Aristocratic sports and pasttime activities

[EnglishGent]

Originally Posted by Jerome

I think cricket we already had under its more docile designation of croquet

Very different sports.

 

[Cleav]

Amateur Golf

 

[Master Squirrel]

Yachting?
Fishing with overpriced useless equipment?

One I always like: going into working class places and declaring that you are "slumming it"... That always earns friends!

 

[guardimp]

do fencing

 

[JLibourel]

For all the attention given to fencing in this thread, I might mention that my first wife was (or had been) a fencer. She really was not very socially genteel, so she would be a poor endorsement for fencing.

In my cursory overview of this thread, I did not see anybody mention riding to the hounds, which would seem the ultimate gentlemanly sport. (I sometimes miss these previous references and then look like an old fool.)

Among the shotgun sports, would Sporting Clays rank as more "gentlemanly" than skeet or trap? I have a vague feeling it might be. The best trap shot I ever knew I otherwise despised as rather low sort and a bad gunwriter. Shotgun shooters are a very different subset, by and large, from other gun enthusiasts. I have heard them characterized as "golfers with guns." Although (at least in my prime) I was a pretty good hand with a handgun and at least competent with a rifle, I'll have to confess I've never been much shakes as a wingshot.

P.S. Oops! I see somebody already mentioned riding to the hounds, unsurprisingly.

I note that several posters have mentioned squash. I always thought handball was the upscale, patrician sport and squash the declasse, plebeian one, standing in relation to each other much like billiards to pool.

 

[Cleav]

Originally Posted by guardimp

do fencing

Splinters?

 

[Cleav]

Means to an end...

Mink

 

[matt22616]

Really surprised squash has only been mentioned a couple of times. Of all game-sports mentioned its probably one of the most accessible (most gyms have at least one squash court). If you start playing with someone at your skill-set, its also incredibly easy to learn and get good at. Once one of you starts winning consistently its time to start widening your group of players. From there it becomes a great opportunity to socialize and get drinks afterwards. Truly a joyous game. Good exercise too.

 

[telemark]

cricket cricket cricket. does nobody play cricket in the US?

 

[Qubaduck]

Having fenced pretty seriously since I was 12, I'll chime in briefly on that one. As a little bit of background in the past 14 years, I've been seriously competitive, coached, and spent some pretty substantial time with all three weapons.

Pretty much everything that's been said already is pretty accurate; In terms of the learning curve, I've been running by club's beginner course for the past few years now, and I can attest that many people get the idea quickly, but tend to hit something of a wall very early on. Although there's obviously a big physical component to the sport, athleticism alone isn't winning you anything; this isn't basketball. Generally people develop as much as they choose to develop, so if you aspire to be a mediocre recreational fencer, then that's more or less where you'll stay. If you're hoping to get to a competitive level, it'll take a lot of time, and considerable coaching.

In terms of cost, it's not cheap to fence seriously, but shouldn't be expensive to get involved with at some level. Any club should have a stockpile of equipment to lend out to beginners, which will usually be sufficient for most people, unless you really don't like the idea of a mask that's seen a few heads before. Buying your own gear will probably come in drips and drabs over time, which makes it more accessible for most people, but gear for a competitive athlete can get fairly pricey. The more pressing financial concern tends to be in the cost of competing; going to tournaments means flying all over the place pretty much constantly, and there's really no financial support unless you happen to be on a national team. If you're going to be competitive, there's really no way to get around this endless travel issue, and fencing tournaments aren't really anywhere you'd want to go most of the time.

The last note to mention here is that fencing really isn't what people tend to think. It isn't a gentile, aristocratic sport were every goes to fence and then retires to the drawing room from brandy; it's a sport like any other. I spend a worrying amount of my time keeping my weapons in repair, fiddling with tiny screws, springs and wires. Reel wires, body wires and weapons are always in need of some sort of repair, which gets pretty tiresome after a while.

Aside from that, its a great sport. Good fun, good exercise, and as long as you don't mind bruises while you're learning, about as safe as you can get. Just don't get started thinking it's going to be like something out of a movie, because it most certainly isn't.

 

[edinatlanta]

Modern Pentathlon.

 

[Wrigglez]

if were doing experiences, i started squash at 11 or 12 years old. its not so easy to pick up as a kid because for starters you just not strong enough so learning at a more mature age will avoid that frustration. because i played in ags/aps leauges (that being associated grammer/private school leauges) i deffinitily played kids from old money famillies. As with any sport you will get thrashed to start with but if you start in a pennent grade you will play higher skilled people and you will improve far quicker than if you play very low grade or socialy.
regards

 

[Rosenberg]

Originally Posted by guardimp

do fencing

i was working with a fencing crew for a while. mostly lumber, but some wrought iron. tough work. totally aristocratic

 

[dhaller]

Naturally, this is very regional.

Here in the American Southeast, aristocratic past times include:

Fox hunting - pretty exhilarating, sartorially demanding AND it concludes with good food and booze.

Quail shooting - you have to get up before the crack of dawn, but what better chance to get out you Holland & Holland double royal shotgun?

Falconry - not for those unnerved by birds (many people are)

More universal past times include:

Badminton - my wife forces me to play this, and I always feel idiotic doing so, though it's admittedly fun.

Lacrosse

Anything horsey

Crew

Sailing an actual sailboat

Flying old aircraft, like a 1971 Cessna 210 (I know an Austrian prince who has one)... note, not "vintage" aircraft, as that is the province of the dreadfully middle-classed hobbyist with money.

Any kind of elaborate hunting expedition, like hunting a particular sort of bear in Russia (Prince Kari von Schwarzenberg, the chancellor of the Czech Republic, is fond of this) or hunting caribou in Colorado on their pricy lottery system, and slaughtering five of the immense beasts and then donating them to the Catholic mission (as a real estate developer - who is also a Count - I know did!)

Have fun being aristocratic!

DH

 

[Gibonius]

I fenced for eight years. It's a great sport, very individual, very intense, very analytical. I fenced epee. It's slower than the other weapons, fit my mentality better. It's somewhat expensive for equipment, but not that bad. Finding a decent club can be hard, it's hard to evaluate a good coach when you don't know what you're doing, and bad habits learned early can be very hard to eliminate. Large swaths of the country have almost no fencing community as well. New York, California, Northern VA (among others) have fairly strong fencing communities.

What really gets expensive is individual lessons. Group lessons are usually fairly affordable, but once you get serious about it, you need some one on one time, and that doesn't come cheap with better coaches. I was lucky enough to get four years of coaching for a song in college.

I loved the competition, I fenced in college and the all day tournaments were just incredible. Nothing beats an eight hour adrenaline rush. Traveling blows, especially when the airline manages to break some of the equipment you so carefully prepared for a tournament.

As Qubaduck said, there's nothing really aristocratic about it. A lot of nerds are drawn to it in America, but people that end up being decent are usually just as serious and competitive as in any other sport. Europeans are deadly serious about it, and their skill level tends to be really high compared to your average American.

I ended up stopping after about eight years. Fenced five days a week, three hours a day all through college, and it just took its toll on me physically. Messed up a knee (mostly through bad form) and had to take a couple months off for rehab. After graduation, I moved and the town I'm in doesn't have much of a fencing community. Even if it did, I wouldn't have time to seriously get after it, and after being nationally competitive for as long as I was, I couldn't deal with being casual about it.

I actually moved over to powerlifting, then MMA after I stopped fencing. Nothing aristocratic about either of those, hah.