Junior Amanda Lai placed 6th in Division 2 Women’s “Epee” Fencing Nationals in Atlantic City, New Jersey on Oct. 4th, 2024, per USAFencing. Lai has fenced for 3 years and currently trains at the Academy of Fencing Masters, she said.
Lai got to the national level by practicing consistently and progressively improving with experience through local tournaments, she said.
The more you do it (fencing), I feel like the more you expect to win because when you expect to win, you want to try better,” Lai said. “Like if you’re looking down on yourself, you’ll be like, oh, it’s because I suck. I have to give up.”
Lai explained general details about fencing, like how fencing has 3 disciplines: Epee, saber, and foil. Lai said that she chose Epee because it was the closest club near her. Lai trained with one coach for two years before switching and training with her current coach for the last year, she said. The switch in coach was due to the first coach getting too old, so he was unable to move well enough in practice and she didn’t have the best relationship with him, Lai said.
“My new coach, he’s like 30, so younger,” Lai said. “And we’re friends; we just talk a lot. It’s a way better dynamic.”
Vivien Maya, Lai’s current coach who trained in France before moving to America, started fencing when he was 8 years old and started coaching around 10 years ago, he said. When asked about Lai’s result, Maya said he wasn’t surprised.
“In the last four months, she, in all competitions, gets great results all the time,” Maya said. “The week before, she won first place in junior. In international, she got place #3 in division 3 women. So, I’m not surprised. She’s good.”
Maya wants Lai to focus on her conditioning to improve further because, in his experience with local French events, there was typically a week between fencing competitions, but this is not the case in America, he said.
“We need to be focused on conditioning and endurance, not technical,” Maya said. “Because the main difference between a win or loss is your conditioning. To repeat the same action and to be ready for 3 long days, we need good conditioning.”
Even local tournaments usually lasted around 6 hours, Lai said, so she recommended that fencing beginners do a ton of physical training, especially for the lower body.
“Sometimes, it’s hard to keep up with the training, so you have to do extra work outside,” Lai said. “You have to make sure not to overtrain; taking breaks is important. It also helps to reset, because it’s [fencing] is more of a mental sport.”
Maya wants Lai and his other students to like training and be able to keep up with fencing in general, as he believes that passion is the key to success in fencing, he said.
“You need to believe you can win,” Maya said. “The students need to believe that what they do is good. If the students don’t have a passion for fencing, they can’t get very far. Maybe win one tournament or two, but nothing after that.”