fencing, man. fencing.

May 29

[ID: a woman using a sabre to point to things in her presentation.]

I legitimately threatened to do this for my thesis defense, but chickened out. But it looks so cool!

Because her laser pointer died…

(source: A friend of mine’s Japanese teacher)

May 28

[ID: a photo of a shirtless man holding a foil. His right arm is very muscular, while his left arm is comparatively underdeveloped.]

Cliff Bayer! He’s up for inclusion in the USFA Hall of Fame, along with Dick Oles, Buckie Leach and Elliot Lilien, who unfortunately don’t have any cool photos up on the internet. Credit for this very cool photo goes to Joe McNally.

This is the last photo post for the Hall of Fame nominees! Tomorrow we go back to randomly chosen videos/photos of whoever I thought was interesting at the time.

May 27

[ID: two epee fencers in a bout. Old, black and white photo.]

Ed Vebell (right)! Vebell is another fencer up for inclusion in the USFA hall of fame

May 26

[ID: a group of men in fencing whites and warm-ups, posing with a trophy for the Csiszar Invitational.]

Larry Anastasi (center) is also up for inclusion in the USFA Hall of Fame!

[ID: a man in a coach’s uniform, holding a mask in one hand and all three fencing weapons in the other.]

Leonardo Terrone! Terrone is another fencer up for inclusion in the USFA hall of fame.

May 25

[ID: a group of five men in fencing whites, holding weapons and looking at the camera. Old, black and white photo.]

Dick Berry (center) with his teammates in 1949! Dick Berry is up for inclusion in the USFA Hall of Fame, along with Hans Halberstadt, who I could not find a picture of. To make up for it, here’s another picture of Dick Berry (second from right, with the Highland Park Junior College fencing team:

a bunch of guys in suits and ties, posing for the camera. The man furthest to the left is smoking a cigarette and holding a dog over someone's head.

Yeah, I don’t know what’s going on there either.

[ID: a Sports Illustrated trading card, depicting a foil fencer with her mask off, lunging at the camera.]

Iris Zimmermann! She’s up for inclusion in the USFA hall of fame. I’ve fenced at her club, and she is super nice - an amazing fencer and coach.

May 24

[ID: two foil fencers with their masks off, demonstrating a lunge and a parry for the camera. Old, black-and-white photo.]

Muriel Guygols (left) and George Breed!

George Breed is one of the fencers up for consideration for the Fencing Hall of Fame. If you’re a USFA member, you can vote for who should be included this year - I’ll be posting photos of the nominees until June 1st (when voting ends).

Speed of Fencing

Behind the bullet, the tip of a fencing blade is the second fastest-moving object in Olympic sports. Speed of Fencing captures the grace and movements of New York’s top epee fencers. Using high-speed photography, amateur spectators will be able to see some of the fastest actions in all of sport for the first time.

I’ve posted outtakes from the Speed of Fencing before, but here’s the actual thing! Very cool and interesting - the mask drop at the end is the best.