Harvard Swordsmen to Discover If Hard Work Has Paid Off in 6th Consecutive Trip to National Fencing Championships

Ever feel like stabbing someone? Then take up fencing.

But before buying your sword, padded vest, mask and videocassette of an Errol Flynn movie, take a stab at a couple of trivia questions on the basics of swordplay.

A three-foot-long flexible metal sword used to strike an opponent is . . .

A) A foil.

B) an epee.

C) a saber.

D) All of the above.

That’s easy. If you picked D, choose your weapon. Mastery of the sword, however, won’t come as easily. Need a few pointers? Try the Harvard High fencing team.

“All these guys know how to fence and can pick up any of these weapons,” said Ted Katzoff, Harvard’s fencing instructor. “But you can fence better in your speciality.”

Katzoff speaks highly of nine Saracen swordsmen who will represent Harvard in the National Junior Olympic Fencing Championships at the Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs, Colo. Friday’s tournament, which will draw more than 600 competitors, including about 180 girls, marks Harvard’s sixth consecutive appearance in the national finals.

Three fencers from each category will advance to the World Under-20 Championships in Athens on March 23-27.

Harvard enters the competition well-armed. Two fencers were crowned U. S. Fencing Assn. Southern California Division champions at the December qualifying tournament at L. A. City College.

Sophomore Adam Werbach placed first in the under-17 men’s epee division, and Joachim Granzow, the group’s only senior and arguably its best fencer, enters the competition as the under-20 men’s epee champion.

Of course, you don’t really stab someone in fencing. Or do you?

“You think that because the blade bends, no problem,” said Granzow, who began fencing as a freshman. “But underneath you’ll have a little mark that will turn four different colors over the week.

“Yesterday, someone got a perfect knee shot on me. You don’t really feel it when you’re fencing because it’s so intense. But afterward you say, ‘Dang, that’s sore!’ ”

Question No. 2: When struck by one of the aforementioned weapons, a fencer might interject . . .

A) “Ouch! That smarts!”

B) “Curses! Foiled again!”

C) “I quit!”

D) None of the above.

If you answered D, climb into your plastron, step onto the piste and prepare to parry, reprise, fleche and thrust. Fencers, above all, are disciplined and taught to maintain composure. Respect for oneself and one’s opponent is paramount.

“Fencing represents the duel of honor,” said Katzoff, 46, a former Junior Olympic champion. “This has been traditional--to be a gentleman or a lady. The idea is not to fence vindictively but to perform skillfully. Whether you win or lose, you salute to give honor and respect to your opponent and the officials.

“The great champions of fencing have all been gentlemen and ladies. They’ve been gracious human beings.”

Katzoff, who is Master-at-Arms at UCLA and the Salle Gascon Fencing Club in Culver City, the fencing director of Westside Fencing Center and an all-around expert swashbuckler has, for the most part, succeeded in instilling proper fencing values in his pupils.

Concentration, intensity and discipline are the buzzwords among the Saracen swordsmen.

“The discipline it involves is what I get out of fencing,” said junior Damien Stein, who competes in both foil and saber. “It’s real mental, real enjoyable. I don’t know, there’s kind of a self-building. When you defeat a person, you actually see improvement in yourself.”

Junior Jay Dolinky, who switched from foil to epee this year, agrees. “It’s the discipline,” he said. “When you come out, you’re mentally tired. It’s kind of like taking a test.”

Speaking of tests, Touche! if you correctly answered both questions.

Now, en garde!

Fencing is physical chess, a blend of blade work and brain work, concentration and execution.

“It’s combat,” Granzow said. “There’s never a lull in the action. But it’s also so mentally intense. Some people will look at it like, ‘Oh, strategy--like a chess game.’ Well, try playing that chess game while running up and down stairs as fast as you can.”

One of the great misconceptions about fencing, Katzoff said, is that it is not athletic.

“On the contrary,” he said. “Fencing is incredibly athletic. But you have to be cool and collected while moving physically, very powerfully. You have to be able to read and see what your opponent is doing, then act.”

Opponents square off on a 14-meter-long, two-meter-wide strip called a piste. Fencers wear a protective undergarment known as a plastron, as well as protective vests, masks and gloves.

A six-minute bout is presided over by a director. Fencers salute the director, then each other, before the duel begins.

Thrusts, lunges, balestras and fleches are attacking maneuvers. Defensive maneuvers include parrys, ripostes, and reprises. A winner is declared after recording five legal hits.

With foils and epees, hits can be scored with only the tip of the weapon. With the saber, a slashing weapon, any contact made is a legal hit.

As the weapons change, so does the body’s legal target area. Foils may score on only the torso. Sabers may score anywhere above the waist, including the head. With the epee, the entire body is fair game.

Harvard competes against sanctioned USFA opponents, mostly private clubs. Fencing is not a sanctioned California Interscholastic Federation sport, so the Harvard team must compete on a club basis.

“Some people think it’s kind of Mickey Mousey and floating around on a mat,” Granzow said. “But it takes every bit of energy you have. At a tournament, I might drink three Gatorade bottles.”

Still feel like stabbing someone in a controlled environment? You’re not alone. According to USFA statistics, under-20 membership has increased from 1,800 to 2,700 since 1982. Overall membership has increased from 5,200 to 7,400 during the same period.

Harvard’s contingent of nine is the largest it has sent to the Junior Olympics. And Harvard graduates Al Carter and Spencer Thompson, both attending the University of Pennsylvania, currently are the USFA champions for under-19 foil and under-19 epee, respectively. Thompson graduated in 1987, Carter graduated last year.

Nestled in the hills of Coldwater Canyon, Harvard, an elite private school, appears to be fertile fencing ground. Haven’t these guys ever heard of baseball?

“I used to play baseball and I just decided to quit and do this,” Granzow said. “There’s just a thing about going one on one with someone and having to be precise and exact. There’s a real competitiveness there and nobody else can come between that.”

Even if it means welts that last for days.

“The nature of it is lethal, I know,” Granzow said. “It just has the death taken out of it. I feel perfectly all right with it. I do jujitsu, too, so I feel pretty good after throwing somebody around.”