Another Attempt

Hairy Woodpecker taking off.

Or, I got really self-righteous writing an attempt at this post, or at least righteous.

So what am I doing now without two classes to keep up with? First, my wife is really happy that I am contributing more to chores. It is amazing how much she likes that, even with understanding just how much work school is. So if I don’t kill myself trying to do two classes maybe I can keep up more than just a token effort on chores.

And speaking of helping I was able to get her research back on track after five minutes of fiddling with the configuration files. It is nice that she can bother me without feeling guilty.

I really want to go fencing. This time for sure, no stopping me, we have all the gear.

More outdoor exercise, oh wait it dumped snow on us last week, just the walk to work was a workout. But the wife and I built a giant snow monster:

More birdwatching. Birds are coming to town! But it snowed and we’ve had some of the coldest weather of all winter. I am afraid that March regressed toward the mean, but it certainly didn’t mean that ski stores kept their supplies of skis in stock, I guess I’ve lived too close to real mountains to consider anything but mid-June to be the end of ski season.

Writing more: this, short stories, and my 2015 NaNoWriMo novel editing. Still learning. Blogging short stories has certainly not picked up a following at all. I need to be more consistent with those.

Learning Computer Vision. Wait, but didn’t I drop that class? Why yes, yes I did, but it doesn’t mean there aren’t resources like pyimagesearch.

3D-printing. It goes badly, two more failed prints, but I think I am having power issues because the power supply is so close to its limits. Fortunately I have an extra 500W supply just lying around from upgrading my desktop because it was right on the border too. With my electrical engineering knowledge I should be able to safely add the new supply, but we’ll definitely have to see.

And doing all these things I will still have time to spend with the wife, eat, and sleep. It isn’t weird how much time school takes up, but it certainly is a relief when it’s done.

Balance Humbleness and Credit

What is more sought after? Praise from someone who seems to praise you at every turn or praise from someone who seems to always be at odds with you?

My wife often praises me for many things, and it isn’t a bad thing, but sometimes it just feels like I would have done it anyway, so I don’t need praise. However, I would rather her continue to offer praise then to cut it all short because I don’t think I deserve it, as in quite a few situations I feel loved because of her words of affirmation. I have to admit that I sometimes am seeking praise from her, but not too often.

On the other hand I have a coworker that often greets my ideas with scoffs or sarcasm. The usual story goes that I would be seeking praise from him because it would be more awesome than anything, but that isn’t true. That is why his praise earlier today caught me off guard. It makes me think of how I regard people, I know that they are probably deep and complex, but really they are just a caricature drawn from my interactions with them or stories I have heard.

In my mind my coworker gained a bit more dimensionality, becoming less of a stereotype that I may have assigned subconsciously, and more of a person. But this whole delving into my mind about assessing characteristics isn’t the whole idea of this post, it is also to look at reactions to praise.

I have a hard time reacting to praise. I grew up and had things easy, school was a breeze, memorizing piano pieces the night before (really wrankled my teacher’s nerves), but also good feedback from family. Praise often came in the form of a ribbon or paper award, all I had to do was accept it and not blush too much.

The ease for which things came to me did not help in the transition to college. With a whole different paradigm I floundered and praise was hard to come by, especially hanging out with kids that were often as smart or smarter than me.

Then after college I had two totally different worlds. My job, where everyone was so smart that I hardly ever was recognized to the people I met who would praise me for things that I thought were general knowledge. And now I was hungry for praise.

Hunger for praise has another name, pride, and it can lead to some odd behaviors. I was overly competitive with fencing and other sports, getting very upset when I couldn’t perform as well as I thought I should. After years of working for the company I thought I deserved to be recognized, but maybe I was lucky that I got to work there at all. Perspectives change greatly.

Jessie confronted me about the fencing. I had to take a breather for months after fencing every week just to calm down enough to realize that I was pushing my stress level up and making mistakes that were hurting both my form and my body. Going into a bout with a mindset of having fun and learning greatly reduced that stress and allowed me to enjoy fencing quite a bit more, as well as be able to use my right hand without too much soreness from a death-grip on the foil.

