Westdale Fencing Club has a strong research history, thanks to the geeky nature of its founders. Steve Howell has unfortunately moved to pastures new. Ranil Sonnadara's fencing biography can be found here. Despite appearances, Ranil does actually have a day job as a Research Scientist and Assistant Professor at the University of Toronto (with an adjunct appointment to the Department of Kinesiology at McMaster University) where he studies how people develop expertise. Specifically, Ranil's research programme examines the allocation of attentional resources and the integration of auditory, visual and motor systems.  Please see his personal and lab webpages for more information and a list of recent publications.

Visual Target Peturbation Study:

We are looking at the effects of expertise in visually guided movement. We are particularly interested in how target displacement affects movement trajectory, and how this varies as a function of gender and experience.

Fencing Shoe Study:

We are looking at the characteristics and benefits of various fencing shoes, particularly with regard to injury management.

Attention Study:

We are investigating the differences in the way that attention is allocated by 'expert' and 'less expert' participants across a variety of activities.

Coach and Officials Training:

We are studying the efficacy of several different training and evaluation methods.

If you are interested in participating in any of our research studies, please contact us.