A kid walks to the strip and tells his parents, "I should win this." Twenty minutes later he walks back, mask under his arm, and says, "I could have won it." I have heard this pair so many times that I stopped counting. And every time, I know the bout was lost...
A few months ago I wrote about reputation in fencing, about how every fencer is building one, whether they realize it or not, with every bout, every call, every small choice nobody is grading them on. Honesty is where that reputation is actually made or lost. Not the...
You need to appreciate that the only thing you will never have in abundance is your time. You can have money, and with time you can earn interest on it, multiply it, invest it. But time is something that is absolutely finite, and with each passing moment each of us...
Ask any soccer parent what their kid does in practice, and conditioning will come up before they finish the first sentence. Think about basketball, swimming, track and field. In every one of these sports, conditioning is just part of the deal. Nobody questions it....
Fencing doesn't happen all at once. You don't walk into the club one day and suddenly execute perfect attacks. You don't fence one great bout and become successful at the national scene. You don't have a single breakthrough practice that transforms everything....
You wouldn't dream of stepping onto the strip without a physical warm-up. No one walks into a bout cold - no footwork, no blade work, no stretching - and expects their body to perform at its best. Everyone understands that muscles need preparation. But what about your...
Every fencer hits the moment in their career when almost everything they do feels wrong. New actions as well as old and trusted actions. Nothing feels quite right. Some fencers will keep trying, grinding through the frustration. Others will want to move on to...
January 1st arrives with familiar declarations: "This is my year!" "I'm finally going to get serious about training!" "I'm more motivated than ever!" The young fencer posts inspirational quotes on social media, creates detailed training schedules, and attacks their...
Screenshot A mother of a beginner fencer came to me recently and signed up for ongoing group classes. Then she watched some private lessons and asked if her daughter could take them too. "Yes, of course," I said. "Actually, private lessons are a necessary part of...
A few years ago we had a fencer with an interesting habit. Before every bout she performed the same routine: adjusted the mask three times, tapped the guard twice with her left index finger, took four steps back, then advanced to the en garde line. She'd been doing...
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