At a refereeing course yesterday, I noticed a slightly disturbing thing. We were watching Olympic finals, and during this, one fencer scored a brilliant riposte. The entire audience cheered, but when his opponent scored a hit, only a tiny fraction cheered. I realised that it must feel quite bad to have no-one supporting you. I have seen fencers at competitions have crowds of people at their end of the piste, whereas their opponent only has his or her parents or coach. It struck a chord within me. The feeling of loneliness must lower your fencing performance dramatically, because of it's psychological disadvantages. Now, I have realised, that that is not the case. However many people support someone, it doesn't make an ounce of difference when they are on the piste. For on the piste, no-one else can fight with you. More often than not, you have to fight with yourself, to overcome your emotions. Although I may not have many people up my end of the piste, there is always support in my mind. Fencers shouldn't base their skill on their number of supporters. Likewise, their opponents shouldn't be put off by the opposing numbers. As long as they have confidence in their own abilities, they will always have the largest amount of support. Here's a line from a poem I found:
'When the mind opens, the twin sword will fall
For it has seen the hopeless cause of its passion
And so the same person fights hand in hand with himself
Gives himself hope
Gives himself voice... '
2 comments:
That is the joy and sorrow of fencing; you have no-one to blame if you lose and can take all the credit if you win. Supporters are nice but they certainly aren't everything because at the end of the day it's all down to you as an individual. I have fenced some of my best matches on my own and have been often disturbed by vocal support. But that's probably just me...!
Will be interested to hear about the course when we next meet
I will be glad to tell you about it.
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