Durando

Good deeds duly punished

, 03-14-2008 at 05:26 AM (345 Views)

So the Friday training group has resulted in the following:

1. Our club displacing the middle and part of the top tier in regional standings. We've three fencers in the top ten. Last year there was nobody. Best annual result for our club in twenty years.

2. Our A team having the best finish for Nantes (of five or six teams) in the Zonal qualifier for nationals. Unfortunately we missed our qualification by two or three touches.

3. The disgruntlement of a young and improving fencer who wasn't selected for the A team. He stopped training with us on Friday and starting talking smack about the "Friday people" and encouraging the same.

4. The club vice president and a MdA who mistook the natural solidarity of the Friday group for something else having words.

5. The MdA giving me a spaced-out just-wrong ass chewing over what he perceived as a palace coup. Since then he has been a bit sheepish, but no apologies offered for certain calculated insults deployed in his rant.

6. Me now trying to choose between: a) remaining in the club where I am, five minutes bicycle ride away from my apartment, and changing nothing at all about the Friday sessions until he cools off; b) joining a much better épée club up the road an hour each way and paying the expense in time and money.

The return represented by my competitive results this year is not what I expected given the effort I've made. The MdA in question is also my coach. My coach is certainly part of the problem.

My training toward prévôt continues. It would be better to do it at the club where I currently am provided that there are no further ass-chewings in the offing. I don't want to have to suddenly start doing my teaching hours in another club midseason.

In spite of the solidarity and good work the Friday group has done together I would have already left if there were another club in my city that I thought was decent.

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Comments

Allen Evans - 03-14-2008 09:09 PM
Interesting that when I coached at Salle Auriol (under mixed Anglo-French control at the time) that my successes (National medals, increasing revenue, and increasing the number of competitive fencers at club) were duly punished in much the same way

While fencing is an individual sport, often the group atmosphere is necessary to breed a culture of hard work and success. Some coaches actively fight this, and I'm not sure why.

I'm drawing from limited experience here, but most of the French MdA I have met NEVER admit they are wrong, even when it's blatantly obvious that they were. Sheepishness may be the best you're going to get.

(As an aside here, I've recently taken a new job with an international law firm. I'm wrangling books for the Amsterdam and Munich office. In my first staff meeting there was a lot of discussion of the Paris office. When ever they were mentioned, everyone sort of rolls their eyes -- I understand the French office is particularly "difficult" about doing things by approved procedures).

Five minutes away from your home is pretty hard to beat. Why don't you chill for another month and see if the wind shifts a little?

AE
Allen Evans - 03-14-2008 09:09 PM
Interesting that when I coached at Salle Auriol (under mixed Anglo-French control at the time) that my successes (National medals, increasing revenue, and increasing the number of competitive fencers at club) were duly punished in much the same way

While fencing is an individual sport, often the group atmosphere is necessary to breed a culture of hard work and success. Some coaches actively fight this, and I'm not sure why.

I'm drawing from limited experience here, but most of the French MdA I have met NEVER admit they are wrong, even when it's blatantly obvious that they were. Sheepishness may be the best you're going to get.

(As an aside here, I've recently taken a new job with an international law firm. I'm wrangling books for the Amsterdam and Munich office. In my first staff meeting there was a lot of discussion of the Paris office. When ever they were mentioned, everyone sort of rolls their eyes -- I understand the French office is particularly "difficult" about doing things by approved procedures).

Five minutes away from your home is pretty hard to beat. Why don't you chill for another month and see if the wind shifts a little?

AE
Allen Evans - 03-14-2008 09:09 PM
Interesting that when I coached at Salle Auriol (under mixed Anglo-French control at the time) that my successes (National medals, increasing revenue, and increasing the number of competitive fencers at club) were duly punished in much the same way

While fencing is an individual sport, often the group atmosphere is necessary to breed a culture of hard work and success. Some coaches actively fight this, and I'm not sure why.

I'm drawing from limited experience here, but most of the French MdA I have met NEVER admit they are wrong, even when it's blatantly obvious that they were. Sheepishness may be the best you're going to get.

(As an aside here, I've recently taken a new job with an international law firm. I'm wrangling books for the Amsterdam and Munich office. In my first staff meeting there was a lot of discussion of the Paris office. When ever they were mentioned, everyone sort of rolls their eyes -- I understand the French office is particularly "difficult" about doing things by approved procedures).

Five minutes away from your home is pretty hard to beat. Why don't you chill for another month and see if the wind shifts a little?

AE
glowstix - 03-17-2008 09:17 AM
hmm...whether that hour trip is worth it depends on how much better that club is and how often you'll train, wouldn't it??
glowstix - 03-17-2008 09:17 AM
hmm...whether that hour trip is worth it depends on how much better that club is and how often you'll train, wouldn't it??
glowstix - 03-17-2008 09:35 AM
hmm...whether that hour trip is worth it depends on how much better that club is and how often you'll train, wouldn't it??