Fencing, not Aria
10 February 2008 08:31 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
3rdragonYesterday was a very good day. I had fun. My uncle showed up and watched me fence. I felt like I fenced well most of the day, and at least decently during the rest of it; there weren't any of those slumps where I feel like I just get up on strip and can't manage to do anything against my opponents and feel really frustrated because I should have been able to make at least one touch. That didn't happen. There were bouts where I should have made touches but didn't, but that wasn't because my head wasn't in the fencing; it was. I saw the timing - often created the timing - and made the correct action. I do, however, need to work on actually hitting my opponent, because, as my mother would say, "Almost only counts in horseshoes and hand grenades," and being within 1/4 inch of hitting my opponent isn't the same as actually hitting her. But that's a problem I can focus on, and something that will improve with practice. Not being in the fencing mindset is much harder to fix, I think.
In all but one of my bouts I was proud of some aspect of my fencing, I think. As for that one . . . well, I'm just glad that I finished it, and finished it in such a way that the poor man that who had to referee that thing generally only had one light and so didn't have to try to interpret the blade actions and the right-of-way. I felt sorry for him - and I have to say that I wasn't very impressed with his refereeing in general, but that's the sort of bout that I wouldn't wish on my worst enemy if I had one. (Come to think of it, that's probably why BU only had two foilists - if the Smith foil squad fenced like that, I would quit too.) Anyway. It wasn't a good bout, it wasn't a pretty bout, but I won and it's over and I sure hope I don't meet that girl onstrip again, because while I can defeat her again, that wasn't fencing. Not what I did, and certainly not what she did.
That bout aside, I was startled to realize that I'm a better fencer than I used to be. This is something that I knew intellectually - if I got to fencing practice three times a week, I must be getting better. But when I fence with the same group of people who are also getting better, I don't notice it very much. And two weeks ago I did notice that I was better at getting touches on people who'd completely creamed me before (so that this time I was creamed but not as badly), but I was still getting creamed, and that's what I expect to happen when we put me (girl who's been fencing for something between one-and-a-half and two-and-a-half years, depending on how you count) against an opponent who's been fencing for six years, and furthermore regularly fences against people who have also been fencing for five or six years. But then yesterday, I fenced people and I won bouts. I made touches. I could feasibly have won many of the bouts that I didn't. I controlled some of the bouts (which didn't mean that I won, particularly for those bouts where my not-sticking tip was especially bad, but I knew what actions my opponent was going to make before she made them because I created all of the moments that allowed her to make those actions) - and that was really cool.
All in all, it was a day I was very happy with. Even if we did arrive two or three hours earlier than we needed to (but that worked out, so it was okay-ish). And no one got seriously hurt, or permanently damaged, and I think that most of the people on the team also had very good days.
In other news, I need to see if taping my curtains around the edges will permit me to sleep past 7:30 next weekend.
In all but one of my bouts I was proud of some aspect of my fencing, I think. As for that one . . . well, I'm just glad that I finished it, and finished it in such a way that the poor man that who had to referee that thing generally only had one light and so didn't have to try to interpret the blade actions and the right-of-way. I felt sorry for him - and I have to say that I wasn't very impressed with his refereeing in general, but that's the sort of bout that I wouldn't wish on my worst enemy if I had one. (Come to think of it, that's probably why BU only had two foilists - if the Smith foil squad fenced like that, I would quit too.) Anyway. It wasn't a good bout, it wasn't a pretty bout, but I won and it's over and I sure hope I don't meet that girl onstrip again, because while I can defeat her again, that wasn't fencing. Not what I did, and certainly not what she did.
That bout aside, I was startled to realize that I'm a better fencer than I used to be. This is something that I knew intellectually - if I got to fencing practice three times a week, I must be getting better. But when I fence with the same group of people who are also getting better, I don't notice it very much. And two weeks ago I did notice that I was better at getting touches on people who'd completely creamed me before (so that this time I was creamed but not as badly), but I was still getting creamed, and that's what I expect to happen when we put me (girl who's been fencing for something between one-and-a-half and two-and-a-half years, depending on how you count) against an opponent who's been fencing for six years, and furthermore regularly fences against people who have also been fencing for five or six years. But then yesterday, I fenced people and I won bouts. I made touches. I could feasibly have won many of the bouts that I didn't. I controlled some of the bouts (which didn't mean that I won, particularly for those bouts where my not-sticking tip was especially bad, but I knew what actions my opponent was going to make before she made them because I created all of the moments that allowed her to make those actions) - and that was really cool.
All in all, it was a day I was very happy with. Even if we did arrive two or three hours earlier than we needed to (but that worked out, so it was okay-ish). And no one got seriously hurt, or permanently damaged, and I think that most of the people on the team also had very good days.
In other news, I need to see if taping my curtains around the edges will permit me to sleep past 7:30 next weekend.
