The Noble Art & Sport of Fencing

The Washington Fencing Academy was founded by Kevin Mar and Serge Timacheff with the belief that every person who decides to try fencing has the opportunity to be successful in the sport, whatever their athletic ability or fitness level may be. Furthermore, we believe it is the academy's responsibility and commitment to each individual to help them understand, realize, and achieve the goals that, for them, equates to "success."

Whether you are an experienced fencer, a beginner, or the parent of an enthusiastic young swordsman, we offer a safe, exciting, and fun way to experience the sport according to well-established standards, rules, and regulations. Our coaches are all experienced competitors, several of whom who have earned international and national medals and rankings.

Our classes and "open" fencing take place in community centers, schools, and fitness clubs in a variety of locations throughout the greater Seattle/Tacoma area.

Please click on our logo below to visit our website!!

WFA is now accepting registrations for our summer day camps! We have a variety of locations and dates available all around King County! Please click on our logo below to visit our website for more information.

Congrats and a whole lot of "atta girls" to our own Jade Adalbert, who took 3rd place in the Y14 mixed epee event at the Rain City Youth Tournament!!

This is her first medal, and it is well deserved!! We are most proud of her!!

Arthur started fencing in Israel when he was 13 years old, and has been involved with the sport for 15 years now. He was Israeli national champion four times, has been on the Israli national team for almost ten years, and participated in multiple World and European Championships. In 2004 he was recruited by the Penn State Fencing team and competed for four years in college fencing. Arthur participated in four NCAA finals, was a three time All-American, served as the team captain that led Penn State to NCAA team title in 2007, and was a runner up for the NCAA individual epee title in 2008. He graduated in 2008 with a Business degree and a Big Ten Scholar-Athlete Award.

Results are in from the Metro Tacoma Bladefest and WFA members scored big!!

Scott DeBoer battled thru two OT bouts in the DE's to finish in 3rd place!! Well done indeed!

Also doing well were:

Donovan Kawewehi 16th
Jordan Rixon 30th
Rachel Hughes 32nd
Brian Hynden 37th!

This was an excellent event and very well run, WFA hopes Metro Tacoma will continue the tradition!

7/27/09

WFA results from the 2009 WA Games at Rain City:

Senior Men's Saber:

Allen Wang 2nd

Senior Men's Epee:

Scott DeBoer 5th
Kevin Mar 6th
Donovan Kawewehi 11th
Brian Hynden 15th

Kudos one and all!!

FInal results from last weekend's NW Senior Games,sponsored by WFA, were very good indeed!

Our saberists did well, Garrett Lundborg finished 3rd, Allan Wang 5th, John McDonald 6th, and Andrew Ishimaru 7th.

In the Veteran Men's Epee event Mike Portch came in 5th and Brian Hyden 6th.

And in the Mixed Epee event the results were as follows:

Arthur Urman 1st
Eugenio Salas 2nd
John McDonald 3rd
Kevin Mar 7th
Scott Deboer 10th
Genie Rivers 13th
Jordan Rixon 14th
Donovan Kawewehi 16th
Jo Rorberg 17th

An excellent showing one and all!!

This just across the wire!! WFA's ace epeeist John McDonald scores big, again, taking 1st in the Junior U19 men's epee event at the WWD Junior Championships today! He tied with Garrett Lundborg for 3rd place in Junior U19 men's saber, with Allan Wang coming in at 5th and Andrew Ishimaru at 6th! John also finished 12th in Junior U19 men's foil.

Well done fellas!!

But first we would like welcome back Genie Rivers to the WFA fold!! This was her first tournament in a goodly bit of time, and she still has the knack! Genie finished 11th, and teammate Jo Rorberg came in at 13th. Both gals more than proved they could hold their own with any compition!

This is Jo "giving no quarter"!

Genie "caught in the act" scoring a touch!

Serge was on tap as strip coach and moral support!

Ace epeeists Rachel Hughes and Jordan Rixon BOTH earned their "E" 2009 ratings in todays competition! We are very pround of them as both have worked all season to achieve this goal!

You gals rock!!!

Final results are in for Satuday's events. and WFA members all had respectable scores!

Our two new "E"'s, Rachel Hughes and Jordan Rixon, finished 7th and 8th resepctively in women's epee.

In men's foil Mike Portch came in at 20th, John McDonald 22nd, and Kevin Mar 24th.

And in men's sabre Mark Lundborg came in 3rd, John McDonald 10th, Allen Wang 11th, Garrett Lundborg 14th, Mike Portch 19th, and Kenvin Mar 20th.

Congrats to one and all for a fine competition!!

WFA men's epeeists had their day on the sun yesterday as we swept the top three places at the WWD Senior Championships!

Eugenio Salas took 1st, Arthur Urman 2nd, John McDonald 3rd, Kevin Mar 17th, and Scott DeBoer 20th!

In women's saber Rachel Hughes finished 7th (and very nearly earned herself another "E"!!), and Jordan Rixon 17th.

And Jordan finished 19 in women's foil. Although Rachel was also entered in this event, she suffered a sprained ankle and had to withdraw. We wish her a speedy recovery!

WFA members scored big this past weekend at the Rain CIty Fencing Club's 2009 Open Tourament! We fielded a team of nine fences, two saberists and seven epeeists, all did very well indeed!!

And Arthur Urman beat the field in the Mixed Epee event to take the gold and first place! Also competing in the epees events were Rachel Hughes, Scott DeBoer, Karen Portch, Jordan Rixon, Kevin Mar, John McDonald, Mike Portch, and Brian Hynden.

