South Denver Fencing Academy

Fantastic club! Great coaches! 5 strips of competitive foil and epee.
Jul 9th, 2021

My son kind of showed interest in fencing. I looked around and found this school on google. Neither of us had ever seen fencing except on TV, so I took him there today with hopes that he could get a chance to actually see what fencing looks like, and if possible, even try it out a little bit to get a feeling of it. We walked into the building, and I noticed a front desk to my left, adjacent to the entrance. I saw someone’s head, but not face, behind the counter. She was apparently working on the computer or something. Assuming that she didn’t see us, I said ‘hello!’ She lifted her head, and then looked away again, saying ‘give me a second, please.’ After finishing her task, she finally attended to us asking how she could help. I told her that we just walked in, it was our first time there, my son was interested in fencing, and we just wanted to check the school out, and possibly watch what the students were doing. Her first response was this: she turned to my son, who had his mask on, and said, ‘first, I need you to pull that mask up and cover your nose’. Her remorseless tone made my son and me a little intimidated. Talk about first impression. Then she continued, saying that it was the tournaments day and they didn’t have any classes scheduled. I said we’d still be fine watching the tournaments if they allowed us. She said she’d have to talk to someone to see if that’d be possible since they were watching their numbers inside the building. At that moment, a gentleman approached to the counter and she asked him about our request. This was a nice guy, who, later I learned, was the head coach. He took us in, showed us two available seats, and we watched a few games. I am not writing this to argue their COVID protocols. I am fully vaccinated, and my son will be getting his second shot in two weeks. As a family, we always followed the CDC guidelines, as well as the businesses’ own protocols. We always had our masks during the pandemic, and have no issues about continuing to wear them as stores or businesses require it. I am here to argue this receptionist lady’s customer relations skills. Neither of us felt this lady’s enthusiasm regarding making us their new customers. We did not feel welcome. Both of us felt like we were in a DMV or Social Security office, where we usually get told what to do, with a serious tone, in a ‘do it or leave— you have to, because you need us more than we need you!’ fashion. I wish I had better things to say, but my son doesn’t want to go back there any more. It is important to select the right person who will be the welcoming face of your entity to the public, I guess.
May 29th, 2021

Excellent fencing center. Welcomed us with open arms, nice facility. Four Corners fencing club fencing thanks you for your hospitality.!!
May 9th, 2021

I have fenced here since the club opened 15 years ago. The club is open and welcoming and produces some of the best fencers in Colorado. Matt coached me to the top 10 in the country in both cadet (under 17) and Junior (under 19) and on to the Penn State team where we won the NCAA national championship. Right now the club is taking extremely good precautions with covid 19. everyone in the building is required to wear a Covid mask at all times and everyone has to strictly follow the state social distancing guidelines.
Jul 6th, 2020

I love SDFA. The whole team there loves what they do and are amazing!
Jun 27th, 2020