Academy of Fencing Masters

Newsletter # 65, February, 2019

The next few weeks are set to fly by us so quickly! February is chasing on through quickly, and we’re all pumped up and getting ready for the Junior Olympics.

This year, we’re sending our biggest team ever, with 24 boys and girls heading out to compete in the Cadet, Junior, and Junior team events at the JO’s. This nationwide event starts on the fifteenth, and our fencers will be headed to Denver for the big tournament! We are incredibly excited and super proud of all of our fencers who worked so hard to qualify for this event, and it’s a testament to their dedication and also the dedication of their coaches. Denver will never be the same after our team of fencers gets there! Great job guys!

That’s not the only major competition on the horizon though. We’re now five months away from Fencing Summer Nationals. While that might sound like it’s in the very distant future, remember that time is flying by us so quickly! With the spring semester of school ramping up and the fencing season ramping up at the same time, these next few months will come and go before you know it. We all know that getting things taken care of earlier takes the pressure off, so we cannot encourage you enough to start your planning now, don’t wait! You’ll find lots of information below about steps that you can take now and over the next several weeks to make sure that you’re ready when the time comes.

There are some improvements coming to how we will support our fencers in the lead up to Summer Nationals, and we are excited to share them with you! As always, we are enthusiastic about the way that our fencers progress through the fencing season, and we can’t wait to see all the wonderful things that you do on the strip.

This is a wonderful time of year to be fencing, with the buzzing excitement of the Junior Olympics and the kind of open space to plan for Fencing Summer Nationals.

We hope that you have a great month!
Irina

January Competition Results

January was a great way to kick off the year! As you all know, competition season is really starting to heat up, and we’re so proud of these fencers who stepped up and did so well in January. Check out all the happy faces on AFM Facebook page plus podiums are here -

South Coast Mary Rafanelli RYC/RJCC

Congratulations to Yasha Shur! We just got photo of Yasha at South Coast Mary Rafanelli RYC/RJCC where he won the 6th place at the Y14 ME . Way to go Yasha!

Utah Challenge RYC

Congratulations to Neil Van Eikema Hommes for winning Gold at Y14 Men's Epee in Utah Challenge RYC!

Gold again! Congratulations to Neil Van Eikema Hommes for winning Cadet Men's Epee event at RJCC In Utah! Great job Neil!

RJCC ат TFC -

AFM won impressive 16 medals! Big thanks to AFM coaches and congratulations to our fencers and their families!

Junior Women’s Epee

Great performance of our Junior Epee girls in the RJCC event! Sonia Bulavko - Gold, Leehi Machulsky and Audrey Taylor - Bronze, Natalie Gebala - 7th place medal and Mina Stojanovic - 8th place medal and a new rating D! Congratulations to fencers and the coaches!

1 Sonia Bulavko
3 Leehi Machulski
3 Audrey Taylor
8 Mina Stojanovic - earned D

Cadet Women’s Foil
Congratulations to Dana Korol for 7th place medal in TFC RJCC in Cadet Women's Foil event!

7 - Dana Korol

Cadet Men’s Epee
Congratulations to Paul Kim for Bronze medal finish in Cadet Men's Epee in TFC RJCC!

3 - Paul Kim

Cadet Women’s Epee

What a great Cadet Women's Epee event in TFC RJCC - AFM Podium Sweep! Congratulations to Leehi Machulsky for Gold, Natalie Gebala for Silver, Audrey Taylor and Andrea Leang for Bronze and Priscilla Leang for 6th place medal! Congratulations to the coaches for hard work in the club and on the strip - Andrey Kolotilin, Slava Zingerman, Alexander Maximovich and Dima Chumak!

1 - Leehi Machulsky
2 - Natalie Gebala
3 - Audrey Taylor
3 - Andrea Leang
6 - Priscilla Leang

Junior Men’s Epee

Junior Men's Epee fencers - 4 top 8 medals! Congratulations to Ned Machulsky for winning Silver, Yasha Shur for Bronze and Jeffrey Wisoff and Sanil Sharma for medalling with 5th and 6 place! Congratulations to their coaches for coaching and helping on the stip during the competition - to Slava Zingerman, Alexander Maximovich, Andrey Kolotilin Alexander Maximovich and Dima Chumak and Patricio Moreno!

