i hate quitters!
i started fencing last september. the first session of the 12-week beginner's class had what looked like about 200 people, but people started dropping off like flies as it became obvious that fencing makes you sweat. a LOT. by the end of the class, when we started going to the twice-weekly open fencing bouts, there were fewer than 40 beginners left.
owing largely to the fact that i practiced the footwork for at least half an hour a day before we were ever handed weapons, i was able to develop two essential skills very early: taking priority and attacking instead of standing there like a deer in the headlights, and getting the hell out of scoring range when i don't have priority, also instead of the deer-in-headlights technique. i mostly beat the other beginners, and scored at least one, if not two or three points, against the really good fencers. i was awesome!
for a little while. the problem with feeling like you suck at a sport is that it makes you want to quit, which is what almost all of the other beginners did over the next couple of months. by the time christmas break was over, there were fewer than ten of us from the beginner's class still there; just three of us foilists.
i was no longer awesome. luckily, at this point in my life, i have very little left in the way of pride, so i can take an ass-kicking and keep coming back for more. i'm practicing daily, i'm taking private lessons, i'm seeing slow but steady improvement, and i'm pretty sure that i will, someday, be good at this. as i've mentioned before, i really, really love fencing.
which is why the current situation with the non-functional hands is just about driving me batshit. i've lost months of time while everyone else has been improving their skills. i got my stitches out from the surgery on my right arm a week ago, and have three more weeks of "take it easy so you don't rip up all of the very, very insulted soft tissue around your ulnar nerve's new location." the surgical dressing came off to reveal a right arm that was noticeably skinnier than the left arm... and that left arm has lost quite a bit of the girth it once had when i was still fencing, but at least it still had some good curves on the forearm, and a discernible bicep. *sigh* i lost muscle everywhere else, too; two months ago, i could stand in a low squat for hours and leap forward and backward to get in and out of scoring distance. last week i hustled around a playground for an hour with the boys and was sore the next day. wtf?
it's frustrating, but fuck it. it's survivable. 3 more weeks - i've got the day marked on my calendar - and i can take my ass back to fencing. from the recovery so far, i'm guessing that i will be able to start working out on footwork drills again in another week. it won't make me a rockstar, but it should at least make me more than a complete marshmallow by the time i show up to open bouting two weeks later. PRM just got his schedule for the coming academic year, and got his request for "no call on tuesdays or thursdays" fulfilled, so i won't have to miss a single session. (besides taking about 3 weeks off when i get my left arm done, but all i have to do with my left arm when fencing is keep it the hell out of the way, so full recovery isn't necessary.) i doubt it will have me in good enough shape to kick ass at the hawkeye open tournament in the fall, but maybe by the spring's hawkeye novice tournament, for fencers with fewer than two years experience, i'll be able to place respectably well.
at this past spring's hawkeye novice tournament, i placed 36 out of 42 foilists. not dead last! i could offer up excuses about how, by that time, i had lost 90% of sensation and 70% of function in my pinky and ring fingers on my weapon hand, and the pain had gotten to where it was interfering with the function of my other three fingers. however, this wouldn't change the fact that, after fencing the 4 bouts in the initial pools, i lost my first direct elimination bout 15-12 to a fencer who has the opposite problem i have: instead of her ulnar nerve, her radial nerve is getting smashed, and she has a significant loss of sensation and function in thumb and first two finger of her weapon hand. since the weapon is gripped and controlled almost exclusively with the thumb and forefinger - the other three fingers being referred to in fencing books as "the aides" - i pretty much need to shut the hell up, work my ass off, and get good at this. preferably before ShampooBanana moves here, which she tentatively plans to do after the coming academic year. partly for the awesome university, partly for the VA hospital that is not only on campus and not scary (don't laugh. have you seen Danville, IL? trust me: scary), but also has a neurosurgery department that can hopefully fix her up... and mostly for the awesome fencing club, of course.
so, some pictures of the awesomest fencing club on the planet. first, our saberists, who kindly allow me to play with them when there aren't any other foilists around to play with. i would like to tell you about how i'm gaining sabre skills after 3 or 4 sessions with them, but i mostly sit inside my gong of a helmet, a foot and a half shorter than those corn-fed, pond-raised mofos, and take repeated hits to the head. and somehow, even at that, it's fun as shit!
some of our epeeists:
and some foilists (technically, a foilist and the women's epee team captain kicking our asses):
and now some pictures of the hawkeye novice tournament a couple of months ago.
a woefully tiny cameraphone shot of me making a pretty good lunge and scoring in my DE bout against ShampooBanana:
me chatting with one of the illinois fencers between the pools and DEs. i recognized the IL team instantly; they reeked of enginerdiness... heheheheheheh. just kidding. don't stab me.
