Art of Fencing, Art of Life

Month: November 2020 Page 1 of 2

Holiday Shopping for Fencers – The 2020 Pandemic Version

Holiday Shopping for Fencers - The 2020 Pandemic Version

We have put out many gift guides for fencers in the past, but for 2020 we have had to rethink how we approach gift giving and holiday shopping. The needs are not the same for fencers as they have been before, so to give the right kinds of gifts, we need to think about where things are right now.

There is not a need for the usual travel equipment, obviously. Fencers also aren’t decorating backpacks or looking for bumper stickers to show their fencing pride. The needs this year are more pressing perhaps than in years past, both because we need the extra boost and because we just have different needs. 

Though there is hope that things will get back into the direction of normal in, fencers must prepare to continue to train with social distancing protocols into the foreseeable future. That makes this a wonderful time to give practical gifts to make that training easier! These little boosts are incredibly meaningful right now, and for the fencer in your life, a thoughtful and useful gift can make a major difference. Both the thought and the practicality count!

Here’s our 2020 pandemic guide to fencing gifts!

Gratitude in the time of COVID

Gratitude in the time of COVID

It can feel like the last year has been nothing more than one long and impossible series of choices that are gut wrenching for us to make, yet they have to be made. Gratitude is not an easy sentiment to come by as the months drag on and on, especially when we realize that pandemic lockdowns are only going to get worse in the coming months. 

I miss fencing competitions. 

I miss the sound of swords clashing.

I miss hugging my family.

I miss the feel of getting on an airplane.

I miss my opponents.

I miss movie theaters.

I miss handshakes from my coach. 

I miss sitting over dinner with my friends.

I miss yells on the piste.

I miss not having to think about coronavirus all the time.

I miss feeling confident in the future.

Before this pandemic lockdown, we knew what was what. We planned for fencing competitions years in advance at times. We knew that Fencing Summer Nationals would happen every summer and that every four years we could count on the Olympics to give us a fresh infusion of inspiration and determination. High school seniors knew that they would go off to live in a dorm in the fall. Middle school fencers knew they would come to the club after school and practice. You could count on these things, just the same as the seasons turning or the sun rising in the morning. 

It is very much as though the sun isn’t rising the way it’s supposed to.

There’s no reason to deny the struggle that this time is. We can put a shine over it, try to dig harder to make it through, but that wears on us. It is wearing on us. The well of sunshine that we project is not endless, and it does no good to try to pretend it is. We are worried about our future, and also about our present. That makes our light dimmer, though it doesn’t put it out. 

Sometimes, I think we should allow it to be dim. It’s recharging, and most of all it’s honest. The toll that this long lockdown has taken on small businesses, including fencing clubs, is real and it is wearying. Will fencing still be here when everything reopens? Once the vaccine does come, and it will come, what will be left? Once lockdown is not our everyday life, can our everyday life be what it was before? The truth is that life will not be the same as it was before. 

These months have been demoralizing in many ways, for many different people and for a whole lot of different reasons. It activated a part of our brains that is focused on survival, something that most of us have not had to think about before. We are pushed to give more than we ever have before, and sometimes we don’t even know how to give it. 

But the sun does still rise. 

Attention in Fencing and How It Transforms to Life

Attention in Fencing and How It Transforms to Life - Nine Gifts Book Cover

Attention is basically the action of fixating the mind on some activity or some event. And when I say fixating the mind, it means being able to carefully listen and watch, and be in constant and instant awareness of everything happening in the event of interest. Driving is a fantastic example, right? You’re fixing your mind on the road, and you’re constantly aware of everything that happens near you—whether it’s other cars, pedestrians, traffic signs, a policeman, any obstacles on the road like potholes or objects, animals, whatever it is. 

You are constantly watching, you’re constantly listening to what happens. You are in a driving mind zone, where not only you’re aware of what is going on around you, but—because of that—you can essentially predict what will happen in the next moment, because you catch some subtle cues from the surrounding that allows you to predict. You see the body language of a pedestrian, showing that he or she is about to cross. A car starts to do a change of lane, or use their signal. The traffic light turns from green to yellow. 

So: Attention is the action of fixing your mind on something by carefully listening and watching, and being constantly and instantly aware of everything that happens around you. And, because of that, being able to predict the next moment. 

COVID Restrictions and the Reality of Fencing in Pandemic Times

COVID Restrictions and the Reality of Fencing in Pandemic Times

After months of slow upticks in coronavirus cases, it looks as though the winter is bringing with it a new wave of cases and a new reality for us to face. Safety has to be our priority, and so we find ourselves having to step back and restock how fencing training will go forward. 

This process has been long and exhausting, but we are in it together. Fencing is helping so many to get through the hardest parts of this pandemic – it is a touchstone that helps us to make sense of a world that keeps changing. COVID restrictions are coming back with a vengeance as numbers rise, and we have to find ways to keep fencing. We cannot lose faith. 

Think like a fencer amid new reality

Perhaps the hardest part of all of this is the inability to know what to do. As fencers, we like to know exactly what is going on and how to move forward with our training. We have come to rely on the regularity of our classes and our competition season to craft goals that move us to where we want to go. Though we cannot control the outcome of a match, we have always been able to control our preparation.

That’s not something that we can do right now. We can’t know that we’ll be able to fence in our clubs or go to tournaments. We can’t know that there will be major competitions to prepare for, or when things might return to some kind of normal. We can’t even count on consistent forward progress. 

Mindset Reset – From “Have to” to “Get to” to “Want to”

Mindset Reset - From “Have to” to “Get to” to “Want to”
Beautiful flower seedling growing in the center trunk as a concept of new life

The mind is the most powerful thing that we have. In both fencing and in daily life, we have the opportunity to change our manifested world when we adapt our mindset. It’s no easy thing to do, and in the midst of a global pandemic that has changed our daily lives, it is both more important than ever before and also more difficult than ever before. 

There are a great many things that the pandemic calls on us to adapt to. We must adapt to a new physical environments and models of learning. We must adapt to wearing masks and social distancing. We must adapt to new ways of fencing, with socially distanced instruction and new modalities of practice. It’s all well and good to recognize that we have to adapt, but how do we adapt effectively?

The answer is that we must change our mindset. This doesn’t happen easily or without focus. Changing one’s mindset is a tough process, but that’s why it’s transformative! A mindset reset allows us to push ourselves in new directions and to take advantage of the opportunities that are sitting right in front of us. 

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