Daniel Pearlstein has already gone far in the sport of fencing. How did this subfreshman become so accomplished so quickly?

By Bianca Zaharescu

Gargoyle staff reporter
Posted Sunday, April 2, 2006, The OG, sports

Two years ago a flier arrived in the mail for fifth-grader Daniel Pearlstein, courtesy of The Point Fencing Club. Urged on by his parents, and his own interest now sparked, Daniel quickly signed up for classes. Since that day Pearlstein, now a Uni subfreshman, has attended The Point regularly, one to two times a week.

He maintains that baseball is his major sport, yet when he attended the United States Fencing Association's 14-and-under Regional Youth Circuit tournament in Chicago in early December, he finished in third place in the Y14 Mixed Foil event. (Another member of The Point, Yusuf Sobh, finished first.) He qualified for nationals, although he won't be competing this year, choosing to wait until he is more experienced before playing with the big dogs.

So what accounts for the young fencer rising so swiftly in the sport? According to Pearlstein, it is his personal style of play, which in turn depends on his individual skills.

“I'm good at retreating really fast and getting out of the way, ” he said, describing himself as a predominantly defensive player. “It's not that I'm not good at offense. I just don't like it as much.”

Pearlstein is aided in his efforts by his personal trainer, Rebecca Schneider, a USFA member and classified fencer with experience in national competitions, who also coaches Uni junior AbderRahman Sobh. (Schneider taught an Agora Days class this year, Swordplay the Right Way! Fencing!)

Schneider says of Daniel that he “has shown great promise in his recent fencing events along with being a strong member of our club. Even as I would like to see him more, what he has accomplished has been great! He is always willing to help with events in our club such as our annual fencing camp. It is always a pleasure to work with Daniel and seeing his improvement.”

However, Schneider is not allowed to coach her pupil during tournament play, so when the competition is the fiercest, Pearlstein must rely on none other than himself.

Strategywise, he says, the lack of a coach is not as big of a setback as it may seem. Although there are set moves that all players master and use, the determining factor between a win and a loss is one's ability to react on the spot.

“Usually you don't think about it, because if you do, then you'll get hurt,” Pearlstein explained.

That's where practice comes in: sharpening your skills to the point where everything becomes instinctive.

“Then you do whatever comes to mind and hope for the best,” he said.

Fencing bouts aren't necessarily fast-paced throughout. When the two fencers are far away from each other, there can be lulls of up to two or three seconds, with no movement whatsoever. But typically that's not the case.

“When you're close in, furiously beating at each other, you've got to be ready for anything,” Pearlstein reflected.

So why did he give up the chance to compete at the national level this year?

“There would be so many nationally ranked people there that I would get beaten badly every time, and it wouldn't really be a learning experience for me,” he said.

However, Pearlstein has every intention to continue fencing and competing, and he plans to work even harder to prepare himself for the future.