Fundamentals by age

FENCING TRAINING Reading time : 12 min Updated July 28, 2026
Paak groups fencing content into four bands — u9, u13, u17, sen. Those bands are Paak's own and belong to no federation, because there is no shared grid to borrow: seven federations run seven mutually incompatible taxonomies, computed by at least six different rules. This page sets out what each body actually publishes, and is explicit about where nothing is published at all.

Whose age bands?

Development · Categories

Seven federations, seven incompatible grids

A French M11 is not a British U12, which is not a Swiss U12. There is no clean crosswalk — and this is not one.

Comparison on a single age axis of the youth categories of seven fencing federations. Seven rows, one per federation, aligned on a single age axis running from four to twenty. The FIE defines only two youth categories, cadet and junior, from thirteen. France defines eight, M5 to M20, in two-year bands starting in early childhood. Switzerland defines six, on even numbers, U8 to U20. Britain defines six, but nothing below U12, and its U16, U17 and U18 categories follow one another a year at a time. The United States is drawn on two stacked lanes because its bands overlap deliberately: Y8 and Y10 cover some of the same children, as do Y12 and Y14, and cadet and junior. Germany defines five, on odd numbers, U11 to U20. Canada is drawn on four stacked lanes because its categories are not exclusive and work from minimum-age floors: one athlete can belong to several at once. None of these grids maps onto another. 4 6 8 10 12 14 16 18 20 approximate age FIE Cadet Junior FFE — France M5 M7 M9 M11 M13 M15 M17 M20 Swiss Fencing U8 U10 U12 U14 U17 U20 British Fencing U12 U14 U16 U17 U18 U20 USA Fencing Y8 Y10 Y12 Y14 Cadet Junior DFB — Germany U11 U13 U15 U17 U20 CFF — Canada U13 U15 U17 U20 Federations drawn on several lanes have deliberately overlapping categories.

Three ways of computing age coexist: year of birth over a 1 September – 31 August season in France, age on 1 January in Switzerland and Britain, 31 December of the licence year in Canada — and the FIE alone uses two, midnight on 31 December of the season for cadets and juniors, age reached during the calendar year for veterans. Germany adds a fourth of its own. These grids are stored as separate schemas, never as one.

  • FIE: Cadet, Junior, Senior, Veterans 40 / 50 / 60 / 70+. Nothing below Cadet. Licence floor is the 13th birthday.
  • FFE (France): M5 · M7 · M9 · M11 · M13 · M15 · M17 · M20 · M23, then Seniors, +35 and V1–V4 — with sub-years such as M13-1, M13-2 and M20-1/-2/-3.
  • Swiss Fencing: an even-numbered grid — U8 (poussins) · U10 · U12 · U14 · U17 · U20 · U23.
  • Deutscher Fechter-Bund: an odd-numbered grid — U11 · U13 · U15 · U17 · U20. U9 exists but is not a separate class.
  • British Fencing: U12 · U14 · U16 · U17 · U18 · U20 · U23 — but ranking lists exist only at U14, Cadet, Junior, U23 and Senior. There is no U8 and no U10.
  • USA Fencing: Y8 · Y10 · Y12 · Y14 · Cadet · Junior, with birth-year bands that deliberately overlap and that shift mid-season at the Junior Olympics.
  • Canada: U13 · U15 · U17 · U20 · U23 with minimum-age floors — and the explicit statement that age groups are not exclusive of each other: an athlete may belong to several at once.

France's M11 is roughly 9–10; Britain's U12 is whoever is 11 on 1 January; Switzerland's U12 is a birth-year pair; Germany's U13 is 11–12. There is no clean crosswalk. A platform has to store them as separate schemas, and a club exporting a squad list across a border has to re-map by hand.

