Olympic sport of fencing in Des Moines, Iowa
Learn to FenceRed Door Fencing, located in Des Moines’ historic East Village, is an epee club that promotes competitive and recreational fencing by providing quality instruction, a safe and supportive training environment, and fostering personal growth and community engagement. We are an affiliate member of USA Fencing, the national governing body for the sport in the U.S.
Three RDF athletes traveled to Salt Lake City for Summer National Championships. On Thursday, Julia and Sarah fenced Division 2 Women’s Epee. After a bit of a rough start in pools, Julia fenced very well in direct eliminations and finished 31st – her best national finish so far – and Sarah went out in her first DE (15-point bout) and was 88th. Julia fenced again the next day in Div 3, ending 68th. On Saturday, Lily competed in her first national event (and 3rd tournament ever): Y14 Women’s Epee. She worked hard and got touches on everyone in her pool and came in 148th. In Y12 on Monday, Lily won two pool (5-point) bouts, but lost her first DE, placing 70th.
Full results available here: http://www.usfencing.org/2017champ-julychal
RDF sent four fencers to Minneapolis for the Almost Sauna Summer Open (it was very hot and humid!) for one last tournament before Summer Nationals. Sarah and Julia finished 7th and 8th in the Open epee event. Lily and Kaden finished 5th and 6th in Y12. Full results available here: https://askfred.net/Results/results.php?tournament_id=34030#134197
RDF fencer Jim took home the Titanium Man trophy after a long day of fencing at the Iowa City Fencing Center last Sunday. Julia came in 6th, Austin (who usually fences at U of I but is in Des Moines this summer) ended 7th, and Charlie finished 10th. The Titanium Man tournament uses a slightly different format than most tournaments we go to; it’s round-robin 15-point bouts. Seventeen people makes it an endurance test, but it’s also great practice for direct elimination bouts. Congratulations to all the survivors!
Registration is open for our next Beginner Youth Fencing class and Beginner Teen/Adult Fencing class. The kids’ class meets Tuesday evenings 5:30-6:30, June 6-July 18 and the older folks meet Wednesday evenings 6:30-7:30. (Remember, no class the week of Independence Day!) Have fun, make friends, learn a new sport!
Cost is $60. All equipment is provided. Students should wear comfortable athletic clothes, specifically pants that allow full range of motion (no shorts!) and close-toed shoes.
Beginner Youth Fencing:
Beginner Teen/Adult Fencing:
Registration for the Teen/Adult class is full/closed as of 5/28/17. We will have more beginner classes in September! Thank you for your interest!
We had two fencers compete at the Minnesota Open last weekend. Jim took home the 5th place medal and Sarah finished 13th in Mixed Epee.
Last weekend, Julia and Charlie fenced the Hawkeye Open in Iowa City. Julia ended in 6th place, and Charlie was 8th. Full results: https://askfred.net/Results/results.php?tournament_id=35865.
RDF hosted our annual spring tournament on Sunday, with 52 fencers competing. Sixteen fencers from RDF competed, many of them in their first real tournament!
In Y12 Mixed Epee, Lily finished 2nd, Simon and Weston tied for 3rd, Kaden was 5th, Jack ended 6th, and Graham (our Y10 fencer) ended up 7th. It was the first real tournament for all of them (well, real epee tournament – there was that one time Kaden fenced foil in Iowa City). In Y14, Daniel was 3rd, Alex finished 5th, Nick was 6th, Weston was 7th, Lily ended 8th, Simon was 9th, Maggie was 10th, and Kaden was 11th.
In Open Mixed Epee, Jim finished 7th (in his 2nd tournament of the weekend), Sarah finished 18th, Charlie ended 23rd, and Julia was 27th. In the D & Under Epee event, Carl was 5th, Charlie came in 6th, Julia was 12th, Henry was 22nd, Nick ended 23rd, and Daniel finished 26th.
We owe all of our parents, referees, and volunteers a big THANK YOU for helping us put on this event! We enjoyed getting to fence lots of great people from around the region, so thank you to everyone who came out to make this event a success – we will have to get a bigger gym next year!
Full results are posted here: https://askfred.net/Results/results.php?tournament_id=35861.
RDF’s Jim fenced his first tournament of the weekend on Saturday in Lincoln, NE. He placed 3rd at the Shamrock Old Farts’ Veterans tournament (for ages 40+). Full results here:
Registration is open for our next Beginner Youth Fencing class, which will meet Tuesday evenings 5:30-6:30, April 4-May 9. Have fun, make friends, learn a new sport!
Our 6-week kids’ beginner class is designed so that children ages 8-12 can build up some basic skills before practicing with the more experienced kids. Beginner kids learn safety, terminology, rules, and basic actions through games, drills, and practice matches (“bouting” in fencerspeak). We follow a similar structure to the regular Youth Epee practice: we start with footwork, focusing on balance and coordination, then we put on our gear and work on basic actions, with a focus on mechanics and technique, and we usually finish with practice matches where we try to apply the skills we just worked on.
Cost is $60. All equipment is provided. Students should wear comfortable athletic clothes, specifically pants that allow full range of motion (no shorts!) and close-toed shoes.
Two of our fencers traveled to Ames last weekend for the Frosty Open tournament hosted by the Iowa State University Fencing Club. Unfortunately, they both ended up in the same direct elimination bracket after the first round, so after winning his first 15-point match, Carl had to fence Sarah. We forgot to check the final results before we left and they aren’t posted online yet, but Sarah ended up tied for 3rd and we think Carl is 8th… We’ll update when the final results are posted.
