This post is the neat version of an idea I half-formed yesterday afternoon. Whenever, I do a one on one lesson, my arm tends to ache after about five minutes. I am told that this is because we place emphasis on our wrist and finger work, and so we grip the foil tightly. Thus, our arm muscles are in a permanent grip mode. They will ache. Yesterday, after loosing a math 5-4, I wondered why I had lost it. I had won the previous match 5-1, and I had fenced this person several times, and always won convincingly. I think that when it got up to 4-4, I became cautious. I didn't want to throw this match away. I focused on getting the point, rather than the process with which to get the point. The result was that I tensed up majorly, and promptly became jerky and panicky.
Whenever you are relaxed, you tend to fare well, because you are not concerned with the points or the technique. You're just enjoying yourself; like a twig on the shoulders of a mighty stream. You tense, and suddenly, it's all about points. You can't really help it. It becomes vital. I think that this is the goal to aim for to gain a degree of success. Relax all of your limbs, and get out of the permanent grip mode. It doesn't really matter if you lose. You've lost nothing, except from your tenseness. Relaxation builds confidence, and vice versa.
4 comments:
Conversly, thinking too much about the methodology by which to get a point is also a trap. Don't focus on anything, other than keeping up with an opponent and outpacing them when they make that fatal error of judgement.
I am about to post my third entry of the night, it's all go here in Notts!!
Musashi said a similar thing. Thinking on one aspect of your opponent means that you will lose concentration, but not focusing enough will make you less likely to succeed. Paradox?
Yeah, you ggot me- it's a musashi quote (there or there abouts)
There can be no paradox in reality. I always fancied Xeno's, but the damn tthing never ever works! the numer of times i've nearly been hit running down riads to prove cars can't actually catch me... ah the broken legs bonanza of '06... I digress.
It's not a paradox, it's a careful balance that has to be made.
Old chinese proverbs say that if you run in front of a car, you will get tired, but if you run behind a car, you will get exhausted.
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