Three ways to compute an age — actually more

  • Year of birth, over a season running 1 September to 31 August — FFE.
  • Age on 1 January of the calendar year — British Fencing and Swiss Fencing.
  • 31 December of the licence year (1 August to 31 July) — Canada.
  • Midnight on 31 December of the current season — FIE Cadet and Junior (o.29.2).
  • Age reached during the calendar year — FIE Veterans (o.114). Two different rules inside one rulebook.
  • Split season — the DFB computes class membership from the age completed in the calendar year containing the first part of the competition year. This rule is found nowhere else.

British Fencing mixes two of its own: group membership is set on 1 January, but the Junior and Senior minimum age is measured on the day of the event.

How much, per week

Development · Volume

How many hours a week, by age band

J+S Fechten manual (Swiss federal office of sport) — the only complete age-banded volume table published by any institution, in any country.

Bar chart of weekly training volume across five age bands. Five horizontal bars, one per age band, drawn on an axis running from zero to twenty hours a week. Ages five to ten run from two to four hours, the stated aim being to learn the basics of fencing in a playful way, with a session of about one and a half hours. Ages eleven to twelve run from four to seven hours, the aim being to learn to train inside a multi-sport culture, with a session of about two hours. Ages thirteen to fourteen run from seven to eleven hours, training to train. Ages fifteen to seventeen run from eleven to fifteen hours, training to compete, with a session of about two and a half hours. Ages eighteen to twenty run from sixteen to twenty hours, training to win. The progression is steady and the volume multiplies roughly fivefold between the first and the last band. 0 h 5 h 10 h 15 h 20 h 5 – 10 2–4 h · ≈ 1 h 30 11 – 12 4–7 h · ≈ 2 h 13 – 14 7–11 h 15 – 17 11–15 h · ≈ 2 h 30 18 – 20 16–20 h Training hours per week
  • 5 – 10 — Learn the basics of fencing in a playful way
  • 11 – 12 — Learning to train, multi-sport training culture
  • 13 – 14 — Training to train
  • 15 – 17 — Training to compete
  • 18 – 20 — Training to win

The 5–10 band is published with its internal split: 20 minutes of warm-up and conditioning, 10 of footwork, 20 of individual or group lesson, 10 of directed bouts, 30 of free fencing. The manual contains no loaded strength work at this age — and that absence is itself a position.

Switzerland publishes the only complete age-banded volume table in world fencing — and it is BASPO's, through Jeunesse+Sport, not the federation's. From the J+S Trainingshandbuch Fechten:

  • 5–10 years — 2–4 h/week. Stated aim: develop fundamental movement skills and learn the basics of fencing in a playful way.
  • 11–12 — 4–7 h/week. Learning to train; a polysport training culture.
  • 13–14 — 7–11 h/week. Training to train.
  • 15–17 — 11–15 h/week. Training for competition.
  • 18–20 — 16–20 h/week. Training to win.

The same source gives session lengths: about 1 h 30 at 5–10, with a printed internal split of 20 min warm-up and conditioning, 10 min footwork, 20 min individual or group lesson, 10 min directed bouts and 30 min free fencing; about 2 h at U12; about 2 h 30 at U17. The younger bands are explicitly marked as guided training with an assistant coach.

The critical negative. The FFE, British Fencing, USA Fencing and the DFB publish no training session length, no sessions-per-week, no group size and no coach-to-fencer ratio for club training. Only Switzerland and Canada do. Any French, British, American or German per-session number is an assumption and should be labelled as one.

Canada's LTAD is the other complete model, and it deliberately has no chronological age bands — it is staged on developmental age. Its volumes: Active Start 1–2 sessions of 45 min per week; FUNdamentals 1–2 sessions of 45 min to 1 h; Learn to Train 2–4 sessions of 1.5–2 h; Train to Train 5–7 sessions of 1.5–2 h; Train to Compete a minimum of 15 h per week. It also carries the only training-to-competition ratio published anywhere in fencing: at Train to Train, 3–4 weeks of training per development competition and 8 weeks per performance competition.

