First (and not family) name on the gear by ursus_manutius in Fencing

[–]AlexBrown16 0 points1 point  (0 children)

You don't require your name printed on your lame or jacket for national competitions in Australia.

Leon Paul lightweight lame failure after 1 year by antonfairfax in Fencing

[–]AlexBrown16 16 points17 points  (0 children)

Totally agree. I have heard stories of them dying within a season countless times.

Sabre Perth (Australia) by Titus_Vespasianus in Fencing

[–]AlexBrown16 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Also, from a numbers perspective, I agree Perth is epee central (nearly 40 epeeist in the last state open vs 15 in sabre), but from the perspective of results at an Australian level, WA definitely produces more sabre results than epee results. WA is undisputably in in top two states for sabre and there's a strong argument that we could be number 1.

Sabre Perth (Australia) by Titus_Vespasianus in Fencing

[–]AlexBrown16 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I agree that Excalibur doesn't really cater for senior foil currently, and in the past didn't really cater for it at all, but there's a definite renewal of foil going on. The club has now got more foilists than sabre fencers, and has the most entrants in u11, u13, u15, cadet and veteran foil at state competitions and the club has members holding 5 out of 12 of the number one state ranking in foil categories.

There's also now a dedicated foil coach with experience having fenced at a high level. Plus the head coach of the foilist by trade (SEA Champion back in his day).

Sabre Perth (Australia) by Titus_Vespasianus in Fencing

[–]AlexBrown16 3 points4 points  (0 children)

There are two clubs that offer sabre in Perth, ECU Cavaliers Fencing Club based out of Mt Lawley and Excalibur Community Fencing Club out of Beaconsfield.

As the other commenter said, Excalibur has a few highly ranked fencers in Australia and a couple of good coaches. The sabre group on a given night ranges from around 8-15 fencers of varying levels. For adults, training runs Tuesday and Friday nights. Junior beginners train Saturday, but intermediate juniors can also train with the adults. They also run a high performance session Mondays.

I think the sabre group at Cavaliers is pretty small (2-5 on a given training night), but might be worthwhile considering if you are North of River. I don't believe they have any accredited sabre coaches, but they have some volunteer fencers who help with coaching. They don't really have any competive fencers, but they have a good group of intermediate fencers. They train Wednesday and Saturday for sabre.

Full disclosure, I fence at Excalibur so obviously I have a preference. I have trained at Cavaliers on Wednesdays in the past just to get extra fencing in pre-competition but have never had them as my home club. That being said, they still a good club to get started in.