Salle Honolulu Fencing Blog

Kathleen: To prepare for this season you’ve also taken up a new sport, fencing. I did that a few years ago and discovered two things: it’s uncomfortably hot with all of the gear on, and it’s surprisingly much harder than it looks. What has fencing brought to your figure skating? 

Brian: I actually did some fencing in school back when I was young, I think nine years old, and I wanted to do it again. With both school and skating I never had time for other activities and had to let fencing go because of my skating schedule, but I always thought about taking it up again. Then over the summer I went to work in Toronto with Kurt Browning for new choreography. He told me I needed to become faster on my feet with the footwork portions, and that’s when I thought of it. There is a fencing club in Poitiers, so I called the president of it and started training in September. One day I worked with the former French Olympic fencing champion, a woman, and it was really fun to play against her. I fence about two or three times a week. It’s hard to do, but good for footwork because you have to move quickly with your legs. It’s very similar to skating when you’re fighting with someone. It’s like when you have to do a big jump on the ice, there is no question what you have to do. When I fence and fight with someone – it’s the same – I must touch them, I must beat them.

Read the entire interview here