It dates back hundreds of years and is known as the sport of aristocrats, but fencing still attracts a strong following today. Moath bin Hafez, a television producer at Dubai Media Incorporated, speaks about what attracted him to the sport and why it is not as easy as it looks.
How did you get into fencing?
I was between jobs so, you know sometimes when you're not working you kind of feel a void? You feel that you need to do something, because I'm the kind of person who works a lot. So when you suddenly lose all of that you feel a kind of emptiness. I was looking online and I found a link to the fencing club and I decided to go and check it out.
Why fencing?
I haven't played much sport since high school, but what I did remember that I enjoyed one-on-one competitive games more than football. I used to enjoy running. The idea kind of interested me and to be honest I thought it was an easy sport.
And is it easy?
Not at all. First of all, there's a lot of technique involved. Like any other sport you need to be really fit to play it. Other than that there are very specific techniques you need like ways of defending, ways of attacking. The first days of classes were very hard and I felt that they were very demanding. They didn't let me play first time. They let me practice the techniques first, moving forwards and moving backwards, and then they allowed me to play.
It looks dangerous.
The tip of the sword is not sharp. It's more like a radio antennae. It can still injure without proper equipment. It's a lot of fun, but the first few games for me … to be honest with you I was very scared. When someone tried to attack me I would go away. I was scared of getting hurt. Even with the proper clothing you can still get a lot of bruises. Also I used to get very tired because you have to step forward and step back on a regular basis, but after a few days you kind of get used to it and don't get tired anymore. Even the pain becomes a minor annoyance.
How often did you practice when you weren't working?
I used to go twice a week and now I think it's been about three years since I took it up. I still go now but sometimes when I'm busy I can't make it. My job is my priority. It's a lot of fun, but I would need many more lessons until I became an advanced player. It's one of those things that is easy to get into but it's really hard to master.
Have you managed to get many of your friends and colleagues into it?
I tried to get some of them in. Some of them quit for different reasons. Maybe I got people who weren't really into sports, so it was a bit had to get into. Some of my friends didn't want to continue because they felt it was too delicate. They wanted to just slash away with the sword and the instructor said you can't just keep slashing away. You have to earn your points.
* Gillian Duncan
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