Something a little heartening...

[Purple Fencer]

Felicia Zimmerman is living & working in Los Angeles for a time (not sure how long), and she was at my salle tonight, along with Derek Cotton, Doug Frenzinger and a couple of other ladies whos name I did not get.

What a treat to watch her! She wasn't godlike -- like you'd expect a 2-time Olympian to be -- but she WAS, obviously, very, very skilled. And she was pleasant to talk to (for the brief tiem I had a chance to speak to her).

What was a joy to see wasn;t so much her high level of blade control of her speed...it was the fact that every so often, even if only for the briefest of moments, she pulled off a really sloppy attack or bit of footwork. 'Course, she still landed the point or recovered resally fast, but it was nice to see her at a more human level.

I didn't get a chance to fence her, but maybe tomorrow night.

[FoilFreak6276]

WOw that is cool I was so happy to see her fence at Nationals.And the crowd of peolpe watching her fence was so big !!

[BarryTice]

I know what you mean, Sam. A few years back I declined the opportunity to face Rob Stull in epeé, as I was not a good enough fencer at the time to have even been in a position to learn anything from fencing him, and didn't want to waste his time. (He was in town for the finals of the Modern Pentathlon tryouts at the time.) But it was delightful watching him (and the other pentathlon fencers) at their best and their worst.

Also, one of my coaches was an Olympic foilist for China a few years back. Unfortunately, my brain never completely grasped the intracies of right-of-way enough to be able to follow it (the real reason I'm an epeéist), so if she's making any mistakes, I don't see them. I'm not seeing any in her footwork, either.

-- b.r.t.

[Purple Fencer]

Y'know the best thing about seeing her live and not on video? I'm losing the awe factor. Yes, she's on the national team, a 2 time Olympian, damn near came home with hardware from Sydney, is my height , etc. However, what she's doing is really no different than what many of the top fencers in my division are doing. She's better at it, yes, but it's nothing I haven't seen or been hit by.

If I get a chance to go against her, I'll stand about as much chance hitting her as I would any good lefty (wish she'd brought Iris down...a righty I can at least hit!), but at least the awe factor is going to be down, and that'll help me in that it won't get int he way as much. If I was a rank beginner, I'd be too busy thinking "I'm fencing an Olympian" and getting trashed because I was too much in awe to move.

It was different at Duel in the Desert, in my DE with Ingo Grausam (Word Cup finalist for Germany). For some reason, because he was a foreign national, I wasn't as much in awe. Felicia's a different matter.

I remember the first time I beat someone far better than me (during my 1st year of competition). It was only a pool bout, but after that, I never felt so intimidated that I couldn't move on the strip. If nothing else, just being in the same room with Felicia (in salle, not at a NAC) will help my fencing as much as taking a lesson from her. A change in mind set is sometimes as important as a change in skill level.

I'm SOOO glad I went last night!

[edew]

Felicia was not at this year's nationals.

As for fencing famous people, I had that happen once fencing Greg Massialas. This was after he's already retired, so I don't know why I was so nervous. It was practice at the club. He was already out of shape and was just goofing off. I swear, I couldn't hit him because all he did was stand in such a way to make himself look intimidating and untouchable. I would make a beat attack and the blade would just completely miss him by a foot. He then just stuck his arm out and hit me.

Now, I'm a bit more comfortable fencing top-flight fencers. Here at Stanford, we have Sean McClain, Tim Chang, Alex Wood, Eli Miloslavsky, and (soon) Steve Gerberman, to practice against on a daily basis.

[arcon]

[ 10-23-2001: Message edited by: arcon ]

[rjccj]

I've had a similar experience this past month. I've had the chance to work out with Dimitri Kirk-Gordon the past few weeks and while his credentials aren't as impressive as Ms. Zimmerman's, he's been the only top flight fencer I've had the chance to train with. It's been a great improvement to my fencing and understanding of the game. I've had the chance to fence former olympians, but that's just been in competition, and was over before I could blink. And I know that one of those would never admit humanity to anyone that couldn't beat him. lol

[attila]

Hey Rjccj

What color was Dimitri's hair this week?

[rjccj]

Orange. has started to fade though. lol

[edew]

When's Dmitri coming back out to CA? We miss him out here.

[Peach]

Dave Mandell, a former world team saber fencer, has been fencing and coaching at our club for over a year now and he still scares the living bejeepers out of me when we bout, though he's a really nice guy. He's so competitive--If I get a few touches on him, he decides to get in gear and demolish me--it's like watching a train bear down on me and about as inevitable.

--Delia

[rjccj]

I think he's headed back next week, but I'm not totally sure. It's been a great month having him around.