<p>Has anyone out there sent a young teenager to a college summer fencing camp and found it too intense or too cruelly competitive? Any experience, good or bad, with sending kids to MIT, Princeton or Brown fencing camps? Many thanks.</p>
<p>Kids did sleepaway sports camps, none cruel or overly competitive. They were competitive because they were sports camps but they made sure the kids had fun. Typically the ones on college campuses are recruiting tools for those colleges. The kids sleep in the dorms, eat in the dining halls and get to have fun on campus.</p>
<p>We have experience with the one at Penn. It was fun, and neither too intense nor cruelly competitive.</p>
<p>This kid had a not so good experience: </p>
<p>[Fencing</a> instructor at camp at Brown University charged with sexual assault of student, 14 | Breaking News | providencejournal.com | The Providence Journal](<a href=“http://news.providencejournal.com/breaking-news/2012/07/brown-universit-13.html]Fencing”>http://news.providencejournal.com/breaking-news/2012/07/brown-universit-13.html)</p>
<p>You may want to reach out to Sherpa - a CC member. He is in the know on collegiate fencing.</p>
<p>My son and his friend did a week at MIT fencing camp last year. They both really enjoyed it. It had a good balance of conditioning, drills, and bouts. Also, while there were some ranked fencers and it skewed fairly competitive, the 2 boys were comfortable as unranked, 2 years experience, good high school team fencers. They both felt that they learned helpful things there. They liked the coach, Jarek, and the people that worked with them. The fencing facilities were new and very nice and they stayed in a cool, new dorm that was close to the gym. A boy and a girl from the MIT team stayed in the dorm with the kids so they were well supervised. They went to see a movie 1 night but otherwise stayed in the dorms in the evenings. They both would do it again if dates work.</p>