Fencing is considered an elitist sport, primarily due to its aristocratic history, high financial barriers, and limited geographic accessibility.
However, the University of Southampton are trying to differ their approach to their sporting club.
Georgia Bielec, the president of the fencing society, is trying to make the experience for students that of what she experienced at Slough Fencing Club.
She explained that her experience was “interesting” and made her and everyone there feel included.
Her main goal is to replicate this for her students at the University of Southampton. A recreational fencer can expect to spend approximately £800–£1000 per year on the sport.
A competitive fencer would spend even more, this tallying to around £2000. This is not the case, though, if you are a part of the fencing society at UOS.
For a new novice fencer, the price of this membership is only £50, and if you are not a student and want to fence externally, you still can for just £65.
Bielec refers to the sport as a “physical chess”, which typically once again would suggest appealing to an intellectual elite.
However, after our correspondent Ben Brees took on the challenge himself, he certainly agreed that you have to be mentally strong as well as physically strong to be a good fencer.
To find out more about the difficulty of fencing and the difference between an amateur and a professional watch our reporter Ben Brees find out more.
Watch our video here or head to the https://www.youtube.com/@SolentSportsNews/videos channel.
