Hobby vs. sport

There was an excellent article written about how to promote a fencing club, but the title was misleading in comparison to the content.

I read the article and looked forward to anecdotes about hobby fencers and athletes butting heads about policy, technique, reffing, or whatever. Instead I read a helpful guide about marketing, dealing with the press, and administration. All of which were very useful and informative, but left me disappointed.

There exists a cultural dichotomy in the sport of fencing between hobby fencers and competitive fencers. They can look the same, but they do the sport for entirely different reasons. The quintessential hobby fencer shows up to practice when he feels like it, and never goes to tournaments. When he does show to practice, he may fence two bouts before standing on the strip for the rest of class talking to people. He is not highly motivated, and likes to tell friends that he knows how to fence. This person does not like new fencers who are driven to succeed because he has seen far too many ambitious beginners surpass him. Understandably, it is embarrassing to be one of the few fencers present with 5 years experience losing to 14 year olds who started last year.

In contrast, the ideal competitive fencer makes almost every practice in a given year. He goes broke attending tournaments and keeping his gear in peak condition. He hones his mind and body like a knife, practicing technique and drilling weak areas until he can barely take it. The competitive fencer welcomes new people on the basis that their will be growth and possibly a new teammate to bounce ideas and tricks off of.

Fencers fall somewhere in between these two extremes. The closer you are to one of these ideals than the other, the more you alienate the opposite end of the spectrum. Competitive members look upon the hobbyist as some primitive caveman who can't seem to understand that it isn't his rotten technique, but rather his rotten Approach that holds him back. In contrast, the hobbyist views the competitor as someone who wastes his money on fencing. The competitor looks like an overbearing jackass with a god complex to hobbyist fencers.

There is no point going into further detail, as the battle between the two centers around ambition. Competitors view this as their life, or they approach all of their activities they have invested in with similar zeal. The hobbyist may have another activity that he is completely in love with and fencing takes a back seat. Or the hobbyist approaches everything in life in a lackadaisical fashion.

The real trick for the coach is to make those two types of people happy despite their forced coexistence. Currently in MYFA, Saber is overrepresented by competitive fencers and a few hobbyists. Epee & Foil are comprised entirely of hobbyists. As I have gone into earlier, none of these kids were given an option to be competitive in the future. Now that the choice has been introduced, many of them have given shy responses despite good attendance. This information can mean a few things, I interpret it like this:

These kids can beat some of their friends in practice, and that makes them think that they are comparatively good fencers. While I am happy that they are enjoying themselves and their success over their peers, I am confused at their unwillingness to push themselves further.

At the next practice I will mention to them that it is indeed fun to beat people in fencing. Then I will ask if the fun level increases as the difficulty increases. I hope that will motivate a few more students.

Don't get me wrong, hobbyists have their place in fencing clubs. They pay the bills and eventually turn into competitors. Seldom does a hobbyist stick around for more than a few years before finding something new or increasing their involvement. I've seen it happen many times.