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Local Fencer Makes Dreams Come True - An Interview with Gabe Weininger

Gabe Weininger, of Norhtbrook, IL, is one of the top-ranked fencers from Illinois. He has earned numerous medals in individual and team fencing events in local, national and international tournaments. Gabe is a national champion with the Illinois Fencers Club (IFC) men's epee team (2013) and was a member of gold medal teams representing the USA in France and in Israel.

Graduating from Glenbrook North High School, Gabe started classes at Stanford University, as an incoming freshman, last week. He will be a member of the Stanford varsity fencing team. Before his departure for Stanford, Gabe reflected on his experiences as a part of the IFC Youth Program in an interview with Jim Auchinleck.

Q: Gabe, as you are leaving for Stanford, share some of your experiences in fencing.

A: I joined the IFC Youth Program, when I was in 5th grade, and looking back, I often speculate where I would be today had I never fenced at IFC. I could point to Stanford, all the traveling, and the long-distance friends I've made, but I should point to the less obvious but far more valuable life lessons I learned.

Q: What sort of lessons did you learn from fencing?

A: The Youth Program taught me about myself. It may sound kind of lame, but it's actually a pretty fantastic thing, especially at a young age. Fencing is a very individual sport, so when you lose, you really don't have a team or anyone else to blame. As a result, you are forced to learn and fix what you did wrong. I believe this yields two things: first of all, it teaches you how you learn best, and whether

that's visualization, repetition, watching someone else, listening to instructions...etc, the point is that the program enables kids to learn this about themselves early and use it to their advantage moving forward in all aspects of life. Second, the individual qualities of fencing foster a sense of responsibility.

Since every fencer is responsible for 100% of his or her own performance in fencing, the program teaches kids very early on that actions have consequences and critically thinking about what actions to take makes all the difference.

Q: Were you always successful from the moment you began or did it take time? Tell us about the losses….

A: Well, everyone has, at some point, lost easy bouts or made costly mistakes in critical moments. Everyone has, at times, questioned "Maybe I should have just stuck with soccer or basketball or art classes instead of fencing." But the truth is that anyone can greatly succeed in fencing. The kids on the podium tournament after tournament aren't any different than me…they didn't always win so much- they just learned how to recover and learn from loss. If you are able to return to practice determined after a demoralizing loss over and over again, you start bouncing back faster after a mistake, you adjust quickly and win the critical situations. In other words, if you are resilient you will succeed at one point or another. I embraced my losses as lessons and learned from them. The only true defeat is feeling defeated.

Q: Do you find that you can apply fencing type thinking off the strip-to other parts of your life?

A: Yes, there are many things I learned in fencing and now use in my every day life. Goal setting is one, in addition to resilience. At the beginning of every season, my coach Ina [Harizanova], has us write up season goals including tactical, technical, physical, and mental goals. The habit of goal setting somehow became ingrained in my every day life. And this changed the way I do everything.

Now, I do almost nothing without a plan and I always have a list of what I want to get done every day. Something I've noticed about a lot of people is that they sort of go wherever life takes them without a plan or specific ambitions. Don't get me wrong, a lot of these people find incredible success going where life takes them and many of them seize the opportunities life brings them…but that's just it. So

many people wait for life to bring them some opportunity…but Ina has taught me over and over again to make my own opportunities instead of waiting for them. In real life the way to find your own opportunities, is to set specific, measurable goals precisely the way Ina has always taught us.

Q: It sounds like a very useful skill. What else are you taking away from fencing with IFC?

A: The club has a collection of fencers that are older, more physical and a lot more experienced. They've also been pretty incredible mentors and roles models for me, which extends beyond fencing. I learned about work ethic from them, my parents, my teammates and the other fencers making the podium on a consistent basis. You can't come to practice determined to work hard just one day a month. It must be consistent. The days you feel terrible you still put in the work. So, work ethic is probably the most valuable thing the IFC youth program taught me. This is so important because it extends so far beyond fencing. The work ethic I learned at IFC propelled me through school, through the college application process, through my job, my extra-curriculars, even day to day relationships. My work ethic is the only reason I am who I am today. And I owe this entirely to Ina and my time at IFC. I walked into Lions Recreation Center an 11 year old kid, who thought playing with swords was fun. Ina took that and gave me direction, motivation, work ethic, strategy, critical thinking, resilience, responsibility and so much more to change my life.

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