I help teach fencing classes in my town's rec center. (OK, I'm just the side-kick. I don't get paid. But it teaches me to teach. I play Bad Cop to the main instructor's Good Cop - the unspoken threat of "behave or you'll be doing footwork with Susan" is always present.) We teach primarily foil - dry foil. (I know, "Ugh.") And we primarily crank out some pretty awful fencers, but hey, they have a lot of fun, and keep coming back, year after year. We've had very little luck getting most of these goons to fence seriously, and I would swear that most show no real interest in improving. It's possible that some have actually gotten worse over the years, but they still keep coming back. Because they're having fun. Fine - that's what the program is for. I may not always be happy with this, but it's not my place to change things. Anyone looking for something more structured, competitive, and serious is soon weeded out and ushered down to my club. If only more would take advantage of that offer!

Half of the class is devoted to footwork and drills, half to open fencing. No one ever wants a referee, so they plug away on their own and throw out half the touches, or waste energy arguing over them, while I occasionally make catcalls from the sidelines. (Unless I make a point of putting them into sets of 3, and having them take turns fencing and reffing - something I started doing quietly awhile back, and now it occasionally appears on its own. Not often enough.)

But once in awhile, I feel like we've had a little win. Last night, one of those moments occurred again, and it makes me smile. A simple thing, really, but in the club culture, it was really quite big.

Two of the boys - I'm guessing middle school - had been the thorn in our sides during their basic class. I felt a sense of dread when I saw that they had returned for the intermediate class. During drills last night (low-line attacks and parries), these two boys were their usual rambunctious selves, and screwed around as they usually do. I snapped at them a few times, and they finally got settled down. I had imposed my reffing upon this pair during the last class, mostly because I was tired of watching them whack at each other with no clue what they were doing, no control over their weapons, and no idea whose point was whose. And last night, what do you know - as soon as the class broke for the second half, which is just open fencing, these buggers came up to me and sheepishly asked me to referee them. Not only did they take the bout seriously, they asked for suggestions after calls during the bout, and took them to heart. They actually looked like fencers out there!

Next thing I knew, another set of younger kids (also just moved up from basic) asked me to ref them. And so on. And a few other kids stood by to watch and ask questions.

Maybe, just maybe, I've started something?