Went to the WCU practice on Wed. Good practice, warmed up with the drills used on the WCY Adult class. Students seemed to enjoy it - some said it was "exercise" they weren't ready for. Good.

Fenced Paul, the club president. Lost 5-3. Realized much after the mistake I was making : I was starting the attacks too close and letting him get into my distance. I need to work on keeping a further distance and starting the attacks longer. We'd actually get to where the tips where ...

Sometimes I strongly suspect that the helpful people that guide you through the process of obtaining waranty service, etc. are there not to help, but to act as gatekeepers to insure you never get what you need and become discouraged so you go away and thus don't cost them anything.

I have devoted (thus far) at least 40 hours to convincing a certain unnamed vendor that the problem is HARDWARE, damnit! while the the helpful gatekeeper... er... um... technician insists I must first verify ...

Weeks 1 -4 were getting everyone used to movement. Last week, four, introduced blades and how to hit the wall. Gave them a concept of 4 and 6, then paired them off. One side extend, the other parry 4. No riposte.

This week, we talked about the “building blocks” (skills) they have: Advance, Retreat, Lunge, Extend, 4 and 6. Then asked what they can do with it. A bunch of expected puzzled looks, which isn’t bad.
Lined them up and we started some footwork. The dance-space is ...

I've been thinking a lot about what I get out of fencing. I currently don't have the time to compete or to train as much as I would like. I have been shifting my goals to be more processed focused, with mastery (however unattainable and for that matter nebulous) as a the long term goal. Each week I'll find an area I need to improve and then work specifically on developing the skills I need to achieve this. This, I hope, will make my training more productive and more fun. It is not that my training ...

This got a surprising number of comments on my facebook page. I thought I would share it here, as well.



Every bout you fence tells a story about who you are. The score is part of that narrative, but so is how you deal with victory and defeat, bad calls, and unpleasant opponents. You are the principal author of that story.

What stories are YOU telling?