Rhys Melia
Fencer
We first met fencer Rhys through his coach Glen Golding. Glen approached us wanting to get his top students the best training equipment he could, and realising that CoolBoard worked fitness in a way that is difficult to do but so important to fencing performance he was convinced that he’d found the right product.
At the time Rhys was piped to be a future star, ranking no. 6 in the UK seniors when he wasn’t even old enough to be a senior! Unfortunately his Olympic attempt didn’t go so well after not being picked due to a couple of under par performances.
Since then Rhys has come back to win the British Championships 2012!!! Well done Rhys – its a pleasure to support you…
For those of you that don’t know much about fencing…
Fencing – the sport of speed, skill and dexterity; co-ordination, balance and flexibility; in attack and while defending.
We believe the BritishFencing.com say this better than we can…”The sword is one of the oldest of weapons and, as Egyptian frescoes circa 1200BC show, fencing is one of the oldest of sports.
The ability to demonstrate speed, skill and dexterity with a sword has always been considered an indication of manliness and throughout 17th and 18th century Europe duelling with rapiers settled ‘matters of honour’.
The modern Olympic sport requires fencers to be of the fittest of athletes and have levels of skills which require many hours of dedicated training.
In learning the skills of attacking and defending with either the Foil, Epee or Sabre fencers develop good co-ordination, balance and flexibility which makes fencing training an ideal means of keeping fit for all ages and abilities.”
And how does CoolBoard help?
The answer is – in many ways… as Rhys says, “it does what it say on the tin, and more!”
This is a list of benefits felt by Rhys and Tristan:
- Balance
- Agility
- Awareness of self and surroundings / opponent
- Posture – especially essential for fencers to balance their posture after training in the standard fencing position.
- Core strength and stability
- Feeling of control
- Concentration
- Centring
- ‘Fun’ training
We’ve got to say, it’s great when athletes such as Rhys remark on the effectiveness of CoolBoard as a training tool. Coming from serious performers who train for many hours a day, it reinforces our research and beliefs, showing how useful CoolBoard is.
