En-garde: Taking up fencing in later life

Pat Lynch took up fencing in his 60s after his daughter commented that he was vegetating in front of the television, says Margaret Jennings

‘I HAD given up trying to get my head around playing golf — I’m obviously a slow learner, it took me about 35 years. I was never going to hit a ball straight. And my daughter Sheena basically looked at me one day watching television and she said: ‘You can’t be doing this, you have to be doing something — you’re vegetating’.

That was the beginning of Cavan-based Pat Lynch’s love of fencing which he took up on his 61st birthday after Sheena trotted him off to the DCU gym, where she herself had fenced as a student.

The retired accountant and father of four wasn’t exactly a total newbie he admits: “If truth be known I had actually fenced for the first season in UCD in 1967, for something different to do, but hadn’t kept it up.”

Six years on from that birthday outing he is now a far fitter man and says there is no bar age-wise to someone picking up an épée. “I’ve had more craic over those years. I have travelled quite a bit — fencing in veteran competitions. There’s a good social element as well. Also, I go to a trainer in the gym generally two mornings a week and do some exercises there... lunges, leg curves and extensions, upper body strengths and core muscle strengths, as well as going to the local club one night [a week].

“And it’s good for the ageing brain too. A lot of it is mental and it does help to keep you alert; sometimes it’s like chess, you have to be two or three moves ahead of your opponent. It does help to keep body and soul together.”

Pat also fences every Sunday with some 70-something men but he’d like to see more people countrywide adding to the veteran numbers so that there could be competitions held here, as well as abroad. “I’m fencing against fellows here who I’m old enough to be their grandfather — it’s bit of a struggle to keep up with a 20-year–old.”

However, Irish veteran team member Shane Whelan, who started fencing in his 30s and is now 53, says older players — even those who are novices, can be canny, despite not being as agile as the younger fencers.

The sport’s roots are in duelling and when the fear is there you can get very tense and older people manage that tension better, he argues.

“As your physical powers ebb away your mental doesn’t. That’s the skill in the game, you get it with experience,” he says the veteran player.

But for anyone who has notions from watching Game Of Thrones, there is no blood drawn; they use a different sword, a sabre, and anyway it’s all electronic nowadays.

The gear – which Shane says costs approximately €200 — includes a mask, jacket, breeches, sword, bodywire and glove.

The bodywire, is a cord which serves as the connection between a fencer and a reel of wire that is part of a system for electrically detecting that the weapon has touched the opponent — like a doorbell at the end of it, says the Dublin-based father of two.

The winning points are made through the contact with an opponent. All hits must be with the tip and hits with the side of the blade do not register on the electronic scoring apparatus and do not halt the action.

“It focuses the mind. That’s what makes time pass but you can easily see when someone’s mind wanders and that’s the time you hit them,” says Shane.

But there is also mutual respect. “Because fencing has its roots in violence, then chivalry is very important. You salute before and after each bout and shake hands at the end.”

Other benefits if you are considering taking up the sport are the social intergenerational aspect and the fact you can still be competitive. You work at your own pace and monitor for yourself what is improvement or success for you and reward yourself with that, says Shane.

He says the mechanics of the movement are straightforward— more like the smooth movements of tai chi. Fencing is a martial art and mindfulness was one of the Ways of the Sword (a complete philosophy which centres on an intense focus on learning how to use the sword in the most effective way).

All of this, is not just confined to men of course: “Behind the mask we are all equal. The gender balance is 2:1 male/female here in Ireland.”

Shane says he will continue fencing as he moves into his later decades because “it’s hugely enjoyable.” As for Pat, picking up an épée has probably saved him from becoming that potential couch potato.

To find out more and access clubs around the country https://irishfencing.net/