Fencing Returns to Harbison!

You didn’t need to be downtown last weekend on “World Fencing Flash Mob Day” to find a group of fencers putting on an expert demonstration of this exciting, tactical, and growing sport. Ten members of Columbia Fencers’ Club, led by Jane Littmann, provided a free show-and-tell about the sport on Saturday at the Harbison Recreation where the club first began almost 30 years ago and new classes will soon be offered.

“The sport is always evolving,” Littmann said. She would know.   As an experienced international competitor, coach, and national referee at North American Cups spanning over 40 years, she has seen the rules and techniques change drastically. “Everyone knows Fencing has a long history,” she says, “but it’s also a very modern sport. Historically, it’s one of only 4 sports to be competed in every Modern Olympic Games since they restarted in 1896. Pierre de Coubertin, the founder of the Modern Olympics, was himself a fencer!” she notes.

Fencing today is far different from the way it was back then. One look at the electrical apparatus used to score points in competition makes that obvious! It looks more like a video game where touches register on a machine showing a colored light on the side of the fencer who scored. A fencer in the audience from “the old days” described how touches were made before electric scoring, by red dye on a bit of cloth in the weapon’s tip leaving a red speck on the white jacket of the fencer who was hit. The referees would come forward to see whether the hit landed on valid target and vote their decision.

“Fencing has the illusion of danger but is a very safe sport given the equipment and rules,” Littmann added. “We call them ‘weapons’ and speak of hitting with the point, but they are actually blunt flat tips, not sharp, and everyone wears padding. Otherwise it wouldn’t be fun!”

She emphasized that fencers come in all shapes, sizes, and ages, and have different reasons for enjoying the sport. Columbia Fencers’ Club won the Women’s Epee National Championship title in 1999 when they previously trained at Harbison.

New classes will be starting next week at Harbison Recreation Center when the club resumes teaching there after a decade.

For more information,

Elizabeth Foust
Harbison Recreation Center
(803) 781-2281, or

Jane R. Littmann, Ph.D.
Columbia Fencers’ Club
803) 781-0056
JRL5837@yahoo.com