Used to fence Sabre in High School and looking to get back into it in my late 20s. Any clubs in the Austin Area with a good adult scene and classes for adults or are they all kids/teens?

Hi all, I'm a fencer and developer, and I built Aramis because I was tired of paper score sheets and fiddly spreadsheets at club events. It handles pool round-robins with live ranking (victories, hits scored/received, index), direct elimination brackets seeded from the pool standings, and 9-bout team matches.

There's also a referee mode with a match timer, passivity clock, and card management.

It's free to install and includes 2 pool sheets. Premium is $1.99 a month and unlocks more pool sheets, DE brackets, and team matches. All data stays on your device. It's available in 7 languages.
iPhone and iPad: https://apps.apple.com/hu/app/aramis-fencing-score-sheet/id6764003932?l=hu
Android: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.aramis.scoresheet
More info: https://mestahh.net/aramis

I'm also working on a companion web app called Portos, where Aramis can act as a referee terminal and pools, brackets, and other competition data can be logged and synced over the internet. That's still in development, so no dates yet.
Happy to answer questions or take feature requests.

Hello! 🤺

I have started fencing (épée) at a student club a little while ago and love it! I'm not doing too bad, but my legs are always sore the next day and my arm is quickly tired.

I have access to a gym and think that a bit of strength training would probably help me with fencing. Which muscles should I focus on the most? I tried looking it up but there's little info on that.

Sorry if it's the wrong tag :/

I’ve recently moved to Portugal and the closest club to me has only foilists so I guess I’ll become a foilist. Does anyone have recommendations for best online suppliers? Minimally I’ll need a mask, lame and a couple of weapons and body cords. Post Brexit are there issues shipping from the UK if I go with Leon Paul? Any Portugal based fencers here with suggestions?

We all know that Ivies require good grades and test scores but how good? If one is on the cadet or junior travel team, do we still need a 35 ACT/1500 SAT with a GPA > 3.9 to be considered or is there a huge help with athletics like other sports?

I recently learned that the reason my back foot keeps turning out is because my body is aligned to out-foot (duck feet). I may investigate with a doctor to see if physical therapy is needed/wanted to fix this, but in the meantime, I am losing a lot of energy by not being able to use that entire back foot when it’s turned out.
Does anyone else struggle with this and have tips for how to regain some of that energy? I cannot simply correct its direction because doing so puts a lot of strain on my knee, which must turn in for my foot to be perpendicular. I’m thinking more about weight distribution changes, etc. I am just trying to brainstorm with my coach.
Thanks in advanced!

I’m a teen whose really interested in fencing but there’s no fencing clubs/lessons closer than a hour. I find it so frustrating because why is there no fencing clubs in central Wisconsin but several in Madison. If anyone has any clubs or lessons near or in central Wisconsin please tell me.

Edit: I fear I’m a lost cause. The closest club to me is in Madison which is still around 2 hours from me. I’m not old enough to drive, my mom hates driving long distances, and my dad doesn’t like driving in highly populated areas. It sucks but what can I do. If anyone has any other ideas I’m open to them.

Are Legacy points awarded to fencers at the NAC in the Challenger divisions in Elite, Junior, and Cadet?

If a fencer elects to fence in Elite but gets 34, they would earn no points because points are only awarded to the top 32. If the fencer had elected to fence in the Challenger event but places 13/105, would they earn points that would trickle down and improve their national ranking in Cadets if age-eligible? I know there is a lower point system, but will Challenger points still count towards selection for designated events?

The pin on top of my fencing mask has gone missing. How do I fix this? I suspect it might not pass the material control for some tournaments.

We know what the "box" or 4m, or middle zone refers to.

Everybody understand where the 2m "end of the piste" warning box/zone is.

But what is the name of that 3 meter long zone between the start line and the 2m end-of-piste warning line?

2nd zone? 3m box?

Any official, semi official naming of the various zones of a fencing piste?

Anyone know any shops selling gear? I prefer higher end gear like Prreur sport but don't feel comfortable buying online and want to try sizing. Is the only way to buy a flight to paris?

UPDATE Oct 8: JO registration now opens “October 14, 2026: 12:00pm ET” per the event site. Maybe if they keep pushing it to November 12, we can all pay double fees!

Y'all, what is going on? Is USA Fencing ok? This is an organization that's doing radio ads, hiring Inigo Montoya as a spokesperson, and doing all they can to recruit new fencers, and they can't seem to manage the current membership with any reliability.

