I've been reading Nick Evangelista's "The Inner Game of Fencing" and find his point (not sorry!) about "just make the light go on" to be only too valid. I've seen the young fencers in the local club, and whether with foil, epee, or sabre they seem to want only to score regardless of form or sports(wo)manship.

I fenced sabre against a young woman who was VERY good, and beat her 5-3 because I used both the blade and the point -- which she found unsettling and, I think, nearly unfair.

In epee, fleche seems to be the rule instead of the exception. In foil, the fencers learn the flick (but not from OUR coach!).

So I've been reading. Should I forget sport fencing, writing it off as unsporting and just another winner-take-all game and take up historical fencing instead? Or should I hold out and keep playing with people my own age and hope that the things that made fencing the sport it was come 'round again?