Ratings

I've had little to write about recently so I decided to keep my mouth shut for the better part of a week. But this keeps coming up and I can't resist.

Whenever you gather groups of people together who do something, inevitably some well intentioned person decides to organize them. Preferably, this ranking system rewards skill and accomplishment. As is often the case, USFA's first attempt at this did not work.

In the before time, in the long, long ago, we referred to people as senior, junior, & novice fencers. These terms were so ridiculously vague that I will not go into them.

In the dark ages, people who had not fenced in 50 years were given B's & A's, despite a few being deceased. Further, if you got lucky and won your A at a tournament you kept it for life. You had no incentive to improve. You were suddenly king for life. But to make it fair, earning an A, B, or C involved a herculean effort. If memory serves correctly, A's were only awarded to winners of Div1, so the number of A's in the US was hilariously smaller than it is today. B's were only awarded in Div1 if you made it somewhere near the finals. The lowly C was passed out to any shmo who could win a regional tournament.

In the renaissance, USFA saw the advent of the D and E ratings. Upper management noticed that youth fencers were not motivated to continue fencing after two to three years without a rating. All they saw was 3 years of their life fighting tooth and nail against more experienced fencers with no real recognition or rank to show for it. So to appease people who like to see outward recognition for less than godly results, the USFA started handing out D & E ratings. That way, Billy so-and-so can finally see a bright new letter by their name. Furthermore, ratings now decayed at a rate of every 4 years. So your A suddenly felt shrinkage if you slacked off enough that you weren't able to renew it. All in all, this was a smart move by the USFA as it increased the value of ratings by putting a shelf life on them. It also increased the ability to seed accurately as an 'A2002' is worse than an 'A2004.' You're going to have to forgive the dates, I haven't met an A in about that long.

I believe we are currently operating under USFA rating system 2.5. We may be on the verge of going to a numerical system in a year or two, but there are equal signs of going either way.

The Fencing community as a whole is obsessed with ratings. Like any good subculture all of its participants dig on reputation and rank in some form or another. We like to see signs of our progress, which is a good thing in humanity. I am not here to rag on our desire to improve, far from it.

What I am here to rag on, is when people get weird about ratings. They use them as character judgments as opposed to seeding guides. It makes me slightly upset when someone gets all lordly with their rating. I've always seen a high rating in my opponent as a weakness to exploit just like everything else. It pumps my adrenaline like nothing else when I have a chance to lay out an A.

One of the funniest things I ever saw was a 15 year old Hungarian saber fencer fresh of the boat at DivIII. I had him in pools and thought something was a bit off. He ended up knocking me out in the round of 8, which was my first national medal (and to this day, one of my favorites). I was watching him fence for gold when I saw him whip out flying parry-2 followed by parry-8. For those of you that don't know what that means, he was playing with the poor kid. Viciously playing with him. I always wondered what happened to him because I never saw him again in the next 4 years. I hope he comes out of nowhere again, just so I can watch a good show.

Divisional Youth League

We're not doing this either. We talked it over & decided that it would be a bad idea to jump into a giant youth league that doesn't work.

Our two biggest problems as a division are lack of population and finances. Epee & Foil are overrepresented in the division as a whole, with MFA mostly competing in Saber. The rest of the division has older students on the whole while we mostly have middle school & Y12 fencers. I can see us going to a tournament and having NOBODY to fence. Further, the proposed league fees would just kill us on rent & waste money from the parent's perspective.

I think we should work toward a division-wide youth league after we have functional local ones. At that point we can all come to the discussion table with hard data on what works and doesn't work for each Montana city.

Further, I would like to make baby steps toward one that encompasses the whole division. We should probably divide up into two youth leagues, one that encompasses Spokane, Missoula, & Helena, and another with Bozeman, Butte, & Billings. That way nobody has to drive an insane distance to compete regularly.

Concerning a Losing Situation

Sometimes the survival instinct does not kick in for fencers who are losing. I've seen many people simply lean back and accept their fate as opposed to throwing everything they have at their opponent.

This is what you are supposed to do when you are losing:
It is your duty and expectation to go super saiyan whenever you are being beaten by Frieza or any other alien invader. It doesn't matter how badly you are getting beaten because the only way you will be able to beat people who are better is by going super saiyan. They don't care about you and will not let up, so take a hint from them and do the same.

