definitely. after having fenced for a little while and then testing the martial arts waters again, i found that i'd gained a lot of interesting, useful insight

definitely. after having fenced for a little while and then testing the martial arts waters again, i found that i'd gained a lot of interesting, useful insights. the commonly pointed out anecdote is that bruce lee was a fencer, and it influenced his philosophies and development as a martial artist. my bread and butter was teaching. the money and opportunity wasn't around for me with respect to fighting or tournaments or anything else to warrant seriously focusing more on them than i was.