Confidence

[Wolfie]

Hi all,
My Maestro and coaches were not impressed with my performance in my last tournament. They said that I have tecnique down good for my level, but it is my lack of confidence that is killing me. Does anyone have any advice for this problem?
Wolfie

[Mo]

Originally posted by Wolfie
Hi all,
My Maestro and coaches were not impressed with my performance in my last tournament. They said that I have tecnique down good for my level, but it is my lack of confidence that is killing me. Does anyone have any advice for this problem?
Wolfie

If you have both a maestro and coaches, shouldn't they be suggesting something?
Do you feel you lack confidence?
Experience always helps.
What is your level?

[Wolfie]

Well, all my Maestro and coaches are suggesting is that I go into more competions for experience, but I want to know if there is anything else I can do besides that. I have been fencing fo a year and a half (a half a year as a foilist, half as a saberist) and I am category E in saber. I am also about to join my club's team (Sacramento Fencing Club). So, I'm a beginner compared to a lot of people.
Wolfie

[klauver]

Usually when a coach sees a lack of confidence it means that you are not taking advantage of perceived opennings that your opponent is offering or tentative and delayed riposts.
Ask a teammate to provide invitations for you to "see" and attack. They should hesitate slightly before parrying at first and then gradually speed up their parry so that you can accurately judge your attack speed. You should do these drills at "full speed" not at the practise speed that so many fencers use during practice floor drills. You will become much more aware of how to take advantage of openings when they are presented.

There is also a training toy/tool sold by PBT that increases your reaction spped to opennings. It randomly flashes a green light and times your reaction speed from the light until your tip hits the target. Price $199.

http://www.fencepbt.com/pbthome3.nsf...6?OpenDocument

[labouche]

Walk around telling people how hot and great you are.
-la bouche

[Wolfie]

Ooooh, I like that last one. Hehe!
Wolfcub

[wflaschka]

There is a seasoning process at tournaments -- the more you fence in them, the more comfortable you are with all these strange new opponents. There's no shortcut to seasoning, it's just compete, compete, compete. You probably already have all the confidence you need, it's just not "working in the system" yet. This will happen, after time.

That's the sad part -- seasoning doesn't seem to happen merely by going to a lot of practices. Else I'd be king of the world.

[gojujay]

One way is to totally not care if you lose. But you have to REALLY not care, no faking otherwise you're toast.

[Hurriranger]

yea, but when you totally not care about losing, u tend to take risks, Big ones! and i dont think that is a good idea. what i recommend is practice, practice and more practice. learn to see openings and take responsible risks.

[big poppa]

Years ago I asked my coach how I could get better , he told me "you gotta pay your dues" i asked him what the heck he was talking about. " you must fight better people in as many tournaments as possible you've got to get used to that before you can get better. He was right it's similar to what a famous boxer said in the 30's "i need to fight in a real match every month to keep an edge' He was Joe Louis.

[frenzl]

i used to have the same problem.

you have to want the point or win, and see yourslef doing it. you have to know that you can win the bout (even though you may not be able to) not being cocky but confident.

[Phoenix]

yeah another saberist! I have some "confidence" problems too. I would never move forward because (this is so stupid) "the opponet is comming at me and I don't know what to do." So I just said, ya know what, just advance on them and even if you don't get the point, you will be more determined the next time. If you are having the same prob with going forward, just have a bout with your friend and just advance and attack the whole time and don't do and jumps in place or fake jump forwards. U want to get used to going forward.

OR is it that you are afraid of losing?

[JAySE SUiCiDE]

Originally posted by labouche
Walk around telling people how hot and great you are.
-la bouche

we've already got one of those here, if you've heard the complaints....

but this problem happens to me aswell. i know for me, im less confident when i dont want to take chances, and this usually comes from people telling me how easy the other person is, or how i'm going to win and it'll be a piece of cake; though they're trying to help, it puts more pressure on me to win. so as frenzl said, be confident but not cocky.

~Jes

[edew]

Setting reasonable goals will help too. Prior to your pool, look over the competitors and talk with your coach. Set the goal of beating just one or two opponents in that pool. Maybe they're the easiest ones to beat. So what.

Another goal could just be scoring X number of touches on certain opponents, or just scoring a particular hit (feint to the head, hit the flank).

Once you can get control and do what you want, then it's just a matter of doing it for five good touches or fifteen good touches.

First step is being able to state what you're going to do and actually doing it.

Fencing is 90% controlling yourself and 10% controlling your opponent. When you can control yourself, you've got, well, 90% of the game down.

[Grey]

Well, you must first be able to give up the idea of winning before you can actually win. Its more to do with the stress you put on yourself more than anything else. If thats not the case then its a lack of experience.

As to lack of experience, I would say that its because of the weird angle or intentions and preparations of attacks which confused you.

As to your maestros and coaches... they are obviously not doing their part in encouraging you. "were not impressed with my performance in my last tournament" is simply not the manner which you imply to a student.

[D'Artagnan1673]

Don't get down, tournaments can be very stressful. You may be a great fencer for your years of experience, but you may still have psychological growth. Take my personal example:

I got back into fencing last August after a long hiatus. Since I only had working foils, I fenced foil. Within a few short weeks I was consistantly winning all my club bouts. Then the club went to a tournament and I placed 36 of 39 while the clubmates I usually beat placed well higher than I did. Why? A few reasons that I can think of.

1. I put too much emphasis on getting out there and winning. Plus, the excitement and stress of competing, something I hadn't done in a year and a half, made me more stressed.
2. Due to this fixation on results, I was nervous, uptight and easily tired out during my pools.
3. The final problem had more to do with fate than with my nerves. My foils all decided that they didn't want to work and I lost my cool even more.


By the DE's, I knew I was toast and didn't care about winning, I just wanted to enjoy a little competition. I drew the top seed, a very strong B, and at one point was only down 5-9! I lost 15-6 and you'd think I beat him I was so pleased! Your nerves and psychological mood affect you greatly. The only thing that will help this is to learn to calm yourself, relax and fence more tournaments! The more you are accustomed to this strange pressure, the better you will be able to handle the stress.

[broncofencer]

As most have said experience breeds confidence the more you see the more you are able to deal with it . The other thing is don't get sucked into the ranking game it can really blow holes in confidence. I have seen a lot of fencers myself included get down because the are fencing an A or B they have reserved a place in the loss column already and they are not even on the strip yet. I fence to score not win if I score 5 great if I score 1 I still had a victory. The easiest is just get fencing especially against better opponents.

[Victor]

It might make you feel better to kidnap the coaches' pets or cut out the butts in their warm-up sweatsuits. You'd probably feel more confident afterward.

[JAySE SUiCiDE]

Originally posted by Victor
It might make you feel better to kidnap the coaches' pets or cut out the butts in their warm-up sweatsuits. You'd probably feel more confident afterward.

well, yeah..then you'd know for sure that they were gonna yell at your..

~Jes

[Wolfie]

Well, I had a tournament yesterday. It was just a small Y-14 event for members of my club, but I relaxed and I only cared about having fun and controling myself. The result: 5th place in a field of 11. My coach and Maestro were very impressed with my tecnique. So, I'm happy with my work and I huess I'm starting to solve the confidence problem. Thanks for everyone's reply.
Wolfie