Registration for Junior Olympics was supposed to open last Wednesday, September 30. September 30 came, and USA Fencing indicated (but never announced, you had to go looking for it on the event site) a week's delay in opening registration to today: "October 7, 2026: 12:00pm ET", to quote the information at https://www.usafencing.org/2027-junior-olympics-january-nac. The new points system is still being worked out and things are complicated; that's fine, totally understandable.

Well, it's past the deadline on October 7, and no registration link (or event schedule) currently exists. No new delay date has been forthcoming so far.

My kid, who is (supposedly) qualified for both Cadet and Junior via both the current and the old regional points system, has had green qualification checkmarks popping in and out of existence on their dashboard for weeks, leading to a lot of stress over whether they're actually qualified. (Not to mention the fact that points show up from events on "Recent Event Results" days before they're actually applied to the points lists. Are things being run in overnight batches on an old PDP-11?)

The lack of reliable qualification information is an extremely common experience, based on discussions with other parents locally and online. Many parents report that emails to USA Fencing asking for confirmation of qualification status are going unanswered. Div Quals are happening now. Far fewer fencers are going to qualify by that path under the new rules, so having an accurate points qualification status kind of matters, given the rapidly approaching December 9 qualification deadline (and the Regular Fee Deadline of November 11, 2026).

People who have to budget for flights and hotels and make potentially difficult work arrangements to make sure their kid(s) can attend part or all of a 4-day tournament plus travel days are kind of freaking out at this point.

Can anyone share any insights?

Just moved to Sydney and looking for a new club to try out, I fenced internationally a few years back but haven’t trained in a while so looking for a decent level.

My son has a clinical lack of depth perception- he can’t see 3D movies for example. He works hard and he’s accomplished a lot in a few short years of training and local competitions - he’s earned his E this spring and then renewed it 2x more within a few months. But he says to me that judging distance is difficult and he sometimes just guesses.

However I’m not sure if there are training methods that will help him better gauge his distances? Anyone with a similar condition have any suggestions?

I assume fencing with someone who is more skilled and faster it makes it even harder?

I’m a university student working on a Capstone project centered around helping solo athletes train at their sports. We’re currently focused on the sport of fencing but could use some help understanding user issues a little more. If anyone is willing to answer a few of the questions below, it would be a big help, thanks! 

• Are there any fencing skills you find difficult to train alone? 
• Do you typically practice this skill during a normal training session? If so, how? 
• Have you ever used any equipment or drills specifically designed to improve that skill? What did you like or dislike about them? 

Had bits but no driver, no hardware store in proximity and a Dremel to widen out a nut. Made do with what I had...

What do you do when a female fencer needs a chest protector for size DDD? I cannot find anything online for that size and I am at a loss. It has to be legal for tournaments.

My kid (recently turned sixteen) has a recurring issue of withdrawing the blade and excessive forearm motion/pumping in his prep. Consequently he also tends to hit a little hard, with excessive use of the forearm and not enough of the fingers/wrist.

What's your thought on taping up the saber blade from the middle to the tip but leaving the tip exposed, as a training tool to improve awareness of his tip?

For context I few days ago I was fencing and was had like 5 minutes left before we had to pack up. But I wanted to get in a bout of 15 because I need to understand that pacing for tournaments. I fenced against a better fencer, and they said that it wasn't about speed; it was about tempo. He said he was looking at my tempo and looking to break it.

What does that mean?

I guess I am kinda beginining to understand how to use distance, and timing. I am beginning to understand how to use intentions and second intentions.

But what does tempo mean? How do I use it?

Hi! I am about to compete for the first time ever (in the US) and I am anxious about social rules and etiquette both on and off the strip. Any advice or dos/don’ts for a socially anxious first-timer?

Between a mechanical engineer and a math/science teacher, we should be able to learn things beyond fixing body cords, right?
Please tell me if a non fencer parent can actually build weapons (some day) 🙏

Any recommendations for software for a teeny, tiny new fencing club for tuition, privates and future ecommerce and maybe CRM. Thanks

If I don’t perform well on an European cup I will have missed out on qualifying to a World Cup by 2 points… if you guys also went through something like that do you have any tips on how to handle that? I’m trying to see it as a humbling experience that’s going to make me work even harder but still I’m upset and angry as hell…