A Challenge

An open letter was posted to the Aerie today about the continuing problem of excessive hits. My first though on it (and not knowing the details of the incident that brought about the letter) was that at least we were doing better up North here. After all, I only came home from Spring Feast with a single interesting bruise, and only a few other people at the event complained of hard hits. Not bad for a two-hour long tournament.

But...

It might not have been bad, but it wasn't as good as it should have been. After all, the ideal is that we can go through an entire tournament (or melee) without a single hard hit, no matter how long the fighting lasts. And I've talked in the past about how to train away the tendency to hit hard, but I think that the problem isn't just one of training: I think it's a problem of positive reinforcement. Even though the rules state that fencers are not required to take excessive hits, in all my twenty years of fencing, I have never seen a fencer do so. So even if you do clock a guy, you're still given the win. Sure, you may get a talking to, and you might have to apologize, but you still win. So for some people, the choice comes down to fighting beyond their skill level and having to say they're sorry or possibly losing. And, as the old saying goes, sometimes it's easier to beg forgiveness than ask permission.

And that's where the challenge comes in: over the next year, if you throw a shot and you think it's too hard - or your worthy opponent thinks it's too hard - take it back. We are fencers. We are supposed to be grace and elegance personified. We should not need to muscle our way through a tournament. We should be able to hit our opponents precisely where we intended with precisely the right force - no more, no less - for the attack to count. Many of us already call back shots that are too light, let's start calling back shots that are too hard.

I accept my own challenge. For the next year, I will call back any and all blows I land that either I or someone else feels is too hard. Will you?