Welcome to my fencing page. For those unfamiliar with the modern sport of fencing, I've prepared a brief overview.

I started fencing on epee in 8th grade, by attending practices with my brother at his high school. Since my high school did not have a fencing team, I didn't fence again until sophomore year of college, when I was recruited to direct a competition. Then, the team found out that I could fence epee, and they were having particular difficulty with tall epees. So I agreed to help them out, at first just by giving them practice against a tall epee, then by giving advise, then by more actively coaching.

I was offered the position of epee captain my junior year, but since I always thought I'd rather fence saber, I did that instead (switching back to epee on occasion). While I definitely enjoyed fencing saber, I only did it for one year because I had such bad form that I damaged my knees. So the following year I went back to epee, and served as epee captain for the team. This was a great experience because it put me in a position of leadership, in which I learned a lot about how to teach people, and how to inform them of weaknesses while still being constructive.

Jeff Marston, 1997