was a quack. I just didn't know it at the time.

He brainwashed me

then you need to un-brainwash yourself

Try watching the Princess Bride 20 times in a row (lots of sword fighting scenes), or Zorro, or some of the old Errol Flynn movies, etc.

Perhaps a few good sword-fighting movies will break through whatever that doc did to you and you will join the ranks of the world's noble sword fighters!

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dn38yRYUE88[/youtube]

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FJ0d6v4miEM[/youtube][youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KlK-MFaSoV4[/youtube]

I'm glad that he enjoyed it.
Although, personally, I could think of nothing worse than someone waving a sharp object around me and trying make it touch me.

Cool.

Kenjutsu has been one of my obsessions on and off; martial arts are a good thing for those with autism IMO, there's order; structures, set rules, a clear "social" hierarchy, and there's little social interaction. Plus, it's good for the mind and body in many ways.

I have enjoyed Tai Chi, Kickboxing and might start some Tae- Kwondo soon for fun. Some of my crew have also done Karate, and Ju Jitsu.

Hey, Lynn Swann did ballet, and he's in the NFL Hall of Fame. Plus, he's awesome. A little bit frufru though.

The footwork can resemble ballet to someone just looking at it. Actually the movements are quite different but foot placement (at right angles) makes some people think of ballet. Yes it is very taxing physically, and it requires countless hours of practice to get the "muscle memory" trained just like any other martial art. I fenced foil, saber and not nearly enough kendo. My son is now taking up kendo on his own because there are no instructors around here that we can find. Now that I know about Asperger's I attribute being an Aspie to my success in fencing. If I hadn't had that concentration and obsession about it I doubt if I could have managed to train for hours doing the same parries over and over and over again... Sport fencing is great, but if you have the opportunity to learn stage fencing, that's really where the fun comes in. That's the swashbuckling that people think of when you talk about a sword. There is a method called freestyle that's not officially sanctioned. It's much more dangerous, but is more along the lines of what handling a sword would entail. It's difficult to find a group that does that, and it would be adults only. Too much liability risk for a child.

I'm in college right now and I fence. There are a few people in my class (it's the advanced class, so these are the people who have stuck with it, not the newbies) who seem pretty Aspie to me, including myself.

I love it! (Although I'm not particularly good. This is only my second semester.)

I took fencing in college and loved it. I would love to get my own katana and start doing tameshigiri, but those swords are so expensive. Plus it's not something I would want to have around the house with a 2 yr old.