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2019! What a year! We’ve had an eventful and exciting year at AFM, and we could not be prouder of our incredible fencers, who have grown by leaps and bounds throughout the year. We have seen amazing achievements by our fencers, across categories and through a whole lot of challenges. Our new fencers have shown us that they can jump right in and surprise everyone with their rapid acquisition of fencing skills and their incredible enthusiasm. Our experienced fencers have shown us that they have the passion and the drive to continue, even when the training is tough and when the opponents are daunting.
There are too many highlights to 2019 for us to detail here, but we are definitely proud of each and every single one of you. We have only been some small part of this tremendous growth and achievement, and we are so grateful to you for hard work and your trust in us. Thank you so much to our coaches as well, who walk with our fencers on good days and bad days, guiding them to find their best fencing path. It’s not just about becoming a better fencer or winning a medal, it’s about becoming a better person. We see that in our fencing families as well, and we thank you all so deeply for the support and guidance that you give the fencers here at AFM.
It takes all of us, working together, to make this fencing dream come true! This year, we have seen so many of our fencers realize their dreams. Thank you to everyone in the AFM family who helped make that happen!
Speaking of big dreams, the Tokyo Olympics are coming in 2020! We’re just a half year away now from this huge competition which will put fencing in the international spotlight and light our sport up for the world to see. Expect to see lots of info from AFM on how to follow the qualification path for fencers, who to watch for from the best teams in the world, and all of the experienced information you’ve come to expect from us. We’re also just super enthusiastic and excited about the games this year!
We wish you all the best over the Christmas holiday, but keep in mind that fencing training doesn’t ever really slow down. Our club will be open through most of the holiday, so whatever training you might need, we’re here for you!
Happy Holidays to everyone, from our fencing family to yours. Irina
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Photo taken on 12/11: Coaches Dima, Zhanna, Slava, Bonnie and Alexander are wishing you happy holidays!
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Upcoming big competitions:
There are lots of competitions coming up in December and January! Here’s our list of approved competitions for the next two months. Even with the holidays, it’s still midseason and a very busy time of year!
1. RYC @Treasure Island
This happens during Sat-Mon MLK Weekend in January, which is January 17-20.
This is a great competition for our youth fencers (Y10 - 2009-2012, Y12 - 2007-2010, Y14 - 2005-2008).
Registration deadline - Jan 3, 2020. Link - https://member.usafencing.org/details/tournaments/3922
2. Battle of the Bay Div1A ROC
This is a last ROC in the Bay Area, and a great opportunity to qualify for many events at the Summer Nationals. In particular, you can qualify for Div1A, Div2, Div3 and Veterans. For all our senior fencers born on or earlier 2006.
Registration deadline - Jan 17, 2020. Link - https://member.usafencing.org/details/tournaments/3865
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Two JOs Clinics
Sunday - January 11th - 10am - 2 pm
Sunday - January 26 - 10am - 2 pm
The Junior Olympics will be here before you know it!
We’re already planning ahead, though it’s really not that far away when you think about it. To give our fencers the best possible chance to succeed, we’re holding two JO clinics.
These spots will fill up fast! Sign up for them as soon as you can to make sure that you’ve got the tools you need for the Junior Olympics. Each is one day long with one general plan for preparation.
These clinics will prepare cadet and junior epee fencers for the Junior Olympics Championship, and they are for competitive fencers only.
You don’t want to miss out on these! They’ll give that big boost that competitors in the JOs need to get the result they want.
Our wonderful coaches have created an intensive set of clinics that will foster the fencing skills through constructive feedback and honing specific techniques. These fencers will get lots of bouts and coaching through the strategies and tactics that are necessary to make that difference for the Junior Olympics.
These clinics are open to non-AFM epee fencers, but only Cadet and Junior competitive epee fencers can attend. Y12 fencers with Y14 national points (i.e., eligible to fence cadet events) can participate as well, but need to contact us to register.
We can’t wait to see you there!
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Change in private lessons policy
Photo: Coach Slava and Alina Popovici
We’ve recently updated our private lesson policy and wanted to make sure that we communicate that with everyone clearly.
Students must be enrolled in classes if they are taking private lessons.
