Divide & Conquer

So I've been doing research all morning long to determine distances to fencing tournaments I WANT the club to go to versus tournaments we CAN go to. There is an equation I am trying to formulate between the value of experience (in each event) of a given tournament, the distance needed to travel to said tournament, and whether said tournament is scheduled conveniently. The cool thing about going the distance is that other clubs LOVE to see new fencers at their club and will remember you if they make a good impression, and possibly reciprocate by driving to your tournaments. However, Their is a limit to how far people are willing to drive. For example, If me and 10 other fencers travelled to Ames, IA for a tournament, we would never see any Iowa fencers pop out here for the Zombie invitational in October. And we wouldn't expect any. The reason logistics are important is that I have a huge say in what tournaments MFA is attending and not attending. This year I want to go to fewer & better tournaments. To convince parents that it's important to leave Montana to get some out of state experience, I am forced to cut the cord with other tournaments in the division. This understandably makes me less popular within the division, and I would feel bad about it except that Missoula is the only club trying to pull in the youth and thereby trying to secure our own future. I don't care that we aren't the best club in Montana, as I'm sure other coaches in the division are thinking when they hear of Missoula. We have the weakest skillbase out of all of the clubs, but the population gulf between us and everyone else is mighty. That combined with the average age of an MFA club member being half that of the divisional average, I am optimistic about how much longer we will last.

Here's a small data set of distances between Missoula and a few fencing cities I am mulling over:

Missoula MT-Sandy UT: 8 1/2 hours
Missoula MT-Seattle WA: 8 hours
Missoula MT-Denver CO: 14 hours
Missoula MT-Bozeman MT: 3 hours
Missoula MT-Billings MT: 5 hours
Missoula MT-Spokane WA: 3 1/2 hours (2 1/2 with the time zone change)

The overall quality of fencing in Seattle is incredibly high due to population
The overall quality of fencing in Denver is high due to population and proximity to USFA headquarters, but not as high as Seattle
The overall quality of fencing in Utah is decent largely due to proximity of better clubs outside of Utah.
The overall quality of fencing in the Bozeman is low due largely to population. If I took my students there, we would comprise 70% of the competitors, despite Bozeman taking away the most medals.
The overall quality of Billings is incredibly low, mostly because their beginners never travel, low population, and isolation from the division
The overall quality of Spokane is mediocre outside of Epee, and mostly absent when it comes to Saber.

Other variables:

Missoula has an excellent relationship with one of the Seattle clubs to the point where we don't pay lodging fees & they are even starting to send fencers east to Missoula.
Missoula has no relationship with any club in Colorado or Utah.
Utah has several youth events, as does Colorado.
Missoula has a positive relationship with Bozeman. Despite their being so few fencers at Bozeman, those that are their are very experienced.
Spokane is most attractive only when it comes to ratings. If 15 people show up for Epee, it is a C1 event everytime. Foil never rises above a D1, but at least has population. Saber consists of one guy and no students. They do have youth events in foil and are within 3 hours.

Conclusions and goals for this season:

Seattle: Continue to build upon previous relationships with Seattle based clubs by attending as many Seattle tournaments as possible. They are the best balance of distance and incentive to attend tournaments.

Denver: Begin pursuing tournaments in the spring if at all. The largest pull here is from the quality of Saber, but the distance is daunting for the parents that are super dedicated. More discussion and research is needed.

Utah: The distance is pretty far for a fairly low population. Apparently their was a dramatic incident that resulted in several coaches and fencers messing with the division. As a result, I will attempt to travel here next year when things die down a bit. When that happens I will likely encourage competitors in foil and epee to make the trip south, as saber looks pretty bleak.

Bozeman: Given the proximity and relationship to Bozeman and how many fencers we plan to send to tournaments here this year is criminal. My entire saber section will likely not be traveling unless they host a youth or unrated event. Like the rest of the Inland Empire (including Missoula) 10 people per event is tiresome and a little lame in comparison to 30 rated fencers in Seattle. Next year I will encourage new competitors of all blades to compete in Bozeman if they remain stable.

Billings: For all intents and purposes, Billings is not a practical venue for fencers from Missoula. It is too little fencing experience too far away for any MFA students to be travelling. If the coach in Billings is successful in creating a High School league, then matters change entirely, but until then I will be telling parents to spend their money elsewhere.

Spokane: Spokane is an excellent nearby venue to send young new competitors in foil and epee, and therefore most of our new competitors in those blades will be sent here for beginning and continuing competition experience. However, their future looks bleak as they believe in pulling in revenue for tournaments as opposed to active recruiting (which they are now ideally equipped to do). Spokane is currently enjoying a boost in confidence as several fencers earned high ratings this last spring.

Missoula: We will use tournaments @ the University as recruiting engines for MFA parents who have children who are still fairly new. We will continue our progress in recruiting and building a competitive team separate from the University. Depending on how well fall recruitment goes, we will form Montana's first high school fencing league within Missoula.

