Candlewood Fencing Center

Location :

272 White St, Danbury, CT 06810, USA
Added by Jopie, at 04 May 2014

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• Stephen De Vore

  22 February 2017

  My daughter Delphine learned to fence at Candlewood starting at age 7. She was taught to fence by Andrew Hsieh, as her individual coach, and Tom Ciccarone, as the club's master. She took to it like a duck to water, and loved coming there, loved every aspect of it, loved her coaches. And she did very well there. At age 10, she went to the Pan American Youth Games and took the Silver medal in Y-10 women's foil. When the financial crisis hit we were going to have to stop fencing, but the Candlewood Foundation kept us going, kept her practicing.
  At a certain point, Tom Ciccarone had a serious talk with us, explaining the steps that Delphine would have to take, the amount of training (5-6 days per week), and the relentless daily schedule we would have to keep if she were to wish to compete in the Olympics.
  We listened to Tom and took his advice, and the wonderful training that Andrew and he had given her and continued her training with the US Olympic Women's Foil Coach, Buckie Leach, and subsequently with Simon and Irene Gershon. Delphine obtained her A rating at age 12, and was national points champion in her age group for several years. She has competed domestically and abroad. Most recently, at age 15, she won the gold medal in the Junior Women's Foil event at the Junior Olympics.
  
  Of course the primary credit for all of it goes to her own hard work - 6 days a week, five hours a day - and then to her great coaches Simon and Irene. But it was Candlewood - Tom and Andrew - who set her on her way, who made her love fencing and bug us to let her do more and more and more of it, and who kept her fencing through the dark times of financial stress.
  
  We are forever in their debt.

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• Jon Jon

  04 June 2016

  Excellent Excellent fencing club, I signed my daughter up and she loves it! The coaches/instructors are strict and on point ,exactly the way a coach should be!
  She tried the free first class they offer and she was hooked! Lol and it truly is a free first class! Awesome!
  
  There are people that come here of all ages and everybody is happy and very much into it.
  
  This is a gym with some years on it, yes! and that's definitely a very good thing!
  that means it is being used and used well!
  
  I've trained in many sports myself and I've never been to a gym that was "top rated" and everything was sparkling brand new, ever ever.
  in fact if you ever go to a gym of any kind (karate boxing wrestling etc) and its brand new. something isn't rite, just a word from the wise.
  
  In reference to the 1* reviews left on here by the unsportsmanlike whiner cry baby's:
  
  all I got to say is those type of people are nothing but a hindrance and a bad example! They expect to be catered to like big grown babys, this is not a babysitting arenaFYI this is a true fencing center taught by real fencers.
  
  Anywhoo,
  
  In closing:
  I would say, Candlewood fencing center is a great, well balanced gym to learn, watch and compete .my daughter enjoys it very much and I enjoy watching her! I appreciate the strict coaching provided to her, I want her to be the best she can be! it is a very fun experience and I recommend it to anyone interested thanks Candlewood Fencing Center!
  
  

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• Sam Frons

  28 February 2016

  Tom is the best!

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• Dennis Kolakowski

  12 April 2015

  Excellent Coaches, 8 International Level Playing Fields. Air Conditioned and there are no contracts or uniform fees like most martial art studios.

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• Wind Lion

  11 May 2014

  TLDR: RUN, RUN WHILE YOU STILL CAN. Bad facilities, bad equipment, worst head coach/director, you will never ever see any money you give them again.
  
  The building itself is dubious, with rickety stairs leading above an auto shop. (Expect to park in front of the "No Parking" signs.) The facilities within are decidedly lacking; no one uses the locker rooms because they know they're awful. Old metal folding chairs are the seating arrangement of choice. I was informed up front that the electric equipment was at least a decade old. The gloves are decrepit; the jackets and protectors aren't much better. Many of the weapons are off limits as unusable because they're broken. They had to dig to find a half dozen functioning weapons. And by the way, we were informed repeatedly that if you break it, you pay to fix it.
  
  Bad as that is, the major problem here is that the head coach and director is arrogant, aggressive, abrasive, and far beyond rude. Maybe this is a combination that results in successful athletes, but it doesn't make for a pleasant learning experience. He cares about making his money, telling you he is making money, and informing you how much better he is, in no particular order. He certainly doesn't care about keeping what bare few students he has.
  
  When you have a class of six with only one new student, who has told you repeatedly what their background was in, there is no world in which it is acceptable to spend five minutes of that one new student's first class attacking, ridiculing, and disparaging that student's previous discipline. I don't care what ax you have to grind with the members of the sport, I don't care what bad experiences you've had, you do not belittle and demean their background and say that "even your twelve-year-old nephew could beat their best." You do not smugly gloat about how you've obstructed that discipline's establishing a local presence and say that they could never pay you enough to even use your facilities. That is unprofessional behavior in any setting, any background, any sport, period. I kept my mouth shut to not cause a scene, but THAT IS NOT OKAY.
  
  That is not how you treat students.
  
  As an added bonus, my family paid $150 for a gift certificate for me. I found out right after walking in the door that they had a $20 groupon for the same exact thing. At no point was this offered as an alternative for my family. Why would you do that, especially to a new customer? To get money up front, that's it. Even better, the students who had bought the groupon were being told that they couldn't use it, couldn't refund it, and couldn't even credit the purchase price directly towards their lessons because they didn't meet specific conditions. That they should give them to friends and family, because clearly this is an experience that they should share at their expense.
  
  That is not how you treat customers.
  
  Since an acceptable solution could not be reached, I was promised a full refund check would be sent to my family. Two months later, that money has never materialized. I'm insulted and deeply upset, and my family cheated for $150. Worse, what my family had intended with all good will to be the best present I'd gotten in years turned into a fiasco.
  
  To take a page from their director's book, CFC couldn't pay me enough to walk in their doors again. And neither should you.

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