Desert Fencing Academy

Hi to Everyone,

Today is Sunday and we are starting up our last week of training.

Last week was awesome with wheelchair fencing. Our coach/instructor was three-time paralympian Mario Rodgriquez. The fire engine red wheelchairs we used were donated to us by the Republic of China. The wheelchair frames were U.S. made and we assembled those frames before Dan DeChaine and his armorers got to them!

If you think "able-bodied" fencing is fast, you should be in the wheelchair for wheelchair fencing. Speed increases 500%! It was really fun and we learned how
to come en garde, advance, lunge, half-retreat and full retreat in the wheelchair with our torso. Foil is fun, but I have to say that sabre and epee were very exciting to fence and so fast. The referees really have to be on their game to see the action and call it.

Our training day was twelve hours. We'd begin at 9:00 a.m. and finish at 9:00 p.m. We put in eight hours at the gym, the other times covered breakfast, lunch and dinner breaks and time for seminars. After 9 p.m., we were all studying the wheelchair rule book and working on our practicum. There were eight of us in the class; four men and four women, all of us with many years of fencing, so we adapted quickly and easily to the cueing and teaching.

Today, I begin level 3 epee with national epee coach Gary Copeland, who lives and has his club in Boulder, Colorado.

Wishing you, and all the DFA fencers attending fencing camps this summer, happy times and lots of learning fun!

- Leslie
The Fencing Coach
Desert Fencing Academy