Competitive Consistency

[jspierre]

Fencing is a very difficult sport to maintain consistent results, yet some fencers can do it. Personally, my competitive results seems to go up and down, though my training load and cycles are pretty regular and well planned. How do the successful fencers do it? For me, it's like capturing lightening in a bottle.

Isn't it something about being centered in your psychology on the strip, decoding each opponent and finding a way to win in each bout. This assumes you have technique and an ability to execute.

Has anyone really thought that much about the elements in consistent performance?

[KD5MDK]

Are you doing this within the framework of a performance cycle or not?

[sabreur]

Consistency comes with experience--the more tournaments you fence, the more consistently you will fence well at tournaments. There was a thread a while ago on this subject; someone (Jason?) posted a pretty hilarious description of the various types of fencers and how they behave when they arrive at a venue--the funnest was something along the lines of "The A fencer arrives with his A game, and goes to sleep in a corner until it is time to fence.

[Sciurus-Rex]

Originally Posted by sabreur

Consistency comes with experience -- the more tournaments you fence, the more consistently you will fence well at tournaments.

Experience, and practice even when you're not at a tournament. Rather than free-bouting with a who-cares? attitude at your local club, for example, you can use the opportunity to imagine/visualize/pretend you're at a competition. Helps build consistency.

[eac]

Originally Posted by Sciurus-Rex

Experience, and practice even when you're not at a tournament. Rather than free-bouting with a who-cares? attitude at your local club, for example, you can use the opportunity to imagine/visualize/pretend you're at a competition. Helps build consistency.

This usually messes me up. If I'm used to a competition level of intensity in practice, the jump in intensity during a competition will drive me insane and I'll fence badly.

The main thing that has helped me with consistency has been ensuring that I have a full night's sleep for the 3-4 nights before the competition, including the night right before. This sometimes involves schedule shifting for early tournaments.

[theLuz]

Originally Posted by jspierre

Has anyone really thought that much about the elements in consistent performance?

I have kept many of my medals and trophies over the years. I noticed that if I made the finals, most of the time, I won first place (well over 50% of the medals are 1st). That just seems to happen to decent fencers. You tend to fence to the level of the competition.

It also depends on the weapon. In foil and saber, the best tend to win. In epee, it's more of a lottery. One year at the Nationals, the last year's winner didn't make it out of the first round.

If you want to be a consistant winner, fence foil or saber and train, train, train.

[Allen Evans]

Competitive consistancy is the result of several factors, only a few of which have to do with actual fencing skills. Of course, the higher your level of fencing skill, the higher your (consistant) results will be.

Self-confidence, the ability to handle negitive emotion, mental rehersal of difficult bouts, positive self-talk -- all of these factors can lead to consistant performance.

Even when an athlete is not having a great day, they still manage to turn in strong results. I was speaking to an epee fencer at the Charm City Open last year, and he told me that: "Sometimes I fence brilliantly, and sometimes I just have to grind it out." He didn't let his lack of a "brilliant" fencing day get in the way of working the problem in front of him and finding a way to score touches. His ability to keep himself focused on the task at hand (winning bouts) and not let negitive emotion ("I'm not fencing brilliantly today") get in the way.

"Has anyone really thought that much about the elements in consistent performance?"

There has been a lot of research and investigation of this among sports psychologists. Any good book on the subject should give you some insights.

Allen

[Beloit Fencer of Old]

Has anyone here read "Preparing the Mind" by Kogler? If you've got the time to practice on a regular basis, it's pretty good. (Peach notes that the apostrophes in the prior sentence are both in contractions, and the plurals don't have any.)