Try @ TXST

Giselle (00:02):
Hi guys, my name is Giselle, and I'm the digital marketing strategist here at Texas State University. You're listening to Try at Texas State, and today we're talking to the Texas State Fencing Club.

(00:17):
The club meets in a gym in the Jowers building to practice, and I'm told to turn left at the fencing trophy case. The team has allowed me to sit in on one of their practices while my interns join the fencers and learn the ropes. When I watch the opponents lunging at each other and wielding their swords, I kind of forget where I am and get transported to that scene in "The Parent Trap" where Lindsay Lohan fights with her twin, who's also played by Lindsay Lohan, if you know what I mean. You'll get it. If you don't, you don't. It's fine.

(00:42):
Can you both tell me your names, your major, and your role here at the Fencing Club?

Tim Grimshaw (00:47):
My name is Tim Grimshaw. I'm an education major, specializing in early education, and I am the president of the Texas State Fencing Club.

Paul Schimelman (00:56):
And I'm Paul Schimelman. I am the coach of the fencing club.

Giselle (00:59):
Can you give me a little bit of the history of the club here at Texas State, cause it, when did it start, and how has it evolved since then?

Paul Schimelman (01:06):
There's no official start date. I know it was part of the intramural program at least by 1974, and at that point in time it became a more structured club and they started competing in the region. It was started by a couple of ex-Olympians who also taught the fencing PE classes.

Giselle (01:27):
After doing some research, I learned that the club was started by Louis J. Smith, an ex-pentathlete who coached the club up until 1981. His successor was Olympic pentathlete John Monroe, an exercise sports science major, and serious fencer. Monroe, a Texas State graduate, was on two Olympic fencing teams in 1984 and 1988. He coached the Texas State Fencing Club up until 2014, when he coached Texas' only NCAA fencing program at the University of Incarnate Word in San Antonio. So I'm kind of a novice when it comes to fencing. Can you guys gimme a short rundown of the history of fencing cause you were describing a little bit of it to me and my interns whenever we came to film Try at Texas State.

Paul Schimelman (02:07):
Fencing existed as a dueling art, okay. Long before it became fencing itself. Fencing was a means of training to do, and it was the French who codified fencing in terms of making specific definitions and actions. But fencing has a history in almost every country in Europe. They all evolve separate styles. And you could still find that today in the international scene, countries are fairly defined by how they style, how they stylistically fence. Over time, it's become more and more of an inclusive sport. For a long time women were not permitted, and then women started doing better in competitions and all of a sudden they were permitted. But back in the dueling days, it was definitely frowned upon. But one of the people who had the most successful dueling record was a female.

Giselle (02:55):
That female was Julie d'Aubigny. Born in 1670 to a wealthy aristocratic family in France, Julie was a force. She challenged societal norms. Cross-dressed, became a fugitive at one point, sang the opera, was bisexual, and most importantly was a fantastic sword fighter. She once took on three men and defeated them all one by one.

Paul Schimelman (03:17):
And she was a big proponent of getting women into the sport. Women were also responsible for creating the equipment we wear today. Uh, they were the ones like, well, we don't wanna get disfigured in the face, so let's make a mask. We have needs for more chest protection. Let's make uh, jacket, you know. And then of course they said, we don't want a fence in skirts anymore. Let's have knickers. So women played a big role in affecting the sport itself today. And as far as the United States goes, it's been the last 15 years that the women have led the charge with most gold medals internationally.

Giselle (03:56):
I did see a good amount of girls in your club whenever I went, and I was watching them and they were fierce.

Paul Schimelman (04:03):
We try and encourage women to come in because it's an opportunity for them to explore part of their personality, the fierceness that they don't normally get a chance to do anywhere else.

Giselle (04:18):
I did pick up a sword because I was so jealous that I couldn't try it for myself. Tim, you were explaining to me that there were two different types of swords and that we only got to really mess with one. Correct?

Tim Grimshaw (04:27):
So there's three different types of blades. Oh there's three, but they work in two separate styles. So there's the epee, which is the bigger, less bendy one, and it has a wire that goes down and it has a tip that you basically push a button and it goes off. Then there's the foil, which is the same kind of thing. It's a lot lighter. Um, it's got the smallest area that you're allowed to hit. It bends really nicely. It's the one that's the prettiest blade to watch probably. And then what everyone thinks of which is saber, where it doesn't have the wire going down the whole thing, it's just the whole blade.

Paul Schimelman (05:02):
The epee, which in French means sword, they're so creative. That is the direct descendent of the dueling weapon, the rapier. And that's why it's as big. Um, and that is the sport that it gets close to actual combat because the way you score is by hitting any point in the body, like dueling to first blood. The foil was created as the training weapon to the duel because it's only the lethal target area that's allowed to be hit. Okay. And it's a very small weapon. So precision mattered a lot. The saber is actually a descendant of the dueling saber, which was the calvary saber taken off the horse and now was done on foot. The first two weapons are point only. The tip has to work. Okay. Saber can be a thrusting or cutting weapon. The interesting thing about the foil and epee is that tip that depresses actually is measured by the amount of force it takes to penetrate the human body.

Giselle (05:56):
What do you both think is the most important thing to know about fencing when you are a fencer?

Tim Grimshaw (06:02):
For me it's about having fun. I mean you can push yourself really hard and all that kind of stuff. So I think it's best if you go in saying I'm gonna enjoy this. Like I'm getting to hit someone with a sword. What's not to love?

Paul Schimelman (06:16):
I would say that the thing that stands out to me is what, as a coach, and what I'm trying to teach the students is that fencing as a lifelong pursuit teaches you how to accept consequences. You make a choice and for better or worse you deal with that choice. And that I found when you pull into the rest of your life is very successful.

