Academy of Fencing Masters

Newsletter # 63, December 2018

Happy Holidays! December is a time of year that we are all taking a breath to celebrate family and friendship, to slow down and hope to appreciate all of the blessings that have come our way throughout the year.

2018 has been a powerhouse year for AFM! We’ve been so lucky to host major competitions and to welcome wonderful new fencers and coaches to our fencing family. Everyone has grown tremendously this year, from our outstanding showing at Fencing Summer Nationals in St. Louis to the marvelous results in the current season here at home and in competitions all over the United States (and beyond!). We are simply so proud of you all, and we count ourselves as especially blessed to be here to support your fencing journeys.

Over the next few weeks we hope to see many of you at our Winter Break camps! Though there’s a break for school, please don’t ease up on your training - January and the spring rush of competitions will be here before you know it! Take the time off to refocus and put your eye back on the ball. It’s a great time to reflect on the halfway mark of the season and see where you’ve progressed to and where you need to go for the future to reach your goals. We know that family time is a big priority though this time of year, which is nothing but a wonderful thing.

Speaking of family, we again feel called to extend our thanks to you our fencing family for letting us have a place in your life, as you each certainly have a place in our hearts. It is one of our greatest blessings in life to be home to such a beautiful fencing community! We love having each and every one of you with us at AFM, and we wish you the happiest of holiday seasons!

Happy Holidays to all!

Irina

November Competition Results

Photo: Coach Andrei Kuryshka with Y12 Foil Girls

A big CONGRATULATIONS to all of our fencers who competed in November! We’re so very proud of you!

World Cup in Heidenheim (Germany)

We are proud of both Sonia Bulavko and Audrey Chu for representing AFM at the World Cup and for great fencing! Way to go!

SoCal RYC in Thousand Oaks

Congratulations to Gabrielle Gebala for winning Gold in Y12 Women's Foil event in SoCal RYC in Thousand Oaks!

Congratulations to Gabrielle Gebala for winning Gold and Gabriela Yin for winning Bronze in Y10 Women's Epee event in SoCal RYC in Thousand Oaks! Great job girls!

Appling Legacy Open Hawaii

Congratulations to Alan Buchwald for winning gold medal in the Appling Legacy Open Hawaii tournament! It is his second time to win gold, and Alan will be listed a second time on the Foil Championship plaque!! The photo on the medal shows Lt. Colonel Donald Appling's who fenced until age 92, all three weapons! Way to go Alan!

AFM Div2 ROC and RJCC

We are very proud of our great fencers and fantastic coaches! AFM fencers showed great fencing earning 22 medals, new ratings and lots of qualifications to JO's and SN! Way to go! We are very proud of our fencers!

Division II Men’s Epee

Kevin Cai 1, Hansel Desouza 2, Thijmen De Jong 3 and Earned D , Jeffrey Wisoff 5

Division II Women’s Epee

Anika Soin 3, Ria Jobalia 5, Ivyla Zhang 8 earned E

Junior Men’s Epee

Paul Kim 1 earned B 2018 , Yasha Shur 3, Kevi Cai 6, Hansel Desouza 7

Cadet Women’s Epee

Priscilla Leang 2, Audrey Taylor 3, Leehi Machulsky 6, Natalie Gebala 7

Cadet Men’s Epee

Yasha Shur 2, Neil Van Eikema Hommes 3

Junior Women’s Epee

Leehi Machulsky 1 and earned C, Natalie Gebala 2, Jennifer Liu 3, Astrid Popovici 7, and our club's friend from Korea Hannah Lee 8 and earned E

The Fencing Center RYC - Region 4

Congratulations to AFM fencers, their parents and our amazing coaches for great results and beautiful fencing at the RYC last weekend! Together we won 28 medals and earned 3 new rating!

Y10WF: Gabrielle Gebala 1, Zoie Wang 2, Mika Chirashnya 3, Eunice Zhang 7

Y10MF: Daniel Chirashnya 3, Lucas Wu 8

Y12WF: Cheryl Sun 3 , Ruoxi Sun 6

Y14WF: Dana Korol 1 + "C" rating, Gabrielle Gebala 3 + "D" , Neta Korol 3

Y10WE: Gabrielle Gebala 1, Lucille Niitani 2, Gabriela Yin 5, Abigail Lazovsky 7, Anais Mollinier 8

Y10ME: Jeremias Stauch 8

Y12WE: Alice Lan 3, Alina Popovici 7

Y12ME: Alec Zhang 3, Aritra Bagchi 5,Christopher Wright 6, Elliot Park7

Y14WE: Natalie Gebala 1, Alice Lan 2, Charlotte Li 3, Grace Yin 6, Alexandra Feland 7

The Bay Cup

Bay Cup at EBFG - Congratulations to our adult fencers for medalling in epee fencing weekend! Haejung Hofman finished third and Suzanne Bloomer second in Veteran Women's Epee! way to go! Joe Berthoud was second in the rated mixed epee and third in the mixed epee ! Way to go!! Great job!

Bay Cup at AFM Sunnyvale

Y12 Mixed Epee

Final touch with an AFM podium sweep in the Y12 Mixed Epee event in The Bay Cup tournament today. Congratulations to Noya Chirashnya for winning Gold, Elliot Park for Silver, Christopher Wright and David Zaydman for Bronze! Great job all!

