Omg!! Saturday Morning Flicks

[Kyzander]

Hi there. Fencing season has just begun in my high school. AND I AM FULLY PUMPED. Our first tournament is on the 12th. I'm pretty confident that i'll do well because most of the ranked fencers graduated last year. Leaving my team (MCC Hurricanes) with most of the fencers who are ranked . Now i know the difference between cocky and confident, but i hear a certain New Trier team has gotten pretty heavy with the flick training (with the new timings and all). So anybody got any tips for beating flicks?(not the humongous windup ones). How bout for the freshman N00b fencers?

On another note: most of the kids on our team are a bit off(strange, unusual, weird, different, so on ad so on), and don't seem to put a whole lot of effort into becoming what they could potentially be. Do know anybody on your team like that? Do you know anyway to fix that?

[whtouche]

I can't speak to the flick question, but as to helping people reach their potential that is truely an interesting question. There are several categories of people when it comes to new fencers, and sometimes it's hard to recognize which one people fall into. Sometimes when you get to know someone more you have to re-categorize them. For the purposes of this discussion you can say there are four: People who are really into the sport and want to do well but have no natural talent/athletic ability; people who are really into the sport and want to do well and have natural talent/athletic ability; people who have no natural talent/athletic ability and aren't that dedicated; and people who have natural talent/athletic ability and aren't that dedicated.
Often times you can see people who you think could be really good if they applied themselves, but no matter how hard you try you just can't get them to do so. That's really frustrating, at least for me, seeing people who have the natural ability to be really good but taking no interest in it. However, sometimes people with alot of potential don't dedicate themselves right off the bat and need to be pushed a little. I've had alot of success with such people by just talking to them and finding out what their goals are, explaining to them how I think they have potential and that with the resources available to them in the environment that they fence in they can reach that potential.

Sometimes people just need to be told they have potential for them to start working to develop it. Just a little nudge. Don't push too hard tho - some people could have the potential to be the best fencers ever, but they just want to play and have fun. It's their choice.

[Kyzander]

Thanks whtouche that makes a lot of sense