<p>I am looking for a good summer fencing camp for my son (8th grader now). He fences at his local fencing club and has a private local coach. In order to use fencing to give a lift for college admission, I am thinking maybe he needs to use summer time to be trained by the top coaches in the nation. Anyone has any idea whether that kind of camp exists and where? Thanks.</p>
<p>Well, other than asking your son’s coaches, I would look at the rankings of D1 schools for fencing. </p>
<p>1 Ohio State 1
2 Princeton 4
3 St. John’s 3
4 Notre Dame 5
5 Penn State 2
6 Harvard 6
7 Pennsylvania 7
8 Duke 10
9 Columbia 8
10 Sacred Heart 9</p>
<p>Of these, Penn (ages 14-18), [Fencing</a> Camp at Penn](<a href=“http://www.fencingcampatpenn.com/]Fencing”>http://www.fencingcampatpenn.com/)
Princeton (ages 12-18), [2012</a> Summer Sports Camps | Princeton University Sports Camps | Princeton, NJ](<a href=“http://www.princetonsportscamps.com/summer.htm]2012”>http://www.princetonsportscamps.com/summer.htm)
Penn State (entering gr. 6-12) [Penn</a> State University Official Athletic Site - Camps](<a href=“http://www.gopsusports.com/camps/fencing-camp.html]Penn”>http://www.gopsusports.com/camps/fencing-camp.html)
are in your geographical area and offer summer camps in fencing.</p>
<p>Here’s a link to some camps: [Camps</a> | U.S. Olympic Events | USA Fencing](<a href=“http://usfencing.org/events/tag/3827]Camps”>http://usfencing.org/events/tag/3827)</p>
<p>Finding the best camp for your son will depend on several variables, such as which weapon he fences, his current understanding of strategy and tactics, and his current skill level.</p>
<p>As an 8th grader, he’s probably transitioning from Y14 to cadet about now. If he can achieve/maintain a national ranking at the cadet level his recruiting prospects will be good.</p>
<p>If you want to post his weapon and an idea of his current skill level, I’ll try to give you more specific advice.</p>
<p>Good luck.</p>
<p>My son plays foil. He started fencing when he was 4th grade at school club, did that for 2 years. He took private lessons with the same coach during middle school. His first tournament was a couple weeks ago Y14, but did not do well due to nervousness. We will definitely have him do more tournaments in the future. His fencing coach is the state champion this year and 2009. Does this mean he has a good coach? Is it easy to improve from an unrated at 8th grade to A at junior year? If he goes to Princeton for summer camp and does not do too well there, will that eliminate him from entering Princeton 4 years from now? Thanks.</p>
<p>Sherpa: From the link you provided, I saw several camps at NJ or NY. Which ones are good? I am also considering Princeton. Is it safe to have my son sleep over night at the camp or I should have him sleep at my friend’s house (they are willing to provide transportation for my son.)?</p>
<p>
Not necessarily. A better measure of a coach’s ability is the results of their students. I’d inquire if the coach has developed other fencers into college recruits.
Not easy at all. Almost unheard of.
No. The Princeton camp isn’t structured as a “try out” for the team. The Princeton coach recruits primarily based on USFA national rankings and his observations of top fencers at national events. Doing poorly or well at the Princeton camp would be largely irrelevant.
Nothing to worry about. Princeton is very safe. The campers are housed in dorms and are supervised by members of the Princeton fencing team. The Princeton fencers don’t participate much in the camp itself, though.
That will be different for every fencer. The Mission Fencing Center camp with Buckie Leach will be good, but only for the advanced foilist. The Fencing Academy of South Jersey camps might be better for your son. They have good coaches, too. It’s hard for me to say what will be best for your son.</p>
<p>He is unrated right now since he has not participated in many tournaments. Could it be possible that he is good just not been “rated”? I can not imagine he could be too bad since he started fencing at 4th grade, has had private lessons for 3 years and was told being “very talented in fencing” by his coach. He is my first child and I regret that I did not know better and did not put him to more tournament earlier. Do most kids have to be A rated in order to be recruited by Ivies or Duke type of colleges? If so, then it goes his chance to be athletic recruits 
His coach had sent kids to St John’s I believe. Does this mean anything? W are in a town, fencing is not popular. We ran into fencing because his elementary school had the club and he loved it.</p>
<p>For HYPS, you’re son would probably need to be “A” rated and highly nationally ranked. For most other colleges most recruits are "A"s and "B"s, but there are exceptions. The majority of recruits at the schools you’re targeting will be very experienced, as in competing on the national circuit for 5 plus years.</p>
<p>Sherpa: Do you mean he has to be not only "A’ rated but also highly nationally ranked, meaning “A” rated and top ranked among A fencers?</p>
<p>You may want to look at the roster of some of the schools you are inquiring about and google some of the fencers.
E.g. there are only three male freshmen on the Princeton team, all of whom were on the national team, competing internationally. See also
[The</a> Herald-Sun - Former Olympian finds her own way](<a href=“http://www.heraldsun.com/view/full_story/18061965/article-Former-Olympian-finds-her-own-way]The”>http://www.heraldsun.com/view/full_story/18061965/article-Former-Olympian-finds-her-own-way).</p>
<p>I see. Read the link. I was too naive after reading some posts on CC that fencing is one of the niche sports to be recruited by colleges. I did find a great fencing coach who won Olympian and a former coach at Penn State who lives only 1.5 hrs from us. Will still take my S to her starting next week and see what happens, but maybe Rowing will be much easier to be recruited. Any thoughts on that?</p>
<p>Yes, rowing is much ‘easier’ in the sense that you can start in 9th grade and be recruitable two years later. However, it is a very tough sport, and, of course, the question is whether your son would like it. You can’t do something 20-30 hours/week plus competitions on weekends if you don’t truly enjoy it. On the other hand, he may love it. You could have him try a summer camp. There are many good programs in DC and Philadelphia.</p>
<p>D1 rankings and fencing camps really don’t have anything to do with one another,</p>
<p>suppose the school offers a camp and the foil coach(who doubles as a national coach) for some other country is off training his olympic hopeful–is that a camp you want little junior to attend when foil is his weapon? Now, granted we attended the camps of the top national programs and we managed to medal in National event after we attended those camps, but we also didn’t fence or touch a weapon pior to either event. We did the camps, threw or gear in the bag and let it sit until SN 09, & SN10 and we had success, now was it because of the camps or because we just rested and didn’t take it as seriously as we did in the past? I don’t know camps can be beneficial for certain competitive fencers otherwise it’s just great having fun on campus for a week.</p>
<p>Integrity Fencing in Chatham NJ is pretty good. Check out their summer program
<a href=“http://www.integrityfencing.com/#!summer-programs/c14t0”>http://www.integrityfencing.com/#!summer-programs/c14t0</a></p>