New Pictures

[HilandDoug]

Well, Marc has done a fine job with a new site for our club, and the pictures from our CLub tournament and final beginner and advanced class tournaments have been posted. The pictures are huge; a by-product of me still learning my digital camera. And I'd like to thank Becky Wrobleski for taking the majority of the pictures and doing such a fine job with my camera.

Click here to see:

<a href="http://scfencing.tripod.com/" target="_blank">http://scfencing.tripod.com/</a>

Feedback is welcome.

[counter riposte]

Is it my imagination, or does one advanced foilist appear to be attacking the ground?

In any case, I'm sure it deserved it.

Is this practice or competition? If competition, isn't fencing in shorts a little dangerous? Especially Epee?

Other than that, the site looks great

[Gav]

I agree with counter-riposte fencing in shorts is a little dangerous. Even at Foil (Oh! those whip hits...) where the legs aren't valid target.

Other than that good job. It can be difficult getting action shots when of fencing but she seems to have managed.

[Pa55w0rd]

nice site, clean.

[three_hundred_fifty_five]

</font><blockquote><font size="1" face="Helvetica, Arial">quote:</font><hr /><font size="2" face="Helvetica, Arial">Originally posted by HilandDoug:
<strong>Well, Marc has done a fine job with a new site for our club, and the pictures from our CLub tournament and final beginner and advanced class tournaments have been posted. The pictures are huge; a by-product of me still learning my digital camera. And I'd like to thank Becky Wrobleski for taking the majority of the pictures and doing such a fine job with my camera.

Click here to see:

<a href="http://scfencing.tripod.com/" target="_blank">http://scfencing.tripod.com/</a>

Feedback is welcome.</strong></font><hr /></blockquote><font size="2" face="Helvetica, Arial">The website and pictures are nice.

On a different note, the photos of the beginner fencers should be used as examples of bad footwork.

[HilandDoug]

CounterRip, the adv foilist is recovering from an attack with the blade relaxed. I yell at her all the time to recover to guard!

This is dry foil, no epee, and all of the weapons have those big rubber tips on them. I warn the students about shorts with the caveat that they may wear them if they want (especially since the temperature was in the high 90's), but expect to get thwacked on the legs. Well, no one did, and they had very good control of their blades.

355, I agree with your assesment. The frustrating part of teaching a big class is that the students will have flawless footwork during practice and footwork drills, only to have it fall apart when there is a medal on the line! But considering that they've had 7 classes of 2 hours each, and this is their 8th class and they're competing, it's not bad. And that's really a pet peeve of mine. If you were to visit a class, you would near me screeming, "POINT THAT TOE!!!" and "DON'T FORGET TO RIPOSTE!!!"

The beginner women were one of the most promising groups I've had come through my class in several years. That was encouraging.

On a side note, the class started with 32 students, and on the last class, I had 8 women and 12 men, not all of whom fenced on the last day. Do other teachers see this type of attrition? I have spoken to some of the people who drop out over the years, and a reason often given was that it wasn't what they thought it would be. One woman told me last season, "I didn't think I'd break a sweat!" I asked where she got that idea, and she said, "Antonio Banderas and Catherine Zeta-Jones didn't break a sweat in 'Zorro'; that's what I thought it would be!"

[Moonitic]

Doug,

I think some of it has to do with waiting for so long for feedback from you. I plan on being back, at least part time, this fall (God willing no injuries or babies!), so I can help out if you want.

Anyhoo...I've been there when Doug yells himself hoarse!

[Sildar]

Doug-

In the last couple years I've taught beginning foil, the numbers are pretty much always like that; it doesn't seem to matter how I teach, if free fencing is introduced sooner or later, if I'm more or less strict...I think it's just the nature of beginner's classes.

And I've also had a girl drop out because she thought you didn't have to sweat in fencing. Some people have some strange assumptions about the way fencing is done when they come in, and there's not much you can do about it. It's the people who say later they really had no idea what to expect who usually go on to become better fencers, because they come in wanting to learn rather than expecting you to confirm their assumptions. At least that's my experience...

[HilandDoug]

I would have to agree, Sildar. It seems that the ones who really wanted to learn stage combat (but think it's actually fencing) are the first to go. Heck, I could refer them to a few very good stage combat schools....

[counter riposte]

Cool...

Just don't want anyone to say "You're leg is off" and reply, "No it isn't, it's but a flesh wound."

[Gav]

Doug: I understand why they where fencing in shorts if it was so hot in the hall. Our club practices in a corridor [yes you read that right] at a pool complex. In the summer it can get hot and and really humid, you break into a sweat just standing around. Still, the experienced fencers tend to turn out in full kit every day the clubs on.

Footwork is, and always will be, a problem. I think it's an individual thing. Some people just get it while others don't. One thing that has helped us is a combination of footwork lessons followed by 1-2-1 with the coach. Rather than concentrating on blade actions he has been working on distance and footwork control. This has paid off. If you were to hear tapes of a training session there would be lots of,

"What did I just tell you?",
"No! What did I just tell you",
"For F****s sake what did I just tell You!".

OR,

"Control the distance",
"CONTROL the distance",
Thump! [stop hit]
"See! I warned you about coming too close...".

It's all done with humour and noone takes things personally. Additionally there has been a definite improvement in our standard of fencing -so these pressured lessons are payng off.

[Inquartata]

I fence ( sabre ) in shorts all the time; most in my salle do, at least in the summertime. The only time it's a problem is when you're fencing a novice with no control to speak of yet...

