I've actually seen kids who have bad attitudes or temper problems come into fencing and I've seen them leave with much more self-control and self-respect. I've seen them go from really lousy kids to pretty nice people, people I could respect. I think fencing can have an uplifting effect on the soul. It's very much a Western martial art.
More Quotes from Dion Shively:
If you watch a football game or a baseball game, you don't see sportsmanship like this. In fencing you've got to salute your opponent before every match, and you've got to shake hands. These are the rules.Dion Shively
Jason has found a lifelong hobby as well as a great form of exercise. He lost 80 pounds since we opened the club.
Dion Shively
In fencing, it's just you and your opponent. You don't have teammates you can blame. You usually don't have a referee to blame. You either win or you don't. Every time you go out there, it's a test of your own skill and ability and how hard you work.
Dion Shively
We attract a different crowd than mainstream sports. We tend to get the people who never exercised, or thought of themselves as athletes, or ever considered taking up any sport. It appeals to the romantic as well as the intellectual side in a lot of us. We get a decent cross mixture of people, a lot of dreamers, gamers and other types.
Dion Shively
What appealed to me is what hooks most people, and that's Hollywood. 'Zorro,' 'The Three Musketeers,' even the sword-fighting stuff from 'Star Wars.' It hits the fantasy button in all of us. Every boy at some point grabs a stick and tries to sword-fight his friends with it in the back yard. We all have that kid inside of us who dreams of knights and sword fighters.
Dion Shively
When he was in his late 60s, he was still beating us young kids who thought we were hot stuff, but was still nice enough to work with us and help us along. So I always had it in the back of my mind that there was this Zen kind of philosophy, this martial arts aspect to fencing.
Dion Shively
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Based on Topics: Art Quotes, People Quotes, Respect Quotes, Self-respect Quotes, Soul QuotesBased on Keywords: self-control
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