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4worldlovers: The Salle Honolulu Fencing Club (Salle Honolulu for short) is dedicated to teaching, promoting, and providing practice space for European swordplay, mostly the modern Olympic sport, but also historical fencing such as dueling saber from the Victorian Age, rapier from the Renaissance, and longsword from the Middle Ages.


Some people think the word “Salle” is the name of the founder. Some think the word “Salle” is pronounced sah-LAY. The language of fencing is French and in the French word “salle,” the E is silent. The word is cognate with “salon” and the Spanish word “sala.” It means “room” or “hall.”

The French term for fencing school is salle d’armes (literally “room of weapons”). And if in the old days the master’s name was Dubois, his school would be called Salle d’Armes Dubois, or Salle Dubois for short.


Colin is a traditionalist but if he named his school according to tradition, Salle d’Armes Chock, only French speakers (and not even all of them) would recognize the name as that of a fencing school.

But because Colin thought the name “Honolulu Fencing Club,” though descriptively accurate, was a bit too bland, he chose a compromise, a name that has one foot in the past (the prefix “salle” from the term salle d’armes), and one foot in the present: the last three words being “Honolulu Fencing Club.”

So even if you don’t know who or what a “Salle” is, or how to pronounce it, you can tell from the last three words that it is a fencing school.

Salle Honolulu founder Colin Chock was born and raised in Honolulu and learned to fence from a small friendly group that met Sunday afternoons at Kapiolani Park by the archery range. When Colin lived in Spokane, Washington, he fenced at the Spokane Fencers Club. When he lived in Portland, Oregon, he fenced at the Salle Auriol Fencing Club, which in 1984 produced one fourth of the American Olympic fencing team.

Colin moved back to Hawaii and started a fencing school in 1995, officially naming it the Salle Honolulu Fencing Club in 1997.

Fencing is both safe and exciting in a way that no other sport is.

Even though it is one of the safest sports, that doesn’t mean fencing is slow or boring. Far from it.

Is it safe because it is slow? Not at all. It is the opposite — the fastest sport in the world.

Because there is low risk does that make it boring? Perhaps yes if you are an adrenaline junkie. But fencing is simulated swordfighting and is there anything as iconic, romantic, exciting, or primal as swordfighting?

Fencing is unique. It is the only martial art that uses electronic scoring. This contributes to its being the world’s fastest sport.

Fencing is a martial art in that it is fighting with swords. Fencing is the Western martial art, the European martial art. Where in Europe did fencing originate?

Well perhaps Inigo Montoya from “The Princess Bride” would say the answer is Spain because the first treatise on what is recognized as modern fencing was by a Spanish master.

But a second person might say Italy because the lunge was popularized by an Italian master. And yet a third person might say France because the modern fencing mask was invented by a French master, and also the language of fencing is French: en garde, touché, riposte, and so on. Where in Europe did fencing originate? It seems like the answer is “no one place.”

But it is also a sport in that it is done for fun and exercise and there is one standard that everyone worldwide follows. The rules Salle Honolulu follows are the same ones (with a few slight variations) that are used all over the world, and if you are talented and ambitious you may someday win the national championships, the world championships, or even the Olympics.

Fencing, being out of the ordinary, stands out on a college application or resumé, setting the applicant apart.

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