Seacourt Fencing Club is breaking new ground putting on a course for absolute beginners in Ladies Sabre.
The idea started off as a way of attracting new members to the club, but rather than going down the traditional route and run a foil course, we decided instead to go straight to the most underrepresented weapon – ladies sabre.
Our advertising campaign targeted reasonably fit, adult ladies who were looking to take up a challenging, different, competitive sport. We were surprised to have no trouble finding 10 ladies who all have their own motivations for trying sabre, but who are all equally enthusiastic and whose only complaint is that the sessions aren’t long enough!
Fencing is notorious for its drop out rate and we were prepared to lose a few on the way, but the course is well under way and we still have all our ladies attending every week.
Although the ladies are of varying ages and degrees of fitness, they are already displaying skilful technique and are enjoying their introduction to the fastest and most furious of the fencing weapons.
They are keen to keep on fencing after the course finishes and we are now planning a second course to take them on into the world of free fencing. Ultimately we hope that a good number of our ladies stay on to become members of the club and we will encourage and support them if they want to go on to fence in competition.
This course wouldn’t have been possible without a grant from Sport England who support our aims and who have funded our coach and some of the kit required.