Which weapon first

No federation publishes a starting-weapon rule. "Foil first" is club habit, not policy, and the evidence is structural and consistent across the FFE, British Fencing, USA Fencing, Swiss Fencing, the DFB and Canada.

  • France answers the question with hardware. The school kit Premières Touches contains one polyamide weapon that becomes all three by changing the guard — a foil guard, an épée guard and a sabre capuce. The Règles Techniques publish identical M7/M9, M11 and M13 formats, blade sizes and piste dimensions for all three weapons.
  • British Fencing publishes nothing on starting weapon or starting age. The only foil-leaning artefact is entry-level coach collateral; the next rung up names no weapon at all, and the award scheme runs three structurally identical weapon ladders from age 8.
  • USA Fencing declines to answer. Y8 events run in all three weapons — a seven-year-old may legally begin and compete in sabre.
  • Canada is the only federation that says when. Fencing is a late specialisation sport; young fencers should keep participating in a variety of sports; weapon choice appears at stage 4, Train to Train.
  • Switzerland teaches the conventions late: the 5–10 band gets a simple introduction to the rules and ethics, while "conventions and weapon-specific rules" appear only in the 11–12 band.

What the FFE actually constrains — grip and blade, not weapon

  • Straight (French) grip compulsory from M7 to M13; free choice from M15.
  • Thumb and index finger in constant contact with the cushion up to M11.
  • The rear foot passing in front of the front foot is forbidden — the flèche is banned in the youth categories, at all three weapons.
  • Blades: N°0 at M9, N°2 at M11 and M13, N°5 from M15. Clothing 350 N throughout, with the plastron rising from 350 N to 800 N at M13. Fencing in shorts is prohibited outright.
  • Formats: M7–M9 three hits in 2 minutes; M11 four hits in 2 minutes; M13 four hits in 3 minutes; M15 five hits; M17 and above the full 5 and 15.

Kit standards are the most divergent area in the whole sport. Canada allows 350 N for mask bib, jacket, trousers and plastron in every category from U11 to Veteran; Germany permits 350 N for mask, jacket and trousers at U11 but requires an 800 N plastron even at U11 — the exact opposite of the French rule. A club buying kit across a border will get this wrong.

Grading, and two corrections

The French scheme is « Lames & Armes », not « blasons ». No trace of a blasons scheme exists in the FFE web estate, and the colour sequence usually quoted for it matches judo belts. Les Lames are five weapon-generic levels — Lame Blanche, Jaune, Rouge, Bleue, Verte — and Les Armes are four levels in each weapon: Acier, Bronze, Argent, Or. Lame Blanche is the confirmed entry level; the relative order of Rouge, Bleue and Verte is not published, because the criteria live in a paid booklet.

And "baby escrime" is not FFE terminology either. The federation's word is « Éveil »; M5 is formally "Éveil escrime" and has no competition format at all.
  • British Fencing: MiniSword at 5–7, mapped to physical qualities — green for coordination, blue for balance, yellow for agility — then GO/FENCE Bronze, Silver and Gold from 8+, covering technique, tactics, etiquette, history, young leadership and club assistance, then weapon-specific awards Levels 1–6 in each of the three metal weapons, awardable only by BF-registered coaches.
  • Germany: the Turnierreifeprüfung is a mandatory gate for official tournaments — a club-based aptitude component documented in the Fechtkompass plus a three-hour regional examination. 75 points available; pass marks U11 = 45, U13 = 50, U15 = 55, U17 and above = 60.
  • USA: letter classifications A–E. These are a competitive classification, not a developmental grading scheme — the rating is a property of the event, and it lapses after four seasons.
  • Switzerland: no grading scheme at all. Licence only.

