{"id":2327,"date":"2014-02-28T08:58:04","date_gmt":"2014-02-28T08:58:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/cardiffian.jomec.co.uk\/?p=2327"},"modified":"2014-02-28T08:58:04","modified_gmt":"2014-02-28T08:58:04","slug":"wales-fencing-coach-looks-to-revive-sports-with-young-talents","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cardiffjournalism.co.uk\/thecardiffian\/2014\/02\/28\/wales-fencing-coach-looks-to-revive-sports-with-young-talents\/","title":{"rendered":"Wales fencing coach looks to revive sport with young talent"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><figure id=\"attachment_2335\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-2335\" style=\"width: 1024px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><a href=\"http:\/\/cardiffian.jomec.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/02\/Fence.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-large wp-image-2335\" alt=\"Fencing\" src=\"http:\/\/cardiffian.jomec.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/02\/Fence-1024x768.jpg\" width=\"1024\" height=\"768\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-2335\" class=\"wp-caption-text\"><noscript><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-large wp-image-2335\" alt=\"Fencing\" src=\"http:\/\/cardiffian.jomec.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/02\/Fence-1024x768.jpg\" width=\"1024\" height=\"768\" \/><\/noscript><\/a> Fencers at Cardiff Fencing Club<\/figcaption><\/figure><br \/>\n<strong>As fencing in Wales is struggling to attract new talent, a national coach from Cardiff Fencing club reflects on this classic sport.<\/strong><br \/>\nThe Welsh Youth Epee fencing competition to be held this Sunday in Cardiff was postponed due to a lack of entries.<br \/>\nIt\u2019s a reflection of a sport that, despite its deep roots across England and Wales, faces a challenge when it comes to getting more young people involved.<br \/>\nBut Peter Stewart, a national coach at Cardiff Fencing Club and a former professional fencer, takes a more pragmatic view of the state of fencing in the UK \u2013 and his quiet optimism might just have something to it.<br \/>\n<iframe class=\"zeen-lazy-load-base zeen-lazy-load\" title=\"Fencing\" width=\"1200\" height=\"675\" src=\"about:blank\" data-lazy-src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/cXk7bTu0AmY?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><noscript><iframe title=\"Fencing\" width=\"1200\" height=\"675\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/cXk7bTu0AmY?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/noscript><br \/>\nOriginally from Lancashire, his fencing career has spanned decades.<br \/>\n\u201cI\u2019ve been fencing since I was a schoolboy &#8211; don\u2019t ask me how long ago that was.<br \/>\n\u201cIt was an after-school fencing class at a traditional boys grammar school in Blackburn.<br \/>\n\u201cThe only other sports on offer then were football and rugby. There wasn\u2019t the proliferation of sports you have now.<br \/>\n\u201cSo I went and had a go and I\u2019ve been doing it ever since.\u201d<br \/>\nIf Peter has been in the game for a while, his long career is just a drop in a vast ocean when it comes to the history of fencing.<br \/>\nThe sport originated in Spain during the fifteenth century, though it was changed and adapted by practitioners in Italy and France in later years.<br \/>\nIts complexity ensures it maintains a direct connection with this history. Unlike many sports, fencing must be carefully taught by a trained instructor before it can be practised.<br \/>\nAs Peter explains: \u201cYou will not go to a fencing club anywhere without someone showing you how to do it to a given way.<br \/>\n\u201cSo this tradition of teaching goes right the way through. \u201c<br \/>\nBut while its history might be distinguished, the future could present more of a problem.<br \/>\nFencing has always been a minority sport in Britain and the number of practitioners remains relatively small, with only around 800 registered fencers in Wales today.<br \/>\nBut Peter argues numbers are less important than making sure those who start the sport keep it up.<br \/>\n\u201cWhat you have to remember is sport is an ultra-competitive market now.\u00a0British fencing, the governing body for the sport, wants numbers to go up.<br \/>\n\u201cMy philosophy happens to be different. I think you build the bottom of the pyramid and then you get a higher pyramid.<br \/>\n\u201cI\u2019m not in favour of big numbers. I think retention is more important than getting a lot of people coming through.\u201d<br \/>\nAnd if the beginners at Cardiff Fencing Club are anything to go by, this strategy seems to be working.<br \/>\nJack Tucker, 23, started fencing three weeks ago and is currently on the six-week beginners course.<br \/>\n\u201cIt\u2019s got its difficulties and it\u2019s challenging. I\u2019m going to finish the course and see from there, but I think I will carry on,\u201d he said.<br \/>\nElsewhere, Christoph Gibbon began fencing after trying a beginner\u2019s course a year and a half ago and now regularly takes part in competitions. Fencing, the sixteen-year-old says, offers something other sports don\u2019t.<br \/>\n\u201cI like the precision and power. There\u2019s nobody else to blame. I used to do team sports but now I can\u2019t blame anyone else.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>As fencing in Wales is struggling to attract new talent, a national coach from Cardiff Fencing club reflects on this classic sport. The Welsh Youth Epee fencing competition to be held this Sunday in Cardiff was postponed due to a lack of entries. It\u2019s a reflection of a sport that, despite its deep roots across England and Wales, faces a challenge when it comes to getting more young people involved. But Peter Stewart, a national coach at Cardiff Fencing Club [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":248,"featured_media":2335,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[1291,1968,1969,544],"coauthors":[],"class_list":["post-2327","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sport","tag-cardiff-2","tag-cardiff-fencing-club","tag-fencing","tag-sports"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v25.2 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Wales fencing coach looks to revive sport with young talent - The Cardiffian<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/cardiffjournalism.co.uk\/thecardiffian\/2014\/02\/28\/wales-fencing-coach-looks-to-revive-sports-with-young-talents\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_GB\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Wales fencing coach looks to revive sport with young talent - The Cardiffian\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"As fencing in Wales is struggling to attract new talent, a national coach from Cardiff Fencing club reflects on this classic sport. The Welsh Youth Epee fencing competition to be held this Sunday in Cardiff was postponed due to a lack of entries. It\u2019s a reflection of a sport that, despite its deep roots across England and Wales, faces a challenge when it comes to getting more young people involved. 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