It’s not necessarily the French banter, or using sabres in hand-to-hand combat, but good old-fashioned competition that brought a 59-year-old Pepper Pike man back to the sport of fencing after a 20-year hiatus. Frank Nagorney, who started fencing when he was 13, found that even after all his time off, he couldn’t stay away forever. And he’s not alone. The sport’s popularity continues to grow by 10 percent every year, according to
. “I like the competition and the challenge of trying to outfox your opponent. They now have more age-group competitions … and it’s some of the same guys I fenced with when I was in my 20s,” Nagorney said with a chuckle after a practice match at the Caldera Fencing Club in Willoughby on Tuesday night. “We’re a little slower now. We think we’re faster, but we’re not,” he added, laughing. Nagorney is one of about 30 members of the club, which moved in September from Chardon to the 37237 Euclid Ave. spot because of space constraints at the Chardon location. “We needed a bigger space than what we had,” said Vincent Cianciola, owner of the club as well as one of the fencing coaches. Thirteen seemed to be the magic number for Cianciola as well, marking the age when he first became interested in fencing. “I’ve always wanted to do it since I was 13, but I started at 17,” he said, explaining he and his brother decided to go for it after they discovered in a newsletter one day that lessons were being given near them. “We just kinda got hooked and took it from there,” he said. “It doesn’t take a huge toll on the body like some sports such as football. One of the biggest advantages to it is it is a different sport … and there’s a lot to be said for the mental aspect of it.” Brian Jao, a Cleveland Heights resident and senior at Case Western Reserve University, described fencing as a physical form of chess. While he said it may have been considered geeky to other classmates in his high school, the strategic challenges were the magnet that drew him in. “To go along with the nerdy route,” Jao joked, “my mom said if I wanted to get rid of my glasses and get contacts, I had to take up a sport. I tried basketball and that didn’t work, so I took up fencing.” Jao used to compete a lot more before college, but time and money constraints make it a little harder as he continues studies in engineering. However, he plans to always fit it in somehow until age tells him otherwise. “I will (fence) until the day the doctor tells me I can’t anymore,” he added. The club meets Mondays, Tuesdays and Thursdays, Cianciola said, adding doors open at 6 p.m. and they usually go until 9 or 9:30. He said 11 to 12 people tend to practice at a time, depending on work or school schedules. “Sometimes 20 to 25 people at a time on the busier nights. We have beginners classes that take you from zero to basics, then they get individualized from there because everyone has their own quirks and ways of learning,” he said. All three types of weapons used in fencing — foil, sabre and epee — are practiced at the club. Cianciola explained foil is used for hits to the torso, sabres are for hits to the upper half of the body from the waist up, and epees target the entire body. While the weapons and language have stayed traditional, technology has changed the face of the sport in a lot of ways, Cianciola said. An electronic scoring machine, which was introduced to epee in the 1930s, foil in the 1950s and sabres in the 1980s, revolutionized the sport and reduced human error on the judging side of things, according the Jericho Fencing Club of British Columbia. “It changed the rules, what you can do has changed,” Cianciola said. “It’s much less human-based.” Cianciola added fencing has always been a sort of underdog sport in the U.S. However, he said it is starting to become the new “soccer” in the states as far as its continued growth. “It’s interesting, too, because there’s really no in between. People either really like it or they don’t like it,” Cianciola said, adding fencing goes across the board in age as well. Caldera has members ranging from 6 and 7 years old to members in their 60s, Cianciola said. Being one of the members in the older group doesn’t deter Nagorney from testing his abilities by competing for a spot on the Veterans World Championship Team. “I’ll (compete) as long as the knees hold out,” he said. “I’m in it for the long run now.” For more information about Caldera Fencing Club, call Cianciola at 440-213-9787 or visit www.calderafencing.com.
Caldera Fencing Club Owner Vincent Cianciola gives a list of the primary terms learned in fencing and their definitions: En Garde — Position taken before fencing commences. Remise — Attacking again immediately after the opponent’s parry of an initial attack. Disengage — Evasive action in which the fencer avoids the opponent’s attempt to take their blade. Riposte — Defender’s offensive action immediately after parrying their opponent’s attack. Parry — Defensive action in which a fencer blocks his opponent’s blade. Feint — A false attack intended to get a defensive reaction from the opposing fencer, thus creating the opportunity for a genuine attack. In epee, fencers also use the feint to goad their opponent into attacking them. Second Intention — A tactic in which a fencer executes a convincing, yet false, action in hopes of drawing a true, committed reaction from their opponent.
