Davis County possesses a variety of clubs and athletic organizations that set standards of excellence for the community and for the Davis School District. Among these several organizations, fencing has become a club at Davis High and in the county over the years and teaches students fundamental skills of the sport along with its lifelong lessons.

        Fencing is a sport involving individual duels often fought with swords, epées, foils, or sabers in order to score points against an opponent. The process of training is long and complex and requires hours of dedicated practices. Athletes in the sport typically start at a young age and progress into different categories as they grow older.

“I practice about three times a week for about three to four hours,” senior Stanley Chen, a participant in fencing since age 8, said.

Through long and frequent practices, fencing is a sport which requires commitment and dedication. The training process of fencing involves a variety of complex warm ups and technique building exercises. Fencing requires a large amount of skill, strength, and agility which causes participants to endure several different training exercises in one practice.

“We go in and do some warm ups to get our bodies relaxed. We’ll stretch, then we’ll get a little into bouting and then in the middle my coach will grab people and we’ll get lessons,” said Chen as he described his annual training routine in fencing.

Fencing has existed for generations and has been a prominent factor for all global athletes. Its presence worldwide has stretched back to the first modern Olympic Games in 1896 and has continued to be a significant factor to global culture for hundreds of years. Fencing has adopted several formal customs throughout its extensive history.

“You have to salute your opponent when you go up. You have to shake your opponent’s hand and the referees hand so it is really formal,” Chen said, describing the customary start for a duel against an opponent.