Tournament this Weekend

The proud tradition of Zombie Saber continues this weekend with the second Zombie Invitational in Missoula, MT. 28 Days Later is awarded to first prize.

I also expect a healthy turnout for the saber section in Missoula's first youth tournament!

Demo #2 down

We just demonstrated today @ CS Porter Middle school to their entire class of 7th graders. I liked the audience and I hope the audience liked us. Carola gave me some excellent criticism to work off of and enlightened me to a few points that I was weak on. Rest assured, they will be addressed at the next assembly.

Thank you to Chris for the tip about getting the audience involved in making calls, my goodness did that ever work. Next time I would like enough Dedicated fencers in each weapon to showcase all 3 with our best foot forward. Sam will thank you in the future.

Q&A's worked better at the end this time, don't know how to scientifically gauge that outside of my gut (Stephen Colbert would be proud), but I'll find a way.

Also, I am officially past 50 posts. w00t.

Slight Change of Plans

We spent the better part of an hour yesterday discussing our options in creating a Missoula High School League. I have good news!

It's not gonna happen! No High School League, at least not yet. Instead, MFA is going to create a youth league that starts next month and will have a tournament once a month thereafter. All youth events will be open to all young fencers within the Inland Empire and the events will not be USFA sanctioned. We are not 100% on the schedule just yet, but we will be soon.

The reason we decided to abandon direct school affiliation is cost. We lack the overall resources to invest in a program with direct affiliation with the school system. We also think that our current method is more conducive to immediate growth within the division as opposed to the amount of time it would take for us to garner school approval. But not to worry, someday in the future we will have a high school league up and running, just not within the immediate future. This model can be changed or adopted elsewhere in Montana as well. We will have a meeting with Bozeman & Helena fencers this weekend about youth league set up and the like.

Y12, Y14, Cadet, & Junior events will be held at each tournament. We are also organizing a points list calculator on AskFred to keep track of individual fencers. At the end of the season, we will award one fencer in each age/blade category the cup for that season. We eventually hope to add a team bracket as well, but it may be a while before we can deliver that.

Keep Learning

It takes a long time to be considered a 'complete' fencer. That term is poor because it implies you know everything about how fencing works. Nobody knows everything about how fencing works; there are people that have good ideas in relation to fencing, but no one knows it perfectly. That aspect of the sport is so rewarding because it means you can do it your entire life and still be learning the entire time.

There are fencers that have a mature understanding of the sport, and by my reckoning that puts someone at 10 years + experience.

I don't understand it when fencers get stodgy about the rules or what you can & can't do. I know very few people who can afford to be 'old school,' & I am definitely not one of them. Competitors must constantly analyze and study the sport, listening to others of a higher understanding so that they may expand their perspective on fencing. Interestingly, listening to others of a lesser understanding can still bring great insight.

Why do we go to Tournaments?

People attend tournament 'A' because they believe tournament 'A' will do at least one of the following:
1. Have lots of people to fence and get experience from
2. Pass out fat cash ratings
3. Qualify people for a larger tournament (Div 1A, etc..)
4. Fencers from tournament 'A' will reciprocate the favor and send fencers your way, typically when 1-3 are met

There are certainly other motivations for why people attend tournaments, but these are the major ones. 1-2 are the hardest things for people like me to organize at a grassroots level. 1-2 are relatively easy in a more populated area that isn't riddled with drama. 3 is more within my reach, but not so you'd notice. 3 is a regular occurrence in a more populated area. 4 is by and large what I have to work with on a regular basis, but something I dislike relying on for several reasons.

4 depends on the rest of the region having tournaments and also that they have a fencing community to speak of. While I am not opposed to traveling for tournaments elsewhere, guilt alone seems to be a poor motivator for outside fencers to come to our tournaments. As well it should, I don't want people to feel guilted into fencing with us.

Rather, I want to focus on making sure that Missoula is a place people want to come and fence at. I want us to carry our own weight with enough fencers to field a D1 by itself in all weapons. I don't want help from the rest of the division to make our tournaments healthier. That said I will appreciate it, but not expect it. I also think that this is the one way that Missoula can start meeting the demands of 1-2.

My Goodness, the Distance.

