Author: fencingmarie

My last day at RASP was bittersweet. I learned a lot, but I hated for the weekend to end. I think I took three pages of notes that day alone, and Nik took plenty too. Then we made the long drive back to Florida.

This morning I got up early to meet Tiny Nick and Emmers at the gym. Here’s my “set list.”

I’m trying to vary my workouts, so I’m working out with different people instead of sticking to Nik’s routine.

Tonight we returned to fencing. We showed our club new warm-ups and games. Then we debriefed about our weekend, and Nik showed them the format he wants to use for future classes. I’m excited to get started!

Today I didn’t feel like a competent human being because at lunchtime, I realized my pants were on backwards.

Despite that, I learned about the progression of skills when teaching rapier, and I found that learning, translating (for a leftie), and teaching sabre, while difficult, is not as scary as I thought.

Again, I took a lot of notes. Tonight was more revel and less scholarship, but that’s still pretty cool.

I was dressed and ready to fence Wednesday night, but I had a sinus headache, and I was afraid I was getting sick, so I skipped. Thursday was a travel day, so I didn’t work out, but I did get the ball rolling on my personal fitness assessment. I’m excited.

Today was Day 1 of the Rapier and Sabre Pedagogy (RASP) Retreat. We got here with enough time to introduce ourselves before warm-ups. We warmed up with footwork and spent the morning practicing teaching rapier techniques. We started by teaching a simple lunge and worked up to covering cavaciones and other complex short-tempo actions.

After lunch, we got out the sabres. I felt like I was learning how to use a sabre as much as I was learning how to teach someone else how to use one. My partner and I helped each other through the drills without necessarily doing the calls like we did during the rapier portion, and I felt like that worked pretty well.

I got a lot of feedback and took a lot of notes. I hope that sleeping on it will help me process and retain it.

After slacking off for a month and a half, I’m back in the gym. Nik and I lifted light and did only 15 minutes of cardio. It was a good first day back.

I didn’t make any resolutions this year, but I have committed to CIC 2 in late May, and I’m going to a fencing pedagogy retreat this weekend. I’m psyched about learning more about how to teach.

I haven’t been excited about fighting for a little while now, but I’m starting to feel that fire rising up in my belly. I’ve booked tournaments and other events up to halfway through this year. I can’t wait (but I’m glad I have time to prepare).

Serfo 2017 has come and gone. UWF Fencing brought 8 fencers to the tournament this year. Nik medaled in ringen, conventional rapier, and first blood rapier, and one of our students won the Franco-Belgian tournament. I’m proud of both of them.

Leading up to Serfo, we had to lift less because I was experiencing muscle fatofue when training, but we did still did both (just less intense lifting). In addition to all that, I got a sinus infection the Monday night before the event. I medicated it aggressively and felt better for the tournament – not 100% but better.

Believe it or not, I felt at my best when I was fencing. I never made it out of pools, but I did some good fencing, especially on Sunday (I don’t feel proud of my performance in the first blood tourney). I competed in Women’s Longsword, First Blood Rapier, Conventional Rapier, and Sword and Buckler. Women’s Longsword conflicted with Franco-Belgian Rapier, and I didn’t care to do the Open Longsword or Ringen. I’m pleased with my longsword and conventional rapier fights, and I feel like I absolutely crushed the buckler tourney in the last fight of my pool.

In addition to competing, I attended a Friday night class on rapier and observed part of a cutting class on Friday morning. I took a lot of notes on drills we can do in the club.

I also took notes on what needs to change about my own fight and my expectations for tournaments. I want to increase my muscular endurance, my cardio capacity, and my timing. I have the skills, but I got caught flat footed more than I’d like. We debriefed our students and have some feedback on things they want to improve as well. It’s never too late to start preparing for next year, right?

We drove back Sunday night, rested Monday day, and returned to fencing Monday night. Nik and I hit the weights again today. I intend to have a fitness assessment done in the next month or two so that I’ll have a direction for my physical training. As far as fencing in particular goes, I think I need more drills, more conditioning – all the tedious stuff that really makes a difference.

I’ve been busy with fencing every day leading up to Serfo. I had a rough night a couple practices ago, but I’m otherwise seeing improvement. I’m trying new things and re-covering fundamentals now in hopes that I’ll be able to turn off my conscious brain and rely on my lizard brain during the tournament’s.

In addition to all the fencing, I’m still lifting frequently. We’re adding more rest days since lifting and fencing together can be pretty taxing.

Everything else is kind of on the back burner for now.

I’m still around. I went to a couple tournaments but didn’t post about them. Basically I trained, I went, I fenced well enough but didn’t win… the usual. My mentor told me to lead less and focus on my fighting, so that’s what I’m doing now.

Right now I’m gearing up for a big tourney: the Southeast Renaissance Fencing Open. We’re about a week into our 30 days of fencing. I’m doing this on top of some pretty rigorous weight training.

Nik and I have been going to the gym pretty much every day since the summer. We do have rest days, and we miss when life gets in the way. When we go, we focus on arms or chest & shoulders (since fencing works the legs). In a month I gained a fair amount of weight but lost 3% body fat.

I’m still doing Krav but on a different schedule. Enrollment dropped enough that we cancelled that class. Now we’re doing seminars every couple of weeks. I took and passed my P4 test. We need to start studying P5, but I’m kind of focused on my tourney prep now. I don’t know if I will progress beyond P5. I have an opportunity to take CIC 2, but I’m apprehensive.

So for now it’s just a ton of fencing and weight lifting.

There hasn’t been much to report.

The attendance in my Krav class tanked to the point that it wasn’t worth it to have regular classes. I’m looking forward to some seminars last month, but that was kind of a downer.

The good news is that I can fence more now (remember that Friday Knight Fights were keeping me from the only day per week that I could practice). I’ve held a regional SCA practice, and I’ve participated in fencing and conditioning with the UWF group (there’s lots of overlap). Fencing at UWF is great, but my SCA classes are poorly attended. I can’t help but wonder if I’m doing something wrong since my classes keep drying up. I have to remind myself that life gets in the way. I’m not necessarily a bad teacher.

There’s an SCA event coming up this weekend. I haven’t competed since MCA.

I’ve been hitting the gym with Nik – weight lifting mostly. He wants to go to the gym daily, and I tag along when I can. I was having trouble fitting workouts in with these ten-hour days. However, my job situation is about to change, so I’ll be able to (at least temporarily) devote more time to fitness.

I still take lots of walks on the beach.

I’m not doing yoga (my old yogi kind of spoiled me), but I have been taking acro classes here and there. I took an acro chair class and learned some neat poses. I’d like to do that and Lyra again. I’ve caught wind of a hand stand conditioning class, and I may try that out too.

I hate to boil down months of working out to a few short paragraphs, but it would be tedious if I didn’t. I will, however, brag that I worked out enough to earn my free movie tickets through my workplace’s employee fitness incentive program. One month of working out for at least 30 minutes per day 3 times per week gets you a water bottle; three months gets you a bag (this time – last time it was a pedometer); and six months gets you two free movie tickets. Last time I got the first two prizes but not the movie tickets because I lost my incentive sheet and didn’t know where to pick it back up (also I think I lost a week when I was sick).

Anyway, I have some changes coming up in my life soon – change in employment, going back to school, etc. – so I have no idea where my journey will take me. Literally I’ll still be in Pensacola, but aside from that, I’m not sure. I think we’re going to try to get a Krav class going again, and I’m looking forward to a new school year and recruiting new fencing club members at UWF.