I did a lot of bicycling today. I met up with Lara for lunch, and we talked about this and that. She says she has been writing booklets to get down all the information for the various fencing levels -- beginner, novice, intermediate, advanced, etc.--of the youth & cadet. She has all the information down for the tests to change level, as well, and is thinking about handing them out so the kids can start working on what they need to know for the tests and self-pace their advancement through the levels. Her rule is you can take the test any time, but if you fail you have to wait two classes before you test again, and then you must do it with a different examiner.

The club has a good staff these days; many of them were kids who started fencing at the time the club was just starting out, like my coach Ahren, and like Lavinia. They are quite professional, very experienced, and they take their jobs seriously. Mark is going to have his hip surgery the end of next month and he will be able to hand his workload over to his staff members, though I'm sure he will be supervising closely. It's sort of like being a member of an extended family to watch these people grow from elementary students to responsible adults. One of the adult beginners asked me tentatively if I taught at Haverford, and told me that I had taught his brother in 5th grade (now that I know this, I can see how similar their smiles are). His brother is starting at Penn now.

Ahren is in Hawaii for his grandfather's 80th birthday party, so no lesson with him. The only sabre fencer there was Dapper Dan again. As usual, he was lifting and doing footwork for ages, and wasn't ready to fence until after 7:00.

We sparred a bit and then did three fives. I worked on what Ahren and I were doing with the three-retreat advance half-advance footwork pattern after the initial action, and it was very effective on Dan, who tends to charge, plant his front foot, and leeeeean. A couple of times I hit him one-light just on timing, and a greater number of times I made parry riposte. When we were done with the bouts, I showed him the pattern and he liked it. I have to say that he doesn't hit me nearly as hard as he used to, thank heavens.

Dan was tired and gave up, and there was nobody else there. It was 8:00 and Mark was just going to get his dinner, so I begged off my lesson and came home on the bike.