Ruminatorial

Becoming a Better Fencer

The thing I remember most vividly about becoming a better fencer was how hard it was to win tough bouts. Like swimming upstream as hard as I could, and getting nowhere. Unlike the stream, which doesn't ever let up, your human opponent will make a mistake, and you will know then how to score the point. The impossibly tough part was keeping on swimming, as hard as I could, waiting for that moment, knowing that if I let up, I lose a touch instead of score one.

For me, I never imagined I was a good fencer. Even when I was on the national team, I knew it was because of something else, something other than good technique that got me there, and let me continue to beat good, and sometimes great, fencers. It was that ability to continue swimming upstream as hard as possible, looking for the correct moment to act.

Other people would sometimes tell me how good my fencing looked, and of course it felt a lot more than good to win tough bouts, but on days when I walked into the venue thinking I was a good fencer I was usually given a very difficult reminder that I actually wasn't. I had to keep working as hard as possible, all the time, even to save myself from giant upsets.

Once you can work that hard, demand that much from yourself, it ought to be easy to review your fencing back at practice, identify your weaknesses and strengths, be honest with yourself about what you can do and can't do right now, and what you can learn to do in the next year. Being able to say "I suck at this" and keep coming back every day for as many hours as my body would allow is how I got better as a fencer.

I thought my footwork sucked: I practiced lots more footwork, and made it as effective as I could every time. I thought my parries sucked: I fenced bouts with nothing but riposte as my action. I thought my point control sucked: I hung a swinging target in my living room, brought a swinging target to the club, fenced whole bouts with nothing but the smallest target area really counting. I thoguht my explosiveness sucked: I bought a gym membership and paid for a trainer. That's the one that hurt the most, becuase fencing is expensive enough without paying hundreds of dollars and having to get up early in the morning to suffer three times a week!

posted by Jeff @ 10:33 AM