Back to today, getting praised at work felt weird, especially from an unexpected person. However, self-deprecation won’t really do any good in that instance. Humbleness, sure, but abasing yourself to the point where the person is never going to say anything to you again, much less praise you? It wasn’t that bad, I mostly stuck with saying that it was what I was trained to do. I didn’t go into further detail and left him to draw his own conclusions. Mainly there is credit and yes I am passing credit to my training, but I was there administering it.

It is a tough balance, sure I still want credit for doing good things so that I can advance my career, but I don’t need praise just for praise’s sake, any more. I certainly don’t want to take other’s credit, or attack them in order to advance myself.

If I act too humble then I am proud that I am humble, and if I wheedle praise out of every passerby then I am most certainly proud. Neither of those things will help me grow and understand how I need to interact with other people.

Continue to do good and be humble, credit where credit is due, and don’t over do it.

Archery

So we really haven't been fencing much. I think I will have to read my own posts on fencing before getting back into it. We have a really odd schedule right now that is coming to an end come the end of this month. In the meantime we have picked up archery.

Isn't that just another expensive sport? Well, sort of.

We started getting interested as I usually get interested in sports. One of our friends was trying it out and I went to the indoor range to find out what the atmosphere about it was, and if it was any good. I've done archery in scouts, but hadn't really thought about it except in passing. So I went.

Managed not to kill anyone despite the fact that I got an arrow to bounce back to within a few feet of the line. But it was a 70 lb compound bow, not my cup of tea. So I went and hung out more to watch and learn, but my friend stopped coming. That's how it's happened for all but table tennis: Someone introduces me to a sport and then immediately gives it up.

I bought a bow made in South Korea, for probably too much for a starting bow, recurve, 40 lb draw, and just over 3 foot in length. I bought some arrows and tried it out. I was terrible, couldn't hit the 4x4 foot bale at 20 yards consistently. Jessie tried a ~20 lb bow from one of the regulars and liked it so much we bought it off of him for a good price.

That was about a year ago, since then we have enjoyed the company of other archers and forgotten quite a bit about fencing. Recently we have been consistent and accurate enough to get pretty good groupings, it feels really pretty good to get about 10 arrows all within a few inches of one another without the massive amount of equipment. My arms and back are much stronger and can deal with about an hour and a half of shooting. All in all, a good time.

Now that we are getting back some of our time in the future it will be fun to get back to fencing, but we are definitely keeping archery as one of our sports.

Fine and Fresh

The problem with complaining is, well, unless something constructive is done immediately after, it is mostly destructive. Done, okay on to constructive.

First I would like to introduce a new idea, feedback on fencing form. It is done all over all the time by coaches for their students, but how do people that are far away or only get visits, or can't afford direct feedback able to improve? I think that there should be a forum, in the old sense of the word too, where people can post videos of themselves doing specific drills/actions that the community can constructively criticize. There might be a future option of paying for a professional opinion, but that is just a subset of ideas for the bigger idea.

The beginning of the forum is here: http://fencegorges.forumotion.com/ Please feel free to sign-up and start discussions and maybe post a video.

The second idea is to branch off on my own to set up a fencing class or two. I think that this would remove me from my apathy that I mentioned and get me away from complaining. My biggest concern probably is beginner set upkeep as I really cannot afford ten sets right off the bat, and to have Hawai'i do terrible things to the gear would be a shame.

I want a much more structured class that gets people learning and applying, but not just bouting. I see an informal bout and I am thinking about how they could improve, but when I am in the midst of a bout I hardly think of how I could improve. I do think afterwards but then the next week when i actually get to fence the person again I have probably forgotten. I know I should write down my observations... As I start to see I just need a better framework on which to operate, and that's what I want to offer is a structured class.

What if I offered two? One that was super analytical, moving people to look and study. The other being mostly repetition and working on form in class? I think I might have to have an established base of students before I get too far in that set of ideas.

So if you were in a class, just beginning, what would you like to learn before moving into drills that you need gear for? What games could be done in between intense sessions of drills/learning to get people moving but not completely distract from the main object of teaching fencing?

There is much more this direction, but really that is why I am trying to start a forum.

Finding Apathy

Does taking on responsibility in something you enjoy cause apathy? Very possibly. It doesn't help that when I arrive at the usual time there might be someone around, but usually no one. That makes it a bit harder. I don't think taking on responsibility would cause so much apathy without that thrown into the mix. Also just the assumption that I am a bank... Not very fun.

