Every Friday afternoon for the past few months, about 20 P.S. 340 students gather in the school cafeteria to learn the art and sport of fencing. Taught by an elite coach who has competed both nationally and internationally, the Kingsbridge Heights public school students are learning the basic terminology and footwork associated with the combat sport, all while donning impressive, protective fencing gear and getting to handle a sword, for fun!

 

The school’s new fencing program was made possible by Amy Turchiaro, the school’s psychologist, who pushed to find a way to bring fencing to the students. “A long time ago, I wanted fencing in the schools because it’s equity, you know?” she said. “I mean [in] inner city schools….these children don’t have an opportunity [to try fencing] because it’s expensive.”

 

Turchiaro belongs to the Tim Morehouse Fencing CAlub, located on the Upper West Side of Manhattan. She fenced as a kid and in college, but dropped the sport in her adult life. She started fencing again a little over two years ago right before the pandemic hit when she looked into attending adult classes. Since then, she’s taken classes both virtually and in person, and has even been to a few tournaments.

 

“I love it,” Turchiaro said. “It’s just an amazing sport and so, I’m so thrilled that these kids are having an opportunity to be a part of it. Maybe some will do it again, maybe some won’t, but when they all grow up, if they decide to go to college, and if they offer fencing in the college; you never know! They may just jump right in and say, ‘Hey! I did that when I was a kid!’”

According to the Academy of Fencing Masters Blog and contrary to what is depicted in Hollywood movies, in modern fencing, the blade of the sword is not sharp. The tip is flat and is protected by a rubber cushion or metal button. The foil, the lightest sword type at 500 grams, used by beginners, also bends under pressure, reducing the physical impact of a target “touch” on an opponent’s body. Scores are awarded when an opponent is “touched” on the torso with the flat tip of the sword. This is also the origin of the phrase “Touché!” meaning “touched,” often heard in movies.

 

According to Olympics.com, fencing demands speed, anticipation, reflexes, and great mental strength. The footwork involved is not unlike that used by a boxer. In addition to the foil sword, heavier swords include the épée and the sabre, which have different compositions, techniques and scoring target areas on the body.

 

According to Turchiaro, the kids have a half hour after school to eat a snack and do homework, which they must show they’ve completed before getting “en garde” for their fencing class. As many may also recognize from watching movies like “Pirates of the Caribbean,” en garde is French for “on guard,” and is the expression uttered by referees to instruct fencers to get into position before combat begins.

 

Right now, the school doesn’t have enough equipment for every single student, so half the kids work with a coach while wearing the available protective equipment and handling the available swords, while other kids practice their footwork and fencing moves with another instructor. After half an hour, the kids switch for a further 30 minutes.

 

Turchiaro said the school plans to have a tournament on site at the end of the academic year for the students to show off what they’ve learned. One student named Donik said he wanted to join the club because he’d tried karate and martial arts before and was always interested in being an athlete. “I’ve learned how to parry,” he said, referring to a particular technique whereby a fencer blocks an opponent’s attack using the sword, as opposed to retreating backwards to avoid the attacker’s advance.

 

“I learned the movement, the stances, how to avoid my opponents attacks, and how to attack my opponents,” Donik said. Another student, Jayda, said she learned how to lunge (a forward thrusting movement used when attempting to touch the torso of an opponent with the sword), retreat, and recover. She’s excited for the competition at the end of the year. Yet another student, Kamila, said she joined fencing because she thought it would be a fun way to exercise.

Turchiaro said some of the kids have shown real talent and she wants to refer them to a fencing school that has a more affordable sliding fee scale. She had wanted to bring fencing into the schools for a long time and started talking about it with Huey Tan, another member at the Tim Morehouse Fencing Club.

 

Tan, a senior vice president at Signature Bank, informed Turchiaro that her company had a grant that the school could apply for to help fund its fencing program. The two applied for the grant and won $10,000 to pay for a coach and equipment for the kids.

