On a wintry Tuesday night in January, fencing instructor Diana Unger leads a group of five in an upstairs room at the Broadway Armory. Basketball games are taking place in the gym below — also a sponsored Chicago Park District function — but Unger and her five participants are in a world of their own.
“I’ve always been attracted to individual sports,” said fencer Steven Sacco, 24, an administrative assistant for Hispanic Designe, a company that sells ceramic tiles worldwide. “More than fencing the opponent, you’re fencing against yourself. That becomes the focus of what you’re doing. You’re constantly trying to hone your skills.”
There are four fencing clubs in the Chicago area: the Chicago Fencing Club; the Illinois Fencers Club, which is based in Mt. Prospect; the Oak Brook Park District Fencing Club; and Fencing2000, in the Loop.
“There are usually more people here on Wednesday nights,” said Unger, who has been involved with the Chicago Fencing Club since its inception in 1979. This club uses three locations, four days a week. The three sites are the Discovery Center (2904 N. Lincoln Ave.), the New City YMCA (1515. N. Halsted St.) and the Broadway Armory (5917 N. Broadway). Unger leads beginner and intermediate classes for youths and adults, and time is allowed for open fencing.
“If someone was interested, I would suggest signing up for a basic beginners course,” Unger said. “Try it out and see if you like it. If you do, then you can move on to advanced classes and join the [Chicago Fencing] Club.”
A typical class, which lasts six to nine weeks, depending on which site and course you choose, starts with basic stretching before moving on to footwork exercises. Then the participants can practice fencing against each other.
“We offer you free equipment to use,” said Michael Blanchard, the instructor for the Oak Brook club. “If the person decides they are interested, they can buy a starter set, anywhere from $100 to $150.”
Equipment includes a jacket, mask, glove and one of the three fencing weapons: the foil (training weapon), epee (dueling weapon) and sabre (cavalry cutting weapon). Each has its own set of rules and scoring procedures.
“I suggest starting out with the foil,” said Blanchard. “My thought of teaching is if you learn the foil, it’s a much easier progression to go on to epee or sabre.”
Nancy Fagan, 45, and her 13-year-old son Nathan Weber are members of the Chicago Fencing Club. Fagan has been involved with fencing for 5 years.
“It’s physical and mental,” said Fagan, an independent book dealer. “If you’re a jogger, you can end up just running for two hours. Here [in fencing], you always have to be thinking.”
Sacco agreed. “It’s not so much about being in the top shape. It’s one of the sports where there’s so much intellectual activity. You really have to be aware of what your opponent is trying to do.”
The four fencing clubs usually host one tournament a year, inviting clubs from all over the Midwest.
“Since I work with so many beginners, I try and have at least two events per year where a beginner can jump in and get his or her feet wet,” said Unger, whose club hosted the St. Valentine’s Day Massacre tournament Feb. 13. “It’s low-key — more social and fun for everyone.”
The Chicago Fencing Club offers classes Sunday at the Discovery Center (773-348-8420) from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Beginners practice for an hour starting at 10 a.m., followed by an hour course for intermediates and two hours of open fencing.
On Tuesdays, Unger instructs children from 6 to 7 p.m. and adults from 7:45 to 9 p.m. at the New City YMCA (773-266-1242).
The Broadway Armory (312-742-7502) features Wednesday classes for children from 5 to6 p.m. and for teenagers from 6 to 7 p.m., and allows club open fencing from 7 to 9:30 p.m. On Thursdays, the Chicago Park District offers a beginner fencing class from 7 to 8 p.m., followed by club free fencing to 9:30 p.m.
The Chicago Fencing Club’s web page can be found at http://www.anet-chi.com/alp3/cfc/.
A rundown on the other clubs:
The Illinois Fencers Club has been around since the 1950s. The 20-member group, ranging in age from 9 to 70, meets twice a week at the Lions Park Recreation Center, 411 S. Maple St., Mt. Prospect.
“The beginners’ class has become much more popular than we thought,” said vice president Don Badowski, 37, a Web administrator in desktop publishing for ALP Lighting Co. “We originally expected 8 to 10 students. Every semester we sign up about 18.”
