Imperial College Fencing Club

I discovered fencing in my first year at Imperial.  A friend suggested I tried it out for some fun and a bit of exercise.  In my first session I found some friends, learned some moves and stabbed some people!  So I kept going, and it didn’t take long for it to become my main source of exercise and an outlet for some of the weakly stress that builds up.  I went to competitions with other people of about my skill level, and enjoyed it so much that I decided to get good enough to get on one of the teams, or go to some of the bigger competitions that some of the higher level fencers went to, some of them in locations such as Paris and Malta.

I also enjoyed the social side of the club as I began to spend more time with the members of the club.  What started as chatting in training and a pint afterwards became going out together to bars, joining them in summer training, or just dropping by if I didn’t have anything to do that afternoon.  The fencing club at Imperial is one of the most welcoming and friendly clubs around, and I now regularly spend most of my free time with other members of the club.

That’s not to say that we only cater for beginners in any way.  We have some of the most highly regarded coaches in London teaching every level of fencer, from “never held a sword before” all the way up to international standards.  Many of our fencers compete in National Opens and do rather well in some of them. We also have club members competing at both junior and senior World Cup events.  Then there are our teams, which compete at every level of university fencing, with many of our teams having a good track record.  In fact, both our Men’s and Women’s 1^st teams compete in the BUCS Southern Premiership which last year the Women won with the Men coming second. Both teams then went on to take silver medals in the overall championship, the highest ranked university competition.

The Imperial College Fencing Club is a great place for lots of things.  It’s a great place to get some exercise, for meeting new people and having some fun, for learning a mentally and physically stimulating sport, and for getting competitive at fencing.

Hopefully I’ve convinced you that this is the club for you.  If you aren’t sure, come down and give it a try anyway, you’ve got nothing to lose.  See you on the piste!

Jack Patten

President

Imperial College Fencing Club