Can You Learn Fencing Starting Late

right age to start fencing It's not uncommon for parents to think that their child has "anile out" of competitive fencing. Many parents think that if they're child hasn't started fencing when they're very young, that they've somehow missed the boat for being major competitors in the loonshit of fencing. Many parents think that a child who is 14 or fifteen, or fifty-fifty 10 or eleven has already gotten to be also quondam to take a take chances at international competition. And so, what is the right historic period to start fencing?

Before we go on, we want to exist clear – your kid is not also erstwhile to outset competitive fencing.

Misconceptions nearly the right historic period to kickoff fencing

The reason for the mutual misconception that children are too former to have a shot at competitive fencing probably stems from other sports that exercise accept younger competitive age ranges. For example in competitive gymnastics most children who are serious must start before kindergarten in society to have a shot at the top echelon of the sport.

A few years agone there was a fascinating study that came out of the Plant of Biomedical Inquiry and Sports Epidemiology in France that found the peak ages for athletes in swimming, rails and field, and chess. Swimmers came out with the youngest tiptop – effectually 21. Chess players were on the other end, peaking at 31.4. The 100 meters had a mean peak age of 26.6 for women and 25.4 for men, while marathon runners peaked at age 27. Female gymnasts elevation at while they're still teenagers, with well-nigh retiring by their belatedly teens or early 20's. All of that leads to this idea that elite athletes must always exist immature, and therefore they must start young in order to have a shot at the big leagues.

Unfortunately, this kind of enquiry hasn't been washed for fencing. But we do know is who is winning medals and we do know that fencing is more like chess than it is like gymnastics. At that place'southward a level of maturity that this sport requires that is beyond that of many others. The mental acumen needed for fencing ways that the average elite fencer is much older than the athletes in some other sports.

The Guardian UK did a fascinating piece about the 2012 Olympics, analyzing each sport past age, meridian, and weight. The median historic period for fencers, both men and women, was 26 in those games. The youngest was 14 year old women's individual sabre competitor Lea Melissa Moutoussamy of Algeria, while the oldest was French women'due south individual epee competitor Laura Flessel-Colovic at age 40, with men'southward sabre fighter from Italy Luigi Tarantino close by at age 39. In fact, nearly half of the competitive fencers at the 2012 Olympics were over 30! That'southward a much different picture than many other sports. Compare it to women's gymnastics, which has a media age of 19.

Acme fencers and the ages that they started

World renowned fencers commonly don't commencement fencing until they're in middle school or beyond.

Let's check out some of the biggest fencers in the globe and the ages at which they first picked up the sword. Here are a dozen big proper name fencers who didn't starting time until they were ten years old, many of them much afterwards! And these are just a few.

Sergei Golubitsky, Olympic silver medalist in foil in 1992 from the Ukraine (one of the biggest names in the sport), started at age 11
Ibtihaj Muhammad, U.S. Olympic sabre fencer, started at age 13
Bretta Heidemann from Germany, Individual Epee Olympic Gold Medal in 2008 and iii time Olympic fencer, started at age 14
Tim Morehouse, United States Olympic sabre fencer with a silver medal in the 2008 Olympics, started at age 14
Mariel Zagunis, the first American fencer to win gold at the Olympics (in sabre) – she won gold in 2004 and 2008, began fencing at age 10.
Miles Chamley-Watson, U.Due south. Olympic bronze medalist in team foil in 2016, started fencing at historic period 10.
Peter Westbrook, statuary medalist for the U.s. in the 1984 Olympics, started fencing at historic period xv.
Erinn Smart, American silver medalist in women's team foil in the 2008 Olympics, started fencing at age 11.
Keeth Smart, American silver medalist in men's private squad sabre in the 2008 Olympics, started fencing at age xiii.
James Williams, British sabre fencer, brand information technology to the finals in iii Olympics, he started fencing when he entered the British Army around age 18.
Susie Scanlan, American epee fencer who won bronze in the team event in the London Olympics, started fencing when she was 10.
Maya Lawrence, American epee fencer who won bronze in the squad result in the London Olympics, started fencing when she was 15.

Equally y'all tin can see from this list, getting to the peak of the game in fencing doesn't accept to involve picking upwardly a sword at a very young age. In fact, it's common for fencers not to commencement until they're older!

Understanding the bulldoze to commencement early

The problem of starting kids so early has a peachy deal to do with parents. They want to see immediate progress in their children – an unrealistic expectation. They oftentimes compare their kid'southward skills to those of other kids their same age that are nationally ranked, and unfortunately this doesn't requite a articulate picture show to parents.

Information technology takes time to progress. Kids have time, fifty-fifty when they showtime off older. Unfortunately they often lack the patience to dig in for two years to run across that jump in skill. They primal is not to compare your child to others, but to meet them against themselves equally they have gone through the procedure. It'due south your ain chart, your own graph that matters!

The truth is that for fencers, the graph of progress comes out in the wash in the cease. Kids who showtime subsequently might have to larn a lot, but their minds are sharper and that gives them an reward. Kids who start off super immature might be able to do some of the movements more than intrinsically, only they don't have the mental acuity until their older.

At the end of the twenty-four hours, whether your child starts at age 8 or age xv, what determines their ability to progress to a high level in this sport has a lot less to do with the age that they started at and a lot more to do with how well they focus and train once they are in the club.

Whatever the historic period of your kid – they aren't likewise old to start fencing!