I would also like to add that you are free to leave comments. Please understand that I will probably have the urge to snap back and reply to comments which I deem to be heinous.
Funny, how fickle coaches can be. Last saturday, there was a local tournament. The week leading up to the tournament, he said i should relax. Use the tournament as a way to practice the drills i learned. Fence loose. Work on form. Work on clarity of mind. Then we get to the tournament. He takes one look a around at the competitors, and tells me I need to get my act together and fence to win.
lol.
These kinds of mind games are quite confusing to me. I still don't know why he had the chang
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I've been making a list of things that keep me from dominating a tournament. Hopefully i'll remember to correct them. Hopefully you'll learn from them. These aren't in any meaningful order btw.
1. Overconfidence, and screwing around in the pools, getting too many touches against, and then getting placed 2nd instead of 1st.
2. Overconfidence, and getting ambushed by some kid with straight gypsy tactics.
3. Hot ref's. I can't keep my elbow in and land a flick to save mankind when all the
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It was said about Golubitsky (i think) that he was different from many other elite fencers, because he was not only faster and stronger than the competition, but fundamentally understood the game differently. Hmm. I don't know if that's important... if you can win by just being faster and stronger than other people, why not? Well, for me there's something puristically appealing about winning because you have something entirely different, not because you had the enhanced version of the same old
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Hehehe, also known as a plateau... Describing my development in fencing sometimes.
I love words.
Anyways, so it's a Friday night. I'm in, writing on the laptop. Lame I know, but i have to wake up early in the morning tomorrow, so not gonna go out. I can't help but think about fencing nowadays. Kind of taking over my life...i log onto youtube to see other people fence and i looove it. i'm such a looooooser. Why does it take so much time to get good at this awful awful sport?
Coach sat me down and said he was really happy with the progress that i've made. Part of it was learning to be intelligent about using my physicality in conjunction with technique. The other part of it was staying loose in the body and tight in the mind... at least that's the best i can describe it.
He also pointed out some things that i still needed to work on. He got up enguarde and stomped around like he was trying to kill ants. He said that's what my footwork looked like sometimes. He di
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Die hard was such a good friggin movie. Bruce Willis just wrecking a bunch of europeans... He was blood and guts with a pistol for a while, and then later on he got his hands on a machine gun, and really started ruining people's lives.
I just got my A recently. Man that feels good to have a high rating. It's tough going to a tournament and having to beat the tough A's and B's to survive in pools. Hopefully i'll get to knock around the lower rated B's and C's.
That's right, we always have to keep changing. So here's an interesting conundrum i've run into throughout my efforts to develop into a better fencer. I for the past month, I have tried to focus on good, clean, and crisp fencing throughout practice, making all my actions faster and smaller, etc. Prior to this, i would struggle to win against some fencers, and just blow the other ones out of the water. Now, i struggle much better with all the fencers, and don't blow any of them
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WE HAVE GOT TO FIGURE OUT A BETTER WAY TO MAKE FOIL TIPS. How is the most awesome weapon in fencing so unbelievably craptacular in mechanical design? I break so many tips it's nauseas (i think i used that word right). The thought of how many mechanical failures i've had with foil makes me want to eat baby panda bears raw. I need a real man's foil or something. I need an overbuilt tip. I'll take the extra weight and how off balance it might make things.
People are slower, even when they try, so I know i'm getting faster. Getting people in preparation is easier, and i feel more planted when I'm trying to make actions. I'm getting better at "feeling" other peoples intentions, and judging concentration. Generally, the more i fence someone, the better I know them. The better i know them, the more i'm going to be able to see if they're mentally prepared for the AIP i'm going to launch. How the crap do i manage
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My coach made reference to hand-tempo, foot-tempo, and psycho-tempo. Understanding these have helped cue me when to attack. This is really really important, and forcing the best blade and footwork into an inappropriate tempo is a huge disservice to yourself. Even if you have awesome blade control, attacking at the wrong time makes feinting and deceiving SO much harder.
Simply, going at the right hand tempo means acting when the opponents hand is not ready to deal with your action, going at t
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11-17-2009 04:37 PM 