How many units is your class and how are candidates graded?
Class may be taken for 3 credit units.
Credit/No credit based on classroom performance. For information concerning incompletes and withdrawals please consult the current schedule of classes.
What levels of accreditation do you offer?
There are three levels of certification:
• Instructor at Arms (six semester units);
• Provost at Arms (twelve semester units);
• and Master at Arms (eighteen semester units).
The Candidate for Provost must hold a Instructors certificate or proof of equivalent professional experience. The candidate for the Master at Arms certificate must hold a bachelor’s degree from an accredited college, as well as a provost’s diploma or proof of equivalent professional experience. The written, oral, and practical examinations for all three levels are given at the end of each session provided there are qualified candidates. A written letter of intention to take the examinations must be given to the Director during the second meeting of the course.
Who is your program designed for?
We are a teacher training program and therefore prospective students need to be interested in teaching fencing and also must have extensive experience in fencing before they enter our course of study.
We are not focused on training for competitions.
If you have any questions regarding your ability to take the class please contact the program Director, Prof. John P. Sullins.
Why does your Program focus on the traditional Italian School?
The program focuses on traditional Italian fencing pedagogy for these reasons:
First, rules in competitive fencing change yearly and fencing actions that might have been useless in competition one year are back in vogue the next. Traditional fencing does not change and serves as a storehouse for fencing practices that would be lost quickly to future generations if we focused on capricious fads in fencing. A fencing teacher must know all of fencing theory in order to give his or her students the tools they need to thrive in the modern fencing world.
Second, fencing is a practice that can only be fully taught by example from master to student. We have a living tradition of master student relationships that stretches unbroken to the Scuola Magistrale Militare di Scherma di Roma e Napoli from its formation--and beyond that to the earliest fencing masters of the Renaissance. We honor this tradition by keeping the fencing actions that have been handed down to us alive and well.
Third, not everyone is interested in modern sport fencing. A fencing master must be able to converse with those interested in both historical and modern sport fencing. Traditional schools such as ours serve as a vital bridge between these divergent fencing communities.