So, last Friday, I'm in the middle of a call from Cameron, where she's telling me all about her adventures with flaming plastic, when my voicemail beeps. After I was assured Cameron was ok, and we'd hung up, I checked the message. To my surprise, Malena Teves had left me a message:
That's right! She loves me. Take that, bitches!
Thank you, Malena and Jenni. Mwah!
Another year of coaches college has gone by, and another certificate has been added to my wall; I even managed to find the same frame I used last year.
Last year at this time I remember feeling slightly overwhelmed and uncertain about what I wanted to do with the newly gained knowledge. This year I am less so. I have few doubts now that coaching is where my future in this sport lies. This does not mean I won’t be competing. It simply means that I will be focusing more on developing myself as a coach rather than a competitor. Part of this development is going to include offering private fencing lessons from my home.
Private teaching is something I’ve been mulling over for a while now. Some months ago I gave a talk on sport fencing to a local homeschool group, and there seemed to be a great deal of interest. There are two hurdles, though: equipment and space. The issue of equipment is rather easily solved; I simply require my students to equip themselves. I can make some suggestions on vendors, and perhaps recommend a good starting kit, but a fencer should really be prepared to equip themselves. Since I don’t have the capital to maintain an armory, there’s no time like the present. I realize this will cut down on the amount of students able to participate, but I don’t think I want a great many of them to begin with; three to five students would suit me just fine. That only leaves the question of space.
Ideally, I would like to do this from my home, owing no one rent or a lease, and therefore allowing me a great deal of freedom with how and when I want to do things. My USFA Coach’s membership insures me everywhere I go, so that’s covered. I just need a space. Right now I’m looking at my garage. If it were completely empty one could probably fit four compact cars in there. It is not, however, empty … not even close. I think, though, with one good weekend’s work I can get it to a point where fencing could be taught in there, but it would sure be warm in the summer and cold in the winter. We’ll see. I also have fantasies of building a, well, building specifically for teaching fencing on my property. I think Corrie Ann would have fits about that if I built it before I built her barn, though.
Space … it’s my biggest hurdle. I need solutions.
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It seems that I am one of the last ones to leave the center today. I’m catching the 1:30PM shuttle to the airport for my 3:35PM flight. I’ve already had my last ‘Olympic‘ breakfast for a while, and I’m planning to have my last ‘Olympic‘ lunch shortly (seriously, the food here alone is almost worth the price of admission).
Since breakfast, I’ve been sitting on the patio of the Athlete Center, checking email, catching up on my feeds and Facebook, and generally easing myself back into the normal flow of life.
I’ve tried my best, both times I’ve been here now, to leave worldly concerns behind and concentrate on what I was here to do. I think, for the most part, I’ve succeeded on varying levels. The fact that I have been successful here at all, though, is more a credit to excellent instructors, and a wonderful program, than anything I was able to do on my own; it’s all here for anyone to take advantage of.
I hope, as years go by and I continue to benefit from this program, that I will have the opportunity to give something back to it. For now, though, I will do my best to be an apostle of the sword, carrying the word of steel to anyone who will lend me their ear and their sword arm.
Mama, I’m comin’ home.
Some of you I have told and others I have received messages from which I have not had the chance to reply to. Here is the whole story.
The day began with finding out that the jury members on my panel were Maestro Alex Beguinet and Jerry Dunaway. I was fairly certain that this would spell a fair, but likely difficult practical. Maestro knows my capabilities, having taught me in Foil 1 last year, and several clinics in our club, and Jerry was on my panel last year for Foil 1 as well as an assistant instructor in the class.
I had, a few days before, chosen Haley Ward from the Denver Fencing Center as my student. She was in Foil 1 last year and is quite the prodigy. At fifteen and a half (that’s how old she’ll tell you she is), Haley is a rated Foil coach, a rated Foil referee, and now a rated Epee coach. She had asked me to be her student for her practical and it only made sense to choose her as well, so that we could concentrate on working together. Needless to say she also made me look very good.