Talented saberist Mark Lundborg took first place and the gold medal in the senior mens event!! Allen Wang finished in 10th place.

WFA fencers did verry well last Sunday at the Metro Tacoma Fencing Club's "U" Can Do It Tournement! Donovan Kawewehi, in his second tournement, finished in second place!!

And first timer Alex Sanoja was a surprise finishing in third place!! Also placing were Rachel Hughes in 5th, Jordan Rison in 6th, Jordan Draffin in 9th, Brian Hynden in 10th, and Jade Adalbert (also a first timer!) in 11th.

Well done one and all!!

WFA club member and ace epeest John McDonald placed 8th in the Senior Mixed Epee event and earned his "A" rating!! Held at the Rain City Fencing Club, the three day event drew fencers from up and down the west coast and Canada. Also competing was WFA coach Eugenio Salas, who placed 2nd in the same event. John and Eugenio competed with 77 other fencers.

Well done fellas!!

Responsible for WFA classes and curriculum, Kevin is an accomplished fencer, a nationally rated referee, and a superb coach. He is also an experienced physical trainer. Kevin is vice-chair of the Western Washington Division of the USFA (United States Fencing Association).

Serge provides business acumen for the club. He is an accomplished veteran fencer and national medalist, and is also the official photographer for the International Fencing Federation and a frequent contributor to American Fencing magazine as well as many other publications. Serge is chair of the Pacific Northwest Section of the USFA.

Eugenio is a former Venezuelan world-team epee fencer, and winner of multiple medals in Pan American, South American, Central American/Caribbean Championships, and competitions in the Pacific Northwest. He is also an FIE referee licensed in epee and foil. Eugenio provides extensive coaching skills and high-level fencing guidance to the WFA.

Practicing her "en garde" position.

Washington Fencing Academy class brings all ages into the heat of battle

Their tips inches apart, the two swords quiver like a jolt of electricity just ran through them. The first contact is a tease, a taunting touch of metal on metal. Tin, tin, tin. Suddenly, a blade lunges, forcing each contender into the heart of the fight, the sporadic clink of the swords increasing rapidly until one fencer plunges off the battle field.

No, this isn't a scene from Pirates of the Caribbean. This is my Saturday afternoon.

I've jumped into the middle of a six-week series of Saturday classes put on by the Washington Fencing Academy at the Issaquah Community Center. Instructor and academy co-founder Kevin Mar leads 10 other brave souls as they learn the art of sword-fighting and stave off sweat, all while bobbing around in a fencing mask.

When I ask Marj Oliver, a Burien resident, what the past two sessions have been like, she immediately replies, "Suffering! But you notice we're still coming back, so there's got to be something to it."

I laugh, but am slightly unnerved.

Kids as young as 7 years old line up with adults, their fellow students, as they play warm-up games. Mar sends me to the side to work with Skyline High School sophomore Jordan Rixon, a 16-year-old who went to nationals this past July. The class has already learned several steps and foreign actions I can't spell, so I pay attention.

She patiently shows me what the "en garde" position looks like. She perches delicately on her left toe and right heel, her feet making a perfect right-angle on the ash-gray carpet. If she were a bird, she'd be a poised sparrow, ready to spring off a branch at a moment's notice and leap at an opponent. If I were a bird, I'd be a penguin - wobbly and challenged in the flying department.

After going over basic footwork terms several times - advance, double advance, lunge, scissor, recover - I'm deemed ready to join the group. Being left-handed, Mar places me on the left side of the group, where I will do the least damage. We play footwork games, like one called "Class Says," a variation of "Simon Says." I last slightly longer than the 7-year-old.

Although my fencing experience is confined to the past hour of my life, I can already tell it's a lot more difficult than I thought it would be. Fencing takes a certain agility, the ability to balance and be light on one's feet. In order to get the proper en garde position down, Rixon originally told me to put my feet in a V, heels touching - first position in ballet. Fencing is a dance.

And every dance must have proper costumes. We don white jackets that zip in the back, with a loop on the bottom for our right legs. They remind me of upside-down overalls. I shove my head into a mask that smells faintly of my friend's golden retriever and grab a sword, or epee, from the equipment bag.

This is the hardest part. Now, not only do my feet demand my concentration, but my arms do as well. Mar teaches us basic parrying techniques, which is when you block your opponent's blade, and how to riposte, or become aggressive after defending yourself. My favorite maneuver is the counterattack, where you jump back from an opponent's lunge and tap them on their extended hand with your epee, your arm in a graceful arch. It seems strange to aim for a hand, but Mar says "The main targets are the hand and the foot, because they're closest."

After several more drills, we play a few closing games. The last one is called "Last Man Standing," where everyone duels within the same area, and the last person who hasn't been touched, wins. A few seconds into it (when I'm eliminated), I head over to the break area and start unzipping. I watch as the last few competitors battle it out, their epees aggressive, yet delicate. It's obvious why Mar says this is a lifetime sport; not only does it demand athletic strength, it also requires chess-like strategy.

I leave my first fencing experience relatively unscathed; I'm nursing a sore bicep and a bruise the size of an epee point on my shin from a well-placed counterattack. But physical pain doesn't even register with me at the moment - I'm too busy beaming at the new skills I just acquired, if only at the most basic level. Ten-year-old Emma Tim, of Bellevue, shares my mindset.

"I think it's really fun," she says. "It's a lot of work, but it's worth it."