Fencing for Kids: Developing Resilience, Strategy and Skills
Fencing is a challenging and high-pressure sport, and as such, it will teach children valuable skills for handling stress. Fencers need to remain calm and focused under pressure, as their ability to anticipate and react correctly to their opponent’s moves can be the difference between winning and losing. By learning to handle the stress and pressure of competition, children can develop resilience and coping mechanisms that can help them deal with stress in other areas of their lives.
Fencing will also teach children how to strategize and make tactical changes. Fencing is a sport that requires athletes to think on their feet and adapt their strategy based on their opponent’s moves. Fencers need to be able to read their opponent’s actions and adjust their own tactics accordingly to gain an advantage. Through fencing, children can learn important skills such as critical thinking, problem-solving, and decision-making. They can also learn how to analyze their opponent’s weaknesses and strengths and use that knowledge to develop effective strategies.
And that’s not all…
46 UNIVERSITIES SPONSOR NCAA FENCING TEAMS
Fencing is among the best sports for families who want to get their kids ahead of the game in the college admissions and the scholarship process. Fencing at the high school level provides an advantage in acceptance to the best colleges, nearly all of which have fencing programs with NCAA Division 1, 2, and 3 teams. College administrators know that in addition to physical attributes – speed and hand-eye coordination – most successful fencers are intelligent, creative, disciplined, and have excellent problem solving abilities.
NCAA Division 1 Fencing Teams
- Boston College
- Brown University
- Cleveland State University
- Columbia University
- Cornell University
- Duke University
- Fairleigh Dickinson University
- Harvard University
- Lafayette University
- New Jersey Institute of Technology
- Northwestern University
- Ohio State University
- Pennsylvania State University
- Princeton University
- Sacred Heart University
- St Johns University
- Stanford University
- Temple University
- United States Air Force Academy
- University of Detroit Mercy
- University of North Carolina
- University of Notre Dame
- University of Pennsylvania
- University of Incarnate Word
- Wagner College
- Yale University
NCAA Division 2 Fencing Teams
- Long Island University
- McKendree University
- Queens College NY
- University of California
- Wayne State University
NCAA Division 3 Fencing Teams
- Brandeis University
- California Institute of Technology
- Drew University
- Haverford College
- Hunter College
- Johns Hopkins University
- Lawrence University
- MIT
- New York University
- Stevens Institute of Technology
- Tufts University
- Vassar College
- Wellesley College
- Yeshiva University
- Delaware Valley University
THE ODDS OF SUCCESS
The numbers from www.scholarshipstats.com are here to back it up: Compared to the average of all sports, fencing has a fantastic advantage. The overall percentage of high school students who go from competing in a sport in high school to playing in college is just 7.6% for boys and 7.9% for girls. Fencers come in at a whopping 29.6% for boys and 38.2% for girls!
In the two tables below (one for boys and one for girls) you will find stats including the percentage of kids that were accepted into the best colleges and universities who went on to compete in their high school sport at the collegiate level.