 

“It’s a very generous grant to start off from nothing,” Tan told Norwood News. “I think the important thing is really the idea was there. Amy loves fencing. She has always wanted to give something to the school because fencing typically is a sport that is very expensive and she loved the school so much, and then my bank happened to have special grants.”

Tan volunteers with Turchiaro every Friday after school, and assists the coach, Luka Oboladze, with the kids. Oboladze works as a coach at the Tim Morehouse club but agreed to come to the school because he loves working with kids and knows many of them cannot afford to take classes at the club. “Then, you see the smile when you see they do a good job and you feel happy about it,” he said. “When you see they’re making a result, they’re growing up, they’re learning, and you’re helping them; it’s part of your job. It’s just a wonderful feeling.”

 

Turchiaro said aside from finding funding and an instructor, the school also had to get the program approved by the New York City Department of Education (DOE) and the school’s administration. Once they won the grant, they were able to get the money to the DOE and took the summer of 2021 to complete the necessary paperwork.

 

“The principal, the assistant principal, they have been so supportive and so helpful” Tuchiaro said. “I’ve been a lunatic and they put up with my craziness! This is an incredible school though. It’s a little bit of an unusual school. It’s like a real family here. They’re so open and just loving people.”

Turchiaro explained that when the school initially sent out a general sign-up form, they ended up receiving a lot more interest than they had anticipated, and couldn’t take everyone on in the first round but are hoping to have more sessions in the future.

 

Aundree Noriega, assistant principal at P.S. 340, said to gauge interest, at the end of the last school year, they showed a fencing video to the students of a young student from New Jersey, and another of a man and a woman competing in the Olympics. After the video, Turchiaro told the kids that fencing was something they could aspire to doing, and that just because it was expensive and an elite sport, it didn’t mean it was something they couldn’t try.

 

They sent out feelers to the students and had 40 kids say they were interested. This year, they sent out the permission slips and got back 200 applications for 20 spots in the current season, which is running for 10 weeks. The goal is to bring in a new group of students in in the next season.

 

Alexei Nichols, principal of P.S. 340, said there were not many fencing programs in The Bronx, and that Turchiaro was excited when she approached them about the idea. “She was very persistent, and she came to us, and we were like, ‘Absolutely! Like….make it happen!’” said Nichols.

Turchiaro said the kids are loving the club and that it is helping them to learn perseverance and persistence, to be more attentive, and to follow directions. “It’s just been great to see,” she said. “They didn’t realize how hard it was going to be. They’re like, ‘Oh, like our muscles are sore! I don’t know if I can do this!’ We had to give them a little pep talk because those mats are heavy. The gear is a little uncomfortable, and they have to really position themselves properly, and you know, ‘On guard! Advance! Retreat!’ There’s a lot of language that they’re using.”

 

Noriega said fencing is also helping the students apply the skills they learn in the class during the school day. Meanwhile, Nichols said a few students joined the first session and decided the sport wasn’t for them. She said the majority, however, accepted the pep talk and continue to try the sport.

 

She added that the kids are required to do their work, be a good citizen, and be respectful during the day in order to attend fencing class after school. She said more kids have been behaving because they want to attend the class.

Meanwhile, Nichols said, “We always say, “healthy body, healthy mind, healthy mind, happy kid!’ The more they can become fit and work their muscles, and learn about how to become fit, the more they feel good about themselves. We are huge on wellness, and this is a program that fits into that.”

 

Nichols and Noriega also agree that it’s all about access and exposure for the kids. “We always say even though we’re a public school, we want kids to get the same exposure as you would in a private school and have the same opportunity,” Noriega added.

 

For Turchiaro, she said fencing opens doors for kids, like international travel for tournaments and college scholarships. Noriega echoed this, adding that there are many opportunities for high school and college scholarships if any of the kids continued the sport on their own. “Anything that makes a kid smile that much with a sword in their hand, it’s got to be worth something,” she said.

 

*Síle Moloney contributed to this story.