Penn junior fencers foil summer heat

The Penn Junior Fencing Camp, led by penn coach Dave Micahnik, practices in Weightman gum's excessive heat. The stifling heat and humidity of the Weightman Hall gym greet the members of the Penn Junior Fencing Camp every day. So it was only fitting that Penn fencing coach Dave Micahnik, who runs the two-week camp, devoted his first nightly lecture to hydration and heat tolerance. "Otherwise, they're all over the place -- barfing, diahrrea, getting sick, feeling lousy, running fevers," Micahnik said. "And in fencing competition, you're up against the same thing; you wear a lot of stuff." Micahnik started the program as a National Junior Olympic Camp back in the early 1980s, but today the camp functions as a clinic for fencers, ages 14-17, with at least one year of competitive experience. The Penn coach has been flexible with the age of fencers in the camp in the past, however, as Penn fencer Cliff Bayer -- a 1996 Olympian -- participated when he was just 13. The camp is broken down into two one-week sessions. The first, which started on Sunday, is designed for fencers with a moderate level of experience, while the second session concentrates on competition. Each session ends with a day-long tournament. The first session has 41 participants, two-thirds of whom stay for the 66-person second session. The number of fencers has risen 25 percent from last year, making Micahnik consider limiting the number of participants in the future. "You look around and you see 41 kids and this is about the most you can handle," Micahnik said. "But the second week we have 25 more than this." Participants flock to Penn from around the country and, in the past, from around the world; Micahnik has had fencers here from as far away as France and Catmandu, Nepal. The fencers here are often multi-talented athletically, as one girl ran a marathon in the spring, while another plays football for his Iowa City high school team. In addition to Micahnik, the coaching staff for the first week includes Penn assistant fencing coach Iosif Vitebsky, Fencing Academy of Philadelphia coach Mark Masters and Johns Hopkins fencing coach Dick Oles. North Carolina coach Ron Miller, St. John's assistant coach Mike Shimshovich and Andrew Bulloch, a coach at Csiszar Fencing Center, will be at the second session. But it is Micahnik's style which predominates the instruction at the camp. "Dave always wants to explain why you do things rather than just having them do it like robots," Oles said. "Robots don't win in this sport." The first practice of the day for the fencers lasts from 9:15 until noon and concentrates on proper warm-ups and combined drills. In the afternoon, fencers, who reside in Harrison College House for the two weeks, are split up into groups by weapon -- foil, epee or saber -- and given more individual and small-group instruction by the five coaches. Finally, Micahnik offers nightly lectures on such subjects as competition-day preparation and proper training techniques to maximize performance. And Oles lamented the need for better performance in American fencing. "The state of high school fencing in this country is abysmal," Oles said. "We have to kind of force-feed them and just hope that they'll take something back with them. You can't train somebody in five days -- not in this sport." Maybe Micahnik can't mold all of the participants in the Penn Junior Fencing Camp into Cliff Bayers, but with many of the fencers returning for a second or third summer in West Philadelphia, the Penn fencing coach must be doing something right.

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