I wrote a Hub some time ago about sport and in it I mentioned that I was just going back to Fencing after some 15 years off. Well someone put a comment on that Hub the other day which prompted me to write this:

Quick background:

I was 12 years old and did swimming on Saturday morning because my mother had been a swimmer and I was quite good at it. Then someone told me that 12 was too old for a swimmer to start thinking about the Olympics so perhaps I should try another sport if that is was I wanted. The other sport available at the time was fencing....

I fell in love with the sport the very first time I went and so began a new life of pain, joy, travel and friends all around the World. I reached my highest point in 1976 as a member of the British Olympic Squad and in line for selection for the Montreal Olympics - I just missed out on selection.

This was before the huge investments of government funding into training elite athletes that we have today. In those days we were still amateurs in every way - I had to fit my training and competing in around my work. At least I was lucky enough to have an employer who was supportive!

I decided that life had more to offer than spending every spare moment, training, travelling and competing so I took the opportunity to move to Australia - seems a bit radical now but at the time it made perfect sense, and still does, I do not regret a minute of it.

Within a few short months I sent back to England for my fencing gear, to hook up with the fencers in Australia meant meeting people who had the same warped brain as me and with whom I instantly had stuff in common.

I rose in the ranks in Australia and won the National Championships in 1988 while also representing Australia a couple of times. In 1988 I also managed to snap my achilles which effectively brought my fencing career to an end as I had a found a lot of other things to fill my time during the 10 months it took for my injury to be fully recovered.

While I kept in touch with a few friends I essentially lost touch with the fencing world.

Fast Forward to 2007:

Late in 2007 I got a phonecall out of the blue from an old fencing friend in England. She and her husband were coming out to Australia to fence in the Veteran World Fencing Champhionships so did I want to catch up with them while they were here?

It was 30 years since I had left England and yet we picked up the conversation almost mid-sentence! I went along to watch the fencing and was stunned by the number of faces from my past that I recognised - and then, of course, the old competitive spirit re-emerged: "I could beat most of these people then, so why can't I still beat them now? - if they can still do it then so can I"

It looked like I was hooked again. No point in fighting it, I came home and started planning for the next Veteran World Fencing Championships in Limoges, France in October 2008.

The journey back:

Remember that at this point I had spent 15 years or so growing a stomach and while I did excercise a bit I was far from fit in any way or shape! So it was hardly suprising that when I pulled my old jacket out of the cupboard I found that it had obviously shrunk somewhat and I couldn't even get the two sides of the zip to even wave at each other, let alone join up!

My next step was to turn to my friend Helen, a three time Olympian for Australia who now ran her own club and who has frequently suggested that I get back to fencing. Imagine her suprise and delight when I finally said I would and asked her if she would be my coach?

Fencing is be described as physical chess - so training involves physical fitness and agility as well as mental agility to see and analyse so that you can react at lightning speed to what is going on. Having a lesson with your coach is the critical part of practicing point accuracy and setting up different scenarios to train you to react the right way. The other part of training is to have lots and lots of 'fights' so you can practice those moves and learn to see different situations in combat conditions. Like all sports, your muscles develop 'memory' so they react without you have to think about it particularly.

My first lesson was an interesting process of discovery. I discovered that my hand (and therefore control of my weapon) was still very quick. I discovered that my brain could still see opening and know what to do but that my body was pitifully slow at responding and I discovered how agonisingly painful it is on the thighs to be in the 'on guard' position!

I puffed and panted my way through this lesson in the middle of an Australian summer but the sheer exhilaration I felt at having actually made this first step was quite intoxicating. All I had done was drag my fat and sweaty body through 30 minutes of torture but I felt great!! It took me 30 minutes to drive home and another 20 minutes to get my then cooled and stiffened muscles to move enough for me to get out of the car....

This pattern continued for a few weeks while I 'eased' back into the sport - there was no point in fighting any bouts yet and, anyway, I was still waiting for new gear to arrive from overseas.

I will never forget the first real bout I attempted with one of the guys from the club. We got into all the gear, connected to the electrical recording equipment and I was excited until I realised that I had no idea what I was doing!!! It is a strange feeling and difficult to explain but imagine standing up to get from A to B and discovering that you don't know which foot to lift first.

This from a person who was an elite competitor - no matter how illogical, I automatically expected to pick up where I left off ...

Not long after that I entered my first competition, just a small local one - this was to be a good test of where I stood. Wearing my brand new super strength jacket I zipped myself in and - discovered I could barely breathe!!! Trying the jacket on in the calm of home does not allow for the shortness of breath caused by nerves. I had also ordered the jacket a little tight knowing that I was losing weight and would 'shrink' into it!

A very red faced creature wheezed her way through the competition, won a few bouts and lost a few - then took about three days before I could walk normally again. Oh yes, I got third place!!

So the whole of this year has continued, I won't bore you with all the details but I will say that I have lost more and more weight and I can now breathe in my jacket, I can do a 50 minute lesson with relative ease and I train 4 days a week either fighting bouts or doing controlled lesson work. I have muscle definition that I thought I would never see again and everyone I know comments on how good I am looking - not just physically but happier too.

Each day I make interesting discoveries: I no longer pant when I have to bend down and do my shoelaces up; I can put my socks on standing up again; I can run with the dog; I can analyse what an opponent is doing and react accordingly again; I sleep better and wake up more refreshed....

I can now get out of the car after training without pain and I do not wake up the morning after feeling stiff and bent.

I am absolutely loving it!!!

I do all my training with the young up and coming fencers even though I compete in the Veteran classification (50 years and older). When I first started training with them they pretty much wiped the floor with me, nowadays they still mostly beat me but I am starting to make them work for it and the margin is getting smaller. I figure if I can mix it with the young guns then I will be OK when I have to fence against the other Veterans.

In May of this year I won my first Veteran National Competition and I even came 13th in the Open event (which included the aformentioned young guns). I have now been selected to represent Australia at the Veteran World Fencing Championships in Limoges, France in October of this year!

Am I nervous? Yes of course I am. But I am also quietly confident that I have done the training and work to give me a reasonable chance of doing well and one advantage of age is that I will be happy if I know I have done the best I can no matter what the result.

Can I win? I really don't know because I haven't been around to see who is who. Veteran fencing is very strong in Europe so I think I will be challenged but then I have the advantage of all those years behind me. If I make it to the top 16 I will be happy, if I make it to the top 8 I will be delighted. If I make it to the top 4 I would be over the moon but also would expect myself to then win. But if I don't then there is always next year when the Veteran World Championships are due to be in Moscow.

So spare me a thought on Sunday the 4th of October which is the day of my event and I will report back....