These hills, I have to pass them if I will ever see an event bigger than E1 in my weapon (for the foreseeable future). More planning is needed before I mount a last ditch effort to bound off to Minnesota for the weekend, because it was definitely what I was trying to do all of yesterday. What makes me a little bit sadder is that the event I want to hit is one 'body' away from a B1 tournament. If I did go, more happy letters would be handed out to people, which makes me a happy panda.

Askfred seems to be this ridiculously powerful engine for change when it comes to fencing in the US. If everyone at the event preregistered as early as they possibly could, and attended the event, tournaments would be at least 10% larger in most cases. If I knew that the tournament in St. Paul this weekend would be one body short a month ago, I would have canceled the Seattle trip and bounced out to Minnesota. Not because Seattle is inferior, far from it, but because I am from Minnesota and support fencing there even at the expense of myself and driving 22 hours.

I know that people preregister when they know for sure that they can make it, which is polite and far better than prereging and not showing. But I would like to do everything in my power to get more people preregistered earlier, because then events look more attractive than just at the last two days.

I would love to hear ideas about organizing Askfred events so that people blanket a random venue with their attendance. Perhaps we can organize some sort of gift economy dealing with sending fencers different places.

I know I'm asking for the human race to be more organized, but I am allowed to ask.

Labels, Titles, and Names

People like their titles. People like rank and an unnatural order so that they can lord it over other people despite inferiority.

"I have been fencing for 4 years! [I obviously know more than you!]"

"I won my first novice tournament! [Of course I'm better than you!]"

"I used to be club president, I've put in my time [in comparison to you]."

I always thought that the above statements fit into the excuse category but of a different variety. You see, holding a position or fencing for a certain amount of time doesn't mean that you actually know what you're talking about. Always be leery of someone eager to tell you their credentials and titles outside of a demonstration setting.

I tend to dislike authority. I like it when students or others try & grab some power or authority, especially from me. It shows that someone possesses drive and ambition, which is way more valuable than someone who desires the appearance of being good.

Dislike of authority is a solid motivator for fencers to possess. It certainly isn't fear of a superior that can whip someone up into a frenzy.

I like merit based systems and awarding points to people based on skill, positive mental attitude, and constructive demeanor. Because it is those things that move us forward.

New Students

I encourage beginning students to compete in our tournaments & other tournaments throughout Montana. My goal by the end of the year is to have at least 6 people competing on a regular basis in the Inland Empire in saber. Failing that, I want at least 10 people in EACH weapon category for the Missoula High School League. If I meet that goal, the division is certainly due for an indefinite period of growth.

I am demonstrating this Thursday @ the YMCA for an hour to a younger group, and will be demonstrating to an entire 7th grade class at an assembly (AWESOME). The demos are racking up & Laura is learning a thing or two about how the school system operates.

Coaching Certifications

This post is here because Chris gave me an awesome idea for something to write about.

*Breathes in*

Coaching certifications are a tricksy subject just like rings of ultimate power & hobbitses. I will readily admit that having a body in charge of coaching like the USFCA brings more good to the table than bad.

I do NOT have any certifications from the USFCA to coach any students. I have never attended a coaches camp of any sort. I have no formal training to coach students. This has been held over my head before as you can imagine.

People tend to back down really quick when I get on my hind legs and inform them that I took lessons for 6 years from a former student of Santelli. He fenced saber in New York for I don't know how long before moving out to Minnesota. He is a proven coach that has sent more than a few kids to decent scholarships at schools like: Harvard, Penn State, & Ohio State. In fact, I don't think there has been a time in the last ten years where someone from MSC was not fencing for Penn State.

Ah, but I can hear some of you saying "Gee AJ, you seem to be hiding behind your instructor." Truth be told, I AM hiding behind my instructor. The same way the rest of you hide behind your certs or your own decent instructor. We all have a past we would rather be proud of than angry with.

The bottom line is that I am an unproven coach. But so is every fencing enthusiast that the USFCA spits out. Some of them might be amazing coaches who send kids to colleges and produce several champions. Some of them will never be any good no matter how many times they waggle their coaches card in your face. As the parent of a fencer or whatever; you have to make a judgment call on your coach. It is your responsibility, not ours.

