Most people have played a sport at least once in their life. Usually the sports consist of basketball, football, or maybe soccer, but these are typical sports and played by many. However, my story is a little different. I participate in a sport where swords are used to score points, immense strategy is key, and speed mixed with precision is what we train to achieve. I fence. Fencing is a sport that began thousands of years ago to train knights for battle, but over time became a sport. Fencing became one of the first Olympic sports that still remain in the Games today.

The sport today consists of three different swords, or what we call, weapons, although they are completely harmless. Foil, epee, and saber are the names of the different weapons and each have a different target area which makes the strategy of each weapon very different. Fencers train many hours a day, several days a week, to sharpen the endless skills needed to become a great fencer. We call fencing chess at 100 miles per hour due to its fast pace and strategy needed to defeat your opponent.

Although not many people know how fencing works and aren’t familiar with what the sport looks like in play, it is highly competitive and much more popular in the northern states and Europe. Fencing is a very important sport in my life and provides an easy outlet from school or stress. Because of fencing, I have been able to travel all over the United States and eventually the world.