Competition designed against dropout

  • Swiss "Smart Fencing" (created 2024, U8–U10): the whole event runs in under half a day; there is no elimination; every child fences the same number of bouts; a medal for every participant and rankings disregarded; the stated design goal is to avoid 8–0 scorelines. Operationally: a single pool of 5–10 with 4–9 bouts each and 4–10 touches by pool size, or tiered pools above 12; bout timing at U8–U10 is 2 × 2 minutes.
  • FFE: no elimination and no individual ranking up to M11; individual ranking only from M13; the regulation states plainly that all participants should be rewarded — for attendance and progressively acquired competences, not for performance. Youth events are capped at 3 hours, with no gap greater than 30 minutes between rounds, and each child takes home an individual competence sheet.
  • British Fencing caps rather than redesigns: at U14 a ranking uses the best six results with a maximum of four international ones, alongside the statement that offering a ranking does not mean every eligible fencer must take part. Their reasoning is quantified — 96% of participants across sport do not graduate from talent programmes, and fencing cannot afford that model.

Do and do not, by stage

  • Discovery / Éveil (roughly 4–7). Do: physical literacy — agility, balance, coordination; games with or without a weapon; plastic or foam kit; an opening and closing ritual framing every session. Do not: elimination, ranking, individual lessons (Canada is explicit that there are none at this stage), weapon specialisation, or named action vocabulary.
  • Fundamentals (roughly 6–12). Do: multisport; fencing-specific games; group lessons with partner work; self-refereeing to build observation; the simple attack, the simple parry-riposte, retreat-to-avoid. Do not: second intention, counter-time, compound attacks beyond one feint, deliberate double-touch strategy, or priority-minute tactics.
  • Learn to Train (roughly 11–16). Do: electric equipment enters; individual ranking permitted from M13; compound attack with one feint, attack on preparation, choice reactions, bout management and pool administration. Do not: exceed weekly training hours greater than the child's age; teach clock manipulation.
  • Train to Train (roughly 13–17). Do: second intention, counter-time, distance-pulling, weapon-specific score-state basics such as the épée 4–4 rule and the sabre 8-hit period break. Do not: teach priority-minute stalling or the false medical break; do not exceed 16 hours a week of intense training without close monitoring.
  • Train to Compete and beyond. Do: individualised coaching, the full tactical wheel, opponent-specific plans, the priority minute, video-appeal policy. Do not treat junior results as predictive — junior performance explains about 2.2% of the reliable variance in senior performance, and 89.2% of international U17/18 juniors never reach international senior level.

The cliff at fifteen

French ministry licence data makes the retention problem measurable. In 2023 the FFE held 53,560 licences: 14,273 aged 5–9, 15,829 aged 10–14 — and 5,701 aged 15–19. That is a 64% drop from the 10–14 band to the 15–19 band, and the 2019 figures give an almost identical 65%, so it is structural rather than a pandemic artefact. 57.6% of all French fencing licences are held by under-15s.

Two things follow. First, retention between 10–14 and 15–19 is the single highest-leverage number a French fencing club can track. Second, that cliff sits exactly where the FFE's own performance structures begin, and exactly where Canada's LTAD sets its stated retention target of ages 14–17.

One caveat worth stating: there is no published study of dropout or retention in fencing. A full-text search across youth and adolescent literature returns nothing. The numbers above are licence counts, not a cohort study.

Sources

FIE Organisation Rules, December 2025 (o.29, o.114) · FFE Règlement Sportif 2025-2026, Règlement des Manifestations pour Jeunes Escrimeurs and Règles Techniques et de Sécurité · British Fencing age-group definitions, ranking schemes and achievement awards · USA Fencing Athlete Handbook 2025-26 · Swiss Fencing Catégories d'âge 25/26 · Canadian Fencing Federation LTAD · DFB Sportordnung and Turnierreifeprüfung · J+S Trainingshandbuch Fechten (BASPO) · Swiss Olympic Smart Fencing factsheet · INJEP licence census 2019 and 2023. Verified July 2026.

Paak stores age categories per federation rather than converting them, so a Swiss U14 and a French M15 stay distinct on the same squad list — see the fencing hub.
Last updated: July 28, 2026 ID : help.fencing.fundamentals-by-age