quality of time: Social vs. Athletic

[Sciurus-Rex]

"I'm going to the club to fence..."

Really?

On a scale of 1 to 9, with 1 representing entirely social and 9 representing entirely athletically focused (5 is an equal mix of both elements), how would you describe the time you usually spend at your fencing club?

Socialization can include discussion about fencing, of course, but for this rating scale you should decide for yourself how much is sport-productive and how much is just casual chat or gossip.

Likewise, working out with friends can be social as well. But again, ask yourself how focused you are on the athletic goal and how much of the experience is simply an excuse to do something with another person.

I know it's a self-interpretative poll. But try to be honest with yourself and avoid reporting the score of what you feel you *ought* to be. (I know of very few people capable of totally shutting out all distractions for an extended period to focus on a single task.)

[sabreman]

I am there to fence but I am up for beers afterwards (sabre way of life).

[counter riposte]

Sport activities find their origin in the basic human need for the spirit of play. Without your opponent, you have no game, no contest, no fun. You are indebted to them as they are to you. -UCSB Recreational Sports

Within that context, being social has to be a part of fencing and getting to know others.

[D'Art]

It depends which club I go to. My main club is more a social one, but I have a very good coach whom I get lessons from and discuss tactics with. The other club I go to is more focused on actual fencing, but still has a fair bit of socialising, too. Meh, I'll be boring and say somewhere in the middle.

[Sciurus-Rex]

Sport activities find their origin in the basic human need for the spirit of play. Without your opponent, you have no game, no contest, no fun. You are indebted to them as they are to you. -UCSB Recreational Sports

Within that context, being social has to be a part of fencing and getting to know others.

Some socializing is done for the sole sake of socializing, and athletics serves as a vehicle to that end -- we fence so that we can chat. At the other end of the spectrum, some athletes merely put up with the social context in order to train -- we chat so that we may fence.

It has been my experience that many fencers who believe they are "training" are misperceiving their efforts.

[MyrddinsPrecint]

Ah, but what about this:

I have very little interest in attaining athletic fencing glory. In fact, I fence because it's something I physically enjoy, but more importantly, I like the people.

Thus, when I am fencing (let's ignore my college club for now, that only makes it more complicated), I am significantly more athletically motivated than I would be otherwise, so that I fit in with the general group, so that I meet my social goals.

Yes, I am athletically training, but not for training's sake.

So what does that make me?

[D+F+P=Hadouken!]

A scrub.

[Sciurus-Rex]

... So what does that make me?

Someone who enjoys complicating things.

Pick an answer that makes you happy.

[akaiyuki]

While I love hanging out with fellow fencers at my club, I'd say it's a little more for athletic than for social. Back home for the summer, I don't really know the people at the current club that I go to, but I still go there -- to fence.

[Chafunkta]

Well I screwed up on this poll. Guess that's my fault for not reading it first. I took into account the entire scope of my life.

I clicked the "3" box, but would love to change it to a 8 now that I know the scope is only practice. I go to the club for fencing and concentrating on a passion I want to develop. The social aspect is mostly a side effect. If I ever do try to develop a social aspect, say by hosting a party for fencers or going out with all the fencers to a restaurant, my main goal would be to get a better unified club so we could compete better. Don't get me wrong - I love to socialize, but when I'm at the club, it's time to fence.

[sabreur]

When I'm fencing, I fence. I say hello to my teammates, and then we train. A little badinage (particularly about how badly whoever is directing at the moment is doing), but other than that, there is little or no small talk. One of my teammates is a club officer, and we get really nasty with other club members who want to talk business during training time....

[MyrddinsPrecint]

A scrub.

yes, but that has nothing to do with how much i do or do not socialize, that has to do with the fact that i have no innate skill to speak of, and have ankles that cause me to fall on my face (literally) when fencing olympians.

[Allen Evans]

I had a friend (a very serious fencer) who told me once that he could gauge the nature of a club by walking in and looking at the number of places there were to sit: the more couches, chairs, and so forth that there were, the less "serious" the training environment.

I'm not sure I believe this metric -- in fact, I can think of one or two clubs were this is NOT true -- but I found it an interesting one.

Allen

[Beowulfman6]

I go to the club to pick up chicks.

Oh, yeah- and fence a little now and then .

[Peach]

Our club, though it has quite a few strips, is generally crowded, with several things going on at once until nearly 8:00 p.m., and there are not enough strips for everyone to fence at once. We do talk quite a bit on the bench as we wait to fence. Some of it is social and quite candidly personal, especially among the adults--I've known some of these people for fourteen or fifteen years. Some of them were contemporaries of my daughter when she started to fence in fourth grade, some are parents of those people, some started fencing as adults years ago, and some are junior fencers or kids who have known me half their lives, and we all talk to one another. However, the moment it's time to fence, we leap up mid-conversation, and fencers who yap too much on the strip (even though they are generally discussions of actions) generally get a chorus of abuse from those waiting on the bench. We also (in the sabre group, especially me ) shout advice at the active fencers or indicate which way the touch was awarded.

There are also quite a number of chairs up on the balcony where the parents sit and wait for their kids to finish. I suspect a fair amount of conversation goes on up there. I wouldn't know.

[RebelFencer]

I typically socialize a bit before I get suited up, between drills/bouts/footwork, and after practice...but once I'm doing something I'm there to improve and not socialize. Heh, my first fencing girlfriend was very dissappointed that I actually went to practice to....practice.

[GorillaSmile]

Usually the only social is as we are packing up gear to leave. And a handful of, "Hi, how ya doing?"'s as we change strips.

[zxcvbnmnbvcxz]

I fence for my univsersity, so our club is full of college students. I voted 3, but now that I think of it, I'm probably higher. Our average club member would be a 3 for sure though.

[Pauli]

I,m member in 2 clubs and both are extremely different.
One is very social and sometimes it gets on my nerves when they dont stop talking after one simple question and actually u're warmed up and want to fence.
The other club is not so social,but they tend to like standing around even without talking.

Me personally, I'm not too social during fencing.I'm there to fence,not to talk.If I want to talk,I meet outside the club and not on the strip.
Besides,most of my social contacts do not frequent the fencing clubs.

[D'Artag-NOT]

Very interesting poll topic!

I go to fence, but sometimes the way I motivate myself to actually go is to remind myself that I want to hang out with my buds too. Once the fencing gets started, I'm about the fencing. A lot of us converse while doing our ten strips of advances and ten strips of retreats (which makes actually doing all that footwork a lot more palatable!).