Fenced the Ma. Enh. It's funny, I know plenty of people there who were fencing for the first time in months or even years, but they're not having the same trouble I am with moving back into competing. When I was competing well (beginning of this season, before I switched over from researching for my dissertation to actually writing it) I was eating, breathing, sleeping fencing. I'd see snippets of bouts in front of my eyes as I was doing other things. I'd dream/visualize at night - parry prime, ...
Last night I had bad dreams about the Mr. Ma Cup. I always dread the Mr. Ma Cup, I think mostly of the location. It's held in an un-air-conditioned high school, and it always seems to be ridiculously hot and humid for the beginning of June. The big fans they put out don't do much to move the air through. It's an improvement over the tiny club storefront where he first held it--I remember running Jon Berkowsky flat into the wall in one bout, because the strips ended at the wall, and all Mr. Ma's ...
I don't know if it was the heat and humidity, or the fact that we are into June and people are doing "family" things, or the fact that the tournament date changed from May to June, or what, but Saturday's tournament was very lightly attended. There were only five entries in the Open Epee event. The temperature had to be close to 90 degrees and it was humid. It was fairly obvious that several of the folks involved were thinking "Let's get this over with." I must confess, I ...
This post does not deal with coaching ethics, club construction, educational theory or anything like that (though those issues are very interesting and important to me.) A coaching friend with a great deal of experience suggested to me yesterday that I write down my philosophy on what I want my students to learn. Not the real nitty gritty of what I will teach each individual student (and in such a personalized sport like fencing, it will vary greatly) but the core of what I will teach ...
Saturday's practice had a TV crew from the local news there to interview some of the younger fencers and tape a few bouts for background. Coach had sent an e-mail telling Cat and me to bring our medals so I did, but Cat was the one who was interviewed (and I am GRATEFUL for that). I put my medal back in my jacket pocket and zipped it closed and devoted my attention to directing and fencing in the mini-tournament we had going while the interviews were in process. Once upon a time, ...
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