Dion Shively Came Quotations

In America, when people dueled, they would use pistols. We didn't have fencing schools where gentlemen went to learn the sword. In Europe they had that, and those schools became the basis of the fencing clubs they still have today.

I named it the Zen Fencing Academy for my hero, a gentleman by the name of Joe Odom, who sadly passed away last year. He was my role model as a fencer and as an instructor. He founded a club in Pittsburgh, Fencers For Fun, as a method of keeping kids off the streets. He always came to (Indiana University of Pennsylvania) to help us out because we didn't have a coach. We always referred to him as the 'Zen master of fencing'. He was that wise old Pat Morita kind of character.