The practical began with choosing my cards: I drew Advance, Half Retreat, and Lunge for footwork, and Ripostes and Counter Ripostes for bladework. I set the footwork card aside, having felt pretty confident in my knowledge of them, and concentrated on using my fifteen minutes to develop a bladework lesson around the card I’d drawn. After about ten minutes both Haley and I felt pretty confident, so we took the last five minutes to rest.
When I was called, I entered, introduced myself, and explained the footwork I’d be demonstrating. Maestro asked me to start with the Advance. He then asked to see the Lunge and promptly stopped me, “Do you know how many lunges there are?” “Yes,” I replied, “Four.” “And how many recoveries?” he added. “Three,” I said. “And you know what they are?” he questioned further. “Yes“, I nodded. “Good, call your student.”
I motioned Haley over, introduced her, and we saluted the jury and each other before I announced what bladework we’d be working on. At this point Maestro looked confused and Jerry frowned. Jerry picked up my card and looked at it, frowned further, and handed it to Maestro. “This card says Compound Attacks.” They both smiled impishly as my entire lesson was tossed out the window, leaving me to develop a new lesson on the fly for this new action. I looked to Haley and her eyes were as big as saucers.
After a millisecond of panic I nodded, looked to Haley and announced we’d begin in motion with a Feint of Straight, Disengage to the arm. We completed two of these, the second with a change in tempo and a Redoublement, when the jury stopped me again. They asked to see a Feint High-Low. Again, we did two, with changes in tempo and again were stopped where I was asked for a Diagonal Transfer. Over the next fifteen minutes or so the Maestro and Jerry basically made me work through the entire Epee 1 manual.
At that point Maestro announced, with a smile, that I had not shown them a Riposte, my original action card, or a Counter Riposte. We demonstrated these and I was asked to cue Haley for a Low Line Parry, with a Transfer to a High Line and a Fleche. She executed it beautifully, all three times we were asked to show it, and that was finally enough. We saluted and retreated to allow the jury to confer.
Within thirty seconds I was called back. I really, at this point, wasn’t sure what all of this meant; such a short conference could have been good or bad. I felt pretty good about the practical over all, but there had been mistakes which, thought I ended up correcting, were still mistakes.
The first thing I was told was that I was the only one that jury had seen all morning who cued tempo changes in the actions. For this I received high praise. What I received the most praise for was the movement, though. Both the Maestro and Jerry were very impressed that at no point did I stop to speak to my student; I talked while we were in motion, with both my voice and my blade, and even continued to keep my student in motion as the jury made corrections, added actions, and commented. I admitted that some of that was nervous energy. Maestro’s reply was, “Then be nervous all the time.” I was, in the end, awarded a 96 out of a possible 100 … the highest score given by that jury (though not the highest for the class, that was AC with a 98).
Needless to say I was incredibly pleased. We all packed up and went to lunch, then Chuck, Jason, and I went downtown to an Irish pub for lunch before returning to the OTC for the farewell ceremony. After that we went to Finish Line, a bar right outside the gates, and I only got back about an hour ago.
I’ve showered and packed and am ready to go home. Tomorrow I’ll be traveling all day. I’m very happy it’s over and done, but a little sad to be leaving. I’ll definitely be back in 2009.
I passed, I passed, I passed … again. I scored one point less (87) than last year, but, honestly, this test was harder I think. It took careful reading of all the questions and answers. I knew I’d passed, though, when Zoila called me up to get my score by calling out ‘Pedro.’
This year, that nickname has definitely stuck. I am, as far as the US Fencing community is concerned, Pedro Delgado.
So glad I passed. Now on to the practical.
Well, it’s only ‘Olympic‘ because I’m filling it out from the training center; I thought it was a funny title. Via my Aunt Renee:
SCATTERGORIES
Rules:
Use the 1st letter of your name to answer each of the following. They MUST be real places, names, and things; nothing made up! If you can’t think of anything, skip it. Try to use different answers if the person before you had the same 1st initial. You can’t use your name for the boy/girl name question.