I don't judge other coaches based on what certs they have, I judge them based on what kind of students they produce & what kind of methods they use to teach people how to fence. What makes a good coach isn't the coach behind them, or the certifications they earned through the USFCA, it is based on how well they can teach. Some can, & some can't.

The scariest part of coaching is that you really don't know if you're any good at it. It is so hard to gauge how much credit is due to the individual fencer in comparison to the coach as it relates to the student's skills. Some people will be good at this regardless of how awesome their coach is, and that sucks to admit. Some people are naturally terrible at the sport (More so that usual). It's usually a waste of your time trying to figure out which extreme a given student fits on, your job as the coach is to keep up their skill level and facilitate growth regardless of how naturally athletic or smart they are.

As to the USFCA, their cert process sounds rather weak. The governing body of fencing has been under enough fire for being a corrupt, inefficient, bureaucratic freak show to convince me that I don't need their go ahead to teach. Plus they don't need anymore of my money, which is a sentiment that I'm sure many can agree with. Honestly I would like to attend a coaches camp to get a few more drill ideas and other fine tuning for my instruction techniques, but I would only be doing so that I looked good on paper.

Ah, but I can hear some of you saying "This is easy for you to say, you are one of few fencers in Montana who has tons of experience, training, & the drive to design a program. It's not that easy in dense population areas with many fencers & an existing political environment to contend with."

My response: So? At a certain point I accept that I am essentially a fascist/despot who operates with an iron fist to get my policies accepted as the norm in Missoula. If you want to come out here or move to a rural area near you and shape/start a fencing club then go for it. The advantage of having a unique skill set in a smaller area is that you naturally have more power. I am taking a tip from the robber barons that came before me: You have power, use it or lose it.

I am not motivated by cronyism, I am motivated to teach people to fence. I am not here to take resources and laugh maniacally as I oppress people. So naturally I oppose the USFCA because they are a regulatory body with no authority or power out here. Chances are good that I'm not going to change the status quo as it benefits (really) all fencers in the area.

*breaths out*

These things happen

I am definitely in a writer's block phase. I do apologize and I have not forgotten this blog. But I am sitting here without any idea what to write about.

I promise if you give it a few days I will have things to say again.

Until then, I give you this image:

My New Favorite Drill

So, I started doing this drill set in the last two weeks as part of developing patience within a compound attack. The results have been far and beyond what I was expecting.

The drill goes like this: Attacker/Defender with the attacker limited to pulling distance (on attack)& the defender limited to attack in prep. I do several drills that lead up to this one, such as: Attacker/Defender double advance; pause; defender preps as attacker pretends to move forward; attacker pulls distance then attacks. I've seen technique problems magically disappear & a marked increase in overall comprehension & patience.

Coach or Compete?

Tonight was a lovely wake up call for me. I started giving lessons @ 2 right up until 4. From there I taught club until 6. @ 6 I went to the University & practiced, if that's what you could call it. By the time I was halfway done doing footwork, I was basically done thinking and moving for the night. I fenced a young student of mine who, after this weekend, decided that I was in fact old & slow. Because he made me feel it.

I wondered why I fenced so poorly by the time I was fencing for myself. Perhaps it was because I had already fenced for 4 hours before I got to practice for me. I sit here typing this & I am almost exhausted.

I am in good physical condition. I run approximately 20 miles a week give or take a few. Today just about killed me in terms of workload. So I am considering dropping competition for a while in favor of focusing on coaching. In logical terms it makes sense. Good coaching results in a better club, more money, & better students. It puts no wear and tear on my nice mask, cords, or cuff. I really enjoy coaching & find it to be a rewarding experience when my students excel. Coaching really is the bomb diggity. In short, coaching seems to be best for everybody.

In contrast, competing is incredibly awesome. The weight of a medal around my neck is one of the most satisfying feelings in my entire life. I can touch it whenever I feel insecure, lonely, or cold. I like the feeling of walking around after a tournament with one around my neck, going to restaurants & the like. Someone may stop and say "Hey what's the medal for?"
"Oh, why thank you for inquiring my good sir, this is a fencing medal denoting my accomplishments for the day... I ROCK!"

But their are many downsides to competing from my perspective. I've been doing it for so long that I am becoming apathetic about it and losing a bit of focus at larger events. On the whole I am better than I used to be and far more consistent, but I feel I have lost some of that killer adrenaline edge that you need to win a hard bout. Plus it's expensive. Stuff breaks, tournament fees are never pleasant, & I have to pay to travel. But despite all of that, I love competing in a tournament.

