Foiling around...

                                                            naturally born fencer!


The news is I have decided to take up foil just to have a chance to practice more and enhance my fencing generally- but my heart belongs to epee <3 .So I picked up a foil down at the club yesterday, waved it around and poked people at various off-target places. Appart from that I did quite well - I regard losing 10-6 to a foilist as doing well.
The first difference I noticed is how much lighter the foil feltto the hand, much easier to manipulate.
The second is how quicker people moved - competing against them will do my epee speed good.
The right-of-way thing was vastly annoying. But one thing it can teach me is dealing with the opponents blade first before attacking. Double hits and no point awarded was also annoying. Appart from the rule-difficulties it was fun. I can't wait to have a one to one lesson with the italian coach!

fencing meme

it's my first attempt to do anything of the like! So I hope you like it!

Losing sucks...

Last night was awful. I fought a lot of bouts and only won in two. Losing from active members was normal but losing from a newbie- that really brought me down. She just kept coming at me with a dead straight epee attack and touched me! What the hell happened to my parries? Maybe I should go fence these people:

And then I was having such counterproductive thoughts:

What if fencing is not for me? What if no matter how much I train I will never be good enough?

Or maybe this awful feeling is exactly the motivation I need to do better.

I don't want to be just a fencing enthusiast, I want to be good, I want to win.

DO OR DO NOT, THERE IS NO TRY!

Attack is the best form of defence!

And that truism applies to fencing too. I have been reading a german fencing guide for young athletes and I find it very easy to understand. So I thought I'd share the simple wisdoms with other amateurs as myself :)

So, why is it better to attack rather than defend? Because the attacker choses the moment of attack and so has an advantage.

How to prepare a good attack:

1. You have watched the opponent and you know he is not goint to attack.
2. You play with distance (check out Littel's videos on the former post) bringing your opponent to a good distance for you. You dont run after the opponent, you try to catch him as he is coming towards you.
3. When the right moment arises, attack without hesitation and without moves that betray you are going to attack. -Unless instead of a direkt attack you want to use a feint. Remember the feint should appear realistic, otherwise your opponent will not attempt to parry it.