Junior Men's Epee

Congratulations to Mark Shamis for winning Gold and Jack Arabaci and Jason Louie for winning Bronze at Junior Men's Epee event in The Bay Cuptournament today!

Y14 Women's Epee

Congratulations to Alina Popovici for winning Silver, Donya Derakshandeh and Arti Gnanasekar for Bronze in Y14 Women's Epee event in The Bay Cup tournament today!

Junior Women's Epee

Congratulations to Sana Pandey for winning Silver and Angela Du for Bronze in Junior Women's Epee event in The Bay Cup tournament today!

Y10 Mixed Epee

Congratulations to Abigail Lazovsky and Lucy Niitani for winning Bronze at The Bay Cup Y10 Mixed Epee event today! Great job girls!

AFM Open Y8 Mixed Foil

Congratulations to Jayden Zhang for taking Bronze and Addison Ho for taking Silver in AFM Open Y8 Mixed Foil! Good job kids!

Blade Runner ROC Div1A and RJCC in San Diego

Congratulations to Andrea Leang for medalling with 5th place and Natalie Gebala for medalling with 7th place at the Blade Runner ROC Div1A and RJCC in San Diego in Junior Women's Epee event! Great job girls!

What a great finish of 2018! Way to go!

December-January Tournaments

Photo model: Loved by everyone at AFM, future fencing star Zoey Sun:)

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!

December 15, 2018 - Central California JO's Qualifier (https://askfred.net/Events/moreInfo.php?tournament_id=42412). This competition is for Cadet/Junior fencers (born 2005 or earlier) that did not qualify via regional or national paths and this is their last chance to qualify for Junior Olympics. Hosted at TFC.

January 6, 2019 - Youth foil Bay Cup for Y10/12 boys and girls (https://askfred.net/Events/moreInfo.php?tournament_id=41352). This is a great tournament to practice before the RYC in Treasure Island two weeks later.

January 12, 2019 - TFC Division 1A ROC (https://member.usafencing.org/details/tournaments/3216). This tournament is among the most important regional competitions for senior age fencers (2005 and older) that qualify them for National Championship in Division 1A, Division 2 and 3. Registration deadline is December 23.

January 19-21, 2019 - Treasure Island RYC (https://member.usafencing.org/details/tournaments/3220). This RYC opens 2019 and is very recommended to our youth fencers (Y10/12/14) to attend.

January 19-21, 2019 - South Coast Mary Rafanelli RYC/RJC (https://member.usafencing.org/details/tournaments/3219). At the same time as Treasure Island competition there is similar level RYC in Thousand Oaks. There is no real reason to travel there for Y10/12, but Y14 fencers can participate in 2 events: Y14 and Juniors, which allows them to start accruing points towards July Challenge and next year Junior Olympics.

There are still tons of opportunities to get points and make those big dreams of Nationals next summer a reality! Now is the time to take advantage of all of these competitions and make it happen.

Junior Olympics Qualifier

Photo credit: Patricio Moreno, taken at the last JO Championship Feb 2017, Kansas City, MO

It’s almost time for the Junior Olympics! This is a big event for our Cadet and Junior fencers, and it’s nearly here, just six weeks into the new year. The Junior Olympics National Championship is in Denver, CO, on February 15-18 2019.

You might have already qualified for the competition! To check if you qualified go to: https://member.usafencing.org/regional/points

To qualify for the event, a fencer must have 110 pts in their respective weapon/age category. Some fencers who are age eligible to fence both Junior and Cadet if they have 110 junior regional points as they automatically qualify for cadet events.

If your fencer does not have enough national points and does not have sufficient regional points there are still 2 additional routes to qualify.

1. Finish top 25% at JO qualifier in TFC this weekend

2. Attend last remaining RJCC in Denver (https://member.usafencing.org/details/tournaments/3209)

The last one you can keep as an option if your fencer does not succeed to qualify via #1. The JO qualifier for the Central California division is on December 15. Sign up on askFred.net here: https://askfred.net/Events/moreInfo.php?tournament_id=42412

Midterm Winter Mini-Camps

This month we’re bringing our fencers two mid term camps, and they can really help you get that extra boost for the coming competitions.

Though we have a tradition of providing camps for our fencers to prepare for Fencing Summer Nationals, this winter we’ve expanded to offer incredible support for our fencers during the winter break to propel them towards those big fencing dreams!

This is the perfect time for some great training without the stress of school responsibilities. The middle of the season can drag fencers towards a slump, so doing a fresher camp is a great way to overcome that obstacle. There are big competitions on the horizon such as NAC’s and JO’s for cadet, junior and senior fencers. There are some serious competitions for our youth fencers as well - RYC, SYC and March NAC. Getting ready for those big competitions is easier with these camps.

Foil Mini-Camp - 3 DAYS

Dates: Dec 26-28

Time: 9am - 12pm

Location: Campbell

Price: $350

Epee Mini-Camp - 3 DAYS

Dates: Dec 26-28

Time: 9am-3pm

Price: $425

These camps are open to ALL fencers, no matter your age or location. Our coaches will scale training to benefit age groups and skillsets where it’s necessary.

Contact us about registration as these spots are filling up quickly!

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, 2018 - Christmas Eve and Christmas Day

December 31, 2018 and January 1, 2019 – New Year Eve and New Year Day

All 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

Happy Holidays from AFM!