The vast majority of Garfield students play a sport, and in most cases they play for Garfield. For Arush Talasila, however, it’s much different. Arush Talasila trains across the city and frequently travels all around the country to compete in the unique sport of fencing. Talasila has been fencing since 2019, but it wasn’t until recently in 2022 that he seriously started to compete. Talasila is a sophomore this year and looking to climb the national ranks. For those who have never watched a fencing match before, they are quite intense and fun to watch.
He started fencing because of his middle school math teacher who taught a beginning fencing class. From there he trained at Salle Auriol, the largest fencing club in the city. Talasila describes his favorite thing about fencing as the movement. “It’s very dynamic, there’s so many things you can do on attack, it’s all about setting up the right distance and timing.”
There is a tremendous amount of strength, precision and mental strategy that goes into the sport of fencing. Talasila explains that the most difficult thing about fencing is stamina. “You go back and forth, back and forth. If you’re fencing somebody equally skilled you have to figure out what they are doing, and how they are figuring you out, and you have to adapt to that. It’s a lot of mental focus.” A lot of strength in your legs and in your core is required, and contrary to what one may think, there isn’t much arm strength involved in fencing.
Fencing on the west coast is much different than on the east coast. Here in the west, fencing is done mostly at clubs or other private institutions. On the east coast most high schools have a fencing team. He hopes that the sport grows in the west in the future. Until then Talasila has to travel in order to compete. He goes to California often and even the east coast occasionally. He currently trains at Raincity and Metro Tacoma.
One of Talasila’s biggest accomplishments was when he won a division three national tournament in Phoenix, Arizona. Winning this enabled him to now compete in higher division level tournaments. Talasila looks to the future with his main goal being to fence in college and to see how he stacks up. “Balancing school and fencing can be very difficult,” Talasila said, but he intends to preserve.
When asked about getting into fencing Talasila said, “Its open to anyone to try, and it’s very accessible.” If anyone wants to try, just ask Garfield’s local fencing expert Arush Talasila.
