SabreCoachKate podcast

Nikki Franke began her illustrious fencing career her last year in high school; she really enjoyed the combative mental aspect of it and threw herself in wholeheartedly. She attended Brooklyn College and trained with Denise O'Connor. Eventually the two became Olympic teammates. Desirous of a graduate degree, she went to Temple University to serve as the TA of fencing thanks to prodding from another great American fencer: Sharon Everson; eventually she became the Head Coach there. She holds many titles and honors; perhaps the greatest one being Fencing Legend with a capital "F" and "L".

Listen as Dr. Franke explains the need for more fencing exposure for inner city youth. She'll explain how training for the Olympics back then differed from today. You'll hear what she looks for in a recruit and her vision for a college-level fencing team. She'll also give advice on how an athlete should choose which college to attend. And she'll regale you with stories from driving through the blizzard at the Richmond NAC with her Team as well as tell you their favorite part about traveling together.

This is an interview you do not want to miss!

Back in September of 2018, I had the distinct pleasure of interviewing Stacey Johnson. Then life got in the way (mostly moving to our new club space) and I haven't had a chance to edit it until now. I had forgotten just how much insight Ms. Johnson shared, not just about fencing but about perseverance and teamwork, skills that she used to great effect in both her professional and athletic endeavors.

Ms. Johnson started her athletic career on the back of a horse, then got involved in fencing at the age of 13 when the Pentathletes at Fort Sam Houston in San Antonio asked her to attend a tournament and help keep time and score. For three solid months she was terrible at fencing until the fateful day her coach exasperatedly switched the foil to her left hand….less than four years later she made the Junior World Team. You'll hear her talk about what it was like to be on the Olympic Team the year President Carter boycotted the Games.

She was very successful in her own fencing career but then used it as a springboard to promote Women's Sabre and equal access for women and minorities. She became the first woman to complete a four-year term as President of US Fencing and was one of the first women on the Fencing Officials Commission. She'll also talk about her role in getting Women's Sabre into the Olympics, the initial fallout from it, and the eventual success of ALL weapons that stemmed from those medals earned in Athens.

This is a very interesting interview with a very interesting woman: fencer, Valencia College President, San Jose State alum, Olympian, teammate, and advocate. Enjoy!

Terrence Lasker was one of your run-of-the-mill teenagers who wanted a job working with computers someday. When a Magnet high school opened in Kansas City, he jumped at the chance to study in their state-of-the-art computer science program. What he didn't expect was turning that passion into a lifelong love of fencing. After being wooed by the promise of travel to international competitions and thanks to their focus on Olympic sports, Terrence learned from one of the greatest Sabre coaches of all time: Vladimir Nazlymov.

Under Nazlymov's guidance and with the help of teammates such as Jeremy Summers, Terrence became a 5-time national champion, 4-time member of the U.S. National Team and was first alternate for the U.S. Olympic Fencing Team in 1996. He was the assistant fencing coach at Ohio State from 2003-2008 and has been coaching at Nellya Fencers since 2008.

Tune in today to hear the amazing story of a normal, nerdy teenager who became one of Sabre fencing's top athletes and coaches.

Cody Mattern started fencing at age 15 after, believe it or not, an argument with his brother. After only training for two years he became the Junior National Epee Champion, a feat he repeated the following year. He competed at the 2004 Summer Olympics, placing 22nd in Individual and 6th in Team. Next, Cody took part in the US Army's World Class Athlete Program from 2005 to 2012; that final year he was part of the Men's Epee Team that won the World Championships. After all these competitive successes, Cody retired to coach epee full time at the Northwest Fencing Center in Beaverton, Oregon. Tune in today to hear of Cody's journey from teenaged fencing wonder to coach, USAFencing Board Vice President, and Vice Chair of the USOC Athletes Advisory Council.

Lisa Campi Sapery is a woman who has filled pretty much every possible role in our sport: elite college athlete, coach, international referee, referee trainer, club owner, and published author. She is known as the Fencing Referee in various places online, including her YouTube channel, Fencing.net, and Facebook. She started fencing when her sister Barb thought the guy at the recruiting table was cute...and the rest is history. Tune in today to hear more about this history, a life story you will find both inspirational and uplifting.

As a side note, if you're interested in her scouting journals, they are available on Amazon and from several fencing vendors.

Today's episode is the story of David Sach, a man who has represented fencing on two continents, and who you probably know best as the Head Assigner of Sabre at most NACs. You know: the guy with the accent at the big table in the middle of the venue. You just had no idea who he really is!

