Shooting myself in the foot

Over and over, I've been told that the way to get recognized for fencing is to go out and fight. I should find the events with the big tourneys, and enter them. I've been told that the only way to get recognized for my prowess it to go out, fight and win.

I can see the logic in that. It's the whole money where your mouth is thing, so what did I do this weekend? I skipped the big event where they were holding their champions tourney and attended a small little event, where there were only pick-up fights.

And what's even worse, I didn't even armor up. I mostly stood back and watched and gave the occasional pointer.

Why? Well, the not armoring up was while there was no loaner armor on site, there was a young lady who was very interested in learning fencing. So I talked my son into loaning her his armor, and then he used mine.

As for why I decided against the big event, there were two reasons. The first was the pure logistics of the thing: the event was seven hours away, and my son had to be to work by noon on Sunday. It just wasn't doable. The second reason was a little more nebulous: they didn't need me. They had multiple Masters of Defense, multiple White Scarves, multiple Papillons, and many, many fighter. We had a Cormac, an Albion and me, along with eight fighters, half of whom had less than a year's experience.

I know I'm shooting myself in the foot when I do things like this, but I've always put promoting fencing above promoting myself and, quite frankly, the Masters and Dons have the larger groups down south pretty well covered.