Fencing Coach Career: Salary, Training & How to Get Started

Fencing Coach 

What does it take to turn fencing into a rewarding career—and how much can a fencing coach earn?

In this episode of How Much Can I Make?, fencing coach Pamela Dressel shares invaluable career insights about making money in this niche sport.   She dives into lightning-fast strategy and the unglamorous grind of footwork and conditioning.

We cover coaching income, private lessons, club models, and the real skills behind the sport—strategy, discipline, and teaching.

If you’re curious about niche sports careers or looking for a unique path with earning potential, this episode gives you a clear, practical look inside the fencing world.

Connect with Pamela:

Pam's fencing club: https://www.ontargetfencingclub.com/

USA fencing site: https://www.usafencing.org

How Much Can I Make? Is nominated for 2026 Women in Podcasting Award!

Want us to cover a specific job? Shoot us an email!

Visit howmuchcanimake.info

Music credit: Kate Pierson & Monica Nation

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:04

So you need a hyper focus on your skills and many hours of training your muscle memory. This is a very muscle memory heavy sport. You're supposed to learn your distance and figure out where can I hit this person and still maybe they don't hit me.

Mirav Ozeri - Host 0:20

Hi, welcome back to How Much Can I Make? I'm Ravozeri. When a friend suggested that I interview a fencing coach, I jumped on the opportunity because I don't know anything about fencing or the business of fencing. So I sat down with Pamela Dressel, who is a fencing coach in Maryland and a fencer herself, to find out a little bit behind the scenes of this sport. It is a sport and a very demanding one, apparently. So let's turn to my conversation with Pamela. I think you'll find it very interesting. Thanks a lot for coming on the show.

SPEAKER_01 1:01

Oh, thanks for having me.

Mirav Ozeri - Host 1:02

Yeah, when Tamara Lang, our mutual friend, introduced me to you, I was so excited because I know nothing about fencing. So of course I have questions. So let's start by if you could just tell us what is it you're doing in fencing?

SPEAKER_01 1:19

I am a coach, but I also still compete. There's competitions for there in the fencing world, it's called the veteran category. So once you reach 40 years old, you can compete against your own gender and your own age group. In fencing, that encompasses people like myself, started late in life, came to it later, and really enjoyed it and wanted to compete, but also ex-Olympians who go home after their Olympic career is over, have their children, and then go, you know what, I miss that and they want to come back. So I coach to support my fencing habit. It pays for me to go do my competitions. So I'm teaching all age levels. I we are foil specific at our club. There are three weapons.

Mirav Ozeri - Host 2:08

So wait, I before you said foil. Let's explain to the listeners that there are three types of fencing.

SPEAKER_01 2:14

Correct. There are three types, they are so different. The target areas are different. And so there's epee where your whole body is target. So foil is just the little vest that you see, very small target area. Saber is just from your waist up. So each weapon has specific rules, target areas, and priority or not priority that make them very in individual. So you really need to focus on each individual weapon now if you want to be really good.

Mirav Ozeri - Host 2:45

Okay, so let's back up for a second. I read that it's uh that fencing is like chess on a hundred mile per hour high-speed sport.

SPEAKER_01 2:55

Yeah, so the interesting thing about fencing, and I explain it to my newbies that come in when I'm teaching the first class, think of it like imagine somebody at the Olympics doing gymnastics. They have to be so incredibly focused and fast and know the routine. How it differs from fencing is that this Olympic gymnast, if she does her perfect routine, she might get a perfect score from the judges. You can do fencing perfectly well and you still might lose because you have somebody on the other side of you trying to ruin everything you're trying to set up. So the reason they call it chess is I might have an idea to come get you with a set of actions that I'm very good at. I might do them perfectly, but because you are very good at defense, you can ruin my set of actions, and I might need to change my idea about what I'm going to do like that. Like in a blink of an eye, I have to say, oh gosh, this isn't working. They're about to block me. I now need to switch to this other thing, like right now. So you can't just go and have memorized your routine.

