Michel Alaux (1924-1974) was a world renowned French-American Fencing Master and author, hailed as a “towering figure” and “genius” in his field.¹He approached the sport of fencing as an art, a science, an ethical practice. He taught fencing as an exciting combination of rapid analytical thinking and elegant movements.

Viewed historically, Michel Alaux bridged the worlds of Classical and Olympic fencing, inculcating the former while succeeding brilliantly in the competitive realm of the latter.

Born in France, into a family of artists and engineers, Michel developed a passion for fencing early in his youth. He gained admission to the College de Joinville and continued his studies at l' E.M.E.S.C d'Antibes, the French Military College, whose Fencing Master’s degree program - arguably the most rigorous in the world - consisted of practice and theory six days a week, eleven months a year for a minimum of three years.²

Graduating from l' E.M.E.S.C. d' Antibes in 1947, Maitre Alaux was assigned to a military regiment in Montpellier and appointed Professeur d’Escrime. Within the year he acquired his own fencing salle in Montpellier, L’Association Jean-Louis.³His students’ successive victories in foil and epee Individual and Team Championships soon propelled Michel and the club into national and international limelight.⁴

From this “conservatory of young champions,”⁵ as the Association Jean-Louis came to be dubbed by the press, there emerged Maitre Alaux’s most renowned student, Christain d’Oriola,⁶who soars as one of the Greats in fencing history. Celebrated as an “escrimeur de tete,” a cerebral fencer, d’Oriola dazzled opponents and spectators alike with his brilliant technique and lithe, elegant style.

At the 1952 Helsinki Olympics, d’Oriola became a national hero, when he triumphed as the Individual and Team Olympic Gold Champion, winning all ten matches in the Team event. His fencing was described as “…one of the most original ... most perfect example of art the sport can offer.”⁷Le Monde wrote of the “purity” of d’Oriola’s victory and paid tribute to Maitre Alaux for his outstanding work.⁸Le Figaro ran an article headlined “After the Success of d’Oriola at the [Olympic] Games, Let Us Render Unto Cesar…” in which it praised the talents of Maitre Alaux.⁹

In the heady atmosphere of post World War II Europe, the two young fencers, four years apart, developed a synergistic relationship as teacher/student that catapulted them both to the top of their world.¹⁰Between 1947 and 1956, d’Oriola won four world titles and six Olympic medals.

In recognition of d'Oriola's stunning achievements at the Helsinki Olympics, the French Government’s Ministry of Sports awarded Michel Alaux the Gold Medal of Honor in 1952. Michel had already received the Bronze Medal of Honor for the World Championship in 1949 - barely two years after graduating from the Fort Carre. Maitre Alaux was again decorated by the Federation Française d’Escrime and the French Ministry of Sports for d'Oriola's victories at the Melbourne Olympics in 1956. During that time, Michel was also editing and publishing the monthly Bulletin des Maitres D’Armes, which was read avidly in Paris as well as in Casablanca, Rabat, Madagascar, Haiphong, Saigon, Sidi-Bel-Abbes, even Detroit.¹¹In 1962, for services rendered to French sports and French culture, Michel Alaux was named a Knight in The Order of the Academic Palms by the French Government.

Enthusiastic for new challenges, and married to an American, Valerie ‘Pat’ Fulton of Cap d’Antibes and Paris, Michel accepted in 1956 the position of head Fencing Master¹²at the N.Y. Fencers’ Club - a position he occupied until his death in 1974. Within that time, Michel endeavored to “develop American fencing to the level which he felt was within its potential,” wrote Richard Gradowsky in American Fencing.¹³

From 1956 to 1974, Maitre Alaux served three times as U.S. Fencing Olympic coach: 1964, Tokyo; 1968, Mexico City; 1972, Munich. He served several times as U.S. World Championship coach and he was responsible for U.S. Nationals Men’s Foil and Men’s Epee Individual and Team Champions as well as Women’s Foil Individual and Team Champions.¹⁴Among his many successful American pupils were Herbert Cohen, Jeffrey Checkes, James Melcher, John Nonna, Ruth White and Neal Cohen.¹⁵

In the same period Michel Alaux contributed to the development of official standards for American fencing. He chaired and directed the Accreditation Committee¹⁶of the NFCAA, now the USFCA (U.S. Fencing Coaches Association), which in 1965 devised the official examination for the first professional diploma of Fencing Master in the U.S. The graduates became recognized by L’Academie d'Armes Internationale.

Prior to chairing the NFCAA Accreditation Committee, Michel chaired The Committee for the Development of A Text for Defining Fencing Terms (1962-63), whose members included M.R. Garret, President of the NFCAA (National Fencing Coaches Association of America), Irving Dekoff of Columbia University, and Julius Alpar of the University of California at Berkeley.

In the span of his French and American career, Michel Alaux wrote about fencing and served as fencing consultant for a variety of publications, plays, films and television programs which included, among others: Bulletin des Maitres d’Armes (Bulletin des Anciens d’Antibes), which he co-founded, edited and published from 1949 to 1953; L’Equipe; L’Escrime Francaise; The Fencing Master (UK); American Fencing; The Swordmaster; reference sources such as The Encyclopedia Americana; Theatre companies such as The National Theatre of Madrid; and network television, including PBS.

In his book Modern Fencing,¹⁷Michel Alaux analyzed the wide repertoire of fencing actions and phrases available to foil, epee, and saber as well as the psychological and mental components that make a great fencer. He stressed in the book, as he did in much of his teaching and other writings, the importance of progressing beyond mechanical executions. “Fencing is more than the constant charging of the opponent” (p156), he wrote. As a ‘tactic,’ the move demonstrates insufficient strategic and conceptual thinking. “Fencers very often perform actions that are meaningless or ‘motions without intentions’. They are neither prepared to attack nor, even less, to defend themselves because they rely on their reflexes or instinct rather than on tactics and strategy.” (p77)

His pedagogy stood in contrast to the “it’s-all-about-winning” school, which he believed kept the game on a primary level and prevented its development to a more nuanced and complete expression. “Once a fencer has learned the mechanism of basic movements, the activity losses its primary, total physical requirements and becomes more of a mental exercise.”

Throughout his career, Michel Alaux appeared in numerous national and international newspapers and magazines such as Midi Libre, L’EQUIPE, Le Monde, Le Figaro, Marie Claire, LIFE, Sports Illustrated Books, The New Yorker, and The New York Times.

A perfectionist, who was as outspoken as he was generous, Michel attracted his share of controversy and adversaries - usually to his utter amazement. Equally amazing to him were the worldwide expressions of esteem and affection that he received from colleagues and students throughout his life.

When his life was unexpectedly cut short in 1974, Maitre Alaux “stood at the pinnacle of his profession”¹⁸and was slated to become U.S. Fencing Olympic coach for a fourth time. Following his death, twelve annual American Grand Open competitions were named after him. The Michel Alaux Grand Open (1975-1987)¹⁹ was a three-day event based in NYC, “considered essentially the same as the Nationals.”²⁰Michel Alaux was inducted in the U.S. Fencing Hall of Fame in 2006.²¹In 2010, the Fencers Club organized the Michel Alaux Cup, a tournament that welcomed veteran competitors from all over the U.S.