2 - Ned Machulski
3 - Yasha Shur
5 - Jeffrey Wisoff
6 - Sanil Sharma

Junior Women’s Foil

8 - Neta Korol
Congratulations to Neta Korol, her parents and coach Andrei Kuryshka and Bogdan Gutinenko!
Neta was medalling in Junior Women's Foil event in TFC RJCC! Way to go!

Arizona SYC

AFM Final in Y10 Women's Epee in Arizona SYC! Congratulations to Gabrielle Gebala for winning the Gold and Sanvi Sharma for taking Silver! Gabriela Yin medalled with 5h place as well! Way to go!

Congratulations to Ruoxi (Cici) Sun and Gabrielle Gebala for winning Bronze in Arizona SYC in Y12 Women's Foil event! Congratulations also to their coaches at home and coach Andrei who helped them on the strip! Great job girls!

Congratulations to Adam Chirashnya for medalling with 8th place in Arizona SYC in Y12 Men's Foil and congratulations to his coach!

Congratulations to Ben Kim for medalling with 6th place and earning his first E2019 rating in Arizona SYC in Y14 Men's Epee! Way to go Ben!

Congratulations to Gabrielle Gebala for medalling with 5th place in Arizona SYC in Y14 Women's Foil!

TFC Winterfest Division 1A ROC

Congratulations to Leehi Machulsky for winning Silver, Jennifer Liu for medalling with 6th place and Andrea Leang for medalling with 8th place in TFC Winterfest Division 1A ROC! Congratulations to the athletes and their coaches!

A great day for our epee boys at the TFC Winterfest Division 1A ROC! 3 medals and 3 new ratings! Congratulations to Mark Shamis for winning Silver and earning B2019 rating, Jeffrey Wisoff for medalling with 6th place and renewing his C2019 rating and to Hansel Desouza for medalling with 8th place and earning his C2019 rating! And big congratulations to their coaches!

Happy Fencers - happy coaches! With coach Slava -

Treasure Chest RYC -
AFM fencers won 29 medals!

Last RYC at TFC was a great tournament for our fencers! Big thanks fo all AFM coaches for their constant support and congratulations to fencers and their dedicated families! Way to go!

Y10WE

Very red Y10 Women's Epee finish in Treasure Chest RYC in San Francisco! Gabrielle Gebala - Gold, Gebriala Yin - Silver, Lucy Niitani - Bronze, Anais Mollinier - 5th place, Abigail Lazovsky - 6th place and Ariia Blanco - 8th place! Great tournament girls! Congratulations!
Image may contain: 8 people, people smiling, people standing

1 - Gabrielle Gebala
2 - Gabriela Yin
3 - Lucy Niitani
5 - Anais MOLLINIER
6- Abigail Lazovsky
8 - Ariia Blanco

Y12ME
Congratulations to Y12 Men's Epee boys for a great performance at Treasure Chest RYC in San Francisco in Y12 Men's Epee! Christopher Wright - Bronze, Aritra Bagchi - medalled with 5th place and Alec Zhang medalled with 8th place! Way to go!

3 Christopher Wright
5 - Aritra Bagchi
8 Alec Zhang
Y12WE
Congratulations Y12 Women's Epee girls for great performance at Y12 Women's Epee in Treasure Chest RYC in San Francisco! Alice Lan - Gold medal, Noya Chirashnya - Bronze and Alina Popovici 6th place medal!

1 - Alica Lan
3 Noya Chirashnya
6 - Alina Popovici
Y12ME
5 - Alexander Lai
Y14ME
Congratulations to Neil Van Eikema Hommes and Andrew Popovici for sharing Bronze in Y14 Men's Epee Treasure Chest RYC in San Francisco!


