As a person, I have to accept that physically I am not very well co-ordinated and still even have a problem with a skipping rope! Which I guess underlies why in School I was not very good at team sports. Swimming, X-country, rifle shooting, trekking – yes those I could do, but cricket and soccer – no way!
Which is also if in my younger years anyone had said, that one day I would represent GBR in a sport, I would have said they were sheer nuts. Yet this is what I did and the key lay in fencing. I started in my mid 30’s, when with a colleague we both enrolled in an adult education class. What enthralled me was this combination of your physical and mental energies.
Some describe fencing as being like a high speed chess game – it is this element of misleading your opponent upon your intention, that makes it so exciting, challenging and at the same time, so enjoyable to do! I can finish my day’s work feeling spent, but as soon as I have picked up a sword, the adrenaline flows: I feel 20 years younger and by the end of the evening, completely relaxed. Any problems of the day are no longer significant and I feel I am of the top of the world.
It was at fencing that I met my marvellous wife and then because of the extra time spent in bringing up a family and being founder parents of a Steiner/Waldorf School, I did not fence for some 20 years.
Watching TV one evening, I saw Corinna Lawrence from Plymouth fencing and who at time was representing GBR in the National team. Just watching was enough, to remind of the joy of the sport and I started again at the age of 55. It was about this time that a veteran fencer, Henry de Silva initiated Veterans Fencing and before long we had European and World Veteran Championships.
In 1998 at the UK Veterans Championships I was third in the over 60’s and this qualified me to represent GBR in the World Championships in Switzerland. In the following years, I did so another 6 times. My best results was being 11th in the World Championships in Tampa and then at the age of 70 picking up the bronze medal in the European and the over 70’s gold medal in the Commonwealth.
What makes fencing somewhat exceptional and I guess arises from it a being a close combat sport, is that even now in my 80’s, I can still be a challenge to a young person of 20! Purely by trickery and tactics and what such tremendous fun!
So whatever your age, do not write yourself off as useless at sport – like for me, fencing may provide the key to find abilities, that you never dreamt you had! Why not give it a go?
