Stimulating Competition

[Superscribe]

LordShout,

You claim to be in a position of leadership (team captain); however, if you had earned that position, then you wouldn't be asking this question on this forum.

Don't make the mistake of confusing possession of title, or vacuum assisted ascendency with the real deal.

What I'm saying is that your post indicates that you are Team Captain in name only. Your club has a culture with which you are at odds. Your demonstrated lack of ability and insight accurately reflects your level of maturity and experience.

Good luck.

This is certainly not the most important advice given on the forum. In fact there's no advice here.There might be some undermining going on, or perhaps an example of a reality check at best, but the delivery is a little off.

I don't know what the leadership term is for this particular collegiate team is, but a cold splash of reality designed to take the wind out of the leadership's sails doesn't really help the club if the captain is halfway through his term.

The most important thign is obviously to get a good understand of why the club exists in the first place.

I'll use a college example. Say your fraternity had a wine tasting night. You attend a wine tasting night because you want to enjoy different expensive wines, chill out a little bit, and try pick up girls/guys through conversation and snobbery. If our president came to the wines tasting night and all of a sudden decided the event should be chugging Franzia, getting blasted, and dancing half naked to incarcerated/dead RAP artists (which is fine), we'd probably paddle him or something. Why? Cause there's a time and place for everything. T-Pain remix was LAST weekend.

Does your club exist to taste fine wines and enjoy the finer aspects of swordplay, or does it exist to chug Franzia and wreck competition? If you detect some Franzia chugging:

1) You need buy-in from your club, or at least some of the top performers of the club. Being able to institute a more determined mentality or competitive spirit is a lot easier when it's led by a group, because you are more able to be the change you want to see in the club. Being the change you want to see is a very powerful tool. Can't get buy-in from anybody? That's a clear indicator to what kind of club you're leading.

2) If you are going to be a competitive club, you'd better start acting like a competitive club. Sometimes people need reminders. Extend footwork for a little longer. Formalized drilling time. Condition with more intensity. This works wonders.

Some other advice that may or may not work.

Date the hottest girl at the club. This will draw out any other alpha male types to work harder in hopes that their fencing ability will somehow attract the attention of the hottest girl. Also, other girls will get upset about how much attention this one girl is getting. This may make them work harder. Or they'll leave.

Lie to your team. Tell them how awesome it is to give up their weekends, drive long distances, fence, drive back, and then stay up late to finish a project when they make it to the travelling team. Then restrict the number of people who can travel.

Hold joint workouts with other athletic clubs. This work's best if it's the ultimate frisbee team. I guarantee if your school has a frisbee team, they're all in pretty good shape, and some of them are jackasses and very competitive. This will encourage the same behavior in your fencing club.

Get in shape, develop a fun personality, and don't be a dick. Then people will like you, cause you'll be different from most other fencers. People are more inclined to listen and chug Franzia with people they like.

I'm going to tell this to you straight up, that gold star idea is NOT going to work. Rememeber when I said people need reminders? College athletes need to be reminded they're athletes, not big children.

Hope that helps.

[catwood1]

Lie to your team. Tell them how awesome it is to give up their weekends, drive long distances, fence, drive back, and then stay up late to finish a project when they make it to the traveling team. Then restrict the number of people who can travel.

Wait, thats a lie??

I don't believe you.

[mrbiggs]

Date the hottest girl at the club. This will draw out any other alpha male types to work harder in hopes that their fencing ability will somehow attract the attention of the hottest girl. Also, other girls will get upset about how much attention this one girl is getting. This may make them work harder. Or they'll leave.

Really?



Really?

[Adler]

Some other advice that may or may not work.

Date the hottest girl at the club. This will draw out any other alpha male types to work harder in hopes that their fencing ability will somehow attract the attention of the hottest girl. Also, other girls will get upset about how much attention this one girl is getting. This may make them work harder. Or they'll leave.

Interesting idea unfortunately I suspect the only courting you'd end up doing would be in front of a judge.

[Mr Epee]

Following up where Mr Biggs left off.

Date the hottest girl at the club. This will draw out any other alpha male types to work harder in hopes that their fencing ability will somehow attract the attention of the hottest girl. Also, other girls will get upset about how much attention this one girl is getting. This may make them work harder. Or they'll leave.

I am positive that this suggestion was a joke, but I'm bored and feeling generous with my analytic abilities.

If we ignore the OBVIOUS problems with a Team Captain, who apparently also has coaching duties, committing team incest, here are the problems with your suggestion.

1) There's a sufficiently "hot" girl in this particular fencing club.

2) There's the underlying assumption that a Team Captian LordShout has enough game to date

3) That there are ANY legitimate alpha-males in this particular fencing club.

4) Those alpha-males are so myopic that they have limited their dating pool to the subset of co-eds who are also on the fencing team.

Cheers.

[Superscribe]

Interesting idea unfortunately I suspect the only courting you'd end up doing would be in front of a judge.

Unfortunately, you forgot to suspect that a team captain of college team would likely be of similar age to a hot girl who was also on the college team, and therefore have no problems dating or engaging in relations with said girl.

[Superscribe]

Really?



Really?

yes mrbiggs. Really.



Really.