Mirav Ozeri - Host 4:03

Those swords, are they really sharp?

SPEAKER_01 4:05

Oh no, it's not like that anymore. Yeah, it's a sport now. You plug into a little plug on the edge of your weapon, and that cord that plugs in runs down your arm, inside your jacket, and out your back and plugs into a reel and it creates a circuit. And when you hit, it has a little button on the end, the size of a pencil eraser, little button on the end that has to click in. And if that button clicks in, it breaks the circuit and your light goes on.

Mirav Ozeri - Host 4:36

At what age people usually start fencing?

SPEAKER_01 4:39

We recommend six or seven years old for the youngest. It is very one-sided, and we have growth plates still developing in the human body. So we don't want a little five-year-old really only using one side of their body. We do try to do things to balance their development if they start that early. But you can start at any time. I started when I was 40.

Mirav Ozeri - Host 5:01

So you started at 40, and you're already training people and coaching people?

SPEAKER_01 5:05

Yeah, I'm 59. And the thing was, I was a pretty high-level athlete in my other sport. I was a dressage rider and I was training horses. So I was very athletic, very able to take direction and coaching, because I had done that my whole life. It was just trading one set of coaching for the other. Once I learned the rules, I was I don't think I'm typical. I think I was it was a very good switch for me because I had similar skills.

Mirav Ozeri - Host 5:33

I think most people know about fencing from the Olympics. What do you think will surprise people the most about fencing?

SPEAKER_01 5:40

The most surprising thing I think about fencing is that so many people don't think that it's A difficult or B a real sport.

Mirav Ozeri - Host 5:48

Right.

SPEAKER_01 5:48

I'm shocked when I hear this. Shocked. My son was so frustrated when he was in high school. My son fenced as well. At a very high level, he was a national competitor. And his friends at school would be like, Oh, don't pick Jeff for the basketball team. He's not, he doesn't do a sport. And they were shocked when he could get the ball and be so athletic. They were like, Whoa, look at Dressel. How is he athletic? He doesn't do a sport. And I would be like, he would come home and tell me this and be like, really? How? We spend hours doing plyometrics, but the getting ready for fencing is conditioning and plyometrics and those hit workouts where you're doing burpees and body weight. And it's crazy to me that people think it's not a sport.

Mirav Ozeri - Host 6:29

What does fencing teach the fencers that other sports don't teach them?

SPEAKER_01 6:35

You know what somebody, one of my students, said to me two days ago, funnily enough, that you had a good question. He came up to me and he said, Coach Pam, I noticed lately, he's is this me or is this everyone? He's I'm walking around at school and something starts to fall off my desk, and I'm like, like I just put my hand out and I catch it. Like I'm the matrix. And I was like, okay, yes, you get really good spatial awareness of your body and how close you are to things. You stop accidentally bumping into things. I think it really tunes up your senses, really. Like I notice if someone's too close to me, I feel it. It's so funny.

Mirav Ozeri - Host 7:14

What is the biggest mistake beginners make?

Coaching Certification And Safety Gear

SPEAKER_01 7:17

The biggest mistake beginners make is it's just so overwhelming. The rules, the position you have to be in. And this is a position from hundreds of years of fencing masters saying, bend your knees. I mean, that is the one thing beginners find so difficult. It's so easy to just stand there and listen and do what you want to do with your hand. But if you actually have to bend your knees as well, that is very difficult for beginners. It's a strength process to become strong enough to stand in the proper position. And when you're standing in the proper position, you have better balance, you have better, and that means that you have better point control so you don't miss and you're more athletic, also. Exactly. So learning the learning curve of staying in the position is maybe the hardest for people, I would say.

Mirav Ozeri - Host 8:07

Did you need to get any kind of certification? Is there any kind of governing body?

