St. Louis Fencers Club: the swordsmen of NoCo

Quite possibly the oldest fencing club west of the Mississippi, the St. Louis Fencers Club meets every Thursday night in North County.

If you ever find yourself in a church basement in Charlack, surrounded by sword-wielding men in masks and tight white pants, don’t worry. It’s only the St. Louis Fencers Club.

Since 1904, when legend has it that athletes training for the St. Louis Olympics first formed the group, it has attracted fencing enthusiasts from all over the metro area, each eager to learn the skills and subtle nuances of this ancient and intriguing sport.

The original St. Louis Fencers Club, which was based in Clayton, merged with the North County Fencers Club in the early 1990s, and weekly meetings have been held in NoCo pretty much ever since. These days, club members gather every Thursday at Stephan Memorial Methodist Church, just east of 170 at St. Charles Rock Road, and they come from nearly every walk of life and every corner of St. Louis.

Pat Dorsey, the current club organizer, is a writer from Webster Groves. The night I visited, he was joined by a West County surgeon, a Millstadt, Illinois, printer, a South City administrative assistant, a Ferguson retiree, and an interesting mix of probably ten other fencers who spanned all ages and backgrounds.

“What I love about fencing is that it’s a sport you can do your entire life,” says Millstadt’s Pearce Wilson, a scout leader who brought along two of the group’s youngest members, including sixteen-year-old Brett Beusink. “You might change the way you fence over time, but you can still fence even when you’re well into your seventies.”

“People assume that fencing is like what you see in Zorro or Robin Hood, but that’s movie stuff,” Dorsey adds. “In reality, you learn to become more efficient over time, and your movements become more conserved.” As an example, he points to club member Carl Herkstroeter, who at 73 is still considered one of the group’s toughest competitors.

“Carl is always in the right place,” Dorsey says. “He can move inches and score while other people will move a foot.”

Fencing Basics

In fencing, points are earned when your weapon makes contact with the opponent’s body. And yes, for one of the three varieties of fencing, that’s any part of the body. “If someone left their foot wide open and you hit it, that definitely wouldn’t be considered a cheap shot,” Dorsey says. “Fencing is about being cunning and stealth, and looking for that tiny window of opportunity. You never know where it’s going to be.”

The sport we know as modern fencing stems from Renaissance-era rapier dueling, which was a common and usually fatal way of settling disputes in Europe. Back then, the blade had a sharp edge. Today, fencers have a choice of three blunt-edged weapons, each with distinct rules and scoring targets, and they duel with them in an area measuring 15 yards by two yards – roughly the size of hallways in medieval castles.

Their first sword, the foil, originally a practice weapon for the rapier, has a slender, 35-inch blade that is often outfitted with a push-button electronic tip. Many fencers wear a vest made of metallic thread, which gets wired (via a long cord) into the electronic scoring system and lets it know if the foil’s tip hits a valid target on the torso.

Less flexible than the foil but equally sized is the epee, a triangular blade whose tip can score points on any part of the body. Fencers can also choose to duel with a sabre (the most pirate-looking sword in the bunch), which scores points anywhere above the waist, with either the tip or the “cutting” edge.

Members of the St. Louis Fencers Club practicing their footwork

A Rich History

“The sword is a weapon of honor in nearly every world culture,” Dorsey days. “Sabres, in particular, have been used by swordsmen and even soldiers for hundreds of years.”

Around the turn of the 20^th century, fencing for sport became very popular, especially with high-society women, who would often compete wearing skirts. Appearing at the first modern Olympics in 1896 and every Olympic Games ever since, it gained a sizable following in St. Louis, where teams from both the North Side and Central YMCAs sent talented swordsmen to the 1904 world championships. In 1901, the North Side YMCA even hosted a bout between one Mr. T.R. McGowan and Miss Julia Laughlin.

Perhaps it was these early YMCA athletes who founded the St. Louis Fencers Club? Records confirming that have yet to be discovered. Or maybe the club was founded a bit later by Arvilla Droll, the woman widely credited with bringing yoga to St. Louis, who also happened to be a champion fencer and fencing teacher. Her 1990 obituary says she was the club’s founder…though I’m not sure current members really mind either way.

The weapons of fencing: A) the epee, B) the sabre and C) the foil

An Intense Workout

Kathy Pogue, one of a handful of women who belong to the St. Louis Fencers, says that she enjoys fencing because it’s an incredible workout for both the body and the mind. She started coming to meetings with her ex-boyfriend five years ago and for most of that time she was the club’s only female.

“The guys were very welcoming from day one,” she says. “Because I’m so much smaller than most of them, my challenge is to try to get inside their reach,” noting that height and long limbs are a definite advantage in fencing.

“A lot of this relies on explosive power, so men do have some advantage,” Dorsey adds. “But then again, women can conserve their movements, and they’re often smaller targets.”

Pogue wears a protective chest plate when she duels. Like everyone else in the club, she also dons a protective helmet, thick gloves and a heavy white top that vaguely resembles a straight jacket. Apparently, the white uniform is a hold-over from the days prior to electronic scoring, when hits were verified by how many ink-tipped blades landed their target.

And does it hurt when the blade lands? Absolutely, says Pogue, who has gotten her fair share of bruises. Knee and ankle injuries are also not unusual in fencing, according to Dorsey. But he insists that the sport’s signature white jacket, or croissard, really does protect quite well. “It’s made of Kevlar so it’s made to stop things from penetrating,” he says. “Honestly, you’re more likely to pull your groin than get stabbed with a foil.”

Fencing is all about honing technique, so part of every weekly meeting of the St. Louis Fencers is devoted to practicing footwork. Members bend their knees in a wide “on-guard” stance, then move forwards and backwards again and again and again, as if they were dueling. Talk about a muscle burn.

Expert Guidance

Many in the club practice together informally, dueling multiple opponents and discussing tips and strategy. Members trickle in over the course of the evening, casually chit-chatting and seemingly ignoring the fact that swords are swinging everywhere!

In one corner of the room, five members are taking a private class from Hossam Hassan (above, in black), former coach of the Egyptian Olympic fencing team. In another corner, a group of fencers is talking about an upcoming tournament and admiring new swords that someone just purchased off the internet.

“You really have to buy the equipment online, but it isn’t that expensive,” Pogue says. A starter set can run anywhere from $125 to $195. On top of that, club dues are $75, but you don’t have to pay those right away. You also don’t have to show up with your own equipment on your very first night.

“We’re always happy to welcome newcomers at our meetings,” Dorsey says. “If you have workout clothes, tennis shoes and a leather work glove, we can provide everything else. It’s just great to be able to introduce more people to fencing.”

Right now, the St. Louis Fencers Club has about 25 active members, most of whom just participate in the sport recreationally. Sometimes, for fun, they’ll cover themselves in balloons and have a mass duel, and the last one standing with an unpopped balloon is the winner.

“This group is really about fun and fellowship,” Dorsey says. “At one point, all of us were new to the sport, and even the old-timers are still always learning, so we come together to help each other improve. If you want to learn about fencing, no matter who you are, you are always welcome here.”

The St. Louis Fencers Club meets every Thursday, 6:30-10pm, in the basement of Stephan Memorial Methodist, 2730 Walton Road, 63114. For more info, visit the club’s website.

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