Enough complaining. I will go to fencing this evening after going home for a light dinner and a few minutes of downtime. Then I will go, and if no one is there I will either run outside or around the gym, hopefully it isn't raining because it will be much more fun to run outside. Unlikely as that is.

My brother came into town last week. We went snorkeling at Kapoho on Wednesday. Thursday we went to prayer just as normal except we managed to bring my brother and our housemate because of the turkey trot down at bay front. That was a decent 5k, one of the flattest courses here on the island. I managed a 26:30ish 5k, which is well away from my best but not too bad considering how little I have been running. Then, of course, we stuffed ourselves silly.

Friday morning we met with my boss and went hiking on the observatory side of Mauna Loa. The hike starts at 11,100 feet. This is my fourth attempt with the third being successful. I did not feel great going up, and the first part of the hike was nearly agonizing. Unfortunately one of the guys with us was not doing so well and I was staying with him to make sure he was doing okay. When he stopped I went up to catch up with my brother and my boss to tell them we might need to turn around. I think I covered nearly a quarter mile in just over 5 minutes, I felt light-headed after that but much better than I had felt before.

We all turned around due to weather, as it was getting misty and looked like it could snow. A good thing I think too, a couple we met on the way down were going up. I did warn them about how easy it might be to lose the trail in the mist. They were later rescued off the mountain after wandering off the trail...

Saturday we went to Ke'ei and snorkeled, didn't know that there could be so much coral around Hawai'i.

My brother went back on Monday, but it was good to see him, hike and snorkel with him.

I am going to try an experiment soon with basically a fencing forum, but with a twist. I want people to post videos of themselves for constructive commentary/criticism. That could be quite tough to do, but we will see, as it is an experiment.

Fits and Starts

Another post in quick succession.

We had fencing twice more last week, which is twice more than I am used to, but it was well worth it. Again we had the two coaches from Oahu, Mike Aiao and Saul Mendoza. (This time I learned his name and saw it written as well.)

Saul worked us pretty hard Thursday and Saturday. I was pretty happy with going through drills and just getting in some good practice. I almost put a complaint here, but lets just say I will be working harder to get people to do drills. I will need to work with whoever shows up at the right time, beyond that it is up to them. That was tough not complaining.

Last time I wrote about the footwork, Saul worked us for more than a half hour trying to correct some of our bad habits. But the most recent two the footwork was a minor compared to the bladework. We paired off and he went around teaching and correcting. On Saturday he specifically talked to me about how to do the exercises as a teacher with a student. That was excellent although I am still trying to figure out what... I guess if I write down a bit maybe it will clear up the thoughts about teaching.

One of the big things is to start out basic. Just hit target and keep that up for a few minutes, maybe switching target areas just to get the right hand position. This is is from very close distance, where an extension hits, no movement of the feet. This reminds me, if I am going to have people stab at me over and over I will need to bring my black jacket with me. I can stand getting hit again and again, but it is much more comfortable with padding and the like.

The next is just to add an advance-attack. Just an attack with an advance, not much simpler than that. The big idea here is to watch for the arm coming out first in order to establish right-of-way. If the arm isn't preceding the footwork then it needs to be worked on a bit. This helps in another way as well: If the arm is extended than the footwork can adjust to the correct distance. As the instructor, because I am no way a coach, yet, I need to vary the distance and get a similar attack each time, in other words, they need to hit the same way no matter the distance.

With that working smoothly, and a bit of varying targets, it is time to move on to beats and disengages. This gets exponentially more complex, and there aren't even parries on the student side yet. A strike against the blade is usually a good way to get the opponent to parry in that direction. A beat 4 and then a disengage to the six line as they parry 4 is one of the simplest combination attacks ever. After a beat 4 direct though, it can be another point. Here is a short list of more:

• Beat 4, direct 4 (no response to the beat)
• Beat 4, disengage to 6
• Beat 4, disengage to 8 (Is it really a disengage? Yes.)
• Beat 6, disengage 4 (Against the same handed person this might not make sense if they are already in 6 guard, but it is much like the direct 4 listed above, if they stay in 6 then 4 is open, why not take it?

Part of getting someone to react the way you want them to is to have a convincing feint. Does the opponent think that they are being threatened? If not then the feint can be continued into a direct attack, all the better. But anyway this is getting long winded, and I am starting to see where I need to be for drilling with most people. I will write more later.