SPEAKER_01 8:12

There is. There's something called the U.S. Census Coaching Association Association. They have multiple levels, and you take a test. At the time, this was pre-COVID when I was tested. I think it was like I want to say 2017, I got my certification. And you go, I had to fly to Connecticut. I'm from Maryland. They offer these clinics around the country, and I picked that one. So I flew to Connecticut. I was given multiple choice tests. I had to sit in front of a panel and be quizzed on my answers. Then I was told a skill that I had to teach, and I was given a random student that I did not know and had to teach the skill in front of the panel, and they were allowed to critique my presentation. I had to teach a class in front of them. And then I had to answer more questions on why I had done the certain things that I had done. And then it was announced to the room whether I passed or failed. It was very nerve-wracking. I did pass. But yeah, there are multiple levels. And for the USFencing.org, our governing body that isn't control of all of the competitors and all of the coaches, I have to take multiple safe sport certification classes where I'm learning about keeping children safe in sport, noticing predators, learning how to, for example, say I'm teaching a class and somebody, their parents aren't there to pick them up. I'm not supposed to be alone in the building with this child. I have to ask somebody to stay. Like it's just keeping children safe because there's been a lot of really bad people in sport. And I'm thinking of the people penned state and all the things, all the things that so this is to counteract that. Plus, I have to have all of my CPR and first aid up to date. And I have to renew this every year.

Mirav Ozeri - Host 10:04

So you say that the sword can't really cut you, but when you look at the Olympics, they have all this gear that they're wearing and all why? Is that just tradition? Or what is it?

SPEAKER_01 10:14

No, it is it doesn't cut you, it's not sharp, but you're being hit with a very flexible long metal stick, and you can bruise the last fatality. I don't remember the year, but there was an Olympian and his sword broke when he was warming up, and the tip of it that broke, since they're under pressure when they break, they tend to fly away. And the tip went through his mask and into his eye, and he died instantly. When a foil or a saber or an epe break, that is the time when they are the most dangerous. There is something called margining, which is a treatment to the metal, so that they want it to break clean and not break jagged like a piece of glass. And those are the things that can happen where you're wearing the safety gear to keep yourself in case of something breaking. It can go through your jacket. The jackets have something called Newtons, which is like a puncturability. They withstand a certain amount of pressure and sharpness. The Olympians wear an 800 Newton jacket. That is the highest level of puncturability. It keeps you from, if that were to happen, it maybe wouldn't go through. But yeah, you can get hurt. I've had broken ribs, broken fingers, I've had I slip.

Mirav Ozeri - Host 11:30

From swords or from falling and running into things? From people hitting me. Whoa.

SPEAKER_01 11:35

Yeah, it isn't, it is a combat sport. I'm sporting a nice bruise on my thumb right now from yesterday. People hit you and it can hurt. That's why we use the safety gear, but also your distance. If you get too close too fast and you just run at somebody, everyone's oh, why do I have to do this footwork? Why can't I just run? Because when you're running and all your weight is forward, you can't slow down. So you like and then somebody hits you, you've gotten too close too fast, you can get a bruise, you can get hurt. So you're supposed to learn your distance and figure out where can I hit this person and still maybe they don't hit me. Think of it like tag with a stick.

Mirav Ozeri - Host 12:15

Right.

SPEAKER_01 12:15

You want to hit them, but you don't want them to hit you.

Muscle Memory And Mental Toughness

Mirav Ozeri - Host 12:18

So what else gumps into the play besides being athletic and being able to run and stop and attack?

