Dion Shively People Quotations

How you like to style your fencing is really up to your temperament. Some people are aggressive and tend to move around a lot; some people are very passive and let their opponents make the first move. No two people fence entirely alike. It's one of the things that makes it so interesting.

We have all the fencing equipment here, so it costs nothing for people to stop in and try it out. They don't have to purchase anything, and we don't do long-term contracts, either. So it's easy for people to try it for a few weeks or months.

We attract a different crowd than mainstream sports. We tend to get the people who never exercised, or thought of themselves as athletes, or ever considered taking up any sport. It appeals to the romantic as well as the intellectual side in a lot of us. We get a decent cross mixture of people, a lot of dreamers, gamers and other types.

We don't require that people compete here. I'm here for the people who want to get really, really good at this and compete in it, but we're also here for the people who just want to come in and get some exercise, blow off some steam, or just come in and have a really good time.

I've actually seen kids who have bad attitudes or temper problems come into fencing and I've seen them leave with much more self-control and self-respect. I've seen them go from really lousy kids to pretty nice people, people I could respect. I think fencing can have an uplifting effect on the soul. It's very much a Western martial art.

The best thing about this sport is that you can do it all your life. I know people who started fencing when they were 70 years old. This is a sport where using your head really counts. 'Physical chess' is a term that's been frequently applied to fencing. Really, the mind is the most important weapon you have in this sport.

In America, when people dueled, they would use pistols. We didn't have fencing schools where gentlemen went to learn the sword. In Europe they had that, and those schools became the basis of the fencing clubs they still have today.