Most fencing families plan their season the same way: sign up for everything, travel everywhere, hope for the best.
Coach Gabi sees it every year. Talented kids burning out by February. Families spending thousands chasing ratings before fundamentals are in place. Parents confusing activity with progress.
We sat down with her to get the truth about how a competitive season should actually be structured — and her answers should change how you think about every tournament on the calendar.
"You shouldn't be peaking every weekend. If your child is emotionally exhausted in January, something in the plan is broken."— Coach Gabi
01 Build the Season Like a Pyramid
A smart season has architecture. At the base are local and divisional events — high frequency, low pressure, and rich in learning opportunities. In the middle sit 2–3 SYC (Super Youth Circuit) events if your fencer is targeting national points. And at the very top? One or two peak moments — Nationals or Sectionals — where everything comes together.
Choose 2–3 "A" tournaments for the year. Mark them. Plan backward from them. Everything else on the calendar is preparation, experimentation, and data collection.
The biggest mistake? Treating every weekend like the Olympic qualifier. That path doesn't lead to medals — it leads to burnout.
02 The One Event That Changes Perspective
Ask Coach Gabi which tournament every fencer should attend, and her answer is instant: Summer Nationals.
Not for the result. For the scale.
Imagine your child walking into a convention center with 80+ strips running simultaneously. Thousands of athletes from every state. Coaches they've only seen on YouTube. The hum of scoring machines filling a space the size of an airplane hangar.
03 Not Every Tournament Is for Winning
This is the concept most families miss. Coach Gabi breaks the competitive calendar into two categories — and getting the ratio right is what separates fencers who develop from fencers who plateau.
Learning Events
Local & Divisional Tournaments
- Try new actions in live bouts
- Test tactical adjustments from lessons
- Build mental resilience
- Practice composure after falling behind
Results Events
Regional & National Tournaments
- Execute proven strengths
- Fence with discipline and focus
- Compete for standings and points
- Perform under real pressure
If every tournament is "must-win," your fencer never experiments. And a fencer who can't experiment can't evolve. Use FencingBuddies' Video Review Lab after learning events to turn raw footage into structured coaching feedback — so experimentation becomes growth, not just guessing.
04 Field Strength Beats Placement. Every Time.
This is the insight that reframes everything.
Winning a 10-person local event against mostly unrated fencers feels good in the car ride home. But losing 15–13 to a Top-16 nationally ranked opponent in a 64-person field? That single bout teaches more than a drawer full of local medals.
"Placement is a vanity metric. Touches earned against quality opposition — that's the real growth metric."— Coach Gabi
Track this over time. FencingBuddies' TUFR Rating System measures competitive performance relative to field strength — so you can see real progress even when the medal count doesn't change. A fencer climbing in TUFR while losing early at nationals is developing. A fencer collecting local golds with a flat TUFR is comfortable.
But how do you know if an event has a strong field before you register?
Tournament Strength
Know what you’re walking into — before you register.
We compute a Tournament Strength score for an event by analyzing the registered field — so you get a clear view of competitive density without guesswork.
05 The Travel Test
Before you book a flight, before you block a weekend, ask one question:
"Does this event give us a density of opponents we don't see at home?"
If you're driving 500 miles to fence the same kids from Tuesday practice — that's not development. That's expensive repetition.
Travel makes sense when the competitive density rises significantly. It also makes sense when your fencer needs specific qualifying points and local SYC competition is too deep — sometimes traveling to a different city provides a more realistic path. But that's a targeted decision, not a default one.
06 Warning Signs You're Over-Scheduled
Burnout doesn't announce itself. It accumulates quietly until something breaks. Coach Gabi says to watch for these signals:
In Your Fencer
- The competitive "fire" fades — they go through motions
- Nagging injuries that never fully heal
- Emotional reactions to losses that didn't used to bother them
- Reluctance to gear up on tournament mornings
In Your Family
- "Tournament Dread" — the calendar feels heavy
- 6 AM check-ins feel like a chore, not an adventure
- Siblings or partners start resenting the schedule
- Conversations about fencing become tense
If any of these sound familiar, it's time to pause and restructure — not push through.
07 Coach Gabi's Hard Truths
The #1 Rookie Mistake
Over-traveling too early. Families start chasing national points before their fencer has mastered a consistent lunge or basic distance control. They burn through budget and enthusiasm before the athlete is technically ready to benefit from the national stage.
Points don't build skill. Skill earns points.
Where Families Overpay — and Underinvest
"The brand." Expensive camps that look prestigious. Name-brand gear that doesn't fit the fencer's actual needs or level.
Private lessons. Recovery. Technical correction. The quiet work that fixes the flaw causing first-round eliminations.
A $60 private lesson fixing one technical habit may be worth more than a $2,000 NAC weekend.
08 When to Step Up — and When to Stay
Stay Local
If your fencer isn't consistently making Top 8 at local and divisional events, the priority is building skills at home — not collecting travel miles.
Step Up
If they're winning local DEs without breaking a sweat, they've outgrown the competition. Fencing IQ plateaus without challenge. They need to go where they're allowed to lose.
Use your fencer's TUFR rating to track whether they're truly improving or just winning comfortably. And when you do step up, upload the bouts to FencingBuddies for coach-reviewed analysis — so every loss becomes a lesson with a clear next step.
"Don’t just chase medals. Build the fencer who wins when it matters — and loves the sport for the long run!"— Coach Gabi
Ready to Plan a Smarter Season?
FencingBuddies gives you the tools to track progress, analyze bouts, and build with intention — so every tournament on the calendar has a purpose.