Zach, Suraj, and Shivani went to Chicago Fencing Club's D & Under this past weekend with the goal of having fun and learning what competitions are like.
It was a rough experience for them, and a bit of an awakening, but they all achieved that goal easily.
Shivani fenced in the Women's Saber and came very close a couple of times in pool, and then fenced a good DE (with a few...interesting...calls). Once she relaxed and decided on an action, her fencing was much stronger instead of reacting to her opponent.
Suraj was much the same with the added bonus of being nervous and making short quick actions instead of actually fencing and making strong attacks.
Zach, the youngest fencer in the event, won a pool bout and was then thrown up against the #2 seed (who also finished 3rd in the event). That was a good bout for me to see him fence.
They each got a good taste of what's to come and all told me they were looking forward to the Burton in 2 weeks (an event I will also be fencing in).
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