Yasha wrote:

To be honest, I'm more a kendo girl myself... there's a club here, but I've never been able to join due to work shit. Maybe I'll look it up.

Please let me know if you do! I don't know anything about kendo aside from what is in Utena, so I'd be really curious to see what it involves. I should youtube some basic kendo videos to find out...

Fencing lesson 2 is tonight! Weee!

I started fencing because of Utena. I had always wanted to fence, but never the time, and after I watched it last year, I remember that I had come into a wealth of free time, and so I took it up. I've been fencing Epee for a year now, I love every second of it. Though I wish I could go to some competitions.
If you want fencing that hurts, try Epee , first time I fenced, I got a massive bruise on my inner thigh (that's right, they can aim for anywhere )

I used to do more fencing, in a few styles, and did a little proper competition in forms, I never really put much focus on it. It's fun, though, to mess around here and there.

Kendo matches interest me more, in general, than seeing European styles, not that I don't enjoy/appreciate that. The emphasis on form and control, that your strikes and defenses should be elegant and correctly achieved, but that also you should have total control of your speed and strength and be able to stop your strike at your discretion impresses me. Pulling a strike while still executing it formally well, is hard. Taking a hit because that's better form, or shows awareness, is hard.

In Spring, our school and a nearby school's women's swordfighting teams practice in the same park once a week, doing their drills while facing the other school's team. I shamelessly bring a thermos of tea and watch, because really, it's amazing to watch, and occasionally bring donuts for everyone.

Dreaded Claymore wrote:

I just found this thread. I fenced a little bit in college. I loved the people in the club, they were all amazing and fun.

I stopped because I was having embarrassing emotional problems with it. I was fine doing drills, but then when we'd spar, I'd cry when I got touched. I didn't know why (and still don't), I couldn't stop, and I was deeply ashamed and afraid of what everyone would think. So I stopped. This is the first time I've ever told anyone that.

Claymore, I did the same: fenced in college, loved both the activity and the participants.  I moved to épée after a few months on foil and even won the beginners' tournament that year, but ended up quitting after the fun club dynamic degenerated into constant drama.  My voice teacher is also a fencer and has offered to help me pick up fencing again, and though she finds the formality of foil far more enjoyable than I do, I'm seriously considering it.

I pasted your second paragraph because I have the same weeping reaction after singing - which I too, to my memory, have never told anyone else.  There are lessons during which something unlocks inside of me, and then I cry disconsolately on the entire ride home.  Maybe it's a feeling of being guarded and shielded, which becomes vulnerable when pierced - not literally, as with a blade, but rather through deep breathing and effort and self-expression in an unfamiliar way.  I wish you'd been on my university's team, because I'd never have looked down on you for your reaction...and épées can make compelling arguments in favour of others' compassion, too.