In other news I glued my fencing shoes back together. Unfortunately I would never recommend Absolute Fencing for shoes, they are cheaply made and wear down quickly on wooden floors, not even the cheese-graters of fencing strips. That being said I have bought both my helmets from them after a very denty Italian helmet. They have held up quite well along with the jacket and knickers that I wear 2 to 3 times a week for a moderate amount of fencing. So consider them for most things, but not shoes.

Drills

I am not very good at staying motivated. I can get really excited and start something, but it is tough to keep going. This blog may be an example of gaining and losing interest. Do an inverse on the number of days between posts divided by the average number and you will see a not so good trend. So let's try this:

Tuesday Mike Aiao and a few fencers came out from Oahu. Mike started us out on the footwork for about 10 minutes, I would like to comment on how late everyone started fencing, but let's keep to the subject at hand.

Mike drilled us on Basic footwork, then handed it over to another experienced fencer, whose name completely escapes me. He is a coach too. He took us through footwork, correcting people with too wide of a stance and getting us to move and work for it. Here are a few of the exercises:

• Advance-Retreat - of course, really simple and basic, but many people don't focus on this after they think they have "mastered" it.
• Double advance-Double retreat - Again, but getting moving a bit faster and not pausing between the movement, sort of as a smoothing exercise.
• Check-check - basically just picking up the back foot and then picking up the front foot. Checks to see if you are balanced and not too spread out.
• Half advance-Half retreat - Again checks to see balance and gets the body used to moving with the correct leg first. The half advance is basically just lifting the front foot and putting the heel where the toe was, then bringing it back to on guard. The retreat is the same, just the other direction.
• Then add the check-check  in between advances and retreats, that is, on the change of direction.

That was all on the really basic stuff. We also did quite a bit of lunging, he was definitely against over-lunging, which of course is not good for you.

Enough for now, I will write more tomorrow after another evening of fencing.

Chugging Along

Getting back into the swing of things.These last few weeks have been pretty horrendous for fencing and running.

Many things conspired to limit fencing, plans and cancellations, but finally got to fence last night. I fenced a bit and practiced some too. After being up the mountain yesterday, and getting up to do 1.5 miles in the morning I certainly wasn't at top performance, however it was definitely good to fence. I certainly need to improve, as we have a person that can soundly beat me. It is quite amazing how much of a motivator that is, in fact it will be an excellent learning opportunity.

I really need to work on my point control, and in that direction I have made a ball with a string through it. Really simple, but attaching a clamp to the beam and then dangling the ball from it should help my point control become better. Or rather I will improve my point control. Another thing is reactions, I need to definitely put in place stock actions as well as leave the door open for flexibility. I see things just fine, but as I get more tired I make bigger actions, which are most decidedly not restful. They also cause pieces of blades to break off and go flying across the gym. So some shopping needs to be done to find a few dry blades, and a glove as mine is finally wearing out, Leon Paul certainly makes great gloves.

I ran 1.5 miles yesterday and 2 miles this morning. I haven't run in 2 weeks mostly because of the rain. I dislike running in the rain, but I made a deal with myself Monday night, I would run at least once a week whether or not it was raining in the morning, Monday being the day. That would allow for my shoes to dry out. But it was actually nice Tuesday morning, so I didn't need to get wet. When I reach 300 miles in my shoes I think they will be relegated as I get a new pair, but I am still about 110 miles from that goal. An old pair of shoes, or just even a second pair that can get wet without worrying about tomorrow.

I also didn't do too well on the most recent self-driving car homework. It wasn't so much programming as putting together matrices for a Kalman Filter. The fact that I didn't have to take linear algebra in college probably doesn't help. Also waiting until the last moment doesn't help either. This week I started in on the lectures so I can hopefully get that done well before this weekend and start in on the homework. It is focused on Particle Filters, supposedly a much easier idea. I sure hope so, but I suspect that we will have to know all three including a histogram discrete filter. It should continue to be interesting, and I am learning python at least.

Update, These Days...

Doing quite a bit better these days so far as motivation goes. Although really need to be more disciplined for exercise, but I really dislike running in the rain. I guess I could get another set of shoes so that I can let them dry, but I also need to remember to take out the insoles and flatten them so that I don't get blisters from slightly curled insoles.

