The Challenges of Fencing at Milton

By Anton Badushov ‘26

Milton Academy offers a variety of sports in the winter season, including mainstream sports like swimming, wrestling, and ice hockey. One sport that needs to be added to the roster is fencing. 

Rooted in European swordsmanship, fencing is a sport in which two athletes compete to score points by striking each other with a weapon. Fencing has three main disciplines—foil, épée, and saber—each with distinct rules. Sabre is the fastest and most aggressive of the three, modeled after cavalry fighting. Points are scored with the entire blade, and valid targets are from the waist up, mimicking the goal of disabling an opponent in a cavalry joust. 

While fencing may appear chaotic and silly to outsiders, saber is often called ‘physical chess’ because it demands quick reflexes, adaptability, and mental sharpness. Milton preaches these same qualities, so it is a mystery why the sport is not offered within the athletic curriculum. 

Fencing as a Milton student requires more time than simply practicing. While Milton hockey players can walk to the ACC to practice, fencers must travel to clubs, often an hour away. For borders like myself, without parents to drive, this means expensive Ubers, costing upwards of $300 per week. Underclassmen face a more significant challenge since practices usually conflict with the mandatory 7-9 pm study hall. Even when exceptions are made to miss a night of study hall, fencers must have all their work complete and be in bed within 30 minutes of returning to the dorm. 

Fencing requires tremendous mental precision, and even missing one week of practice can set a fencer back months of preparation. Milton fencers are always running their practices on a deficit. It is common to see Milton fencers only attend practices on Fridays and Saturdays, compared to the six practices a week a non-Milton fencer attends. 

The infrequent practice schedule also takes a toll on Milton fencers’ mental health. 

When training is limited, it reinforces a damaging belief that the fencer is simply lazy or not working hard enough. The frustration of constantly falling behind his peers despite genuine dedication can lead to feelings of inadequacy and burnout. 

Many fencers struggle to meet the 4.5-hour club sports requirement for a waiver through the Milton athletic department. Milton fencers are not completing the 4.5 hours a week required to pursue a waiver, often due to underclassman study hall and weekly SAA events. The lack of waivers leads Milton fencers to take up an additional sport, which can be physically exhausting. 

I know firsthand how hard it is to go from a soccer game straight into a grueling fencing practice. Despite the hardships Milton puts on fencing athletes, the school does give its fair share of recognition to its high achievers, including Instagram posts for their athletes and a tremendous amount of peer support. As a Milton Academy fencer myself, it sometimes feels as if Milton and fencing are two separate worlds and two separate ideas that need nourishment. If I feed the Milton idea, fencing gets starved and I start to slip back into inadequacy and vice versa. However, if the Milton community continues to support and uplift our fencing athletes, we can bridge that divide between these two worlds.