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New Schedule Starts August 1

Weekly schedule for fencing classes at Houston Sword Sports

This will be the new schedule for Houston Sword Sports @ The Zone starting on August 1, 2017.

We recently unveiled a new, expanded schedule for our club now that we have our own facility. We got some great feedback on that schedule, and have made some more changes thanks to your input. Above is the latest version of our new schedule. Keep reading to find out more about the class changes!

Classes for Kids

Our three existing kids’ classes will stay the same. Tuesdays at 6 at the Bellaire Rec, Thursdays at 6 at the Zone, and Saturdays at 10 at the Zone. These are open to kids ages 6-12 and are beginner-focused.

For kids ages 8-12 with some fencing experience, we’re adding new classes.

  • Mondays from 5:30-7: Youth Epee Class
  • Wednesdays from 5:30-7: Youth Foil/Saber Class
  • Saturdays from 10-11:30: Youth Three-Weapon Class

These classes will be longer and focus on improving weapon-specific skills. If you have always wanted to try a new weapon, or if you want to perfect your technique in the weapon you already know, come to one of these classes!

Classes for Teens and Adults

Here we’re making some major changes, by opening the weapon-specific classes open to both teens and adults. This will open these classes to more people, and give teens a chance to practice against adult fencers they’ll face in senior competitions.

  • Mondays from 7-8: Teen & Adult Epee Class
  • Wednesdays from 7-8: Teen & Adult Foil/Saber Class
  • Saturdays from 11:30-1: Teen & Adult Three-Weapon Class

Like the new youth classes, these will focus on weapon-specific skills.

Open Bouting Sessions

If you’re gearing up to become a competitive fencer, classes are important but you also need a chance to work on those new skills on strip! Open bouting sessions combine two age groups, since tournament classifications don’t exactly follow the age groupings we’re using. This gives you a chance to fence against a wide variety of skill levels and ages, just like you would in a real tournament.

Homeschool Classes

We are starting a brand-new homeschool fencing program on September 5. This class is open to ages 6 and up and will be held at the same time as the afternoon adult fencing classes. Learn more and sign up for the homeschool fencing email list here.

Classes for Beginners

We only have one dedicated beginner class for adults and teens, not pictured on the schedule above. It meets Tuesdays from 7:30-9 at the Bellaire Rec Center. If that time doesn’t work for you, come during any of the other practices and one of our coaches will help get you started. You can also sign up for one of our monthly free beginner classes!

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New, Permanent Houston Sword Sports Location at The Zone!

Fencing at the first practice we held in our new location.

If you’ve been following our Facebook, you’ll know that for the past couple of months we’ve been working on building out a new permanent location for Houston Sword Sports. It’s not fully done yet, but it’s done enough – we started holding classes there on Saturday! Today, Monday, April 17, most of our class schedule will move to the new location for good.

Here’s the schedule at the new place:

We will still have Tuesday classes at the Bellaire Rec Center! Youth Fencing, Tuesdays from 6-7, will stay the same as it has been. We will also have a class for adult and teen beginners from 7:30-9, taking the place of the old class. If you are an experienced fencer over 18 who likes to fence on Tuesdays, come to the Zone. If you are new to fencing and over 13, come to the Bellaire Rec on Tuesdays. Confused? Just email Liz@HoustonSwords.com and she’ll set you up.

Why we’re excited

We get to set our own schedule. For the rest of the spring we’ll keep basically the same schedule, because we know you have set aside specific times for you or your kid to fence. But when we are ready to set our own schedule, we don’t have to work around room availability at all.

We have a lot more space. We don’t have all the scoring machines set up yet but we do have eight strips, as opposed to the maximum of four before. The strip lines are painted on the floor, so now we can enforce rules about staying on strip! We’ll have room to do private lessons during classes. Folks also have room for their bags.

We have a permanent place to store gear that isn’t Coach Liz’s garage. In between classes, we can hang up the gear to let it air out. In the bad old days (last week) everything went into a bag for at least an hour or two before we hung it up. You’ll smell the difference.

Most – not all – of the equipment. Swords not shown.

What’s still to come

A nice entryway. Our raised plywood floor presents some challenges, so we’re going to make sure that the entryway looks nice and allows people with bags and in wheelchairs easy access. We saved the entryway for last so we’d have somewhere to play with saws and polyurethane without having to protect any floor we planned to keep.

Overhead reels, more scoring machines, repeater lights. We’ll be able to run eight strips all at once. It’ll be a little snug but better than waiting on the sidelines for a strip to open up!

More furniture. We are still assembling everything we need, especially for the office, coaches’ lounge, and armory. We also need benches and other seating, shelves for gear storage, and a counter for the reception area.

More branding. Ordered big stickers with our logo today! We need a directional sign for the street and some signs for inside The Zone, too.

Building this club has been a labor of love. It’s a lot of work, but now the payoff is here. Come see us! Register on our Classes page today!

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