3 - Neil Van Eikema Hommes
3 Andrew Popovici
Y14WE
AFM Final in Y14 Women's Epee in Treasure Chest RYC in San Francisco! Congratulations to Natalie Gebala for Winning the tournament and to Alice Lan for second place and to Zandra Feland for medallist with 8th place! Great job girls!

1 - Natalie Gebala
2 - Alice Lan
3 - Alexandra Feland

Y10ME
Congratulations to ALexander Lai for medalling with 5th place in Y10 Men's Epee event in Treasure Chest RYC in San Francisco!

Y10MF
Congratulations to Daniel Chirashnya for Gold medal and Lucas Wu for Bronze Medal in Y10 Men's Foil event in Treasure Chest RYC in San Francisco!

1 - Daniel Chirashnya
3 - Lucas Wu
Y10WF
Congratulations to Eunice Zhang for winning Gold, Addison Ho for Bronze, Lea Kandl-Zhang for medalling with 7th place and Mika Chirashnya for medalling with 8th place in Y10 Women's Foil event in Treasure Chest RYC in San Francisco! Congratulations to all foil coaches too!

1 - Eunice Zhang
3 - Addison Ho
7 - Lea Kandl-Zhang
8 - Mika Chirashnya

Y12WF
Congratulations to Cici Sun for Bronze Medal and Cheryl Sun for 6th place medal in Y12 Women's Foil event in Treasure Chest RYC in San Francisco!

3 - Ruoxi Sun
6 - Cheryl Sun

Y12MF
Congratulations to Adam Chirashnya for Bronze medal and to his brother Daniel for 8th place medal in Y12 Men's Foil Treasure Chest RYC in San Francisco! It was really fun to watch two brothers fencing for the first time in DE :-)

3 - Adam Chirashnya
8 - Daniel Chirashnya

Y14WF
Congratulations to Neta Korol for medalling in Y14 Women's Foil event in Treasure Chest RYC in San Francisco!

8 - Neta Korol

The Bay Cups

Congratulations to Veronica Zherebchevska for winning Gold and Mika Chirashnya for taking Bronze in the Y12 Women's Foil Bay Cup tournament!

Congratulations to Mika Chirashnya for winning Gold and Addison Ho for winning Bronze in Y10 Women's Foil Bay Cup tournament!

Congratulations to Adam Chirashnya for winning Silver medal in Y12 Men's Foil in the Bay Cup Tournament!

Congratulations to Daniel Chirashnya for taking Silver and Lucas Wu for taking Bronze in Y10 Men's Foil Bay Cup Tournament!

Congratulations to Audrey Chu and Audrey Taylor for medalling in Division 1 Classification at January NAC in Charlotte, NC! A great way to start 2019 - with national medal! Great job ladies!

Competitions in March

March will be a big competitive month with a lot of national and regional events.

March 1-4 - NAC in Cleveland, Ohio. This NAC (NAC stands for North America Cup) features Youth age categories (Y10, Y12, Y14, Y14 Team) and Division 3. We have several fencers going to this NAC - wish them good luck!
March 8-10 - TFC Downtown RYC - this RYC in downtown San Jose, and it is great competition to go for our youth fencers. We already sent email to everyone to register. If you haven't done so yet, please register. The deadline is February 17
March 15-17 - SJCC in Anaheim, CA. This is a great tournament for our Cadet and Junior fencers (Advanced and Competitive level only) to participate, as it is a mini-NAC, if we may say so. This would be very high level competition that awards national points for these age categories. As it is in our backyard, it is definitely worth going
March 29-31 - Silicon Valley RYC in Santa Clara. This is the last RYC in the region and it is definitely it is a tournament to participate for our youth fencers from every level.

Summer Time Payment Options

June - July - August

This summer, we’re going to pilot a new approach in summer payment options. This is for many reasons, a major one being that many families take time off from their routine.

