Sophomore finds passion in fencing

At every fencing tournament, blood pounds through sophomore Jarred Gou’s ears as he uses his headphones to tune out the noise of the thousands of chattering people, clanking foils and beeping scoreboards around him. Music thunders through his mind, erasing all thoughts. He notices nothing. Then the headphones come off.

Game time has arrived.

For Gou, who has been fencing competitively since age 6, each tournament is a test of the mind.  Not only must he study and analyze his opponent, but he also must balance himself between an appropriate level of intensity and relaxation. 

Gou “walks on a tiny mental tight rope between being too amped up and not intense enough.”  He knows that even the smallest of mental lapses can lead to defeat.

It is because of this discipline and knowledge that Gou has ranked third in the nation for Cadet fencing, a type of fencing for athletes 16 years old and younger.

Gou began fencing as a way of spending time with his dad. After watching “Star Wars” with his father, Gou said that he wanted a lightsaber of his own.

“My mother said that that spring I had nearly decapitated 500 tulips with a stick,” Gou said. “That’s when I put two and two together after seeing an older friend of mine fence.”

Near the end of kindergarten, Gou started local lessons with Ani and Dan Tibbits at the California Fencing Academy. Within a couple of years, however, Gou realized that this was more than just a sport — it was something he was truly passionate about and wanted to take even further.

Gou wanted to train with the top foil clubs in the Bay Area.  After hearing a lot of pleading from him, Gou’s parents agreed to let him move to the Massialas Foundation to train with Olympian Greg Massialas and coaches Den Hinton and

Cole Harkness in San Francisco.

Gou said that despite the fact he had to learn to do most of his schoolwork on the road, it was one of the best decisions of his life.

“I was on the road to San Francisco about five to six days a week in those early years,” Gou said.

Later on, the sport became even more serious for him.

Gou began competing for awards and moving up in ranks when he was around 8 years old.  Today, his competitions range from once a month to every other week, and he practices fencing around two hours every other day.

Gou recalls his most exhausting fencing competition, Youth 12 U.S. National Championships, when he finished the competition around 1 a.m.. The demanding schedule, although hard to manage, has helped Gou grow up faster.

Because of the amount of time and effort he puts into fencing, managing school work can often be difficult. “Because so much of my time revolves around fencing, I’m forced to push myself harder with school, which I think has really benefited me,” Gou said. “It can get difficult dealing with time, but in the end I’m glad because it has allowed me to gain great management skills.”

Gou has competed in countries as far away as Germany, France and Italy.

Recently, Gou made the U.S. World Championship Team that will represent the country in Plovdiv, Bulgaria, on April 4-5. Three U.S. athletes  on the Cadet Men’s Foil Team will compete, and whoever does best at Worlds will qualify to represent the U.S. at the 2014 Junior World Olympics in Nankin, China, from August 17-19.

Fencing has shaped Gou’s personality and work ethic.

“I’ve learned through fencing that I am completely in charge of my success and failure,” Gou said. “Because there are so many competitors in fencing, an athlete is doing good if they can consistently finish in the top eight.  However, if I don’t like my score, I simply do some self-analysis to improve for next time and then shake it off and train hard to be better.”

Because of not only his love for fencing, but also because of the benefits he has gotten out of it, Gou hopes to take his career beyond high school and continue on with the sport in the future. 

“I definitely want to fence in Division 1 in college,” Gou said. “Because I am a sophomore, colleges are not allowed to talk me in any type of recruiting manner. However, right now I do know that making a World Championship Team helps put me in a good position when I do need to start applying to colleges.”  

Regardless of what the future holds, today Gou’s passion and talent is fencing, and it is something he holds dearly.

“I love everything about fencing — competing, the intensity, the focus and all the friends I have made from all over the world who have a similar passion,” Gou said. “As of right now, there isn’t anything I’d rather be doing.”