Fencing is probably completely off for this week. First Mauna Loa School is doing something so we can't fence there, and Thursday I am going up the mountain and may be up there until 21:00 which would be at least an hour after the longest winded fencers are still there. Oh well. Also in fencing news I won't be going to any interesting tournaments when I go to the ESC Conference in March for work. And I looked at May when Jessie and I will be attending her sister's graduation, nothing, but maybe we are just too far out. There are tournaments happening, but they are all qualifiers for nationals and since I am not from their area, I cannot be a part.

The ESC Conference is in the last part of March, San Jose, CA. I will mostly be learning about and summarizing technologies I see for work, but I will also be looking and just seeing what I can see. It will certainly be interesting. I suppose that I will be pretty busy but this is going to feel quite weird going to a conference like this. I have really only heard of and read about industry conferences... I did attend a week long course in a conference like thing in Boston 2 summers ago, but that was not just a huge conglomeration of companies and industry leaders. It was experts teaching about what they knew, quite a bit different.

Ah, just looked up fencing in San Jose... The hotel I am staying at is about a block from The Fencing Center, so could have pretty interesting evenings, or at least on Monday and Wednesday. It seems that I will need to bring gear... I should double-check my connections. Gear is definitely unwieldy to travel with, although it would be checked and have plenty of room for my other clothing.

It will definitely be an interesting month.

Feeling a bit better

Fencing was certainly better last night, though I still managed to over do it. I was able to fence 4 or 5 people and did quite well against them. I am working on recognizing patterns and reactions.

I noticed it specifically with one fencer. After a few direct attacks that ended with a huge parry riposte against me, I figured out the a feint disengage worked. He is a lefty and I am a righty, so I went for his quarte, inside and drew the parry and then disengaged nearly a full circle to get him on the chest. I was down 3-1 or 3-0, but managed to win the bout with 5-4.

Also mobility and endurance really helped, although I was at the end of my endurance nearly. Need to work further on that. Speaking of, now to go walking.

Motivation

Ah, motivation...

Fencing has been pretty slow recently, we had a few traveling fencers grace us with their presence. That was fun, and challenging. People here are getting better, or maybe I am sliding back into the morass of sloppy fencing. I hope it is the former.

I have decided that I am not going to try to put anyone through exercises and drills. I would rather not have to restart a dozen times with late-comers, but they don't bother me as much as those who prefer to stab over learning how to stab... A fine line I know. As such I have only really taken a few beginners through basic footwork and swordwork, otherwise I am pretty demotivated.

I fence but I feel lethargic, it is usually after sitting in a chair for nearly 8 hours so that is part of the problem. I also have been slacking on running and exercising outside of fencing, and it shows. Last week when there was only one strip and I was working on my own, I managed to overdo it. Go figure. I have a chance, possibly, to go to San Jose at the end of march. I know there are plenty of Salles and clubs in the area, and possibly a tournament. Of course I will have to carefully plan so that I can attend the conference, write up a report, and get a bit of fencing in, but I want to be in good shape so that those with many fencers to fence won't just run circles around me, or some similar idea in fencing.

So, as a project outside of work and connected with fencing, I have decided to try and construct a wireless fencing system. Being a trained computer engineer with plenty of ready-to-use-materials within reach from the amazing DIY-movement that started after I graduated from college, it seems that this could be done quite cheaply and robustly. I am also looking at crowd-funding, a project of about $500, which at least could be reached by asking family and friends, and possibly a few fencers.

A project like this will need special attention that I crave to apply but get petrified trying to think of all the solutions to all of the problems at once. So I have broken it down into a few larger phases: Planning, Advertising, Designing, Building and Testing. Of course all of these are subjective large containers, but right now I am looking at launching the project on March 9th and ending a month later. I think 500 dollars is the smallest project I have seen on sites like kickstarter.com or rockethub.com. I think the next thing is to come up with how to do a video. Just thinking now of doing either a funny video using real people and explaining the "perils" of the floor cords and reels, or animate it somehow. Thoughts and ideas are welcome.

So anyway... ideas, ideas...

