Speed

At the regional fighter's practice this last weekend, there was a fencer bemoaning the fact that he was having to work harder to get in the groove. The downside of this was that the fencer in question is one of those fast little suckers who can strike faster than you blink. So what's the problem? Speed and hard do not mix. Well, okay, speed and hard mix too well. And while I came out of my passes with him without any lasting mementos of the occasion, some of his hit were a bit harder than strictly necessary.

The thing with speed in fencing is that it's easy to be fast if you don't mind hitting like a freight train. Likewise, it's easy to hit softly if you don't mind being so slow a snail could void your thrust. The difficulty is in combining speed and a soft touch.

If you know your range, you can do a fast thrust to just short of your opponent and then slowing your thrust down to a more manageable level, but if your opponent closes while you're thrusting, you'll still hit like a freight train. Breaking your wrist when you strike helps, but it doesn't alleviate the force of that initial contact. Or another option is to have a very light grip on the sword - which lends to a natural breaking of the wrist when you strike - but the problem here is the danger of being disarmed.

So what's the answer to speed without strength? Believe it or not, slow work. Practice your moves slowly, focusing on the precision of the strike and putting the bare minimum force into your touches. Start at quarter speed and stay there until you can consistently hit on target without harming and then move your speed up to half. Again, keep at your drills until you are consistently hitting where you want as soft as you want and then move up to 3/4 speed. And so on.

It may be that in the end, you cannot got at what you think should be your full speed. All that means is that you shouldn't have been going that fast to begin with and you'll have to make do with what feels like 85 - 90% of your proper speed. But that's okay, with your new-found precision from all of your slow-work, you'll discover that that's more than enough to get the job done.

And whatever you do, please don't try to force fast. It hurts.

Motivations

One of my earliest posts here was on the problem I was having getting into the zone at tournaments. It seemed that no matter what I did, I just couldn't find the flow. And that's been going on pretty consistantly for the past few years. Oh, eventually I get tired of Cormac kicking my butt and actually bring up my game, but for the most part, I just can't get in the zone.

But then something weird happened. At Albion's request, I was given the honor of fighting last before the prince and the king at Albion's Prize as his first teacher. Now I was too busy running around like a chicken with her head cut off setting up and making sure the Prize ran smoothy to get in any warm-ups or pick-up fights, but when I entered the list field, I was on. I didn't just give him the bare minimum fight propriety required, I gave him the best I had. I haven't fought that well in close to ten years.

Afterwards, I tried to look back and figure out what was different about that fight adn what I came up with was that it mattered. It was a Big Deal. Albion is the first of my students to achieve the White Scarf, and to see him get that sort of recognition, well... I can't say what it means to me. And I didn't want there to be any question that his Prize was the test it was meant to be.

And I think that may have been the difference. Albion's Prize was a matter of honor to me, not just a chance to win a trinket and maybe a title I'd have to give up in a year or so anyway.

Honesty

I love my wife, really I do. And sometimes that can be a good thing because her sense of humor can be a bit, well, interesting. Take after court at Whipping Winds this last weekend. She turned to me and said, “You should have been a sniper. I mean, how could someone as tall as you who’s been in as long as you not be noticed?”

Needless to say, she’s not quite as prosaic as I try to be about my lack of recognition in the Society. Of course I have to admit there was one point this weekend when my nobility faltered and I found myself asking, “How many of my students have to get scarves before I get anything?” I know, I know: pretty petty of me. And I don’t have any “but…” to lessen the impact. The truth is that no matter how noble, how nonchalant I try to be about my lack of recognition; there is a part that’s hurt by it. But I keep plugging on, trying to remember that one of the greatest honors for a teacher is to see their students become successes.