No I'm completely serious.

Really.

[mrbiggs]

yes mrbiggs. Really.



Really.

No I'm completely serious.

Really.

If you want me to recognize when you're being sarcastic, you're going to have to get better at it.

[kuroutesshin]

Following up where Mr Biggs left off.



I am positive that this suggestion was a joke, but I'm bored and feeling generous with my analytic abilities.

If we ignore the OBVIOUS problems with a Team Captain, who apparently also has coaching duties, committing team incest, here are the problems with your suggestion.

1) There's a sufficiently "hot" girl in this particular fencing club.

2) There's the underlying assumption that a Team Captian LordShout has enough game to date

3) That there are ANY legitimate alpha-males in this particular fencing club.

4) Those alpha-males are so myopic that they have limited their dating pool to the subset of co-eds who are also on the fencing team.

Cheers.

Your analysis of the majority of collegiate club fencers is astounding! I give you 9/10. You could've earned an extra point by mentioning the SCA, rapiers, neckbeards, or cat-ear hats.

The situation in our club is a rather interesting one- we are not a purely social club because we are majorly focused on competition and collegiate events; but we lack university support and a dedicated coaching staff.

It boils down to the people who have the time, inclination, and desire to fence and win. Which, at least for the competitive team members, is absolutely the case.

The question comes down to treating each bout like it's important- how many bouts have you fenced where your opponent didn't take you seriously, didn't try, or wasn't that interested?

Our fencers should be fencing to win. I know I do, and I know many are- we just need to get them all on the same page.

[erooMynohtnA]

The situation in our club is a rather interesting one- we are not a purely social club because we are majorly focused on competition and collegiate events; but we lack university support and a dedicated coaching staff.

Certainly not a unique situation.

It boils down to the people who have the time, inclination, and desire to fence and win. Which, at least for the competitive team members, is absolutely the case.

Most sports do.

The question comes down to treating each bout like it's important- how many bouts have you fenced where your opponent didn't take you seriously, didn't try, or wasn't that interested?

Our fencers should be fencing to win. I know I do, and I know many are- we just need to get them all on the same page.

Again, if you are fencing to win in practice you are doing something wrong.

If Shout's major initiative is that you have to try to win every bout at practice, I am glad people are resisting.

Alternatively, if you are saying that your fencers are not fencing to win in competitions, well . . . I don't know. Maybe they need to get rid of an extra chromosome.

[Mr Epee]

Overcome with the spirit of helpfulness, and with a sincere hope of ameliorating your situation I visited your club website and casually perused the video section.

I have VERY good news. It doesn't look like you kids have an intensity problem.

[telkanuru]

I'm lazy, can I get a link?

[Mr Epee]

I'm lazy, can I get a link?

If you're a fan of "technical wizardry", then you're in for a treat.

http://michiganstatefencing.com/index.php

[telkanuru]

My head hurts.

[Superscribe]

I took a look at the competition results. You simply record the number of bouts each person fenced. There's no indication of the bubblegum chewing/ass kicking ratio. When people are held accountable for their record, there's a willingness to be better. When your school is held accountable for your record, there's a willingness to be better. You said it yourself, K: treat the bouts like they matter. Record them.

How do you guys do in the Midwest Conference?

[Allen Evans]

My head hurts.

Sit further back from your screen.

....and pass the popcorn.

[erooMynohtnA]

http://und.cstv.com/auto_pdf/p_hotos...df/MWFCresults

A 7th place overall puts them behind 3.5 non-NCAA schools.

[Cookeit]

I took a look at the competition results. You simply record the number of bouts each person fenced. There's no indication of the bubblegum chewing/ass kicking ratio. When people are held accountable for their record, there's a willingness to be better. When your school is held accountable for your record, there's a willingness to be better. You said it yourself, K: treat the bouts like they matter. Record them.

If you click on each individual person in the team roster thing, you can see their win/loss ratio.

[Superscribe]

hrmm I don't actually know how to use the internet

[kuroutesshin]

Our webmasters are working on the website constantly; you should have seen it before they got hold. Terrifying. In re: bout reporting; we just switched over to a newer, more powerful server and they're still trying to get an interface to the results database put together. The current page is just a placeholder; most of our tournament results are in the drawer of a file cabinet in our armory.

Most sports do.

Well, tchyeah. I'm drawing a comparison between varsity/university sports and club sports here,

Again, if you are fencing to win in practice you are doing something wrong.

If Shout's major initiative is that you have to try to win every bout at practice, I am glad people are resisting.

Alternatively, if you are saying that your fencers are not fencing to win in competitions, well . . . I don't know. Maybe they need to get rid of an extra chromosome.

I'm not sure I understand your first comment, but the heart of the OP is that people are fencing differently in practice and competition, different forms and different mindsets. By practice I mean practice bouting with boxes, directors, cards, etc- not drills and footwork. One of our coaches emeriti, who studied under Charlie Schmitter, always said the best practice for fencing is fencing, which is one of the ways we approach our lack of formal coaching staff.

We're also not saying that our fencers are fencing to win; that's rather a generalization.

*snip*

*snip*

Erin is one of our freshmen fencers, although if you looked at our site and saw the bios you probably knew that already.