Strange Things You Do?

[Maester]

Im curious to know if you guys do anything strange when or before you fence? For example, Ive been wearing sweat pants to my lessons, and I always make sure I tie them as tight as possible. My teacher threatened to pull them off and beat my butt a couple of times, because I had a bad habit with my lunges. The creepy part is that he would have really done it.

[JasminaJ]

Welcome Maester, new bees keep us all fresh.
I don't wear anything wierd-I wear kid's size clothes-petite woman.
But I do enjoy eating Atomic Fireball candies-or something like that.
Hello Kitty Pirate is my mascot. I'm an old Goth.
Sometimes-just for kicks we fence with a hand puppet on the off hand.
Come to think of I'm pretty wierd.

[Dev]

I wear a green wristband adorned with a 1-Up Mushroom on my off hand.

No director has ever given me an extra touch because of it.

[Epee Scherma]

Really? That is awesome. I have a 1-up mushroom patch on my practice jacket.
Strange things I do... quite a few.
Slam epee to own foot when I am severely dissapointed with an action.
Slam epee on own mask when I am severely dissapointed with an action.
Will have a bad day of fencing if I am not wearing two layers of socks.
Talk to myself when practicing a specific technique.
And to top it off...
Last week I slept with my epee...

[swordwench]

What strange things do I do... Oh, where to start.

It's been pointed out to me that I *always* mutter the same 4-letter word when I'm advancing and get hit. I mutter a very different 4-letter word when I'm retreating and get hit. (I get his a lot - so it's easy to spot the trend, I guess.) I've tried every possible way to stop myself from doing this, but even when I'm silent, the same 2 words go through my brain. Always in that order - never reversed. I did it tonight, in fact.

[Go? Fencing?]

1-Up mushrooms? How convienent, as I just ran across this today:

http://www.thinkgeek.com/stuff/41/1u....shtml?cpg=28H

[pgepps]

Nothing too weird, I suppose. Had to break a habit of grabbing the foil with my off-hand to straighten it after every point. That and too-frequent testing on toe or ground are just newbie things, though, I think.

I don't like to put down my weapon during pools, even when I'm off-strip; kinda like putting "game face" on. I do mask, reel plugs, etc. with the off hand.

I tend to do a sort of whippy mini-salute when I come en garde, and had to work hard to break a habit of slapping the front foot loudly (whether in appelle, advance, or lunge) when extending. Funny part is, I had to try to re-learn that habit when I tried to practice kendo for a while, since to score you must shout, stomp, and strike in the same moment.

Oh, and I'm fastidious about the all-white-ness of fencing whites, except I prefer gray socks.

Cheers,
PGE

[tbryan]

Originally Posted by Epee Scherma

Slam epee on own mask when I am severely dissapointed with an action.

Careful of that habit. Some day, you'll do it after you've taken off your mask. It really hurts if you do it hard enough.

[D+F+P=Hadouken!]

I warm up for an hour when I'm at tournaments.

[Maester]

Oyea, I noticed Im too "serious" at practice. Ill put all my energy into it and the other people just look at me like Im crazy.

[HDG]

Originally Posted by Maester

Oyea, I noticed Im too "serious" at practice. Ill put all my energy into it and the other people just look at me like Im crazy.

That's not strange; they're just slackers. You'll get the last laugh.

[BySword]

strange thing...
I tend to get crotch hit a lot, either to a girl or a boy
example:
at 6 -> got parryied ->disengage to 8->crotch
fleche to 6->dissengage->crotch

[Maester]

Lol, thats weird.

[fencingfrog]

PHP Code:

strange thing...
I tend to get crotch hit a lot, either to a girl or a boy
example:
at 6 -> got parryied ->disengage to 8->crotch
fleche to 6->dissengage->crotch 


that's not too wierd. i do that too. i also snarl at my opponent when im pissed off...and bare my teeth. this is when i do as our best fencer tells me "release the beast!" i also have a strech i do before i fence in competitions.

PHP Code:

Careful of that habit. Some day, you'll do it after you've taken off your mask. It really hurts if you do it hard enough 


my friend did that. he earned a nickname cuz of it too. we all have our stange habits, i guess. but some are pretty wierd.

[FencingKitten]

My friend does something he says he picked up in hockey. Foil pointed down, taps the guard on his quads alternating while looking down. Head and foil come up together, enguard. Ready. It's weird to watch.

I personally am VERY picky about how I hook up. I have an entire system during pools.

1. Know when I'm up next, on which side. I am almost never called to hook up.
2. Have body cord hooked into sabre, grip settled in hand.
3. Mask under weapon arm. Hook mask cord.
4. Walk up, take reel from other fencer. Attach to d-ring. Get annoyed if it's not my personal lame or jacket and the d-ring isn't where it's supposed to be (on the off weapon seam).
5. Pull out three-prong end, plug in, attach retaining device. Annoy referee if device is faulty.
6. Turn around, present for test.

This takes a lot of time to type, but I'm usually hooked up in less than 10 seconds or so, I'd estimate. After each bout, then I have time to expound on the alternate way of testing in sabre, which prevents issues with the lock-out timing during tests :P

7. Put blade or guard on lame.
8. Touch masks.

Yeah, I'm weird.

[Durando]

I stick my tongue out when I'm trying to draw my opponent into making an attempt for a toe touch or low line attack.

[Dr. Pfleschbach]

Originally Posted by Durando

I stick my tongue out when I'm trying to draw my opponent into making an attempt for a toe touch or low line attack.

I heard a story about an epee fencer who would draw a happy face on his thumb and then wave it back and forth above the top of his guard in order to provoke or distract his opponent.

[Ordway]

I like to pick up my sabre & mask with my foot (stick my toe underneath and lift it up) when I'm done hooking up in the back.

I've done this for ages and for a long time I never saw anybody else who did that, but when I started fencing at my current club one of my clubmates did the same thing, but with more panache: he would actually flip the mask into the air and catch it. Much more stylish. So of course I learned how to do that too No idea if it actually looks cool as I think it looks but it's fun. Now that I can do it right every time, that is!

[Dr. Pfleschbach]

The foil coach at my club sometimes emphasizes a point by pushing the tip of his foil into the floor causing the blade to bend and then releases it so that the foil shoots up into the air, whereupon he snatches the weapon with an exagerated swipe, whipping it into en garde position. It's one of those tricks that underlines the fact that handling the weapon is as second nature to him as bouncing a ball is to the average person.

[Black Jeebus]

Whenever I get hooked up I always like to do the flip the mask up into my hands with my foot, and when I get through fencing I like to drop my mask onto my foot and balance it there for a few seconds (how cardable is this, it's really clear that I'm not just throwing it down cause I always stick my foot out first and drop it right on it?).