David holds elite status in the fencing trifecta of competitor, coach, and referee. As a fencer, he won a number of cadet, junior, and senior National titles including a run of 5 back to back Junior National Championships, 2 silver individual medals and a team Gold at the Commonwealth Games. As a coach, he served as a British Fencing World Class Performance Pathway Sabre coach and has helped produce several national champions, World Cup medalists, a Cadet World Champion, and Olympians. And as a referee, he has earned an FIE licence which allowed him to work a couple of Senior World Championships and the 2008 Olympics.

He is currently the Director of Operations at Boston Fencing Club, one of the oldest in the country, and the Head Fencing Coach at Tufts University.

Tune in today to hear him tell you stories about his international life as an athlete, coach, and referee.

David Sierra started fencing at Texas A&M when he needed a PE credit and didn't want to sign up for Advanced Weightlifting or Aerobic Power-walking. Since then, he has worked his way up the referee ranks and is currently the co-owner of Cutting Edge Fencing Center, a Sabre-only club, near Fort Worth, Texas. Listen as he describes what the fencing world was like back when he started in the 90s and the changes he has helped bring to our sport as both a tournament organizer and a member of the US Fencing Board of Directors. He'll also talk about what it's like to start your own fencing club and offers advice to anyone looking to do the same.

Important note: yes, David is my beloved husband. We both decided to pursue this interview from an impersonal, impartial journalistic perspective as much as possible and not as a married couple. This is HIS story, not ours.

Tune in today to hear what David Sierra, an up and coming Sabre coach, club owner, and referee has to say about the history and the future of fencing.

Maureen Griffin decided to start fencing foil at age 14 when she quit the swim team and her dad told her she had 24 hours to find a new sport. Four years later she came to the US on a fencing scholarship at the University of Wisconsin. After her retirement from fencing in 1988, she came back two years later as an epée fencer, eventually earning a spot on the Canadian National Team. Maureen moved to the west coast in 1995 because it was an epée hotspot and seriously focused on her training in San Francisco. That led to a Bronze medal that year in Team Women's Epée at the PanAmerican Games. She lost her berth at the Olympic Games in 1996 by a very small margin and talks about how she overcame that disappointment.

Maureen's transition to coaching started in foil, moved to epée, and culminated with a trip to Hungary to study under legendary Laszlo Szabo. She served as the Junior Women's Epée Coach from 2008-2013.

Maureen has been the owner of Golden Gate Fencing Club in San Francisco for 20 years. She works tirelessly to build a positive team culture there and encourages a healthy competitive environment amongst the athletes. During this interview you'll hear how she does that, as well as her views on the difference between losing and being beaten on the fencing strip.

Tune in today to hear the fencing and coaching career of an extraordinary woman: Maureen Griffin.

Damien Lehfeldt currently coaches epée at the Richmond Fencing Club. His fencing career began when he was a kid, continued through his years at Brandeis, led him to the Maccabi Games and a berth on the DC Fencers Club epee squad that took gold at the 2012 North American Cup, until one fateful day it occurred to him that he loved coaching more than competing.

His website, www.TheFencingCoach.com, earned an award as one of the Top 50 Fencing Blogs at the beginning of 2018. He and his writing team post articles on a variety of topics, ranging from the role of women in fencing to a very personal entry about his recovery from a severe fencing injury. Damien can often be found on Facebook, fencing.net, Reddit, and other forums leading wide-ranging discussions about contemporary societal issues.

Tune in today to listen to one of the thought-leaders of our sport talk about his experiences as a competitive fencer, Olympic epée Coach, blogger, and die-hard Tampa Bay Buccaneers fan: Damien Lehfeldt.

If you say the name "Peet Sasaki" to a group of fencers, they might look at you with a baffled expression on their face... although admittedly for some that's just their natural look. If, however, you ask them who "FRED" is, nearly every single one will be able to give you an answer. The name FRED is as ubiquitous a name to a fencer as HAL is to a sci-fi fan.

FRED is the Fencing Results and Events Database and Peet Sasaki is its creator. It's what *everyone* uses to sign up for local and regional tournaments. Nearly every fencer in this country has an account there. If you do, you have a record of every event you have ever fenced. It's an amazingly huge database. It's currently being phased out by USFencing's new system but will continue in the near future to fulfill the role Peet set out for it from the beginning: 1) To let people pre-register for fencing tournaments in an effort to help both fencers and organizers have a more pleasant experience. Imagine being a tournament organizer and not know exactly how many fencers to expect! Or being a fencer and driving several hours to an event, to discover only three people showed up... 2) Maintaining the record of every bout fenced in every event in every tournament in the country.

FRED helped with those issues and many more.

Tune in today to hear how a glass blower, sculptor, and eventual Google employee became synonymous with fencing tournament.