The action is intense on the sixth\u00a0floor of 295 Front Street in Brooklyn, at the Brooklyn Bridge Fencing Club.<\/p>\n
\u201cKeep moving, Eva, be brave,\u201d head coach and owner of the club Dan Kellner said to 9-year-old Eva Shang of Manhattan, who is training with 12-year-old Genevieve Murphy of Brooklyn.<\/p>\n
What You Need To Know<\/p>\n
Brooklyn Bridge Fencing Club has been around since 2010
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The club recently moved into a new facility in DUMBO, Brooklyn
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It is owned by former U.S. Olympian and Olympic Team Coach Dan Kellner\u00a0<\/p>\n
Kellner is a former U.S. Olympian and Olympic team coach for the U.S. and Great Britain, and is also a U.S. Fencing Hall of Famer. He started the club in 2010.<\/p>\n
Fencing is not quite a sword fight from \u201cGame of Thrones\u201d or a lightsaber battle out of \u201cStar Wars,\u201d Kellner says it\u2019s a tactical game of cat and mouse.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s some rules you have to follow, so it\u2019s much more fun and easier to think about it as a game of tag with metal sticks,\u201d Kellner said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The club recently moved into a new, expansive space in DUMBO, a few blocks from its former location.<\/p>\n
It has nice views of Manhattan and Brooklyn, but more importantly, there are 20 \u201cstrips\u201d for fencing bouts, with the athletes wearing masks for safety and attached to an electronic scoring system.<\/p>\n
A grey vest called the lam\u00e9, worn by each athlete, is the key to whether there is valid or invalid contact during a bout.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s all through the wiring system. There\u2019s a button on the foil and the wire goes down the foil. It\u2019s connected to a socket, goes down a fencer\u2019s arm and down their back,\u201d Kellner said.<\/p>\n
When he was a member of the U.S. Olympic Team in 2004, he led the squad to a fourth-place finish, the highest in 56 years. His students have also won numerous national and international medals, including a bronze medal at the 2016 Olympics and a silver medal at the 2019 World Championships.<\/p>\n
Students at Brooklyn Bridge Fencing Club range in age from five to 18 and love the sport for a variety of reasons. Isla Stewart is 15-years-old and has been fencing for three years. Her mother, aunts and uncles fenced in college.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s separated from all the other sports, which is nice, and when people see you do it, they are like, whoa,\u201d Stewart said.<\/p>\n
Nael Guilloteau, 8, has already been at it for a year and four months, and first started getting into fencing after seeing it at the Olympics.<\/p>\n
\u201cI like how it\u2019s a real challenge. It\u2019s not easy,\u201d Guilloteau\u00a0said.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s a sport that Kellner says is safe and gets kids recruited to colleges, among other positives.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s so good at self-reliance, confidence, problem-solving and creativity,\u201d Kellner said.<\/p>\n