Your Name: Mario
Just a quick moment to post on progress.
We’re halfway done with day two of the actual coaching instruction. So far the similarities with the foil sessions are numerous. Apart from remembering that distance depends on target, and thus middle distance to chest and middle distance to wrist are different despite both being ‘middle‘ distance, my previous experience is helping a great deal.
I’m actually posting this from the gym itself. In fact, the picture above was taken with the built-in camera in my laptop and uploaded as I posted this. Seems they’ve gone to great lengths to really wire up the OTC since I was here last. I’m really digging that.
More epee this afternoon. I’m learning a great deal and am looking forward to applying some of this to my lessons and my own fencing. I’m also having a heck of a time with all the folks from last year who returned this year. This experience really is one of the greatest ones of my life.
And now, epee stretch before we start back up.
In case you hadn’t caught on earlier, I’m doing the United States Fencing Association’s Coaches College again this year. Last year I completed Level 1 Foil; this year I’m doing Level 1 Epee.
The flight was pretty uneventful, apart from the massive turbulence between Hotlanta and Colorado Springs. Everything was on time though, and pretty comfortable; either the seats on the plane have gotten a little bigger, or my ass is less wide than it was the last time I flew. I had a quick lunch on arrival and then went back to the dorm and napped until my roommate arrived. Since then we’ve had dinner and gone to orientation.
I feel much more comfortable this year. I’ve already acted as guide for several people who are here for the first time, and I’ve run into some familiar faces: Dirk, AnnaConchetta, and Steven (thought I didn’t actually get a chance to talk to Steven yet). I’m still a little nervous about the actual epee classes, but I’m sure I’ll settle down once I’m in the gym.
There have been a lot of changes here at the OTC since last year, not the least of which is the availability of WiFi in the dorms; I’m writing this laying on my bed in my room. They also finished the athlete’s recreation pool, but I didn’t bring a bathing suit. Maybe I’ll go buy one. Right now, I think I’m going to bed.
More to come as the week goes along.
I saw this over on Kelly’s website a few weeks ago, and asked her where she’d done it. Then, because I’m me, I forgot I’d asked her until I was reminded by a post over on ChrisDiClerico.Com. I finally went and did one, and there is the result. Scarily accurate, eh?
This was actually a nice segue into Corrie Ann calling me this morning, during my morning commute, to inform me she’d seen a sign outside Wendy’s advertising a new burger called The Baconator. I made it my mission to try it today at lunch (note the Homer like physique over there).
First impression, when I saw the picture on the drive-thru menu, “Hey, it’s a double-cheeseburger with mass bacon.” It still sounded pretty good … I managed three bites of it and it’s now in the trash. I did finish most of my fries.
It was just way too much meat. The patties are huge, by fast food standards, and the bacon is so salty that it hardly tastes like bacon; it ends up being a big, salty, mushy meat wad in your mouth. That may be appealing to some, but for me (yes, the man with the Homer-esque physique) it was honestly hard swallowing the third and last bite.
I like bacon, not salt licks. I like beef, not wads of meat. I think if they intended for it to annihilate your taste for bacon, then it is aptly named. I will be passing on The Baconator in the future.
In other news, I leave for the Epee I session of Coaches College in Colorado Springs, CO tomorrow at the ass-crack of dawn. Wish me luck!
By the way, make your own Simpsons Avatar here.
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Some of you may already know I have a little t-shirt shop on the Intertubes. I haven’t been doing much with it, but I was inspired recently to make a new series of pirate themed shirts. Here are two examples:
Go on. Check’m out. You know you want one. Help me keep the goats fed with the pennies these shirts make. Woo!
What!? Goats gotta eat!
Edit: Incidentally, if you buy one take a picture of yourself wearing it and send it to me. I may use it as the gallery image for that shirt in the store!