Sabrecoachkate Podcast

My guest today, Jerry Benson, has worn a huge number of hats over the years: fencing club owner, referee, business consultant, fencing Master, HEMA enthusiast, philosopher, a member of the US Fencing Board of Directors, husband, Paralympic coach, and, most importantly: mentor. Jerry has a passion for helping each individual reach his or her personal best whether that be on the fencing strip, serving as a referee, or navigating life's muddy waters. Jerry has special insight due to multiple degrees in business, religion, psychology, and fencing in addition to many years of personal, hard earned experience. Many referees, fencers, and coaches owe their skills and successes to this man. Here is his story.

If you have ever hosted a fencing tournament or competed in one, you have today's guest to thank for its smooth operation. Back before Dan Berke created Fencing Time, seeding was done by hand with the help of index cards; one gust of wind could ruin a whole event. Dan, a Microsoft engineer who started fencing later in life, put his impressive technological skills to work and created software that made that system obsolete. From its simple roots in the Pacific Northwest, it is now used to seamlessly run tournaments in a wide variety of countries. Listen now for my interview with the creator of Fencing Time, Dan Berke.

In today's episode you will hear Vincent Bradford talk about her long struggle to reach the Olympics, what it was like for a young woman in fencing "back in the day", and the people who inspired her to greatness. Her athletic career started in horseback riding, but she changed sports after meeting a friend of her riding instructor who was a fencer. She started fencing at age 11, placed second at the junior national championship at age 16, was an All-American for four consecutive years at San Jose State, and earned a place on the 1984 Olympic team at age 29. That was a great year for her, as she was both the National Foil and National Epee Champion as well. She is the only woman in US fencing history to win National Titles in two weapons in the same year.

Thank you for joining me for episode three of the SabreCoachKate podcast. In this interview, you'll hear about the experiences of Olympian Iris Zimmerman Nowack and her exciting evolution from cute four year old in patent leather shoes to fencing Olympian to club owner and coach. I originally interviewed Iris a month ago. In light of her disappointment about losing the opportunity to fence the Women's Foil Team event at her Olympics because of the introduction of Women's Sabre, I followed up with her yesterday to get her perspective about last week's announcement that all fencing team events will take place in the 2020 Tokyo Olympics. Stay tuned at the end of the interview for those comments. The sound quality on this one isn't what I had hoped for. Sorry! Still trying to figure out how to record over video chat. 

Thank you for joining me today for Episode Two of the SabreCoachKate podcast. Today you'll hear a conversation I had with Roberto Sobalvarro. He is full of surprises. He came to fencing in an unusual way, playing tennis during his young life then taking up fencing on a dare. After graduating from college, he decided to take a job as a high school fencing coach instead of the law school path he had originally planned for himself. Perhaps the biggest surprise of all was his climb to the pinnacle of coaching in our sport: He was the Women's Epee Coach at the 2012 Olympics and helped them take home the only medal the US would receive in fencing at those Games. He is now the head coach at the Twin Cities Fencing Club in St. Paul, Minnesota and has been involved in fencing for over 35 years. In recognition for all his accomplishments, ro will be inaugurated into the Hall of Fame this year.

I chose to begin this podcast with an incredible woman: Ariana Klinkov. She was one of the first women to fence sabre in the U.S., she was the first female sabre referee the U.S. ever sent to an international competition, and she has coached many fencers who have had varying levels of success, including National Team members. She still gets out on the fencing strip once a year to be a part of my team at the April NAC.  During the recording, Ariana shares her thoughts on what it took for her to be a good competitor and how that translated over to becoming a good coach. She regales us with stories of her first trip abroad as a referee and how everyone involved was surprised to learn that "Mr. Klinkov" was instead a "Mrs." You'll hear her answers to the Famous Ten Questions invented by Marcel Proust and used by James Lipton on his TV program "Inside the Actor's Studio". She will tell you about her obsession with CrossFit. She's a great friend; I learned a lot about her through this interview and hope you will gl