I've been getting into my own head lately. Couple of times, i'll work on clearing my mind and getting the perfect lunge. A perfect lunge means something different to someone who's been fencing for 6yrs than it does to someone fencing for 6months, btw. Anyway, i'm playing out situations in my head, and trying to get the most dynamite lunges I can, and upon execution, i find that my )(&*^&* blade bends the wrong way like 75% of the time when I hit a wall or dummy. This should not be. Having the blade bend up upon touching is ... probably the most elementary aspect of hitting an opponent. I find that if I just go about lunging, I have no problem. The second I try and focus and do all my movements very deliberately, something about my tip and hand angle changes, and I screw up my bend.

I’ve also noticed that a lot of my touches in bouts recently come from a hit that results in an upside down bend. So if I don’t focus on technique in drilling, I have hills in my blades. Nice, pretty hills. If I don’t focus on technique in a fight, I have valleys. Ugly, shoddy valleys. The opposite is true if I do focus on technique. Have to think about this one.

At one point I was taking a lesson from Hungarian Coach. We start off with just simple extensions. I’m trying to relax. Then I do my last extension with a lot of thought, and I hit with a valley in my blade. Oh snap. Then he immediately takes a step back and opens target area… my cue to hit with simple lunge. I’m getting really nervous. I think HARD about how I’m going to do a good lunge, and how to relax my hand a little so I can get a good hill in the blade when I hit. I NEED to get a good hill. Holy crap, I already put a valley in my blade so I’m going to have to really make my tip point down and raise my hand so the blade bends in the right direction. Omigosh omigosh omigosh… LUNGE. My foil flexes all the wrong ways so there’s like an S-Curve momentarily, and because my fingers are so relaxed, the grip flies out of my hand and hits me in the mask.

My coach is livid. He says I’m dead to him. He says I’m no longer his student. He claims that I’m obviously cheating on him and getting secret lessons from a Polish Coach; Hungarian Coach will not tolerate Polish style lunge during his lessons. Others watching the lesson are on the floor crying in laughter. There is immediate discussion on who to call at the national office so they can adjust my A down to an E where it belongs. A guy I just took out in a tournament demands a rematch right then and I have to use THAT foil.

Eff my life.

I wonder if other people have this problem. I notice that a lot of other high level fencers have real shabby looking foils too, soo... I dunno.
Also, I checked on the “who viewed” my blog feature. Neat little feature.

What up homies.

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