If a student discontinues taking classes, he or she cannot continue to take private lessons during the time that they are not taking classes. The reason is that there is no sense in taking private lessons without the group work as well. If a student is discontinuing taking classes, he/she cannot continue taking private lessons unless those skills are able to be practiced during group classes. All of the effort on the part of the coaches is in vain when this happens. Why? A student needs real bouts with other sin order to see the situations that they are mapping out happen in real time.
Intellectual knowledge without practical application is totally a waste of time.
One more quick reminder about private lessons. All of our charges are made automatically. Any discontinuation or withdrawal from the classes MUST be made on or before the 25th of each month. Failure to do so will result in auto-charge for the next month being made and no credits or refunds will be issued for that month.
Thank you for respecting and adhering to the policies regarding private lessons at AFM. All of our policies are created to help us serve you, our fencers and our community, better.
As always, thank you for your dedication to your fencer and to our sport.
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Junior Foil World Cup
Are you ready for some really crazy and amazing news? The Junior Foil World Cup is coming to us this year! Right here at TFC! This is an extraordinary international competition, and it’s coming right here to our door at AFM. What a wonderful stroke of fate, and we are beyond excited to have it coming so close.
Due to some complications with the original host country of Cuba, the Junior Men’s and Women’s Foil World Cup was moved to San Jose, CA in a rush. Sometimes these things have to happen this way, and it’s just something for us all to roll along with when we have to. Fortunately for us, this makes it all the more convenient for our fencers to attend, both as competitors and as fans.
We can’t believe it will be hosted right here in our hometown! This is a fantastic opportunity for our fencers to come and watch some of the world's best foil junior fencers. No matter what your skill level or training level is, we encourage you to come on out to see this competition. Bring your friends and family along so that they can watch this high level fencing happen in person. There is nothing like it!
A World Cup is a major competition. There will be fencers here from all over the globe competing. It’s not as big as the Olympics certainly, but it’s a major international competition nonetheless. To have it right here at our doorstep is just extraordinary. Don’t miss it!
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November Competition Results
A big CONGRATULATIONS to all of our fencers who competed in November! We’re so very proud of you!
The middle of the season is upon us! There have been some fantastic results this season! We are so, so excited to see our fencers dig into the fencing competition circuit and to make us proud. This is an amazing time of the season, full of possibility. We’re so proud of our fencers in November! Good job to all of you!
November NAC
Congratulations to Leehi Machulsky for winning Gold and Y14 Women’s Epee at November NAC! Leehi also earned her A rating! Congratulations to the wonderful epee coaching team for great results in the tournament and to Leehi’s personal coach Zhanna Bikkina!
AFM Annual RJCC
What a great final accord we had at the Cadet Women’s Epee event in the AFM Annual RJCC - AFM final and total 4 medals! Congratulations to Leehi Machulsky for Gold (her second after winning Junior event too), Lefu Chen for Silver, Alice Lan for 5th place and Priscilla Leang for 7th place! Great job girls! Congratulations to the coaches and parents too!
Congratulations to Dana Korol for winning Bronze in Cadet Women’s Foil in the AFM Annual RJCC!
Congratulations to Dana Korol for medalling in Junior Women’s Foil event in the AFM Annual RJCC! Great performance Dana in both Cadet and Junior events this holiday weekend!
Great performance by AFM epee girls in Junior event at AFM Annual RJCC! Leehi Machulsky - Gold, Andrea Leang - Beonze and B rating, Audrey Taylor medalled with 6th place and Alice Lan medalled with 7th place and C rating! Zandra Feland finished 11th and earned her first E rating! Great job girls! Congratulations to the fencers, their coaches and parents!
Great results in Cadet Men’s Epee event in the AFM Annual RJCC! Sanil Sharma - Gold, Kevin Cai - Silver, Yakov Shur - 6th place, Bartosz Kuligowski - 8th place. Other notable results - Paul Kim -9th, Hansel Desouza - 10th, Neil Van Eikema Hommes - 13 and Ben Kim - 16. Congratulations to the fencers, their coaches and parents!
Congratulations to Kevin Cai for Silver and Hansel Desouza for Bronze in Junior Men’s Epee event in the AFM Annual RJCC! Congratulations to the fencers and their coaches and parents!
Bay Cup
Second Fold in a row! Congratulations to Cheryl Sun for winning Junior Women’s Foil event in the Bay Cup tournament! And congratulations to Bogdan for coaching her all the way thru!
