Alliance International Fencing Camp Week 1

Well week one is in the books. The Alliance International Fencing Camp has been fantastic! There was over 40 fencers, men and women, this first week and I have been fencing non-stop. This whole week was inconstant motion, everyone was always on the go doing things. Whether it be fencing at camp or going to the movies, shopping mall, frozen yogurt, we were always moving both during practice and afterwards.

I met all new people too. The Russian and Israel National teams are here as well as some French fencers. It has been a little difficult communicating with them, but still fun as well.

Almost every day we began with warm ups and stretching. One day we even learned this funny train dance that worked our coordination skills. We had to kick right twice, kick left twice, hop forward, hop backwards, then forward forward forward. Then the next time we would do the three hops backwards instead of forwards and so on. It was a bit confusing and difficult to coordinate with over 40 people to say the least :P

Every day the camp was divided into two groups, one would do footwork while the other fenced in a giant pool and we would switch at lunch time. Oh and speaking of lunch-we didn't let a day go by without playing an epic game of Egyptian Rat Screw (if you don't know the card game finish reading then IMMEDIATELY google it! best game ever!).

By the end of the week everyone was sore and tired, but pressed on. We held a giant mixed tournament on Friday. It was tough. The tournament was mixed and took all day in the unforgiving heat. Pools were in the morning and we had a shortened lunch in order to have enough time to finish the direct elimination bouts. (I finished 17th).

All in all the week was great. I learned some new great footwork, part of which I included in the footwork page of the blog, and focused on my game's week points while competing with top-notch fencers. We had great bonding activities after practice with camp parties, movies, and shopping nights. I got to know some of the Russian fencers pretty well-Tanya and Nastia. They would teach me some Russian and I taught them some English-there definitely some stumbles on the parts of both parties hahaha. For instance I could not for the life of me pronounce the word for the number 4. It was impossible! I really truly can't wait for the fun to continue this upcoming week!