Durkan Fencing Academy’s Girl’s & Women’s Program
In the 2020-21 fencing season we began offering a weekly Girls Class for our female fencing students. Currently about two-thirds of USA fencing members are males, so we wanted to provide our female fencers with a special program for them to learn about Women’s Fencing, leadership, and confidence. Classes include: video analysis of women’s fencing, discussions about training and competing in fencing as a girl, female only bouting practice and character building activities from Harvard’s Making Caring Common Project.
For more information, please email Amy@durkanfencing.com or call 201-880-7029.
We are developing young women into the leaders of tomorrow, who can take on challenges with confidence. The World is changing and more and more young adults will be evaluated on their character and life experiences, rather than cognitive measures of success.
Real success is developing champions in life for our world, win or lose.
Winning does not always equal success. All across America and around the world, we have a crisis in the win-at-all-cost cultures that we have created. In our schools, in our businesses, in politics, winning at all cost has become acceptable. As a society, we honor the people at the top of the pyramid. We effusively applaud those people who win championships and elections and awards. But sadly, quite often, those same people are leaving their institutions as damaged human beings. Sadly, with straight A's, kids are leaving school damaged. With awards and medals, athletes often leave their teams damaged, emotionally, mentally, not just physically. And with huge profits, employees often leave their companies damaged. We have become so hyperfocused on that end result, and when the end result is a win, the human component of how we got there often gets swept under the proverbial rug, and so does the damage.
As parents, as coaches, as leaders, we can no longer lead from a place where winning is our only metric of success, where our ego sits center stage, because it has been proven that that process produces broken human beings. And I emphatically know that it is absolutely possible to produce and train champions in life in every single walk of life without compromising the human spirit.
— Valorie Kondos Field, Head Coach of UCLA Women’s Gymnastics Team
Women’s Fencing Competitions at Durkan Fencing Academy
Friday, October 8th - Div 3 Women’s Sabre (fencers rated D, E, U only; born 2008 or earlier)
Saturday October 23rd - Durkan Youth Cup #2 (Y12 at 2pm, Y14 at 4pm)
Friday, November 12th - Unrated Women’s Sabre (fencers unrated/ U rating only; born 2008 or earlier)