 AFM final in Y14 Women’s Foil event in the Bay Cup tournament today! Congratulations to Cheryl Sun for Gold and to Emma Fung for Silver, and also to the coaches and parents! Great job girls! Congratulations also to Cici Sun for her first independent referring in the tournament!
Congratulations to Sean Sung for Bronze in Junior Men’s Foil event in the Bay cup tournament! Congratulations also to his coaches and parents!
Congratulations to Adam Chirashnya and Sean Sung for winning Bronze in Y14 Men’s Foil event at the Bay Cup tournament! Congratulations to the fencers, their coaches and parents!
Congratulations to Oscar Estell for winning Gold in Veteran Mixed Foil event in the Bay Cup this Sunday!
Congratulations to Gabe Olander for winning Silver and earning D rating in TFC Epee-A-Thon Mixed epee event! Great job Gabe!
Congratulations to Sanil Sharma for winning Bronze medal in junior Men’s Epee in the Bladerunner RJC in San Diego! Congratulations also to our dear friend Zachary Levy for medalling in top 8 and earning his A rating!
Congratulations to Christopher Wright for winning Bronze medal and earning his first D19 rating in Y14 Men’s Epee event in the Windy City SYC!
Rain City SYC
Congratulations to Prisha Maniktala for wining SIlver medal in the Rain City SYC in Y10 Women's Foil category!
RYC of the Rockies in Denver
Our warm congratulations to Travis Knudsen, his parents, and coach Dima Chumak for winning a Bronze medal in Y12 Men's Epee event at RYC of the Rockies in Denver! Way to go! Work hard in the Y14, Travis!
Cobra Challenge SYC (Secaucus, NJ)
Congratulations to Prisha MANIKTALA for winning the 5th place medal at Cobra Challenge SYC (Secaucus, NJ) in the Y-10 Women's Foil competition! Way to go Prisha!
Congratulations to Alan Buchwald for winning a Bronze medal at the San Luis Obispo Highlander's Veteran Mixed Foil! Great job Alan!
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AFM Holiday Closures
The winter holidays are almost upon us! In celebration of this time of year, we’ll shut the doors and encourage everyone to go home to be with their families. Notice that we’re only closed for TWO days during the holiday season. Lessons, open fencing, and private lessons all go on as regularly scheduled for the rest of the season.
We will be closed on the following days:
December 24-25, 2019 - Christmas Eve and Day - Both Locations
December 31, 2019 and January 1, 2020 – New Year’s Eve and Day - Both Locations
A ll other days we are open and all classes and private lessons will be conducted as scheduled. School may be out for much of this month, but class is in session for most of it here at AFM!
Please do not forget to cancel private lessons if you travel and schedule make-ups online. https://afm.web.schedulefencing.com
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Fantastic Holiday Party
We are so fortunate to have had a fantastic holiday party last weekend. Our annual tradition of coming together as a fencing family went off beautifully, and we were so heartened once again to see so many of our fencing families join us for the festivities. It’s one of the events that we most look forward to every year!
The mood in the room was exciting and electric. The food was beyond tasty, with an international potluck that delighted everyone in attendance. So much gratitude goes to the families who put all that hard work into making those tasty dishes! It was good to explore the tastes of our fencers once again this year, and you are all simply delicious cooks. I think I might still be a little stuffed!
The evening had its capstone with a fantastic performance by The Fratello Marionettes! The puppets were totally remarkable and unexpected. We are incredibly grateful to their talent and discipline, and for bringing all of that to our winter party.
Altogether, it really was a festive and fun filled holiday celebration. We are of course constantly in awe of how much you all participate and create during this time! Thank you for making it all so very special.
More photos on our Facebook page here:
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Happy Holidays from AFM!
We cannot ever say enough about how much we adore and treasure our fencing families here at AFM. You all are truly special and incredible. The holiday season is a perfect time for us to step up and thank you for all that you do.
2019 has been a fantastic year for us here at AFM.
May you all have the happiest of holidays, no matter how you celebrate. This time of year is full of celebration! Enjoy the decorations and the presents, the songs and the traditions, but most of all we hope that you enjoy spending time with people you love and celebrating life.
We wish you a great family time and magical holidays!
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