Noah Condiff, 15, was a basketball player when he happened to be watching the 2008 Summer Olympics with his mom.
What he saw would change his athletic path.
“My mom said, ‘Noah, come watch this sword fighting on TV,’” Condiff said. “I was like whoa, I need to do that.”
In a little more than seven years later, Condiff has gone from fencing novice to one of the best 15-year-old foil fencers in the United States. Condiff has earned a number of achievements in fencing this year, including an eighth-place finish at a national-level tournament named the North American Cup, a win in a regional tournament called the Cobra Challenge RJCC and another first-place finish in the senior men’s foil at the 2015 Keystone State Games.
Condiff began fencing shortly after watching it on television. Some of his natural abilities translated to the sport immediately.
“Coaches noticed that I was fast because I have good speed,” Condiff said. “They said that was important in fencing.”
Within a few years, Condiff was winning local tournaments on a regular basis. In 2012, he competed in a national tournament for the first time.
Condiff recalls competing at the national level for the first time and meeting many of the best fencers from around the United States.
“I love that energy where you walk into a convention center with thousands of fencers from all over the country,” he said. “It was just a wonderful energy.”
In the last couple of years, Condiff has worked with Miodrag Zeljkovic, a former national champion in his home country of Serbia and former assistant fencing coach for the University of Pennsylvania.
Zeljkovic said he has worked with Condiff on perfecting his technique, saying good technique combined with Condiff’s speed can make for a winning combination.
“To take next Noah to the next level was a challenge to teach him some tactics,” Zeljkovic said. “We know he had good speed, but you need to develop the tactics to make that speed work.”
Tactical planning is also a big part of Condiff’s training. Zeljkovic said all of the fencers on the national level are immensely talented, and a fencer needs to have a game plan and know who their opponent is if they want to be successful.
“On the national level, it’s very competitive,” Zeljkovic said. “Kids are trying to fight for points on the ranking list. If you’re a top-four fencer in the country, than you’re representing the United States.”
Condiff said the mental aspect of fencing is what he enjoys most. He said the sport requires a lot of thinking in a short amount of time.
“I like fencing because you really have to think,” he said.
Zeljkovic said Condiff is just one of a growing number of youth fencers in the area. Zeljkovic opened a fencing academy with his wife Jelena in Willow Grove, Pa., last year. This year, the academy expanded to a second location in a room at Unitarian Universalist Church in Cherry Hill, very close to Condiff’s home.
“From this area, we’ve had about 10 fencers that have come into our program,” Zeljkovic said. “That’s the reason why we came into here.”
Condiff plans to continue fencing well into the future. He is in the top-100 in the country for all fencers 16 years old and under, and he believes he can reach the top-20 in the next year. He hopes to eventually fence for a college and work his way higher up the national rankings.
“I hope by the time I go to college, I get to top eight in juniors,” he said.