Footwork for the Competitive Fencer

2015 Edit
This is my most popular post, possibly because it might have a good title for search terms, but it also needed a bit of editing. The idea is sound and I have applied it to different types of fencing, not the specific forms, but rather footwork being the foundation of swordsmanship. I believe that all martial arts rely on having a firm foundation in the basics.

Even though I am less competitive in general I still had issues with people and their distance causing them and me to have injuries when they were insistent on burying the foil much too deep. Really it is much more pleasurable to fence with someone who gets touches that are just over to pound of pressure it takes to push the foil's tip.

As it gets to winter and we are settling in to our new area I will definitely have to look into fencing around the area more. I do have longer term injuries, possibly from right after this was written, that bother my knee. However, I notice that fencing correctly often keeps my knee from hurting. Just as not having a death grip on the pistol-grip means my hand doesn't hurt as much.

I certainly hope that over the last 4 years the people who have read this post are still out there fencing with a good foundation.

A building's foundation is often the deciding factor in whether the building crumbles or survives a catastrophic event, and how long it will survive over the years or millennia.

Footwork, the  fencer moving the feet and legs, is the foundation to one's fencing. Bad footwork can lead to collapse under an onslaught by the opponent, tripping and meeting the floor. It also steals attack opportunities where a lack of directional change skills means a fencer just has to ignore an opponent's opening. And finally, bad footwork can cause injury over time, knee, ankle, or foot problems that may permanently take one out of the game.

A fencer looking for a club should be watching for a few different things during practice and bouting that should raise flags, if you are lucky enough to have choices of where to fence:

• Hard hits - Are there many times during bouts where a fencer has to unbend a sword from a 90 degree angle? Grimaces that turn into grin-and-bear-it? Post fencing bragging about how bad bruises are going to look?
• Missed opportunities - Is a chased fencer so far down the strip when their opponent stops they have walk/run just to be back in the bout?
• Sloppy fencing - Are the blades just clashing because the steel sounds nice?

As much fun as it is to tease the Epeeists about being the problem, it really isn't their fault. It might be that the club really doesn't care about the basic foundation of fencing, and learning from them will need a huge dose, not a small pinch, of salt.

Who cares what the feet are doing as long as you get the clashing of swords and the satisfying 'beeeeep' of an ambiguous point scored? Right?

But for those who actually want to progress in their fencing, and maybe even compete at a level they are happy with, there is much to practice to get a solid and flexible foundation. Running stairs, squats, calf-raises, leg-press, the list of exercises to train for strength and explosiveness in footwork goes on, so does agility training. I will not cover those as they are not specific to fencing and can be researched thoroughly. I might do a post on that later.

First, basic footwork, just back and forth. This is to keep smooth, correct footwork, not a race to how many lengths of the strip or gym can be done. Take the time to pause and adjust what falls out of form. The feet should be mostly 90 degrees with the heels in-line, the front toe pointing straight down the strip. The heels should be approximately directly under the shoulders. Keep the knees bent and let them be the shock-absorption between feet and hips. They should, at most, be directly over the toes, any further over and long-term injuries are possible. The hips should be rotated to allow the torso to be at the desired angle with the strip. And finally the back should be as though sitting in a chair, not hunched forward. I only mention the back because it will cause over-balance if in a weird position.

Do 60 to 70 meters of this slow, smooth, checking footwork in each direction. Try to keep the head and shoulders level, not bobbing up and down. Use a point on the far wall and focus on keeping that from bobbing. Of course too far and you get parallax issues.

Now do patterns. 2-1, 3-1, 4-1, 2-2, and so-on, mix it up. The focus of this practice is not just the patterns, but also the change of direction, known in fencing circles as COD. COD is extremely important in throwing off an opponent. Another thing to think about is shifting tempos. Try slow, slow, fast for a retreat, advance, advance and many others. This footwork should mostly be done without pauses, not because pauses are not important, but because pauses should be controlled movements, or lack there of, be aware of them and if unintentional then it needs to be removed. Standing still without realizing you are doing so will quickly lead to a situation that could have been avoided. But a pause can also be used to great effect as a lure for your opponent.

After getting more comfortable with this then start fencing ghosts, add in lunges and parries. At first go slow working on form and warming-up. Then start to pick up speed and explosiveness. Use your mobility to its greatest effect.

Lunges
Lunges are an important part of footwork. A lunge of the correct distance will help to bring the point on target, but a sloppy lunge will definitely allow the opponent a better opportunity.

