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28th May 2015

WATCH: On Home Ground – Her.ie Tries (And Fails!) At Fencing

It's all about the hand-eye coordination!

Her

In our brand new series, our resident sports fanatic Mary takes on some of Ireland’s top female athletes to see if she has what it takes to compete with the best.

From chatting about their rigorous training programmes to taking us on to the pitch and right into the middle of the action, some of Ireland’s biggest names show Her.ie how it’s done.

Last week, we took on the Irish Women’s Hockey team, with some pretty hilarious results, while this week, we went face to face with some of Ireland’s champion fencers. 

Uh oh… Who gave Mary a sword!?

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Mary says:

We headed off to one of the top fencing clubs in the country, Salle Fencing Club in Dublin where we were taught all the tips and tricks by master coaches Mâitre David Couper and Mâitre Finnbarr Farrell

I was a bit nervous going down to the Liffey Trust Studios where they train, as I really didn’t have a clue what the session would entail. I knew nothing about fencing apart from brief glimpse on the TV, and I was certain that my lack of co-ordination would ensure that somebody was going to lose an eye!

I surprised myself though and, thanks to the very patient David, managed to pick up some of the basic skills and even got to do battle with a champion at the end (he won 5-3, but still!).

Most surprisingly of all is that out of all the sports I’ve tried so far, this is definitely one of my favourites.