by Jason Rogers

Despite the...ahem...ups and downs of this year, 2016 will always be special in my book. It was the year I founded betterfencer.com and decided to channel my love of fencing into the somewhat daunting project of writing my forthcoming book, Light It Up.

HOW AND WHY WAS BETTERFENCER.COM CREATED?

After retiring from fencing in 2009, I took a total break from the sport that I had poured my heart and soul into for more than half of my life. Those who know me will tell you that I don’t do much at half speed, and so, rather than continuing to fence non-competitively, I decided to shift one hundred percent of my focus into figuring out what would come next in my life. For those who are curious, I chronicled some of the challenges that I faced during this transition in the article, "The Closing Ceremonies: Life after Fencing in the Olympics," on Fencing.net.

Looking back I can see that, while both difficult and confusing, this complete break was very good for me. After 17 years of international travel and stressful competition, I needed time to repair myself physically and emotionally. My left knee required a respite from constant pounding on gym floors around the world. My mind needed a new shiny object to obsess over after focussing almost exclusively on fencing for nearly two decades.