I will likely stop competing on a regular basis to focus on MFA and the skill base of my students. The nice thing about this decision is that it doesn't have to be permanent. Electric gear doesn't have a shelf life, so you can bet that I will return someday.

The Excuse

"That's a BS call"
"He cheated"
"I got beat by the clock"
"My stuff wasn't working, it threw me off"
"He hits so hard"
"The director screwed me"
"The strip was terrible"
"I would have had him if it wasn't for (insert any technical failure here)"

This is what I really hear whenever I hear the above:
"I'm too afraid to admit that I lost because I wasn't good enough and this is my mechanism for coping."

I got 3rd this weekend at the Leon Auriol and was knocked out by a better fencer than me. He beat me in an honest competition of skill with an impartial referee. I am proud of my result but disappointed that I couldn't do better. But you know what? I LOST! And I'm okay with that because I'VE DONE IT BEFORE!!

I've even lost to people with referees who didn't like me. I've also beaten people under referees who didn't like me. I've beaten people despite technical failures and a crappy floor, and I've lost to them too. But the bottom line isn't that I'm all tough, it's that I take responsibility for what happens regardless of variables. This is a sport, and life isn't fair. Sometimes you get screwed, most of the time you end up screwing yourself. The real test of strength is knowing to admit it and fix it for next time.

Whenever you use an excuse you take an amazing opportunity to learn something and throw it out the window. You also cheapen your opponent's victory, which never endears you to them. Take my advice, suck it up and admit that you lost because of YOU.

The Elephant on the Strip: 2-pin or Bayonet?

In the words of Johnny Cash, I've been down every road in this here land. No matter where I go, this is a topic of heated debate.

Their are two systems for plugging in a foil or saber, (epee gets a reprieve from this fight) a 2-pin system & a bayonet system.

2pin

Aside from sounding like a midwestern rapper, 2-pin setups have little going for them. Yes I am laying on the bias RIGHT NOW! 2-pin setups function like soviet era cars such as the Skoda.

I'm going to use this opportunity to use my useless history degree to give you a lesson and comparison in soviet era politics and how they relate to modern fencing clubs.

In old Czechoslovakia, the most common car was the Skoda. This vehicle was imported from Russia (by force) and people drove it (little choice). Fun fact, "Skoda" in Czech means "no go." Another fun fact, the original Skoda was incredibly unreliable and broke down regularly in the use of bitter Czechs and Slovaks. With their amazing sense of humor, many of these eastern bloc people could be seen on the sides of the road, next to a smoking Skoda, throwing their hats on the ground and saying "SKODA!"

At the University of Montana (and MANY MANY other clubs) the only cord you can borrow is the 2-pin. So if you want to start competing you borrow a 2-pin (little choice) and the cord falls out of the weapon every 2 minutes (by gravitational force). Unfortunately this 2-pin dictatorship is universal and self-replicating like an apocalyptic nanite swarm of the future. People stuck in this system mock the bayonet without ever having tried it. People never see the western side of the Berlin wall with all the fancy flash and flair of western capitalism that is the bayonet socket.

Bayonet sockets look like this:


Wait, sorry. That was produced by one of the greatest men of all time.

This is what a bayonet socket looks like:

They are pretty, they are simple, and they never break. Their are plenty of detractors out there who claim that it is impossible or hard to fix one of these cords, but in all my years fencing I've never had one break. The entire electrical connector on the weapon is enclosed, preventing an errant stopcut/flick/whatever from destroying the entire setup. I have watched 2-pins crumple under the kind of pressure that my bayonets can endure.

So, 2-pin cords are like communism. Break down the wall & come on over.

Seattle

I would like to start by saying thanks to Salle Auriol and all Seattle fencers for a fine tournament. I haven't spent enough time around the fencing community in Seattle and that needs to be rectified. Many people walked over and said hello, asked how the drive was, and were incredibly cordial. Rest assured, I will be returning with more fencers in the future.

The Leon Auriol served its purpose admirably from my perspective. It showed my students how long they have to go down the road of competition. I know they took home several lessons & tricks that will serve them well in the coming years.