"If you screw things up in tennis, it's 15-love. If you screw things up in boxing, it's your ass."

Last week I started boxing! I wanted to do a different sport as an aside from fencing to keep my brain stimulated in other ways and avoid getting stale. I chose boxing because of its similarities to fencing. The footwork is largely similar except that whereas fencing footwork is linear, in boxing you need to move in all directions. Like fencing, you need to have quick reactions, and a tactical brain that can outwit your opponent.

I came back buzzing from my first session. It is an unforgiving sport where your brain must be engaged from start to finish or you risk receiving a nasty little surprise to your ribs or chin! I haven't felt that buzz or sense of engagement in any other sport other than in fencing. It forces you to sharpen your concentration as well as your thinking power. The boxing trainer I saw explained that boxing is all about confidence - hesitate or cower away at any given moment and you’re dead. Although I do not intend to actually get in the ring, I think boxing will help with my confidence and increase my competitive edge. I am already looking forward to the next session!

BBC Radio 5 Live

This month I would like to centre my blog around an interview that I gave a week ago on the BBC 5 Live Show with Tony Livesey. I really enjoyed representing fencing on the live show. I thought the format was fun, and on listening to the show again I feel that the discussion was relaxed and it gave us a chance to get fencing out there on live national Radio.

Despite the surprise and unscripted negative angle given to fencing by one of the participants, I believe some serious points were raised; not least that fencing is perceived as an elitist sport and whereas it may be an exciting sport to participate in, it is perceived as not being a spectator sport.

Although relatively few people do fencing as a sport in Great Britain, in my experience this does not necessarily mean that participants come from elite backgrounds (mostly Public Schools). Indeed, throughout my time in fencing, be it at my club, during domestic and international competitions, or whilst coaching children in the North East of England while at university, I have mixed with people from all backgrounds who have in common their fascination for this exciting and challenging sport.

I feel really strongly about defending fencing against accusations that it is an elitist sport as it is simply not true. I was discussing this with a friend the other day and she pointed out that most sports are elitist to some extent. Look at rowing or horse-riding for instance. They are both watched and enjoyed by millions of spectators but aren’t necessarily the most accessible of sports to the general public. Even tennis is becoming a relatively closed sport, reserved for the financially secure as court hire denies access to many working class families.

My point is that fencing isn’t necessarily more costly or inaccessible than any other regular sport; it simply has an elitist label attached to it from an era where fencing was a gentleman’s sport. My personal goal is to spend some time presenting fencing in schools and break away from the age-old image of the wealthy gentleman's pursuit. I am convinced that schools are an important recruiting ground for fencing whether they be private or state. It was at school that I started and where my passion for the sport was ignited.

Transforming fencing into a media friendly spectator sport is another thing altogether, but a question that no doubt needs to be addressed in the run up to the London Olympics and beyond. As far as making fencing more spectator-friendly, I think it needs knowledgeable commentators and enthusiasts to sell the sport. There are many sports that I watch where I have little understanding of what is going on but I can still appreciate them. Ultimately the test will be whether fencing can be accepted as a televised sport. Presentation will be all important.

Fencing is currently receiving much more exposure in the British press than it used to in the past (check out BBC’s coverage of a men’s foil event last weekend http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/scotland/8595806.stm ) and received more mainstream media attention at the Beijing Olympics than in previous years. I can only hope that people will give fencing a chance before judging it based on common misconceptions.