2023 – fun!

2023 was a year of fun and new things! Here are some highlights:

Skilling up

In January, Imogen and alessandra attended the Sydney International Fencing Camp organised by Bill Ronald OLY and his team, and led by Italian Olympic Coach, Prof. Enrico di Ciolo and Maestra Virginia Di Franco. This intensive 9-day camp hosted fencers and coaches from Australia and overseas, and was an excellent experience of professional development and connecting with others in the wider fencing community. Also in January, NSWFA head coach Antonio Signorello visited MFC to run a development session for our club coaches and training assistants. Our team benefitted from Antonio's high level coaching experience in three weapons, and gained skills and confidence from the session. Later in the year, in order to better support our young fencers (who make up the majority of the Club) MFC organised training for some of our coaches and training assistants to become accredited Youth Mental Health First-Aiders.

Grants

This year we were grateful to receive more support from the State Local Sport Grant Program and from Katoomba and Upper Blue Mountains Community Bendigo Bank Branch. MFC received two grants from the Local Sport Grant Program – one for an additional EnPoint Display set and Relay set to expand our capacity for training and competitions, and one to produce custom teamwear for fencers attending competitions and for accompanying coaches. The scoring gear has been well used all year in training and competing, and a bunch of our volunteers and fencers have begun collaborating on ideas for designs for the teamwear! We also received a grant from Katoomba and Upper Blue Mountains Community Bendigo Bank Branch to improve safety at training and competitions, with three new pistes made from Soft Foot anti-fatigue mat, which provide a sturdy slip-resistant surface and help us organise the space in our venue. At a time when costs are rising, MFC remains committed to offering fencing as an accessible sport, and so we're very grateful for the generosity of these two organisations in helping us provide a high quality fencing experience to our members.

Awards

MFC members have been acknowledged with some special NSWFA awards this year. MFC founder and coach Richard Emmerick was presented with an award for "a career for valuable and consistent support for fencing development in NSW." Andrew Yip and Roy Carter received Grand Prix Awards. MFC secretary, coach, and fencer Andrew Yip received the Grand Prix Champion award for for achievement in Veteran men’s foil, for his competition results across the year. MFC armourer and fencer Roy Carter was awarded Volunteer of the Year for outstanding contribution to NSWFA. Richard, Andrew and Roy contribute so much to MFC, and it's great to see them being acknowledged by our State sporting body for their achievements.

Training and comps

Once again we ran three rounds of the Richard Emmerick Shield, offering competition in three weapons in U14 and Senior categories (round 1, round 2, round 3). We continue to open the senior events to fencers from other clubs and were so pleased to welcome fencers from Penrith Fencing Academy to these events. These connections have been strengthened by MFC fencers heading down to Penrith for some fencing, and some Penrith fencers coming up to MFC. We look forward to the opportunities that this collaboration can bring! This year Coach Imogen introduced a Wednesday training session during the day, for a select group of adult fencers. This initiative was a pilot to establish a space in which Imogen could coach in ways which work for her disability. Although ideally MFC could offer a training environment in which all coaches' and fencers' needs can be met, we're not there yet, and so the new Wednesday session is a space in which Imogen has the freedom to work with select fencers in mutually beneficial ways. For the third year, MFC has run our unique team award, The Grex™. The Grex has been created as a peer-led, collaborative training component which provides a unique way for fencers to work together to improve their game. The Grex runs throughout the year and awards improvement, participation and teamwork. This year it's been a close race, with the winning team to be announced in early 2024!

Team updates

This year we farewelled Dr Imogen Waugh from the committee after four years of service, including two years as president during the challenging COVID-19 years 2020 and 2021. Imogen's contributions in governance have enhanced the Club and we're happy that she's continuing as a member of the coaching team. This year we appointed Steph Tsai as MFC Member Protection Information Officer (MPIO). Our MPIO is the first point of contact for any MFC member to raise concerns or complaints. Steph is trained to hear these concerns and complaints, and to provide information and guidance. Any MFC club member can contact Steph by email or phone. In February, I joined the board of NSWFA in order to contribute to governance in fencing at the State level. In October I was appointed president of NSWFA and look forward to contributing my skills and experience to the role. 

Fun!

Finally, we've had a lot of fun at training this year with Hunger Games-style warmups and lightsabr-ing! Hunger Games warmup was invented by the fencers who attend our Thursday night training, and is an adventure- and obstacle course-based warmup fostering agency, agility, skill, strategy, adaptability, teamwork, and just fun! It's developed with new ideas from the fencers each time it's run, with new configurations, rules, and risk analysis, for participant-led, active learning. Lightsabres were introduced by Coach Ollie (who else?!), and have taken off, with many fencers (including me!) now brandishing our own lightsabres at the club. As well as being ridiculous fun, introducing lightsabre-ing has been a great way to add a new way for people to participate at MFC.

And so, after a restorative break, see you on the piste in 2024!

Dr alessandra wollaston
 (she/they)
President