4 ms·

I've definitely noticed a sibling phenomenon among good fencers. A lot of the top fencers have siblings who also fence. To the point where I can name several si

I've definitely noticed a sibling phenomenon among good fencers. A lot of the top fencers have siblings who also fence. To the point where I can name several sibling duos in the fencing community. Could it also be that younger siblings get parents who are a little richer and gotten over the sticker shock of being a top athlete? A lot of top youth sports require an obscene amount of money to get to the top levels. Maybe by kid #2 the parents are okay with junior's sport costing them a few thousand a month.

retsibsi 6y ago
> a few thousand a month Is this literal? How does it break down? I guess you have to travel to a lot of tournaments, fix/replace a lot of expensive equipment, and pay for private coaching?
- hardwaregeek 6y ago
  Yep, unfortunately. Private fencing lessons cost about 95 dollars. You want around 2 a week plus 2-3 group classes which cost 45 dollars. That's already 280-325 dollars a week. Add on flying to both domestic and international tournaments, which is easily a thousand just for flights and hotels, not to mention strip coaching fees and other random costs (airline lost your baggage? Guess you gotta buy a whole new set of fencing gear!). Oh and the club membership costs a thousand a year and there's fencing camp in the summer for $1500. Gear may seem expensive but it's really not in comparison. Blades will cost you about 100-120 a pop, they break every 6 months, a year if you're careful. Full international grade gear you could do for under 1000 dollars. Granted this is the insane top of the top. But I do know quite a few parents who pay for this.
  - retsibsi 6y ago
    Thanks (very belatedly) for the breakdown! It's one of those things that makes sense in detail but still feels surprising in aggregate.
- dragonwriter 6y ago
  Private lessons on the close order of $100 two, or maybe more, times a week, plus group classes several times a week for maybe another $100, plus travel, plus equipment, plus competition fees, is probably true for lots of individual sports. For most the lessons will be the big expenses.
  - retsibsi 6y ago
    Yeah, I guess this was probably going on even in some of the sports I played as a junior, like tennis -- it's just that I was never near the top tier, where that level of expense would begin to seem possible/necessary.
dragonwriter 6y ago
> Could it also be that younger siblings get parents who are a little richer and gotten over the sticker shock of being a top athlete? If the older sibling was in the same sport, younger siblings get parents that are more experienced in navigating & supporting training, etc., which probably extends beyond just price sticker shock. They may even get a boost directly from interaction with their older sibling. (I know that seems to be the case with general knowledge and skills development with my two young kids.)

retsibsi 6y ago

> a few thousand a month Is this literal? How does it break down? I guess you have to travel to a lot of tournaments, fix/replace a lot of expensive equipment, and pay for private coaching?

hardwaregeek 6y ago
Yep, unfortunately. Private fencing lessons cost about 95 dollars. You want around 2 a week plus 2-3 group classes which cost 45 dollars. That's already 280-325 dollars a week. Add on flying to both domestic and international tournaments, which is easily a thousand just for flights and hotels, not to mention strip coaching fees and other random costs (airline lost your baggage? Guess you gotta buy a whole new set of fencing gear!). Oh and the club membership costs a thousand a year and there's fencing camp in the summer for $1500. Gear may seem expensive but it's really not in comparison. Blades will cost you about 100-120 a pop, they break every 6 months, a year if you're careful. Full international grade gear you could do for under 1000 dollars. Granted this is the insane top of the top. But I do know quite a few parents who pay for this.
- retsibsi 6y ago
  Thanks (very belatedly) for the breakdown! It's one of those things that makes sense in detail but still feels surprising in aggregate.
dragonwriter 6y ago
Private lessons on the close order of $100 two, or maybe more, times a week, plus group classes several times a week for maybe another $100, plus travel, plus equipment, plus competition fees, is probably true for lots of individual sports. For most the lessons will be the big expenses.
- retsibsi 6y ago
  Yeah, I guess this was probably going on even in some of the sports I played as a junior, like tennis -- it's just that I was never near the top tier, where that level of expense would begin to seem possible/necessary.

dragonwriter 6y ago

> Could it also be that younger siblings get parents who are a little richer and gotten over the sticker shock of being a top athlete? If the older sibling was in the same sport, younger siblings get parents that are more experienced in navigating & supporting training, etc., which probably extends beyond just price sticker shock. They may even get a boost directly from interaction with their older sibling. (I know that seems to be the case with general knowledge and skills development with my two young kids.)