Here are our three options for summer payments to accommodate your summer plans in June, July and August:

Option 1 - Automatic payment as usual

If you do not plan to intensively travel during the summer, the most cost effective payment option is to continue to be on auto-payment.

Option 2 - Pay as you go per class

With this option, you are basically only paying for the actual classes that your fencer takes. The following payment schedule will be enforced for the pay as you go option - $50/class for all levels

Option 3 - Makeup classes

In this option, you’ll just take makeup classes for those classes you missed (in your level or level down).

As always, we are working to accommodate everyone in the summer and all year round!

Summer Nationals Preparation Camps

The time is now to be thinking about competitive fencing camps!

Summer National Preparation Camps are designed for those who are going to attend Summer Nationals in Columbus, Ohio and/or competitive level fencers.

Links -

AFM Epee 2019 Summer Nationals Preparation Camp #1    Jun 10, 2019 - Jun 14, 2019
https://askfred.net/Clinics/moreInfo.php?clinic_id=42809

AFM Epee 2019 Summer Nationals Preparation Camp #2    Jun 17, 2019 - Jun 21, 2019
https://askfred.net/Clinics/moreInfo.php?clinic_id=42810

AFM Foil Summer Nationals Preparation Camp #1    Jun 17, 2019 - Jun 21, 2019
https://askfred.net/Clinics/moreInfo.php?clinic_id=42870

AFM Foil Summer Nationals Preparation Camp #2    Jun 24, 2019 - Jun 28, 2019
https://askfred.net/Clinics/moreInfo.php?clinic_id=42871

Please pay attention to changes in camps information -

Camp Structure

All SN prep camps are full day camps with two training -

Morning (9-12pm)
Lunch
Afternoon (2-4pm).

Camp Price

$600 per week

Evening classes during camp.

Evening Classes will be conducted per summer schedule (see below). Those interested are welcome to consider options above.

Private lessons during camp.

We will open a completely new private lesson schedule for fencers who participate in the Summer National Preparation Camps. This will make it easier for private lessons to continue during the intense days of the camp sessions.

The open slots will be changed per following on the camp days:

Prior to camp session - 8:20am-9am
Lunch session - 12pm-2pm
After camp session - 4pm-7pm

Please send in your requests for the private lessons schedule (time/days/number of lessons) and we will make the change for ONLY the 2 weeks of the camp. These changes will be made ONLY for SN Camps participants.

We’re always working to improve our methods and structure for camps, and we thank you for working with us through these improvements!

June and July Schedule

Summer is not that far away! Only a few months and the new, adjusted summer schedule will be onboard. This temporary schedule for summer break will help us to create the best classes for our fencers and to provide more intensive training, taking advantage of the time out of school.

1. All competitive epee classes (A+B+C) during June and July will be combined and moved to the Sunnyvale location.

Mon/Wed/Thu at 7-9pm and Sat 10am-12pm

2. All Intermediate Foil will move to the Advanced Foil time

Tue/Thu 5:30-7pm.

3. Some Advanced Foil fencers will receive individual invitations to train on the competitive class schedule. These invitations will come at the discretion of their coach.

4. All other classes will stay on the same schedule.

Though there are a few months left before this temporary summer schedule begins, we always want to give everyone as much advanced notice as we can so that there are no surprises!

Summer Camps for AFM Fencers

Summer camp isn’t only for new people who want to explore the sport of fencing, and it’s not only for competitive fencers who are getting ready to travel to Summer Nationals. Summer is also a time when all of the fencers in-between newbies and highly competitive fencers want to improve their skill, get better conditioning, hone their technique, and just spend more time doing the sport!

For all of your fantastic fencers out there, we’ve put together a series of summer camps just for you.

