By Will Lauinger
At the start of my freshman year, my parents wanted me to branch out and try a new sport or activity. This task seemed very daunting at first, but as I scanned through the list of options for winter co-curriculars, one stood out to me. Fencing.
I thought to myself, “Hey, this sport lets me fight people with swords! That’ll probably be fun, and it should be pretty easy. I’ll try that one!” I was both right and very wrong in my assumptions.
We were split up into two groups on the first day of fencing practice – those who had fenced before and those that hadn’t. I obviously walked over into the group that hadn’t, and I was shocked to see the very small number of people that walked over with me. The room was packed with people, but only about 5 or 6 other people were in the same boat as me. While the rest of the kids fenced, we were put through a beginners course. And to my surprise, I thought I was doing really well in it.
A few weeks later, after the training course had finished, it was now time to join back up with everyone else and start fencing other people. When it was my turn to fence, I stepped up to the strip and plugged myself in, waiting to see who I would face. Not a moment later, the fencing team captain walked to the opposite end of the strip. I thought to myself “Who cares if it’s the captain of the team? I did really well in the training course, and fencing certainly can’t be that hard. It’s just hitting people with a metal stick.” Filled with confidence, I walked up to the en-garde line, saluted my opponent, and the match started. Bzzzt. 0-1. Bzzzt. 0-2. Bzzt. 0-3. Bzzt. 0-4. Bzzzt. And just like that, the match was over. I lost. But not only did I lose, I didn’t even touch my opponent once. This was only the start of a long line of 0-5 losses.
Now, in trying a new sport, I think most people would give up and say that fencing isn’t for them. Did I do that? No. I subjected myself to three more years of humiliating defeats. Did that stop me from enjoying the sport? No! To this day, I still enjoy fencing.
Flash forward to the winter of my junior year, and the fencing team was only a fraction of its size in prior years. There are three types of weapons in fencing, and my type of weapon is called an epee. Each group of weapons only fences one another because each weapon has different rules. In junior year, because of COVID-19, there was only one other boys’ epee fencer on the entire team. His name was Ken. The problem with having to fence Ken every day was the skill gap between us. He was an excellent fencer while I, on the other hand, was absolutely abhorrent. We would fence at least five times every day, and they would almost always result in a 0-5 loss. However, there were times later in the year when the matches were much closer, and there were even a few freak occurrences where I managed to beat Ken.
In my senior year, the team was back to being its usual size, and there were about five other boys epee fencers I could face this year. On the first day of fencing practice, the five other epee boys and I got together to see how good everyone was.
“Will, how good are you?” Someone asked.
“Oh, don’t worry, I’m terrible, like actually terrible,” I said, plugging myself into the fencing strip. We touched guards and my first match of the year was about to begin. Bzzt. Bzzt. Bzzt. Bzzt. Bzzt. And just like that, the match was over. I had won. But not only did I win, but my opponent didn’t even touch me once. This was the start of a great line of 5-0 victories. After my previous opponent cleared off the strip, Ken decided he would go up next. As he put on his helmet, I recounted the events of last year’s practices and braced myself for inevitable defeat. Ken and I stepped up to our en-guard lines, and the match started. 1-0. 2-0. 3-0. 3-1. 3-2. 4-2. 5-2. I had beaten Ken.
After getting two wins in a row on the first day of practice, my confidence shot up, and I overestimated my fencing skills. That was until we had our first fencing meet. Our first meet of the year was during the second week of fencing. I wasn’t a starter because I wasn’t as good as many other epee fencers. This meant that I wasn’t going to fence unless the boys’ epee had enough points to win before all the matches were over. As you could probably guess, that’s precisely what ended up happening. So I had to fence the final match of the day. The thing is, Riverdale’s epee team didn’t have enough players, so I had to fight a foil fencer. I thought,
“This should be an easy win; this guy doesn’t even know how to fence epee!” I walked onto the strip and plugged in, expecting an easy win. I was humbled seconds later with a 2-5 defeat. So, while I haven’t gotten that much better at fencing in these past four years, I still never gave up and enjoyed the sport and had a good time at practice. Even though I’m still pretty bad at fencing this year, I can at least beat Ken in practice matches more often. Even a small thing like that is worth the try.