Dan is a nationally-ranked epee fencer. He also coaches at Swordplay LA.
Dan is the epee coach at Swordplay LA in Burbank, California, where he teaches private lessons, group classes, and helps run the studio’s competitive training program.
Since his first tournament back in 2007, Dan has become a regular competitor at the Division 1 North American Cups that pepper the national fencing season. Dan currently holds an B2019 ranking in epee and finished third overall in the 2016-2017 New Jersey Cup standings after taking 5th in the 2015-2016 season. He is also fully aware that the NJ Cup doesn't really mean anything, but feels it's a good indicator of having had some strong results at difficult tournaments.
Dan spent the first twelve years of his fencing career at Lambertville, New Jersey's Bucks County Academy of Fencing. After moving to New York for graduate school, Dan started to train in Manhattan at Fencers Club.
At Fencers Club, Dan spent several years training under the U.S. National Men’s Epee coach. But he then moved to Los Angeles, where he joined Swordplay LA.
He’s also available to hire for
Foil, Epee, and Sabre Refereeing
Dan often took on the role of coach while serving as captain of the NCAA fencing team at Lafayette College, but his formal coaching career began in 2015 when he became the assistant coach for the boys and girls teams at his former high school. Since then, he has worked as a strength and conditioning coach and a substitute epee coach at his home club, BCAF, and has returned to Lafayette as an occasional guest coach. He now teaches epee at Swordplay LA.
Dan is comfortable strip coaching and advising fencers of all three disciplines and can run training sessions and give lessons to epee and foil fencers from a beginner to a nationally-competitive level.
Dan is available for hire as a referee in all three fencing disciplines. He is currently rated nine in foil and sabre and six in epee.
The Swordsman’s Standard
The Swordsman's Standard is a writing project that Dan developed after binging Game of Thrones and being pleasantly impressed by the fight choreography. The site is full of essays Dan wrote where he uses his fencing expertise to evaluate and rank the characters of movies and shows based on realism rather than theatrics.