A good lunge is a combination of two things:

• A push by the back leg
• A kick by the front leg

The kick gets the front foot to where it needs to be for the lunge and the push powers the whole action. One should end up with the back leg straight and the front lower leg 90 degrees with the floor. The knee too far over the toe means it is harder to get out of the lunge while putting strain on the knee joint. And too far behind the ankle can mean a collapse inward that can cause knee cap problems. To get out a lunge backwards the back leg needs to pull and flex. If it does not flex then it causes the fencer to stand up, effectively trapping the fencers for a few precious moments while they get their fencing form back.

Partner exercises should be fun and start getting you in the mind of distance, but not in this post. They way of being a good partner is to give feedback on what you observe, positive criticism would be good, so that both of you can improve. A few different ideas for exercises:

• Step for step. Match footwork with your partner as they lead the exercise. Watch carefully their feet at first, but when comfortable you should be able to see the whole body including the feet without directly staring at any one piece. After a few minutes stop and trade feedback, then switch roles.
• One partner comes on-guard and starts to do advances and then retreats, about 10 each. The other partner walks holding their foil at eye height. Watch for bobbing or rocking. Give feedback and switch roles a few times.

There are many more ideas out there and I will get into more drills and exercises with the distance drills with partners.

Fencing on the Strip
I know that everyone wants to get out there and have a grand-old-time, but if your footwork drills are lacking then it is hardly likely that you will keep good form when under pressure. Last night Tom Lutton definitely showed me that I could be doing quite a bit more footwork practice as well as distance and timing. Given, he is an A rated fencer and has very good form, so not to listen to him would be folly. Some more advice and teaching he gave to us is not to pause in your footwork, either move or do something, do not just hangout in the most dangerous zone, and especially bad if you stop moving. Lots of things to think about, but one of the most important is that with practice the footwork should become second nature, then distance and timing comes more easily and can be built on a solid foundation of footwork, not to mention building bladework on that solid foundation.

This Last Week or So
I have been running and walking for cardio exercise. I haven't started to do any drills at home, need to add that to my routine. A bit tough to do when it is raining outside and inside is so small. Not really an excuse. Would like to know what you are doing. Cardio, strength, drills?

If Fencing, Learn to Fence!

When I was growing up practicing meant sitting on the hard piano bench and maybe playing, but mostly waiting for a half-hour to roll by. Homework was a once or twice a school-year occurrence mostly consisting of a science fair project or some other large project, even through high-school. So I do not have a stellar record for discipline and practicing, but I am beginning to see the purpose.

Tirade
Right now there is a severe lack of discipline in our fencing group, everyone wants to fence, by which they mean sparring, not learning to fence but just beating each other about the head in hopes of landing a point. It isn't that bad, but it is getting worse. I am not the most disciplined person in the world, but somehow my meager practice and discipline stand out over most of the rest of the group.

A Call for Discipline
We could all use more discipline as a group. The good thing is that there does seem to be a bit of warm-up discipline, most fencers will jog around the gym a couple times and do high-kicks and side steps. This is a good thing to keep up, however, it should be slightly expanded for most to include arm stretches and individual footwork.

The point of the warm up is to get muscle groups working together and warmed up. This may help to develop muscle groups for those who don't do anything else throughout the week, but for someone in decent shape the warm up will do nothing but get the blood, muscles, and bones moving. If a fencer were to commit a solid thirty minutes to working on cardio, muscle group strengthening, and fencing specific individual things such as footwork and point-control, then and only then would I say that is a start.

In fact I would say that 30 minutes once a week of intense individual fencing practice would be for those who plan to never go to a tournament, who enjoy fencing just for fencing, but who need to maintain a level of activity and skill in order to keep up with those who plan to be competitors.

The leisure fencers should also work to maintain their bladework and distance skills by doing partner practices for about 30 minutes a week as well. This is to keep from injuring their fellow fencers. This is a sport based off of three weapons, there will certainly be injuries and bruises, but they can be lessened by in large by good form and decent control.

Competitive fencers, or really any fencer who plans to go to a tournament, even if they claim just to be fencing for fun, should be held to a higher level.