SPEAKER_01 12:25

You have to have the ability to change up your game instantaneously. If you encounter a scenario where it's not working, you have to immediately change, like within a fraction of a second, or you're just going to lose. So you need a hyper focus on your skills and many hours of training your muscle memory. This is a very muscle memory heavy sport where we want you to learn your reactions. We want you to learn when this happens to me, I react like this. We're basically building a reacting machine, but we want you to react correctly. We don't want you to flinch and be afraid and twist away. We want you to get all of those human reactions down so that you can react in the way a fencer would react, which is it is a martial art. So we are training people to react. If you're in a sword fight, basically. The other thing I would say is that I see kids come in and I know right away they're going to struggle with fencing because we have something called open and closed mindset. An open mindset means when you're presented with a problem, you see it as a puzzle and you're willing to work on it. And the kids that I see with a closed mindset, if something doesn't work for them right away, they get upset. They didn't do it right, or they did this to me, and it didn't work. And they won't see it as a puzzle. They say, I'm not good at this, I quit. So you have to be very resilient in your personality because fencing is brutal. Everybody loses. You lose way more than you win. So you have to be willing to come back and come back and try this and try this and find what works for you. Without that mentality, you're gonna be cooked and pretty much feeling like it's too much for you.

Mirav Ozeri - Host 14:13

What do you think is the most important skill for a fencing coach to have?

SPEAKER_01 14:18

I think if you have a lot of really good teaching ability, but you don't have an ability to look at someone and see what they can take, I think you're going to be the kind of coach that students don't stay with. There are times you need to push, there are times you need to back off, there are times you need to be very tough, and there are times when you really need to be supportive. And I've noticed just myself, just take me out of the coaching element. I compete. And the coaches that I've had that were not worried about me as a person, I personally struggled with them. I see it. I see coaches screaming at their students at a competition. And I wonder what that does. I wonder, is that for the parents to say, oh, look at that coach getting my child up speed? Or is that because they don't have the wherewithal to see that the child is being hard enough on themselves in that moment? I think you need to be the total package to be a coach. And if you're missing one of the elements, you're going to struggle.

Mirav Ozeri - Host 15:17

So coaches usually work in clubs and in schools. What a beginner coach can expect to make if somebody wants to break into this.

SPEAKER_01 15:26

A beginner coach starting salary can be anywhere from$18,000 a year to$38,000 a year. And the higher number is going to be for people that have a little bit more experience. Even a full-time coach like myself, meaning I don't have another job. I do this for only, I only do this. It's still an evening and weekend sport because if you think about it, most of your people are children, and that means they're in school and or people have jobs, even if they're adults, they're coming in the evenings, they're coming on weekends. So even though it's full-time, it's still sort of part-time. And that's why I would say it looks on paper like you don't make much money. The club pays you by the hour, or you have a contract with them, or I am a I am a contractor, so I they pay me per class, and then the students pay me individually for my private lessons. They buy a lesson card from me with 10 or 5 lessons on it. It's like a punch card.

Mirav Ozeri - Host 16:23

Are the big sponsors in this sport? Who is the biggest sponsor in this field?

SPEAKER_01 16:28

Our biggest Olympians and our world champions that are sponsored. There's a company called Absolute Fencing, and they are a big supplier of our gear, and they sponsor a lot of athletes. And you'll see you can see, like, when there's a big competition, that company will be there, others as well, but they tend to sponsor a lot of people, and you'll see big posters of that person in the venue. Nike has gotten involved a little bit with some gear, but this is mostly a sport where if you don't have the money for it, you can't do it.

Mirav Ozeri - Host 17:02

Yeah, so it's a rich kids sport.

SPEAKER_01 17:04

It's a rich kids' sport. However, there are really good programs up in New York, especially you have the Peter Westbrook Foundation, and they take kids without as many opportunities and really help them get into the sport. And I think there's an element of accountability. You have to keep your grades up, you have to be a good citizen, but you get training and gear and a lot of support. And there have been, I think, four or five Olympians that have come through that program.

Mirav Ozeri - Host 17:34

Oh, wow. What would you say is the biggest misconception about the sport?

SPEAKER_01 17:38

Maybe what we just said, that it is only for rich kids. There are opportunities, if you look, that anybody can do this fort. Now, maybe not anybody can say, Oh, I'm gonna, I'm gonna put myself in a competition in Italy next month and I'm gonna buy all the tickets for that. But you can do it locally for pretty inexpensively. You don't have to be in the upper elite echelon of this fort in order to enjoy it and to do it.

