On the second floor of a brick building on Olive Street, in Downtown West, a group of children are doing some warmups. They start by jogging the length of the floor over and over. They shuffle sideways, grapevine, lunge, and do high-knees and butt-kicks all over the studio. When they’re sufficiently flushed, they retreat to the adjoining kitchen for a water break.
Then they pull out the swords.
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This is Tran Nguyen’s St. Louis Fencing Club, which opened in fall of last year and teaches foil and épée styles of the sport to children ages 10 and older as well as adults. In the studio this evening is an épée class, and tonight students are focusing on preparations, movements that either attack an opponent or draw out an opponent’s attack. The students pair up and play a game: One of them must either lunge and then attack or retreat while their partner tries to guess which action they’re going to take. The partner’s objective is to not flinch. “What do I do if I flinch?” a kid asks coach Simon Todreas. Todreas advises, “Just don’t flinch.”
Nguyen began fencing in high school after a paintball accident left him with hairline fractures in his ribs, a broken collarbone, and two broken ankles. (He fell down a hill.) “I went to my doctor, and he said, ‘Contact sports are not in your near future, and you already put on 60 pounds from sitting around, so you need to find something,’” Nguyen says. “He goes, ‘You can either swim or you can take up fencing.’ Well, I don’t like swimming.” He founded the Saint Louis University Fencing Club in 2008, coached after he graduated, and retired last summer after 10 years. An accountant by day, Nguyen started the club, which now has 34 members, “for giggles.”
Nguyen’s not joking around about safety, however. Students are outfitted in protective vests, long pants, and masks. The sides of the swords’ blades are dull, and a spring-loaded button is affixed over the point, which also tallies the score.
Some kids, Nguyen says, find fencing attractive because they appreciate a certain amount of anonymity—they like being hidden behind a mask. “Another big thing is, it’s one of those sports that builds a huge amount of trust,” Nguyen says. “You are trusting them with a weapon, and it’s teaching them that they can’t just hit anything and everything out there.”
Eleven-year-old Sky Smith has been fencing at the club since October 2022. She tells me she likes the other kids in the class and thinks the sport helps her release some energy when she feels like fidgeting. She unsheathes her sword from a blue rhinestone bedazzled carrier and adds, “It’s really fun to stab people as well.”
FYI: Beginner lessons at St. Louis Fencing Club are $110 a month, and all equipment is included. Nguyen includes a 15 percent discount for siblings, friends, or parents who want to learn to fence. The club is located at 1712 Olive. Learn more at stlfencingclub.com.
