BY DUSICA SUE MALESEVIC | Those who watch sometimes become those who do, by seeking out those who teach.
Inspired by the grace and precision of gymnast Simone Biles and fencer Ibtihaj Muhammad during the Rio Olympics, children and adults are flocking to a pair of Chelsea institutions for classes and lessons.
At the Fencers Club (229 W. 28th St., btw. Seventh & Eighth Aves.), interest in the sport has risen, as there is typically a membership bump after the Olympics, said Adam Schafer, program director at the club since 2011.
Indeed, Schafer himself was spurred by the Olympics to start fencing. He was living in Idaho and remembers watching the 2004 Athens Olympics, he explained in a phone interview.
“It was a sport I had never seen before. Who doesn’t want to play with swords?” he asked. “I found a way to do that.”
Schafer started a fencing group at his school, studied the sport in Spain and has been fencing now for more than 10 years, he said.
The not-for-profit Fencers Club is the oldest continuing fencing organization in the city, founded in 1883. Since 1904, according to Schafer, the club has had at least one fencer compete in each Olympics.
This year, three club members — Ibtihaj Muhammad, Miles Chamley-Watson, and Nzingha Prescod — competed in Rio, said Schafer. Muhammad won a bronze in women’s sabre and Chamley-Watson won a bronze in men’s foil. Three of the club’s coaches — Buckie Leach, Simon Gershon, and Akhnaten Spencer-El — also went to the Rio for the games.
Doug Tableman, manager of the Fencers Club, said a lot more people have been calling about classes and signing up. It is partly due to the time of the year, but also because people have just watched the games, he said.
“Anecdotally, there is absolutely an Olympic effect,” Tableman said in a phone interview.
The Fencers Club offers an introductory package for $240, which entails three private lessons with a master coach, he said. The lessons give people a taste of the sport, Tableman said, and they can then decided whether they want to sign up for a membership.
Schafer said that fencing is a rapidly growing sport, and with some participants as young as five and members as old as 88, it can be a lifelong pursuit.
At the Field House at Chelsea Piers, both adult and youth programs get a big increase in attendance after the Olympics, said Josh Diorio, assistant director of gymnastics at Chelsea Piers.
The gymnastics program at the complex at 62 Chelsea Piers includes a summer camp, a class called Little Athletes for those six months to five years old, youth classes for those five to 16, private lessons, and teen parkour for those 12 and up.
Summer camp this year got a bump, Diorio said, as parents and children would watch the USA gymnastic team compete, and then call to enroll in camp for the next week.
“They see it on TV and then they want to sign up right then,” Diorio explained in a phone interview.
Team USA, which won gold, included Simone Biles, Aly Raisman, Gabby Douglas, Laurie Hernandez and Madison Kocian. The team’s nickname is the “Final Five.”
Gymnastics classes for children are already popular, but enrollment is going at a faster pace than it traditionally does, said Erica Bates, vice president of corporate communications for Chelsea Piers Management in an email.
Diorio said the Olympics helps all Chelsea Piers’ gymnastics programs, including fall classes, and those for adults. According to Bates, adult attendance has doubled and, for some classes, tripled.
Chelsea Piers has 90-minute classes for adults, and it is the largest adult program in the country, according to Diorio. Performers — actors, dancers and singers — often come to the complex to learn a skill for a show. For example, Diorio explained, a performer wanted to learn how to tumble for the magic carpet ride scene in “Aladdin.”
For adults who competed in the past, or took gymnastic lessons growing up, watching the games reminds them how much they miss the sport, said Diorio. So not only does the Olympics bring in novices, he said, it inspires adults with some experience, who might have only been taking one class, to step it up to two or three.
“It motivates them to try harder and to do it,” Diorio said.
Chelsea Piers is also the only gym in Manhattan that has a girls and boys competitive team, according to Diorio.
All instructors are certified through USA Gymnastics, Diorio said, and the facility boats 23,000 square feet of gymnastics equipment. Most of the coaches have competed at some level, he explained. Diorio, whose interest in the sport started when he was eight, has been a coach at Chelsea Piers since 2013 and has been assistant director for a year and a half.
The program is for all different levels and ages, with enrollment beginning as early as one year of age, and Diorio said he has given private lessons for those in their fifties.
He added, “They all get something out of it.”
The Olympics, Diorio said, is “definitely our Super Bowl, for sure.”
For more information about Chelsea Piers’ gymnastics programs and Fencers Club, visit chelseapiers.com/fh/gymnastics/youth-gymnastics and fencersclub.org.
