Learning to Fence: No Experience Necessary

Fridays: every half-hour from 4:00 - 6:00 pm. Ages 8 - Adult
Saturdays: every half-hour from 12:00 pm - 3:00 pm. Ages 8 - Adult
Additional times may be available. Contact us via email for more information.

Presidio Fencing Club welcomes you to experience Olympic fencing at Santa Barbara’s first full-time fencing studio by scheduling a private lesson with a coach. In each lesson we will introduce and review the basic elements of modern swordplay, including movement and footwork, elementary bladework, strategy, and simple sparring. Lessons build upon one another with a constantly advancing curriculum, and students can continue to take lessons until they feel comfortable enough with the material to join one of the group classes (between 5 and 10 lessons for the typical student). We provide a checklist of skills so that students can keep track of their own progress. Of course, a single lesson can be taken to simply "try out" the sport, and all the basic equipment is provided.

Introductory lessons are 20 minutes in length and cost $15/each. Multiple lessons can be arranged, back to back, depending on the availability of the coach. Many beginners take 2 or 3 lessons in a single visit to the club. Pre-paying for 10 lessons in advance decreases the per-lesson cost. Unused lessons may be applied to group classes.

To the right we have listed some of the skills taught in our introductory lessons. We prefer for fencers to have a basic understanding of each of these concepts before moving on to one of our other group classes. This list should also be helpful for those who have fenced before but might be new to Presidio. If you are unfamiliar with any of these ideas, then you should probably take some introductory lessons for a refresher.