Review: Make the Cut/Saber Fencing For Adults, by John Chow

This is a book about saber I wished I had written. It's unfortunate that this book is hard to acquire, because it's one of the most interesting books I've read on saber. It's not an autobiography, thought we follow the author—John Chow—from starting as an adult beginner in saber, to World Cup competitor (with decidedly mixed results), on to coach, and finally a club owner. Make the Cut is also part instruction manual, part coaching manual, part business plan, and layers all of these topics with a discussion of the rise of Korea as a fencing powerhouse and observations on some of the fencers that made that happen.

I'll confess that while I have a bunch of pieces of paper that say I know how to teach saber, at this point saber is the weakest of my three weapons that I have a diploma in. Make the Cut gave me a lot of insights into how modern saber fencers (and their coaches) train and execute actions at blinding speed, with discussions of some of the bio-mechanical stresses that modern fencers put themselves through and which—unfortunately—the author himself cannot escape at a major competition in Korea.

There are a lot of technical discussions in the book. Some of the discussion of angles of cuts and arcs of attack left me a little baffled. Several times I was in my living room with the book in one hand and a saber in another, miming out the actions descried in the book. Some of the terminology used was a little unfamiliar to me, probably because I have not been spending much time in "saber land" these last few years, and perhaps because of some cross-cultureal translations. It must also be noted that saber changes more than any of the other weapons as new rules, new timings, and new fads appear and then disappear. None-the-less, my occasional technical confusion did not detract from my enjoyment of this book.

When Chow moved from from descriptions of actions and to tactics and the mental game of saber, I was on more comfortable ground. The author's explanation of saber tactics and approach added clarity and depth to the overly simply idea of saber as a game of "Paper Rock Scissors". He is one of the only authors I have read who actively discusses the use of preparation off the line and how modern saber uses that first "off the line" preparation as an integral part of tactics. I reread that section several times.

John Chow and his wife Frances eventually form their own club with a novel idea: why not make saber approachable and fun for all ages, not just the kids that many clubs foster as "future champions" (until those children burn out or get hurt and quit). Chow has some interesting observations about the state of the sport in Australia (which suffers from some of the same problems Like Australia, many American clubs have a lack of resources and access to high level competition and coaching—though Australia is in much worse shape in regards to that compared to us in the States.

This book is very approachable. The author and his wife are very much the sort of people I run into all the time in fencing, in every country in the world. In some ways, I've heard the story in this book many many times, but it's told with a refreshing amount of honesty and integrity. Chow is occasionally irreverent and pokes fun at a lot of people (some of which, by no surprise, I also know, despite fencing a continent away). They preference this book with the following:

Achtung! This book is full of unpopular opinions, colourful Australian colloquialisms, at least one full-grade swear word that’s only partially censored, and some very not-nice observations about various fencing institutions — not least the Olympics itself. Even the people who are cast in a favourable light receive a light ribbing. Consider this fair warning.

If you're fencing or coaching saber, you should set your radar to finding a copy of this book, or hoping that for Christmas, John Chow does another print run.