The Fencing Center celebrated the Lunar New Year of the Dog
The Fencing Center celebrated the Lunar New Year of the Dog with energized workouts, new classes, youth fencers preparing for regional meets, and elite fencers training for national events. Our membership got a major boost at the start of 2006 with a number of adults signing up for Mike Botenhagen's beginning foil class, each novice declaring a new year's resolution to get fit.
Some very fit and skilled epeeists showed up for TFC's first annual Duel for the Dessert, January 19 vying for desirable prizes. This Duel was an open, mixed epee club tournament featuring some very tasty berry pies as awards for the top three finishers, plus extra pies for all to share. Held as a fun training event, the format was one pool of 5-touch bouts. Fourteen competitors all enjoyed some great bouting and shared pie, ice cream and coffee after the heated contest. This year's winner, Gyorgy Ordody of Golden Gate Fencing Club, fittingly went on to win the Duel in the Desert two weeks later in Las Vegas. Thanks to Suzanne Bloomer of Cardinal Fencing for fashioning a great first place trophy out of a pie tin for First Plate! TFC will carry on the new tradition every January as a warmup for the Duel in the Desert.
Conditioning workouts were initiated in July of last year by TFC board member Mark Wheeler. The 60-90 minute workout feature running and mobility exercises, core strengthening, stretching, footwork, and drills. The workouts ran through September, 2005 and helped the epee group, as well as several foil fencers, get a jump on early season training. Mark plans to start up next season's conditioning workouts in the latter half of July, 2006. Watch for details.
Coaches Connie Yu and Natasha Maximovich will be going to snowy Hartford CT. for the Junior Olympics President's Weekend with six cadet and juniors fencers competing in multiple events. Our club hosted the exciting J.O. Qualifiers last November, a couple weeks after we successfully ran the hugest Fallfest Senior Epee & Youth Foil tournament in its illustrious 20 year history. The perpetual trophy is at The Fencing Center with the newly engraved name of Philip Hedges of Cardinal Fencing.
Foil and epee are thriving at TFC, and sabre is coming along nicely, too. Matt Carraudo of The Cutting Edge has volunteered to help with youth classes and also trains sabre fencers of all ages. Matt also gave a delightful and extraordinary demonstration of his "Jedi Battle" at our December holiday party, showing his skills both as a fencer and an acrobat.
The annual TFC/JCC Springfest Junior Foil Challenge 2006 will be held Sunday, April 2 (Daylight Savings Time Begins!), 4000 Cubberley Rd. Palo Alto. The events will be Junior Foil C & Higher, All Women's Foil, Y10 girls and Y10 boys. This is always a large and exciting event with outstanding youth and junior fencing. The prizes are super, free snacks for fencers, and there's also a TFC benefit canteen. Spectators and volunteers are most welcome. Contact Connie Yu at the club for details.
August 7 - 12 Camp Winabout 2006. Details to follow. TFC is proud of our week-long training camp which has received rave reviews from young fencers and parents. Last year was enormously successful, with 25 campers having a great time conditioning, training and enjoying the sport of fencing. Camp Winabout 2006 promises to be even better! Details are upcoming.
TFC has contributed to community events, supported youth groups and donated to the Red Cross Katrina Relief Efforts. We continue our efforts in 2006 to be a positive community presence and truly a fencing center for all levels of fencing and all ages.
TFC coaching staff of Mike, Natasha and Connie and our Board of Directors send you best wishes for 2006. Stay Fit and Fence!