Dwelling on the tournament "What If?..."

[Wise-Epeeist]

A young associate has recently discovered the joy of retroactively tracking his performance stats at a tournament, and is now thumping his head vigorously against the doorframe (figuratively speaking) for "throwing away that &%$# touch" in his first pool bout at his latest event. Specifically, IF he had scored one more touch or had avoided one more touch received, his DE seeding would have been shifted by one position and he would have moved into the tableau against several fencers he has a history of defeating, instead of ... Well, instead of what happened.

On one hand, it gladdens my heart that he has an appreciation now for making every touch count, even in the pool. On the other hand, it does no good to keep fretting about "what could have been" -- the past is the past; it's best to move on.

At what stage in your fencing development did you move beyond that, and could you offer my young friend some advice on the subject?

[edew]

Not only that, it's plain serendipity that he ended up in the bracket that he was in. The other fencers in the brackets could also have dropped a point or so and everything else would change.

In a large event, such as the Div II MF or Div III MF, where there are hundreds of fencers, it's not unlikely to have 5 to 10 people with the same V/B, Ind, and TS. Thus, it's a random draw on their seeding within their respective range. I remember being placed 9th when tied among four others, all within 6-10 range. Thus, I had to fence #8 and then the #1 seed (Cedric Anen). I could have been 6th and fenced the #3 seed (don't recall) in the round of 8.

[Allen Evans]

WE, you should have him read:

http://home.earthlink.net/~allenevans59/SEEDING.HTML

At a certain point (when I was still fencing) I realized that while I could "do my job" and win all my pool bouts, there was always someone out there who might do a better job (win their bouts with fewer touches scored against) or would do a worse job (drop bouts they shouldn't).

Can't do much about either one of those!

Allen

[parrythis]

Retrospective analysis is a good way to find weaknesses in one's game and figure out how to fix them. The process is a good one. The process is slowed down when the person doing it dwells on the mistakes and spends more time kicking themself than figuring out the fix. When one learns how to "check their ego at the door" before starting this process, the "kicking one's own butt" is minimized and it becomes an effective tool. By moving on from the mistake they can focus on what it is going to take to make the necessary improvements.

[counterattack]

Originally Posted by Wise-Epeeist

At what stage in your fencing development did you move beyond that, and could you offer my young friend some advice on the subject?

I still sometimes complain about my draw, though I know better. Sometimes you get landmined and sometimes you are the landmine. My advice for your associate: "that unlucky draw" is just another aspect of achieving consistency, and there is no trick to consistency other than improving your game to the point that no matter who you draw, your game still gives you a good chance. So just keep working on your game. Not what I wanted to hear at the time, either, but there really is no other way. The only thing that should really depress you is when you lose and you didn't learn anything from it, and often that is caused by focusing your attention on the draw itself rather than on why the fencer you drew was so hard for you.

[darius]

I don't think that's productive. I've benefited from good DE matchups by screwing up in pools.

What I do find to be interesting, in the post-bout analysis phase, is hunting down the reason for a loss or underperformance. If an attempted parry was always deceived, and this results in 5 touches against, that is the margin of error between a 10-10 tie and a 10-15 loss. Trying to hunt down the biggest mistakes, and tie them together, helps to clarify what went wrong in the student's mind. It also provides a blueprint for what to work on in lessons.

Video is great for this, because we sometimes, in the heat of battle, misperceive what is happening, and fail to correctly understand "who is doing what to whom." (thanks, Brad Gilbert!)

This also really helps ROW fencers who tend to give more credence to the referee than is deserved. A coach can say, "Yes, the referee made two mistakes, but that still gives you a loss. However, those 5 hits-in-preparation..."

darius

[D+F+P=Hadouken!]

Its just a phase.

Some fencers go through a phase of copying other fencers styles, phases of making specific weapons for certain opponents, phases of doing tons of flicks, WHATEVER, it will most likely pass.

More then likely, its actually a beneficial path to the fencers development, and they need to go through this phase to its fullest to really get the benefit out of it.

Right now I'm a blade take and low stance phase, and it'll pass, but I'm just letting it do its thing with my game and make me a better, more experienced fencer.

So if I were you, I would just leave him alone.