Giselle (06:35):
What's the most important rule in fencing that you have to follow whenever you're in a competition? Or, I'm sorry, in a duel.

Tim Grimshaw (06:42):
To hit them. If you, if you don't hit them, you're not gonna win. So I mean you can be very defensive the entire time and stop them from hitting you, but no one will win then. So, you gotta just go in there sometimes and say it's a do-or-die situation. I'm gonna get a point.

Paul Schimelman (06:58):
To win and lose gracefully.

Giselle (07:01):
Hmm... I like that.

(07:02):
I like both those answers. , you looked very disappointed when I said I like that. What are your competitions like? Like can you run me through a weekend? What's that like? Are you guys traveling to these competitions? Are they national? Are they regional?

Tim Grimshaw (07:16):
We mostly focus on just collegiate fencing. What we call SWIFA is our conference. It's the Southwest Intercollegiate Fencing Association. Certain schools will say I'll host this time, like we travel to wherever that is, and we compete there. This past year we managed to make it all the way to the grand champions of that, which was pretty cool. We actually managed to take over half the awards from the entire conference out of the, we did three tournaments last year. They're all displayed in the Jowers building in our trophy case. It was, like, 2006 was our last trophies. So we had a giant gap of doing okay before we managed to jump that far this past time.

Giselle (07:52):
What's the biggest lesson the sport has taught you?

Tim Grimshaw (07:54):
Honestly, I would say being the president gave me a lot more life experience than just fencing in itself. For me it's learning that you can have a lot of plans but things are always gonna follow through. There's always gonna be some kind of mistakes that happen and just learning to roll with it and move on.

Giselle (08:14):
What is running through your minds whenever you're fencing?

Tim Grimshaw (08:17):
You're not technically supposed to think of what you are doing with your own blade. You should in practice have worked on enough things so that your body just naturally reacts. Cause otherwise, you know, it's that extra little time of thinking about your next action before moving will slow it down just a little bit than just reacting. So you really should just be thinking about what you want their blade to do so that your body will react to it and just make it happen. But yes, I always overthink way too much.

Giselle (08:46):
As you guys are talking more and more about fencing, this is my own little aside, you're reminding me of acting because my acting coach whenever I was in high school would tell me, "acting is reacting." And everything depends on what the other person is going to say and you need to act as if you understand what they are saying as the person you are portraying.

Paul Schimelman (09:05):
It's been a long adage that fencing is talking with blades, and this is the neat thing about fencing internationally. You don't have to be able to speak the same language, we get on strip and then we're speaking the same language to each other. And that's actually pretty cool, you know, you get off strip and you're making lifelong friends with someone you cannot actually talk to until you spend some time and then you're getting to know their language and themselves.

Giselle (09:29):
I'm gonna pause you for a second cause you said "on strip," for those who don't know what "on strip" is, what is that?

Paul Schimelman (09:33):
Strip is the playing field. Fencing in the dueling days was in a circle. Mm-hmm. . Okay. And then they realized that fencing could be a much more linear action as a deadly mechanism. And so the strip now is a playing field that is 14 meters long by two meters wide that the fencers must stay in in order to compete.

Giselle (09:57):
What has been your proudest moment with the Texas State Fencing Club?

Tim Grimshaw (10:01):
Earlier this semester we actually hosted an open tournament at the Rec Center, and that took a lot of time and planning and work. But it was the first one that's been kind of in this area since I believe 2017. So being the only school in the area that actually managed to decide to do this and put forth the effort to make sure it succeeded is a pretty cool moment. And the other schools I know will push a little harder now to get theirs to go next year.

Paul Schimelman (10:33):
I'm really proud on an almost nightly basis because I want people to actually come in and try and do what they can and succeed. So a lot of times when they see students practicing and they're doing something right or I can see the light bulb go off, I'm like, yes. You know? So it really, yes, there are big moments like going to major tournaments that they do well in, they matter, but not as much as that student being on strip. And they may not win, but they may come back to me and said, I finally got what you meant.

Giselle (11:03):
. What do you guys think is the biggest misconception about fencing?

Tim Grimshaw (11:07):
That it takes a very specific person to do it. I mean, I've seen people of all different body types come and be extremely successful. There's multiple ways that you can be strong in it. You can be really good with your feet, you can be really good with your arms, or you can just be really good at thinking to where you can apply your strengths where they're needed. So I would say it's that anyone can do fencing. The main thing you need is just the drive to keep pushing.

Giselle (11:35):
What advice do you have for someone who would like to join the Texas State Fencing Club?

Tim Grimshaw (11:39):
I would just say come show up. We meet in the Jowers upstairs Gym 221, 222 B. If anyone's ever interested, they can message us on Instagram, which is @txstfencingclub. Uh, we have all the equipment, then just show up and we've got everything else that you need.

Giselle (11:56):
Paul, I was going to ask you, as an alumni and former Texas State student, do you have any advice in general for a college student right now?

Paul Schimelman (12:04):
Be daring. If you're here to not explore, you're gonna miss out a lot. So I would say just be daring in your studies. Be willing to learn.

Giselle (12:16):
Oh, I love that. That's basically the whole reason that we started this series is to, for people to try to be brave and to get out there and learn that we have these resources and to take advantage of them like your club. But um, thank you guys. I really appreciate it.

(12:40):
Tim and Paul, thank you so much for letting me pick your brains about fencing and all its rich history. And thank you for listening to this episode of the Try at Texas State Podcast. Make sure to tune in next time to learn more about something else you can try on campus at Texas State. And also remember to follow us on Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube at TXST. This podcast is a production of the Division of Marketing and Communications at Texas State University. Podcasts appearing on the Texas State University Network represent the views of the hosts and guests, not of Texas State University. Again, I'm your host, Giselle Kowalski, and I'll see y'all next time. Bye y'all.