IU Fencing Club turns fierce opponents into good friends

There’s one reason that sophomore Eric Doyle wanted to join IU’s Fencing Club.

“I liked to hit sticks against trees,” Doyle said.

Doyle grew up in a small town without any sports. He tried out for the IUFC last year and felt like it was a good fit.

“It’s not quite like hitting sticks against trees, though. It takes a little more finesse,” Doyle said.

Junior Katie Council, president of the IUFC, also grew up in a small town.

“There were seven people in my graduating class,” Council said. “I’ve been interested in fencing since high school, but there weren’t any clubs nearby.”

Council said he discovered the club through its website, mypage.iu.edu/~fencing/.

“I enjoyed it a lot, became good friends with people and decided to stay,” she said.

Doyle said there are about 35 people involved in the club, and about 25 to 30 practice frequently.

Varsity teams tend to be smaller because athletes are competing for spots. However, the IUFC is chartered with the Recreational Club Sports program, and club sports can accept more participants.

Sophomore Nick Sobecki took an introductory class freshman year after watching sword fighting in movies.

“I wanted to know if what you were taught was the same thing as what you saw,”
Sobecki said.

IUFC is open to IU students older than 18 as well as alumni and professors.
Club members are broken up into six squads with three to six people in each.

The six squads represent the three types of weapons, with a male and female group
for each.

“A person’s personality defines the weapon they choose,” Doyle said. “If you’re aggressive, you pick the sabre. If you’re more technical, you use a foil and if you’re more analytical, you choose the epee. It’s very precise.”

Doyle wields the sabre, a slashing weapon with a large bell guard to protect the hand. The other two, foil and epee, are both pointing weapons.Sophomore Zoe Uhl, the club’s secretary, uses the foil.

“It has a medium speed. You really need athletic ability,” Uhl said. “You need to be tactical,you need to react to your opponent and you need to predict what your opponent is going to do. You’re so concentrated on what you are doing you can’t think about how tired you are.”

Sophomore Emily Stewart uses the epee. Stewart, who said she googled fencing clubs for various Universities during her college search, said she enjoys the lack of rules for epee duels.

They don’t use “right of way,” where attacks must be parried before one can counterattack. In epee, the fencer can also target the whole body.

“I like the simplicity. I like hitting people in their feet and faces. It’s objectively the best,” Stewart said about the epee.

But that’s a common statement.

“Every weapon group will say they’re the best,” Council said.

While the club members have different preferences in weapons, their love of fencing is mutual.

“Our club is really a family,” Uhl said. “We’re an odd group of people. We’re so diverse, but we get together because we all enjoy the sport.”