[Swordsman]

</font><blockquote><font size="1" face="Helvetica, Arial">quote:</font><hr /><font size="2" face="Helvetica, Arial">Originally posted by HilandDoug:
<strong>On a side note, the class started with 32 students, and on the last class, I had 8 women and 12 men, not all of whom fenced on the last day. Do other teachers see this type of attrition? I have spoken to some of the people who drop out over the years, and a reason often given was that it wasn't what they thought it would be. One woman told me last season, "I didn't think I'd break a sweat!" I asked where she got that idea, and she said, "Antonio Banderas and Catherine Zeta-Jones didn't break a sweat in 'Zorro'; that's what I thought it would be!"</strong></font><hr /></blockquote><font size="2" face="Helvetica, Arial">YES. My last club had HORRIBLE attrition. I was there three years, until I had to move. During that time a lot of new people came through; none stayed more than two months. That left me as the newbie for three years!!

I think that fencing is just a high-attrition sport. It's too tough, and too...intelligent, for most. However, it's also very attractive. That combination means a lot join for the show of it, but get sick of it REALLY quickly. Which means horrid attrition.

[135711]

i really liked fencing, i'm still deciding on whether to move back to my old home where i can fence again. my former salles fought constantly with each other, it was too horrible, i left because i couldnt' stand another minute of listening to an adult man scream as if he had something stuck in his nose all day long, and then in the other salle, the guy didn't scream but his students left because they wanted more competition, and they had no choice but to go to the other salle to compete, and when they got there, the other guy would scream, or break their weapons. you should have seen it. they had an epeeist there, who i originally thought was great, but he turned out to be a screamer too, it was incredible. hi "billy" then he would whirl around and scream: 'its buddy, not billy' or someone else would scream about something else, i have never been around such tempermental people. his eyes would bulge! i think that's why i kept going, i wanted to see more. my old salle was very different. we all fenced. the only drama when when the ex wife of one of our instructors decided to come back to fence with us. her husband had a sort of fit. he didn't want her in the salle, there was a big meeting, she stayed, she fenced very nicely, no-one hated her. that was dramatic, everyone gossiped for days, but it all settled down. but i'm doing okay now, i'm losing weight by running, i'll see in 3 months.

[Haze]

Baggy jacket syndrome in the beginners photos - a problem i never realised i suffered from until we went onto electric and they found a lame that fitted me - ok i still didnt win but it took my opponent (assistant coach for the beginners) a lot longer to win, he just kept on asking exactly how he was supposed to hit me, and what had happened to the rest of me. (i'm 5' tall with a 24" waist) Eventually he leaned over and poked me on the back of my shoulder - swine!

[MikeHarm]

So you're saying you're going to move somewhere because your old salle had people who yelled at you and broke weapons? I'm having trouble following what you're saying exactly. How does the running tie into it? Did you get good at running from running away from the people trying to break your weapons?

</font><blockquote><font size="1" face="Helvetica, Arial">quote:</font><hr /><font size="2" face="Helvetica, Arial">Originally posted by 135711:
<strong>i really liked fencing, i'm still deciding on whether to move back to my old home where i can fence again. my former salles fought constantly with each other, it was too horrible, i left because i couldnt' stand another minute of listening to an adult man scream as if he had something stuck in his nose all day long, and then in the other salle, the guy didn't scream but his students left because they wanted more competition, and they had no choice but to go to the other salle to compete, and when they got there, the other guy would scream, or break their weapons. you should have seen it. they had an epeeist there, who i originally thought was great, but he turned out to be a screamer too, it was incredible. hi "billy" then he would whirl around and scream: 'its buddy, not billy' or someone else would scream about something else, i have never been around such tempermental people. his eyes would bulge! i think that's why i kept going, i wanted to see more. my old salle was very different. we all fenced. the only drama when when the ex wife of one of our instructors decided to come back to fence with us. her husband had a sort of fit. he didn't want her in the salle, there was a big meeting, she stayed, she fenced very nicely, no-one hated her. that was dramatic, everyone gossiped for days, but it all settled down. but i'm doing okay now, i'm losing weight by running, i'll see in 3 months.</strong></font><hr /></blockquote><font size="2" face="Helvetica, Arial">

[Zelda]

Mike, Mango isnt supposed to make sense.

[135711]

mike, i can't belabor the point...

HERES THE DRILL:
FENCER A GOES TO SALLE 1 AND FENCES ONE YEAR
FENCER A GOES TO SALLE 2 AND TAKES A 10 WEEK COURSE AND RETURNS TO SALLE 1.
SALLE 1 BERATES HER FOR TAKING THE 10 WEEK COURSE.
FENCER A STAYS WITH SALLE 1 FOR AN ADDITIONAL 5 MONTHS, WATCHING THINGS DETERIORATE.
FENCER A DECIDES TO MOVE ALONG TO SALLE 2
FENCER A ATTENDS SALLE 2 FOR ONE YEAR.

COACH 2 DOES NOT SPEAK WITH COACH 1
COACH 2 BERATES FENCER A FOR ATTENDING COACH 1'S SCHOOL.
COACH 2 TIRADES FENCER A FOR KNOWING COACH 1
COACH 2 TIRADES IN GENERAL ABOUT COACH 1 ON AND OFF FOR ONE YEAR TREATING FENCERS TO INTERESTING TIDBIDS.
FENCER A GROWS WEARY OF LISTENING TO TIRADES AND
BECOMES A RUNNER.

[MikeHarm]

Oh, so you're saying you're quitting fencing because of ill tempered coaches. Now it makes sense. Is there another club besides the 2? Maybe third time is the charm.

[counter riposte]

Agreed. Maybe you can find better elsewhere, a college or social club might work. Just someplace you can fence.