Cardiovascular Condition: Should be able to maintain intensity through a 3 minute fencing period. For direct eliminations, or larger tournaments, should be able to maintain 3 of those periods with 1 minute breaks in between. Smartly choosing intensities and tactics for different bouts in order to conserve/be ready for all day fencing. I run 5 to 10 miles a week currently, but I have very little good experience and knowledge at correctly choosing intensity and overall tournament strategy. I feel stronger and more energetic on the strip than I have for nearly 3 years before I picked up running again. I would suggest anything from power-walking for 2-3 hours a week to running 5 to 20 miles per week.

This could get very long pretty quickly so I will be writing up several more posts of what a competitive fencer should be doing each week in order to advance beyond just talent. I know this is hard for some to take as it seems that I am just pointing a finger, but truthfully it is something i need to consider to. Some questions we can ask ourselves: Do I want to get better? What bad habits should I try to eliminate? Do I want to be fencing as strong at the end as I was in the beginning?

Until next time work on some cardio. Next time is footwork.

Added Running, but Still Mostly Fencing

Wow, it has certainly been a long time. Who knew back then that I would start running? Not me certainly. I do enjoy it though and it helps strengthen the old legs, okay not that old, for fencing.

Fencing has had its ups and downs this last year and I am surely feeling an itch to not quite strike out on my own but to certainly teach people what to do. First we lost the gym at UH Hilo, but that might have been a blessing in disguise, it certainly got a few people riled up and we have a new place to fence at Mauna Loa School Gym on Tuesday evenings.

We have had a huge influx of people this year due to the drastic cut in cost and good recruiting by one or two of our fencers. But unfortunately it is not a class so the people that are new are mostly getting a trial-by-fire and there have been a few injuries due to that set-up. I am a bit concerned but it is hard to know what to do. I have been shot down for formalizing the club to provide a cover for our fencers and a bit of organization so that if someone is sick/injured/busy we would be able to carry on with all of our equipment as a "club."

As an individual I have taken the action to become a professional member so that I can be covered. I would love for the rest of the group to be covered as well but that is a personal choice at the moment that none others have gone for.

Now on to a lighter topic: Running. Tomorrow is an awesome 10k race at Pu'u Wa'awa'a just northeast of Kailua Kona. The course is pretty rugged "featuring 1200 feet of elevation gain in the first 3 miles," which, needless to say is a whole lot of feet. Jessie and I will be heading out bright and early tomorrow morning to get there for the 7:45 AM start. The weather should be mostly clear for this Dry Forest 10k. Now I just need to keep hydrated and eat a good supper. I will write about it Sunday, well at least I hope so. Here is the link: http://www.pathhawaii.org/2011/08/puuwaawaa-2/

Finally Fixing Foils

Our fencing club is primarily a foil club. We often experience weapons failures if the body-cord or the floor-cord doesn't fail first.

The most common failure by far is in the tip. One touch is fine but a minute later a white light comes on when parrying before I have a chance to riposte. This is not completely diagnostic or limited to a tip problem but it often can be. After checking the connection between the body-cord and the weapon, mostly wiggling or un-plugging and plugging back in, I then check the bolts that hold the body-cord to see if they are loose. Then I check the length of wire that runs behind the pad to see if is crushed, and then inspect the length of the blade for "inch-worms." If there is nothing obvious then it is probably time to take off the tip and clean out the corrosion as Hawaii is a great place for things to rust quickly.

But if we weren't primarily a foil club we could do sabre where the most complex pieces of equipment carried around are the lame, which is only complex due to delicate strands of wire, and the body-cord. The sabre itself is either broken or the plug is bad if everything else checks out. I read somewhere of a procedure that would be able to isolate the malfunctioning piece of equipment, I forget where and how, but then after that the malfunctioning piece must be fixed and sometimes it is a struggle to know what to fix.

As I learn more I will share, hopefully our fixed weapons will work!

Tired Fencing is Erratic

Yesterday I was fencing with our club and by the end of the night I was noticing just how large and grotesque my parries were. I was mentally tired but not particularly physically tired but it effected my game quite a bit. But it is exciting enough to stay awake.

Need to really write more.

Resetting the Counter

Just a quick note that whatever counter I was using before had some really weird links. Just to click on it sent me to some probate thingy. Oh well, I suspect that I won't quite get the 400+ visitors I had before, but that is certainly alright. I will put up a new post about my struggles with bladework soon.