My parents are coming!

My parents will be here on Thursday for some vacation & hanging out. I look forward to showing them the fencing club here in Missoula. I am very happy with the progress that the club is making and remain optimistic about the future of fencing in Missoula. The next big step involves recruiting at schools, which will be a whole new challenge. The first & second months will be consumed by intro classes outside the normal class time of the club, which will be chaotic and busy.

Recruiting is a new challenge that I'm not entirely certain how to approach. I want to pull in the nerds who never knew fencing was available, the athletes who want a new challenge, & everyone else who always thought fencing was cool. My overall approach is going to center around pulling in other athletes, as the nerds will likely fall in line because they get to play with swords. The real shock for both of those types of people will be the realization of how much physical fitness is required to succeed at fencing.

I've taught enough intro classes and lessons that I have it down to a science. The biggest challenge for all fencers is to forget about defending yourself with the useless piece of scrap metal in their hand and follow my Golden Rule of Life: If you are not there, you cannot be hit. It is an incredibly simple idea that is very hard to implement. It involves deception & manipulation of the distance on defense and it is the first thing I teach before any type of attack.

In other words, defend like a Brazillian Midfielder. Creativity (Samba) is one of the hardest things to teach & instill in students, but it is necessary for a good attack. And most importantly, If you can't blind your opponent with brilliance, baffle them with bull$(@*#*.

Introspective run

There are a thousand blogs about people getting into shape using running, this is obviously not one of them. However, I am a runner and occasionally benefit from the clarity of mind that pure exhaustion can induce. It has quite a bit in common with fencing from the opposite direction. I can find peace of mind in either the fast paced mentally challenging setting of the fencing strip, and I can find it within the classic runner's high.

Unfortunately for the latter, I tend to have less and less runner's high moments the better I get at running. Zen moments in fencing can strike without warning but can usually be set up if you know what you're doing. Unlike runner's high, which in my experience makes me really happy, Zen moments in fencing are accompanied by a lack of feeling. A properly motivated fencer in zen mode can perform WAY above normal, but it is difficult to achieve that state of mind.

Holy Refinished Floor Batman!

They refinished that floor in the gym, and it is fabulous. My feet are almost bleeding from the grip I got on that floor, but oh my was it amazing. I could change direction on a dime, I could change speed like a shifting NASCAR vehicle, I practiced this & this. My front toenail is now almost entirely gone, exposed to the rigors of violent speed changes and the regular lunge.

Thank you University for making a floor with the grip of sandpaper.

Back from a break

This week the University of Montana refinished the floors in the gym all of us currently practice in. So we all had a forced week off from practice and training. I extended this to include private lessons as well seeing as we just put on a bigger tournament than we are used to.

Over the week I used my spare time to catch up with friends I had lost touch with. I realized that I was fencing somewhere near 12 hours a week. By now, I am looking forward to returning to life on a strip undergoing the mental abuse that is my favorite sport.

In other news, our foil coach Kole produced this gem:


which will become our new club logo.

Money

Everyone’s favorite thing that we can’t have enough of tends to limit my ability to travel to NACs. We have another fencer in the division who is fabulously wealthy and doesn’t understand why we don’t all go to National tournaments and Seattle every other weekend. After a while it gets a little frustrating having to explain money problems to someone who obviously hasn’t dealt with them in some time.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m not poor (by my own standards at least), but I have choices this fall. I could go to one tournament in Seattle & buy two new blades & a mask. Or I could abandon competing this fall altogether in favor of buying a new set of competitive electric gear. The latter option would also free me up to travel with students as a coach instead of a competitor, thereby paving the way for my travel expenses to be paid in full (assuming I can convince the parents that paying for me to be a full time coach in a tournament is a good thing).

The Ref Test

This last weekend we hosted a tournament in Missoula after a Refereeing clinic hosted by Mark Stasinos. It was a very informative clinic and a very good divisional meeting afterward.

A fencer in Billings wants to start a high school league within Montana to help encourage the sport on a youth level. I told him that we are working toward expanding awareness of the sport here and he could expect a healthy showing of Missoula within a few years time.

I was also corrected by Mark in my understanding of low line attacks in sabre. My coach always taught us to fence with a low line when going to flank or belly, but some jackass in Eugene told me that the opposite was true. Nobody told me that reason prevailed and low line attacks are still valid, but now I know.

I also want to congratulate all the young fencers at the first ever unrated sabre tournament in Missoula. Jesse earned his E10 rating and 2 new fencers stepped up to competition for the first time. They seemed a little wide eyed and surprised at how fast paced and different competition was, but they definitely seemed interested in continuing.

Sorry about the huge posting gap. I moved this weekend and won't have consistent internet until Thursday, and besides, the place we practice is having the floor refinished so not much is going on the rest of the week.

Cute picture to follow!