Honoring the Maestro

[drcpunk]

This weekend, mnemex and I went to a dinner for our fencing maestro, Ramon Martinez. Good company, good food. Then, we went to open fencing the next day, in uniforms we hadn't worn for six weeks.

And... I don't suck. I don't think I'm good, but I don't suck. Oh, at most, I think, I got one hit on anyone I played with. But, I did get that hit every now and then. And there were minutes when I was seeing what was happening, not just flailing. Okay, maybe what I was seeing was, "Wait, he stepped forward, and he hasn't stepped back, and that means I'm in his distance. This is bad." But I was seeing it.

Today, of course, thigh muscles whose existence I'd forgotten are not very happy with me.

Comments

[daftnewt.livejournal.com]

Yeah, "I don't suck" is pretty much how I feel about my art these days. It's sometimes hard to convince people that this is an optimistic statement.

[drcpunk.livejournal.com]

It can be, yes. Of course, at some point, one doesn't merely want to not suck. But, given the 6 year gap, it's not a bad beginning.

[jl8e]

It's OK to stick with not sucking, as long as you keep increasing the level at which you don't suck.

[drcpunk.livejournal.com]

True, but at some point, there is a morale issue. This is totally my problem, but it's one way to hit the wall for a time. Currently, I figure I need to focus on:

1. Building Stamina.
2. Distance, part one: Get able to eyeball it so that, at least under no pressure situations, I can dang well see whether someone is or is not in distance for me to hit on a lunge.
3. Point control, part one: Work on hitting a spot on the wall or something hanging from a piece of string.

mnemex is happy to list lots of other stuff, but, in the absence of specific instructions from Maestro, which he can't very well give unless and until we start showing back up to class, these are a manageable number of things that can be practiced 5 minutes a day and have lower odds of my building bad habits.

One of the interesting things about Ray is that he is very firm about his students only practicing 5 minutes a day. He says that these are the most dangerous times, because, without an instructor, there is a risk of building up bad habits.

Another interesting thing is that the words "I was wrong" have come out of his lips, on more than one occasion, when discussing his area of expertise, fencing. When Josh and I have the "why don't we think he's a cult leader figure?" discussion, this is one of the reasons. For Ray, it's about the fencing. It doesn't serve him; he clearly serves it.