Rude behavior.....

[Mr Epee]

A few months back, I was nearly struck by a motorist while I was cycling. Adding insult to injury, the motorist questioned my intelligence and demonstrated an obscene gesture.

Discuss.

No. Seriously. Feel free to argue amongst yourselves.

Thanks for your time.

[Musicfencer]

In my honest opinion, fencing is the sport where I have found the nicest people. I have tried a copious amout of sports ( Tennis, swimteam, soccer, field hockey, figure skating, lacrosse...the list goes on..) And the coaches as well as students and parents have been the most helpful in fencing.You rarely get the spoiled prima-donna rountine, but as you know there are a few out there. I have come across the same sort of problem with my second club. People were miss behaving and I wasn't learning anything at all. Even more, when I asked a question the coach made me do 100 lunges because it was a "silly question" while he let them destory the gym we were staying in. As a consiquesnce ( spelling...?) to the ill-behaved students, we changed meeting places alot. It was a distaster. But we, my sister and I, looked for a long time for a different coach. It took over a year, and we had already quit going to those "practices" but we eventually found one we enjoyed. I really hope you just look around, heck, even around this site, and realized while there are a few jerks out there (and yes you will come across more) we are a pretty nice group of people, and dont give up on the sport if your son loves it that much. I find that a rather selfish move on your behalf, for not trying harder and putting your pride aside enough to get back out there.

[SEM Fencer]

I think the point that SEM was trying to make (please correct me if I'm wrong) was that we only have part of the story here. We are only given one point of view, which is not necessarily the whole truth.

Thank you.

[SEM Fencer]

A few months back, I was nearly struck by a motorist while I was cycling. Adding insult to injury, the motorist questioned my intelligence and demonstrated an obscene gesture.

Discuss.

No. Seriously. Feel free to argue amongst yourselves.

Thanks for your time.

roflmao!

[emagdnim]

I'm afraid this happens, my home club on the other hand is probably the friendlies, safest environment I can think of. My team/club at college is different. I've done alot sense I've become president to make sure everyone in my club acts like a decent human being. As coach this is not my job, but I want a good enviroment for newcomers so I have to take on the role of fencing parent for my team to make sure the represent ODU fencing in a manner be feting a varsity fencing team. Because of this I've lost a few decent fencers but this was my choice, occasionally i wonder if it was worth it but after hearing horror stories like these I know I've done the right thing. Please give fencing another try.

[fencerwallet]

I'm afraid this happens, my home club on the other hand is probably the friendlies, safest environment I can think of. My team/club at college is different. I've done alot sense I've become president to make sure everyone in my club acts like a decent human being. As coach this is not my job, but I want a good enviroment for newcomers so I have to take on the role of fencing parent for my team to make sure the represent ODU fencing in a manner be feting a varsity fencing team. Because of this I've lost a few decent fencers but this was my choice, occasionally i wonder if it was worth it but after hearing horror stories like these I know I've done the right thing. Please give fencing another try.

Shame on the English Dept. of whatever college you attend.

[telkanuru]

I am having a hard time believing the original story, as it would be a little absurd for any business owner who actually likes making money to behave in such a fashion.

[emagdnim]

Shame on the English Dept. of whatever college you attend.

Sorry, physics major, I only speak math.

[KD5MDK]

I am having a hard time believing the original story, as it would be a little absurd for any business owner who actually likes making money to behave in such a fashion.

I've met a number of business owners who seemed to prefer lots of things to making money. Sometimes they preferred going on vacation, sometimes they preferred not serving certain people, sometimes they preferred just being jerks. The invisible hand doesn't guide everyone equally well.

[telkanuru]

I've encountered these as well, but for some reason they don't seem to stay in business very long.

[fencerchica]

Well, the original poster did seem to suggest that there were only a couple of fencing clubs available to him. Maybe the allegedly rude coach gets away with it due to having semi-monopoly status and thus no pressure from the market to improve his behavior.

[emagdnim]

Well, the original poster did seem to suggest that there were only a couple of fencing clubs available to him. Maybe the allegedly rude coach gets away with it due to having semi-monopoly status and thus no pressure from the market to improve his behavior.

...or maybe thats his niche. Like the seedy night club of the fencing community.

[Capt. Slo-mo]

A few months back, I was nearly struck by a motorist while I was cycling. Adding insult to injury, the motorist questioned my intelligence and demonstrated an obscene gesture.

Discuss.

No. Seriously. Feel free to argue amongst yourselves.

Thanks for your time.

I'm wondering: since the interaction was in Norwegian, perhaps the motorist was inquiring gently about Mr. Epee's mental state of distress, given the traumatic near-miss.

The obscene gesture might actually have been a traditional Nordic sign for "May Odin watch over your and yours and may your keel never touch rock nor your sail flame for all your voyages until the day Ragnarök comes."

Discuss.

[Fencergrl]

I'm wondering: since the interaction was in Norwegian,

Pssst.... he's in Finland, not Norway.

[telkanuru]

Pssst.... he's in Finland, not Norway.

That's like telling a Scot he's English, right?

[Lady Quindecim]

Ouch. I can relate. There are even persons in AK that scoff at being called Americans.
[Yeah, like:
Hi
Hi
How are you?
Fine. I'm taking this land.
What? Where are you taking it?
No, for America.
What's 'America'?
Your country.
You're nuts. When did this happen?
There was a vote.
I didn't vote.
Then you can't complain.
I didn't even know.
It was in Washington.
I thought it was America.
So you are an American.
No, I'm a fisherman... (Freak.)
(Freak)]

I take interesting notes in history.

[Capt. Slo-mo]

Pssst.... he's in Finland, not Norway.

Hence his doubled bafflement...

[Allen Evans]

Mr. E is riding his bike to commute from Finland to Norway? In October?

He's crazier than I thought.

AE

[Fencergrl]

I suspect he's trying to escape on his bicycle from a band of angry Finnish people who saw his "Typical Finnish Male" impersonation.

[Phrogger]

What an unfortunate story. I don't blame this father for being angry. I have been in a number of situations where a young adult or teenager has cursed loud enough for my 3-year old to hear, and I was not happy about it. Fencing does have a problem with attitudes, whether it's the A-ranked adult that won't give the time of day or the hotshot youth who thinks he's too good to fence anyone else. Coaches should take responsibility for the behavior of their students, and club owners should take charge of the behavior of their adults. We should strive to develop a culture of respect such as in the martial arts world, and not tolerate unsportsmanlike behavior, whether in competition or in the club.

For those who want to act like adults and swear along with their friends, they need to find a better place to do so. I would never let my son attend any sports club where there was uncontrolled swearing going on, even if it was the only fencing club in town.

As far as attitude, I know an NCAA champion fencer who quit fencing to take up tennis because in her words, "the young fencers have too much attitude." Many of them, not knowing her skill level, didn't even give her the time of day at the club. This culture of egotistical youth fencers refusing to fence anyone beneath their level needs to change before they become egotistical adult fencers. It certainly does nothing for the sport's image.