It’s been a couple of weeks since I got back from Coaches College. I feel like I’ve had plenty of time to digest the experience. Part of the delay in doing a wrap up post has been all the catching up on chores I’ve had to do. I’m not complaining, mind you; I’ve just [...]
I'm sitting in the Colorado Springs Airport, mooching off of their free WiFi connection. Coaches College is officially over and I am on my way home. I'm still having a hard time codifying everything I have experienced and been through in the last ten days. It honestly feels like an eternity since I first [...]
Today did not go as well as I’d hoped. I drew Advance, Retreat, and Advance-Lunge for my footwork and Random Actions for my bladework. Ordinarily this would be just great, except that Eric Frey drew the same cards a half hour earlier, when I was his student, and I felt this (completely irrational) need [...]
I passed, I passed, I passed! I got an 88! I honestly had no idea how much my stomach was knotted up over this. I’m told it’s the hardest part. All I have to do is the practical tomorrow and I’m done. I’m feeling good about it. Hope it goes as well as tonight. [...]
Thursday was a rough day; three sessions and one seminar. By the third session, which began at 7pm, I was ready to throw in the towel. Fencing only twice a week, for an average of three hours a session, really didn’t prepare me for the level of work required here. This is especially true [...]
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Up there is a shot of Pike’s Peak, hiding up in the clouds, as seen from the Garden of the Gods. Today was our day off, or, rather, our afternoon off. After a morning session in the gym, and a brief seminar with some USFA officials, who discussed changes we’d [...]
The longest day yet. Today included three sessions in the gym and a one hour seminar on ancillary coaches information; the kind of information not related to the technical aspects of coaching fencing, but more the general side of coaching such as stretching, relaxation, and other coaches duties in making good athletes.
In the gym [...]
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Today was supposed to be the first big, scary day; three sessions in one day. I was prepared for it. In fact, by the end of the second session, just before they announced that there would be a lecture on the USFA rules instead of the third evening session, I [...]
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Today, the real physical training began in Gym 1 of Sports Center 1; it’s a big basketball court. We began with centering drills, arm positions, and simple foot work, then moved on to compound foot work. That finished off the first, four hour, morning session. understand that we were not [...]
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Well, I promised I would post pictures tonight, and so I have. The one up there is the proof I promised of Maestro’s ribbing. Note the parenthetical name next to mine, on the name-tag outside my dorm room, for all the world to see. He also called me to the podium [...]