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Do you think it is ok to yell after you get a touch?

Though I’m not a big fan of yelling after touches during a bout, I have been known to yell “C’mon!” after scoring important touches in a bout.

Yelling after a touch is a good way to both keep yourself psyched up and to demoralize your opponent, but I do think it should be done appropriately. There are definitely some fencers who yell too much after a touch. Not only can it come off as fake, but it’s usually also very obnoxious. An unintended side effect is that your opponent may become so irritated that they start fencing harder and better in order to shut you up. Yelling after the final touch of a bout to celebrate a victory is fine as long as you keep the celebration proportional to the importance of the bout you just won.

That being said, I am very much in favor of yelling with touches. Yelling with touches is like a kiai (pronounced key-eye) in martial arts. This term “refers to a short yell before or during a strike”¹ and “is usually linked to an inner gathering of energy released in a single explosive focus of will.”² Yelling with a touch will make it stronger, faster, and more confident. (My yell was usually a, “Yo!”) My coach used to call it “giving voice,” and like anything else in fencing, it’s a skill that must be practiced.

P.S. In case you were wondering, the picture is of me yelling after we beat Germany in the 2004 Olympics.

^1,2 Wikipedia

According to the Universal Sports channel press release, Universal Sports will be broadcasting the 2009 Fencing World Championships.

This is great news for U.S. fencing!

Hopefully this is just the start of more media coverage for fencing and will enable U.S athletes to find sponsorship opportunities and keep improving upon their success.

Read the whole press release here.
Thanks to Tim Morehouse for the link.

Thanks to @alisejohnson for the link!

I think the pictures speak for themselves… Respect the ’stache.

‘Stache courtesy of Vanita Salisbury.

Even though I win and advance to the gold medal bout, I don’t consider this some of my best fencing. I don’t bend my knees enough and I rush forward on my attacks without my point being ready. I make this mistake a lot, ignoring some of the basic fencing tenets I try to preach: Point first. Start slow. Finish fast.

Gomes’s style of fencing involves a lot of counter-attacks, some parry-ripostes, and a few attacks-in-preparation. He barely, if at all, makes pushing attacks.

I always considered myself more of a defensive fencer, with my best attacks being set up by defense. However, because I knew Gomes wouldn’t attack me, I felt like I had to run him down and I ended up negating the strengths of my game.

You’ll hear Jon Tiomkin telling me to set up second intention. If I had listened, the score probably wouldn’t have been so close.

PS I’m sorry if the sound in the video keeps cutting out.

A blank piece of paper is God’s way of telling us how hard it is to be God.

-Sidney Sheldon

How do you beat your creative/writer’s block?

(Please leave a comment below.)

1. Nothing is Original - swissmiss
2. “Vision” - Joshua Budich - Design You Trust
3. What Should You Get From Your Logo Designer - The Design Cubicle
4. You Are Beautiful - winterdrawings
5. 45 Sites, Free Icons And PSD Resources For Web-Design - 1stwebdesigner
6. 50 Illustrator Tutorials Every Designer Should See - Spoon Graphics
7. Vintage Images From Japan - Drawn!
8. The Beauty Of Urban Decay - Smashing Magazine
9. How to Create Advanced Isometric Illustrations Using the SSR Method - vectortuts

Some people seem to be born with confidence. I was not one of them.

Even after years of fencing, qualifying for World Championship teams, and making some World Cup results, I still had a confidence problem. Whether it was at a local tournament, an NAC, or a World Cup, I clearly remember the feeling of getting en garde for every bout hoping that I would fence well. I felt like a baseball pitcher on the mound praying that his stuff would show up for the big game. It may sound strange, but I used to think my fencing ability was something I was not in control of and I just had to hope that I fenced well at tournaments.

My coach repeatedly told me to be confident in myself, but that always seemed so foreign to me. I treated my success more as an accident rather than something of my own making. This mindset prevented me from carrying the confidence I gained from a good result over to the next tournament.

It wasn’t until I learned that building confidence was a skill like fencing - one that requires practice, repetition, and effort - that my fencing finally reached its highest level.

Here are the things I did to build and sustain my confidence:

Before a tournament:

1. Visualize success - One of the skills I learned from sports psychologist Dr. Rob Udewitz was to visualize my success in a bout before it happened. This technique was especially effective in the 2004 Olympics. In the days leading up to both the individual and team events, I spent time visualizing myself beating my first round opponents.
2. Develop a physical trigger that activates your confidence - I actually had two. After I hooked up to the reel and before I got to the en garde line, I used to squat down at the end of the strip with my back to my opponent so they could read the name on my lamé. I don’t know if my opponents paid attention to this, but it made me feel more confident because I was reminding them who they were fencing.

    

   And, as I mentioned in my post about the en garde position, I also developed a trigger that focused me at the start of a bout. I used to get en garde, squat down almost all the way to the strip, and get back up lower than where I started.

    

   You need to figure out what works for you.

During a tournament:

1. Remember who you are - Before a bout, review the strengths of your fencing game. What do you do well? How do you set up that action?

    

   Prime your mind for victory in the coming bout. Again, visualize your success.

2. Remember how you feel - After a bout where you think you performed particularly well, pay attention to your body and the sensations you feel. How did your body feel in the bout? Did you feel fast? Moving smoothly? Was your point moving ahead of your body?

After a tournament:

1. Write everything down - Write down what actions worked in a bout, what didn’t. Write down how you felt when you were fencing well. It’s important to make sure you get everything down on paper for future reference.

I’ve had many conversations with top fencers and we all agree that once you reach a certain level, it’s confidence and mental toughness that set the best fencers apart from the rest of the pack. Don’t neglect to train your mind for success as well as your body. There’s nothing more important than believing in yourself.

via swissmiss