medphys
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Post by medphys on Feb 28, 2006 12:55:38 GMT -6
Has anyone noticed lately that the number of our young women foil fencers has severly declined. This seems to be happening not only in Houston, but around the country as well. The SRYC in Colorado Springs, which is the first one of the year, only has 20 WFY12 and 26 WFY14 fencers registered. This compared to previous years when one would see 50-60 fencers at each age group. The lack of young fencers in foil may have a significant impact for the future of the sport here in Houston and maybe nationwide. Any comments?
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Post by schlager7 on Feb 28, 2006 13:25:56 GMT -6
I'm not that familiar with the RYCs, but I took a look at the old USFA site (because the new site is down, naturally) to look at the number of competitors in cadet women's foil at the JOs. Here is what I found.
1996 - 109 competitors 1997 - 134 1998 - 105 1999 - 94 2000 - 96 2001 - 114 2002 - 136 2003 - 128 2004 - 157 2005 - 185 2006 - 213
At the JOs it looks like mostly steady increases in numbers in the last few years. These are, of course, largely the hard core of youthful competitors.
Locally, haven't most of our RYCs been held by either Salle Mauro or Bayou City Fencing Academy? Perhaps someone involved in running tournaments for those groups can comment. I know both Alliance and Katy Blades have fairly stong cores of young fencers. Augie? Andrey?
I also took a look at the RYC pre-registration page. It seems to indicate the data represents pre-registrations in as of February 22nd and that the remain mail will be preocessed today. There may be stronger numbers posted by Thursday or Friday.
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medphys
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Posts: 14
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Post by medphys on Feb 28, 2006 14:09:43 GMT -6
Many of the youth programs in Houston are strong but made up of mainly boys. The JO numbers are encouraging, however the view is dismal here in the Houston area for women foilist. It would be great if the different clubs here in Houston could try to get more young women involved in this sport. Once again I'm speaking about the youth level. IN a few years there won't be any or very few women cadet/junior foilist in Houston.
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Post by DavidSierra on Feb 28, 2006 14:12:10 GMT -6
dfollowill - sounds like you are concerned about this subject and want to make a difference. Why don't you see what you can do to pitch in to resolve the problem you see? Talk to your club head and ask them what kind of outreach you could perform to cause positive change!
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Post by August Skopik on Feb 28, 2006 23:16:04 GMT -6
I begin by teaching epee fencing, but incorporate the basic foil parries in my Youth Fencing League. I have a growing group of young ladies, but what I am observing is unusual. When a person is ready to be introduced to the other weapons such as foil or saber I see the "pesky" saber boys doing the recruiting and teaching. There are several young ladies that have recently been or are being converted in the past several weeks this way.
The foil ladies or even the foil men in my club (ages approx. 15), have not been as aggressive in recruiting new fencers. As a coach, you encourage this cross-training and recruiting because these young people will be the coaches of the future. If they can teach a parry five or three at 11, 12 or 13, then it will be good when they get 20+.
The FIE has documented that foil fencing overall is down, and last year it reported that 20%+ had either quit foil or changed weapons. I still love foil, but it is difficult to fence the opponent, the director and now the box/chest protector.
I think David gave the best advice. If you want foil to grow in your clubs you will need to ask what you can do to help it grow. The fencers will gravitate to whichever weapon is the easiest to understand or has their friends in it. Your fencers will need to recruit more foilists and explain right-of-way, weapon analysis, directing, etc.
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Post by August Skopik on Feb 28, 2006 23:23:23 GMT -6
I would like to add that in my ladies classes many of them are now fencing foil. Some like it, and some hate it because of the differences between it and epee. These are ladies mid 30s to 70s, and it will take me more time to get them competition ready.
I could not send them to a competition outside the club for quite a while, 1+ years, because of the differences of opinion in right of way that I have seen. I can't have someone quit because obvious missed calls. I showed films of some of the right of way calls from our last National Qualifiers and had to turn them off and put on the Olympics because I caused more problems than I solved. They kept asking me why certain calls were being made, and I did not have any way to substantiate the calls myself. I have to prepare them for the "Real world" as they say in college.
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Post by kd5mdk on Mar 1, 2006 1:09:56 GMT -6
How does women's foil compare in representation to other weapons? Given how much longer Women's Foil has been around compared to WE and WS (especially WS), it seems possible, though not at all certain, that perhaps women were overrepresented in foil/pushed a little more towards it because there was more competition there, and now things are merely coming into balance.
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Post by Prudence on Apr 14, 2006 2:16:12 GMT -6
I think you might be correct kd5mdk. When I started fencing it was more common for a beginning female to just stick with foil once she learned right-of-way and eventually how to direct correctly. Unfortunately for me, foil wasn't the first thing I learned, epee was and so it was difficult for me to get used to the idea of right-of-way once I started doing foil. I know Delfina tried to get me to take more foil lessons, but she knew I was way too interested in epee by my 2nd year to continue pushing the idea on me. I think a lot more women are starting to become very interested in sabre. Most of the women I talk to (at A&M, t.u., UofH, etc.) said if they were to fence they'd want to just learn Sabre because it looked cooler, although some said epee because it seemed more realistic to them. So maybe younger girls are starting feel the same way (??) I think it's just balancing out, no real cause for alarm.
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