Saturday 11 April 2009

Sloganise

This blog is very short. So short, that if I digress, it will not be short at all. I'm just posting a slogan that came into my head a few minutes ago:

'This is not a foil which I use, but the embodiment of potential'

It sounds a bit Shakespearean and pretentious, but I think it has the desired effect. There are some fencers who are afraid of their opponent; afraid of being hit. Some even refuse to lunge, and charge forwards, perhaps not mindlessly, but clumsily. It may be due to lack of technique, but is it also a complete avoidance of lunging, or even arm-extending. I had to explain to a beginner at school about how the target area in foil was limited to the torso. Her face fell slightly when I mentioned the word 'limited'. I then improvised a completely random method of making her feel better about the weapon. I didn't use the pretentious slogan above (Thank God, she would have thought I was mad), but I summed it up pretty well. Your target isn't limited to a particular spot on the torso. It doesn't have to be HIT THERE OR SUFFER. You can hit to the shoulder, to the side, slightly to the right, etc. You can almost say you have an infinite amount of target to hit. You don't have to poke and limit yourself to hitting there. Limit yourself to the target, and hit anywhere on it. I think that's alright, and this blog turned out to be not quite short.