The schedule for these camps is following:

Foil
1. AFM Foil Camp - End of the Season Jun 10, 2019 - Jun 14, 2019
https://askfred.net/Clinics/moreInfo.php?clinic_id=43108

Time 9am-3pm, with lunch at 12pm

Location - Campbell / Price - $500

2. AFM Foil Camp - Back to Season Aug 5, 2019 - Aug 9, 2019
https://askfred.net/Clinics/moreInfo.php?clinic_id=43107

Time 9am-3pm, with lunch at 12pm - 1pm

Location - Sunnyvale/ Price - $500

Epee - Summer Camps:
1. AFM Epee Camp - End of the Season Jun 24, 2019 - Jun 28, 2019

https://askfred.net/Clinics/moreInfo.php?clinic_id=43109

Time 9am-3pm, with lunch at 12pm - 1pm

Location - Sunnyvale/ Price - $500

2. AFM Epee Camp - Back to Season Aug 5, 2019 - Aug 9, 2019
https://askfred.net/Clinics/moreInfo.php?clinic_id=43106

Time 9am-3pm, with lunch at 12pm - 1pm

Location - Sunnyvale/ Price - $500

Beginner Fencing Camps

Do you have a friend who always comments on your fencing jacket? Does your cousin keep asking to check out your fencing equipment at family gatherings? Beginner fencer camps are the perfect way for the people in your life who are interested in fencing to find out whether the sport is a great fit for them! Please help us to spread the word and grow our club and our sport. Your friend, cousin, or neighbor could be the next great member of our fencing team! This is also a great way to introduce siblings of current fencers to the sport.

This summer we’re going to offer a wide variety of beginner fencer camps across three months in both Campbell and Sunnyvale on following dates.

Dates: July 15-19, 2019; July 22-26, 2019; July 29-August 2, 2019 and August 5-9, 2019

Times: 9am-3pm.

To learn more, please check out our website. Spread the world!

Important Rule Update -
Unwillingness to fence, or non-combativity

Image result for non combativity in fencing

Already this year we’ve had a big rule update that all fencers need to be aware of.

The new non-combativity rule took effect on the International World Circuit starting on January 1, 2019, and in the USA it takes effect on February 14, 2019 at Junior Olympic Championship in Denver, CO.

This rule change will have a big effect on fencers here in the United States, and it’s one you should be aware of. The details can be tricky to understand, but you can read about this rule here - https://www.usafencing.org/news_article/show/991685.

Keep an eye out and be sure that you understand this rule in detail! It’s important!

Summer Nationals Schedule

Are you really ready for Summer Nationals? Though it seems like it’s a long way out, it’ll be here before you know it! The schedule for the event has now been posted online, so whether you’re already qualified, hoping to qualify, or are just interested and curious, you can now find out when all of the events will take place.

The SN schedule can be found on the following link: https://cdn2.sportngin.com/attachments/document/98ed-1765702/SN_2019_Athlete_Packet__1_18_19.pdf?_ga=2.114094983.1058180404.1548721577-2129136087.1547853056.

In the next few days we’ll be sending everyone their qualification status, so with this schedule in hand you’ll now be able to really plan your Summer Nationals participation and to book your hotels and tickets. We cannot encourage you enough to book everything early. The closer we get to Summer Nationals, the harder it’s going to be to find the room you want or to book the flight that you want to be on. Earlier is better and more cost effective! Now that you have the schedule, you’re all set to make those plans. We want everyone to have a happy and stress free Summer Nationals, and the key to that is planning!

New Parents Orientation

Date - Saturday, February 23, 2019
Time 4pm - 5:30pm
Place AFM Campbell

We’re proud to provide a thorough and in depth parent orientation to educate parents who are new to the sport of fencing. We’ve noticed that parents tend to have the same questions and that, because fencing is such a niche sport, they often have very little understanding of the sport prior to this orientation.

It’s important for new parents to get their feet under them in fencing because::

The rules are complicated.
Existing information is spread across countless sites and new parents often don’t know where to begin.
Comprehensive sources may be overwhelming for new parents (e.g., the Athlete Handbook of USFA is a great resource further down the road, but likely too advanced to start).

When parents leave our orientation, they are very much relieved and feel much more comfortable in supporting their children as they train. It’s also a great welcome new parents to our AFM community!
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Happy February to Everyone!