Developing active engagement in fencing through fun fencing events for younger fencers.
Edinburgh Sabre Club is a relatively new club started in October 2021, a year later George Watson’s College restarted their fencing club with P6 and P7 year groups being the first new cohorts into the club. Still coming out of lockdown there were very few competitions or events for the new fencers to engage in to get a feel for fencing. With around 70 fencers between the two groups most of whom were in primary school and under 13 there were no Edinburgh based competitions or events from June to January on the calendar in Scotland.
We were not the only ones who had noticed this gap and so inspired by a Sabre Development Competition event hosted by Salle Ossian in November 2021 that used a very familiar format of 1st round of poules fencing to 5 then 2nd round of poules fencing to 10 (this was a system we used in club training in the 1990’s) Sabre Saturdays was born.
The idea was to give young sabre fencers in the Edinburgh area some events that would:
a) combine the two groups Edinburgh Sabre Club and Watson’s in a friendly event format
b) allow a stepping stone to competitive fencing
One of the first challenges was kit as none of the fencers had their own sabres, lames, or body wires etc most only had a mask and a glove if anything. The event needed to provide kit for all entrants.
The next issue was finding referees. New fencers could not be expected to referee themselves so two former international teammates of Ben Hanley’s were enlisted - former British Champion Chris Jamieson and former Scotland team member and Commonwealth Silver medallist Robert Anderson - to support the early events.
The first event was held in November 2022 with further events in December 2022, January 2023, May 2023 and then October 2023, November 2023, December 2023, January 2024.
The events are mixed events where boys and girls compete together as the physical differences are not too significant at that age and stage. They have typically been run as U13 age group and have hosted between 18 and 24 fencers on each occasion. We have learned that for these young fencers that poules of 6 works best. Whilst 10 fights may not sound very much, the average number of hits fenced by each competitor ends up being 125 for the event which is equivalent to making the last 4 of a competition with 64 fencers in or the last 2 of a competition with 32 fencers in. More than enough for new fencers in such a young age group. It also allows us to keep the timings under control, running the whole event in under 3.5 hours which helps for parents drop off and pick up. The three child welfare protection officers at Edinburgh Sabre club rotate their attendance and now some of our older fencers help out with refereeing.
The events are popular and have attracted fencers from other clubs in central Scotland and even as far away as Darlington’s Street Swords club. These events are a great way to prepare for competition or for those less sold on becoming a competitor it offers an opportunity to enjoy fencing a wider range of people and to discover their fencing more.
Our next Sabre Saturday event is an U12 and 14 and under (12,13 and 14) event on Saturday 11th May 2024.
To sign up and come along - BOOK HERE
