yes, ultimately, it is still about being better than everyone else

[thanate]

Item: doll, loaded on plane, about an hour ago.

Item: wordcount, pathetic.

And the following is possibly the best attempt I've yet made to explain why I want to fence, when I don't particularly like the tournaments that other people see as the goal:

I enjoy fencing as an activity, as a mental excercise, and as a way of connecting mental and physical abilities that I don't get much of elsewhere. It's a lot of training myself to be able to move and respond to outside cues. I'm more interested in being able to see and understand the whole of what's going on in the game and being able to keep up with it (and thus ideally keep ahead of whatever my opponent is doing) than in being able to beat people for the sake of winning. I like pick-ups because I'm not yet good enough to get a sense of what's going on in someone else's fight from just one touch, and if I do more passes, I have a greater chance of sorting out what's going on: what I'm doing, what my opponent is doing, how to react to the latter. And it doesn't hurt when other people see what I'm doing that's unhelpful and explain it to me, because then I'm more likely to see it for myself.

I like watching other people fight, particularly those who are pretty good at it, for a similar set of reasons. I'm told that people who study brain function have discovered that watching someone else do something actually stimulates the same neurons that you use when you're doing it. In any case, after fencing off and on for over a decade, my brain has finally sped up to the point where I can sometimes actually process what is happening in someone else's fight, and that is pretty cool.

Oh, and I've always wanted a swept-hilt rapier, so it's nice to be able to do something with it besides hang it on the wall. :)

Comments

[kittymaru.livejournal.com]

I should start coming to practices again. My favorite and best fight ever was one with Belphoebe. I'll never forget how dead on we were with one another. I miss that sometimes.

[thanate.livejournal.com]

exercise is fun... it's just hard to remember this on thursday evenings. :) Yes, you should come back out. So, for that matter, should I. (there's also the monday practice in storvik/college park that might work for you coming from work, and there are a lot of new people that grauwuf is making do drills and actual practice and stuff, if you feel the need to brush up on things)

[wazroth.livejournal.com]

It's too bad that you have finally come around to the other side of the armourer's table only now that you are doing SCA rather than olympic fencing. I would have liked to see you fence at Oberlin. On the other hand, it's never too late to re-start. Though I'm sure any SCA coach would tell you that Olympic fencing will ruin your form, and vice versa.

[thanate.livejournal.com]

Part of the reason I've come back out into the field is that I like the SCA game a lot better. You stick me on a fencing strip and tell me I can't use my off hand, and I go back to standing there thinking "wait, now what do I do?"

[greta-k.livejournal.com]

"Though I'm sure any SCA coach would tell you that Olympic fencing will ruin your form, and vice versa."

Actually, the ones around here will not. The thing to realize is that Olympic fencing and SCA fencing are different. Olympic style is very linear. SCA style is (or should be) in the round. Olympic style fencers get very nervous when you start circling them :-)

[greta-k.livejournal.com]

I agree with you about the physical and mental exercise portion of the fencing. I have no interest in tournies - unless I'm marshalling ;-) Melees, pick-ups and practices, however, are loads of fun.

I need to try to work fencing back into my schedule, but we'll have to see when I can do that.