Mirav Ozeri - Host 18:06

But if I want to buy the gear, all the clothing and the swords, what kind of investment should I look at?

SPEAKER_01 18:12

You're looking if you want to have all your own gear, you're looking at about$300.

Mirav Ozeri - Host 18:16

Oh, that's not bad.

SPEAKER_01 18:18

It's not bad. And also at our club, and I think a lot of clubs, at a beginner level, we're talking seven to twelve-year-olds that come in and they're newbies. We don't ask you to buy gear. We have a whole wall of things that you may borrow.

Mirav Ozeri - Host 18:34

What does your day-to-day look like? You come to the club and then what what do you do? Do you have to first run on a trade meal for a little bit? Or how does it work?

SPEAKER_01 18:44

Yeah, you that's such a good question because everyone's like, how do we stay in shape? What do we do? We don't want you to practice fencing at home. We don't want you to get bad habits that we then have to fix. So, yeah, you we want you to do any kind of exercises or conditioning you want to do at your house at home. But when you come into the fencing club and say you're gonna have a private lesson with me, in the classes, most of my students take my classes as well. That's pretty typical of all fencing clubs. We have a routine that we run through that is your warm-up, and we do that pretty consistently every class. Same things every time. Maybe you jog, and then maybe you do some conditioning for your arms, or you're doing loosening up, and after you get a little bit sweaty, then you do some stretching. And we want you to do these things all the time because then when you get to your competition, you do these things, and your body is used to doing these things before you fence. So I'm doing lots of things like you would see in a HIT workout. I'm doing some jumping and some stretching and some reaching, and I'm moving my body so that it's getting loose, like lymphatic systems are moving and engaging the glutes. And then we start doing footwork. When the class comes in, I want to say maybe 12 to 18 people in a class.

Mirav Ozeri - Host 20:02

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 20:03

And everybody warms up. Sensors have very large quads. We work all the time on our leg strength and our flexibility. So everybody's oh, the footwork is so hard. So everyone, you suffer together, so you build bonds that way.

Mirav Ozeri - Host 20:17

But might be a stupid question. Do you use regular sneakers or are there special shoes for that?

SPEAKER_01 20:23

So you start off with regular sneakers. As you get more and more into the sport, you start to specialize into shoes. You just need a sneaker that would be like for a racket sport, like badminton or even indoor soccer, something that has lateral support so that when you put your foot down sideways, you don't roll your ankle. A running shoe support or forward.

Mirav Ozeri - Host 20:44

Is the sport more popular in Europe than here?

SPEAKER_01 20:47

Oh my gosh. It's like like in Italy, for example, their fencers are movie stars. They are like, they are famous. So in Italy, they're the number one foil fencer in the world. She has been to six Olympics, many world championships. She's the most successful female fencer of all time. She's like their chancellor or something. When she retired, they elected her to the government. What? They go on dancing with the stars. Yeah, they're like the celebrities. So in this country, we're like, who's Lee Hefer? But over there, they're like, oh my god, Lee Kefer, like the whole everyone shows up when her plane lands. It's so popular. And that's across the board. Like people know they're fencers in Europe, but here it's like, who's that? I wonder why. I think it just wasn't popular here.

Mirav Ozeri - Host 21:36

I'm surprised because having duels was very popular in America.

SPEAKER_01 21:40

Yeah, well, I think that's how they saw it. Like cowboys, like men, you know, in this country, women weren't even allowed to fence for a long time. Wow. Women were only allowed to do saber and they had to wear skirts. Um, I have a friend that she started fencing that long ago, and she started in a skirt with saber. She remembers the Days of having to wear her long white wool pleated skirt and knee socks and only could only do saber. I mean, that's crazy. This is like the 1950s, and women weren't allowed to fence.

Mirav Ozeri - Host 22:10

It's so stupid.

SPEAKER_01 22:11

So stupid.