DramaQueen, watching one of our 7-1/2 foot tall saberists, points at him and declares, "that's the guy i'm going to fence! in the green socks! he's AWESOME! where's my sword? can i borrow your sword? what about that sword? but nobody's using it!"
and then, as SpazMonkey tried to quietly sidle away to grab a sword, it was time to leave the tournament before certain members of my entourage got escorted out of the tournament:
so. 20 days and counting until i get to get back on it. and if my ego needs a boost, there's another batch of beginners showing up in a few months.
owing largely to the fact that i practiced the footwork for at least half an hour a day before we were ever handed weapons, i was able to develop two essential skills very early: taking priority and attacking instead of standing there like a deer in the headlights, and getting the hell out of scoring range when i don't have priority, also instead of the deer-in-headlights technique. i mostly beat the other beginners, and scored at least one, if not two or three points, against the really good fencers. i was awesome!
for a little while. the problem with feeling like you suck at a sport is that it makes you want to quit, which is what almost all of the other beginners did over the next couple of months. by the time christmas break was over, there were fewer than ten of us from the beginner's class still there; just three of us foilists.
i was no longer awesome. luckily, at this point in my life, i have very little left in the way of pride, so i can take an ass-kicking and keep coming back for more. i'm practicing daily, i'm taking private lessons, i'm seeing slow but steady improvement, and i'm pretty sure that i will, someday, be good at this. as i've mentioned before, i really, really love fencing.
which is why the current situation with the non-functional hands is just about driving me batshit. i've lost months of time while everyone else has been improving their skills. i got my stitches out from the surgery on my right arm a week ago, and have three more weeks of "take it easy so you don't rip up all of the very, very insulted soft tissue around your ulnar nerve's new location." the surgical dressing came off to reveal a right arm that was noticeably skinnier than the left arm... and that left arm has lost quite a bit of the girth it once had when i was still fencing, but at least it still had some good curves on the forearm, and a discernible bicep. *sigh* i lost muscle everywhere else, too; two months ago, i could stand in a low squat for hours and leap forward and backward to get in and out of scoring distance. last week i hustled around a playground for an hour with the boys and was sore the next day. wtf?
it's frustrating, but fuck it. it's survivable. 3 more weeks - i've got the day marked on my calendar - and i can take my ass back to fencing. from the recovery so far, i'm guessing that i will be able to start working out on footwork drills again in another week. it won't make me a rockstar, but it should at least make me more than a complete marshmallow by the time i show up to open bouting two weeks later. PRM just got his schedule for the coming academic year, and got his request for "no call on tuesdays or thursdays" fulfilled, so i won't have to miss a single session. (besides taking about 3 weeks off when i get my left arm done, but all i have to do with my left arm when fencing is keep it the hell out of the way, so full recovery isn't necessary.) i doubt it will have me in good enough shape to kick ass at the hawkeye open tournament in the fall, but maybe by the spring's hawkeye novice tournament, for fencers with fewer than two years experience, i'll be able to place respectably well.
at this past spring's hawkeye novice tournament, i placed 36 out of 42 foilists. not dead last! i could offer up excuses about how, by that time, i had lost 90% of sensation and 70% of function in my pinky and ring fingers on my weapon hand, and the pain had gotten to where it was interfering with the function of my other three fingers. however, this wouldn't change the fact that, after fencing the 4 bouts in the initial pools, i lost my first direct elimination bout 15-12 to a fencer who has the opposite problem i have: instead of her ulnar nerve, her radial nerve is getting smashed, and she has a significant loss of sensation and function in thumb and first two finger of her weapon hand. since the weapon is gripped and controlled almost exclusively with the thumb and forefinger - the other three fingers being referred to in fencing books as "the aides" - i pretty much need to shut the hell up, work my ass off, and get good at this. preferably before ShampooBanana moves here, which she tentatively plans to do after the coming academic year. partly for the awesome university, partly for the VA hospital that is not only on campus and not scary (don't laugh. have you seen Danville, IL? trust me: scary), but also has a neurosurgery department that can hopefully fix her up... and mostly for the awesome fencing club, of course.
so, some pictures of the awesomest fencing club on the planet. first, our saberists, who kindly allow me to play with them when there aren't any other foilists around to play with. i would like to tell you about how i'm gaining sabre skills after 3 or 4 sessions with them, but i mostly sit inside my gong of a helmet, a foot and a half shorter than those corn-fed, pond-raised mofos, and take repeated hits to the head. and somehow, even at that, it's fun as shit!
some of our epeeists:
and some foilists (technically, a foilist and the women's epee team captain kicking our asses):
and now some pictures of the hawkeye novice tournament a couple of months ago.
a woefully tiny cameraphone shot of me making a pretty good lunge and scoring in my DE bout against ShampooBanana:
me chatting with one of the illinois fencers between the pools and DEs. i recognized the IL team instantly; they reeked of enginerdiness... heheheheheheh. just kidding. don't stab me.
DramaQueen, watching one of our 7-1/2 foot tall saberists, points at him and declares, "that's the guy i'm going to fence! in the green socks! he's AWESOME! where's my sword? can i borrow your sword? what about that sword? but nobody's using it!"
and then, as SpazMonkey tried to quietly sidle away to grab a sword, it was time to leave the tournament before certain members of my entourage got escorted out of the tournament:
so. 20 days and counting until i get to get back on it. and if my ego needs a boost, there's another batch of beginners showing up in a few months.
posted by welfareloser at 1:25 PM
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