The course runs 6 weeks with an hour-and-a-half session once a week.
“If the beginner wants to stick with it, they can join the club,” Badowski said. “From there, they can move on to the footwork class. Ideally, they’ll want to get a coach.”
Mt. Prospect features three coaches: Mikhail Tsipis, Ina Harizanova and Christopher Karll.
Tsipis, a former Ukrainian and USSR champion, is available from 6 to 9 p.m. Mondays. On Tuesday nights, he is instructing an Introductory Fencing Class over a six-week period from 7:30 to 9 p.m.
Harizanova offers a free warm-up, stretching and footwork class to all members of the club from 6:45 to 7:30 p.m. Tuesdays and Thursdays. Harizanova — who also instructs for the Chicago Fencing Club on Wednesday nights at the Broadway Armory — is a former Bulgarian Champion in Women’s Epee and won the 1994 World Cup Modern Pentathlon, an event that includes epee, air pistol, equestrian, running and swimming.
Karll, a former assistant coach for the Michigan State University fencing team, leads an intermediate class from 7:30 to 8:30 p.m. Thursdays.
“Basically, the club was put together to give fencers a place to go,” Badowski said. “We’re not very strict on our regimen. The organization is pretty laid back. We run the class to promote fencing.”
For more information, call 847-640-1000 or visit http://www.anet.com/alp3/ifc/.
The Oak Brook Fencing Club is the newest of the Chicago area clubs. It was formed in the summer of 1998, and Michael Blanchard leads classes two nights a week at the Oak Brook Park District, 1450 Forest Gate Rd. Advanced students train on Mondays, beginners practice on Tuesdays. “I’ve been fencing since I was a child,” said Blanchard, also a member of the Illinois Fencers Club. “By no means am I a master, but I have enough of a teaching background that I feel I’m qualified to start a beginner.”
On Tuesdays, Blanchard leads ages 8 to 16 in fencing lessons from 6 to 7 p.m. and adults from 7 to 8:30 p.m. For more information, call 630-990-4233 or visit http://www.anet.com/alp3/obpdfc/.
Fencing2000, 328 S. Jefferson St., has been in existence seven years under owner Diane Dominguez and has approximately 125 members. This club, which just added a Naperville site in January, is geared more towards athletes who want to fence competitively.
“We have competitive teams that travel all over the United States and Europe,” Dominguez said. “We develop kids as early as age 7.”
The Loop building offers five one-hour classes: sabre at 6 p.m. Tuesdays; foil at 6:30 p.m. Wednesdays and 11:45 a.m. Saturdays; and epee at 6 p.m. Thursdays and 10:30 a.m. Sundays.
The Naperville facility, 406 W. 5th Ave, offers foil classes only, but epee and sabre will be added in the next few weeks. Current one-hour courses are held at 6 p.m. Mondays and Wednesdays, 7 p.m. Tuesdays and Thursdays and 10:30 a.m. Saturdays.
Both sites provide a two-hour, Friday children’s class at 7 p.m. Team programs and open fencingare offered from 6 to 10 p.m. Mondays through Thursdays and from 7 to 9 p.m. Fridays. Weekend availability can be made by appointment.
Fencing2000 features a staff of international coaches: Bakhyt Abdikulov, Boris Lukomski, Mioara David, Gennady Zelinin, Tim Glass and Sergei Shestsov.
Abdikulov is a two-time European World Cup gold medalist who also coached the Mexican Junior National Team in 1994-95. Lukomski is a past Olympic bronze medal winner, and David is a former second-place finisher in the Women’s World Championships.
Zelinin once coached the Kyrgystan national team (of the former USSR). Glass is the only American-born instructor at Fencing2000. He owns two National Championship. Shestsov rounds out the coaching group as an expert in Modern Pentathlon.
For more information, call 312-879-0430 (Loop) or 630-717-6787 (Naperville).
The club’s web page can be found at http://hometown.aol.com/fencing2K/index.htm.