Mirav Ozeri - Host 22:13

What is the biggest challenge about being a fencing coach?

SPEAKER_01 22:17

That is such a good question. I have so many directions I think. I just want to constantly be improving my classes and the experience that people get when they come in. So I'm constantly, how can I make this class more fun, safer? How can I make it less confusing? Okay, here we go. This is my answer. So I have a class of maybe 12 people and they've been in the class for two or three months, and they're starting to learn certain things without me being right on them, correcting them every second. And then I get three new people that are brand new. And now I have to come up with how does my class help the new people understand what I'm doing and what we're doing without boring to tears the people that have been there for four months. I think that's it.

Mirav Ozeri - Host 23:06

How do I keep it fresh? What did you say is the biggest reward?

SPEAKER_01 23:10

Oh, my students. I have a book full of cards, letters, drawings. They say and they give me the nicest things and they make me feel so happy. If I'm having a rough day, a child just drew a hand, like they do in class. This person is maybe six, five, seven, and they had to assign each finger as a person in their life that is in their support system, and I was the middle finger. I mean, come on, come on. I almost cried. I was like, I'm in your support system.

Mirav Ozeri - Host 23:46

That's nice. Yeah. How many times a week do you train for yourself?

SPEAKER_01 23:50

I'm training four days a week on average. Yeah, I was lucky enough to do well at our last big knack. I came in third. Wow. So that puts me in line to maybe make a world team if I keep having results like that.

Mirav Ozeri - Host 24:04

So is that your goal? Is that your goal?

SPEAKER_01 24:06

It's my goal. It is my goal. I would love to one day represent the US for the veteran world championship. So I'm getting close. Very happy.

Mirav Ozeri - Host 24:15

And you could even do it at your age. I guess fencers can do it at an older age as well, right?

SPEAKER_01 24:21

Yeah, because this sport is so inclusive. I think I sent you in our research an article about how fencing and helps the aging generation. It really opens pathways in your mind because you're thinking differently. You're thinking so quickly and you're thinking differently than you can step on the strip and your bills and your marriage and whatever you're worried about just leaves, and you have to focus on this thing. And it's so good for the aging population. And we have many chances to compete nationally, regionally, and internationally as older people. My mentor, Betty Graham. The first time I met her and fenced her, she had a little do-rag on her head and she was in her 60s. And I thought to myself, oh, I'm gonna have to not hurt her. She's so cute. She was offering everyone banana bread, and then we put our masks on, and this woman took me apart. And I'm telling you, she makes every world team, and I always go watch her fence, and she's in her 80s now and she's still going.

Mirav Ozeri - Host 25:25

Oh my god, oh that's so good.

SPEAKER_01 25:28

Wow. She's my hero for sure.

Mirav Ozeri - Host 25:31

All right, there's hope for all of us.

SPEAKER_01 25:34

And you can start like me. I started very late, and I'm already possibly gonna make a world team this year. So come on.

Mirav Ozeri - Host 25:43

Wow.

Closing Links And Share Request

SPEAKER_01 25:44

You can do it. It's really fun.

Mirav Ozeri - Host 25:46

Fantastic. On that note, I'm so happy that I spoke to you. Now when I watch, I could get a little bit of an idea of what's going on, not much.

SPEAKER_01 25:55

Yeah, yeah, you just watch and enjoy. Sometimes it's so fast, even me. I just listen to what the referee says. They give the point, I go, Oh yeah, that was the point. There we go.

Mirav Ozeri - Host 26:04

Wow.

SPEAKER_01 26:05

So nice to meet you in the TV.

Mirav Ozeri - Host 26:06

So nice. Thank you so much for coming on the show. I really enjoyed it. I learned a lot in this segment. Such a fascinating sport. At least I know something about fencing now. I hope you do too. There are links in the show notes to Pam's Club and to the US fencing website. I hope you take advantage of it. And if you enjoyed this episode, please like and share. I'm Erapozari, and I'll see you next time on How Much Can I Make.