Woody Cavenaugh

Chapter 3

In the movie The Lion King the wise Rafiki taught Simba to leave his past behind him. You can't let what cannot be changed change what can be.
Rafiki: *WACK!* (Right across Simba's backside with his staff)
Simba: "Hey, what did you do that for?"
Rafiki: "It doesn't matter, it is in the past."

If you ignore the wisdom of cartoon characters, what's next, ignoring fortune cookies? The lesson we learn here is that if the score is 0-0 or 0-4 it has absolutely no bearing on what the next touch will be. You aren't fencing for five touches, you are fencing for one touch, five times. The score when you are fencing is always, 0-0. When the referee calls "halt", no one scored a touch, you scored one touch, your opponent scored one touch, or you both scored one touch. That is all. When you fence you must forget about every touch scored except the one you are just about to score. Nothing else matters. Your score, your opponent's score, the way your opponent sneared at you when they saluted you. These things are all irrevelent distractions. A fencer who knows that it is a distraction will snear at you on purpose, to try and gain touches from your distraction. It usually works, even at high levels. The fencer who has their head together, won't notice the snear, and will be able to put it in their past if they did. This is the whole reason why people scream. Sure it might make you flench when they do it gaining them a quick advantage, but what they really want is for you to be completely distracted by it on the next touch. Same for snears, snide remarks, any action that isn't fencing (and a couple that are).

Exercise: Every time the referee calls halt, take a deep breath. When the referee says, "Ready" you say in your mind, "Now". And be "now", not worrying about what the other fencer did or is doing. Be in the now.

Speaking of Movies, I made a point of making a jedi reference in every chapter for a reason. Yoda is a lot more than a muppet. Yoda plays a teacher in the movies and has things to teach in real life.
"Try? There is no 'try'. Do or do not."

When you say to yourself you will "try" something what you are really doing is saying you are prepaired to fail at something. The word try indicates that you are going to give it a shot, and if you fail it is ok. Since when is failing a success? When you go into a bout and you think to yourself that you are going to "try" to do well, you have already told yourself that you aren't. and you are hoping that by some miracle your opponent is going to do horribly against you. Better would be at the beginning of the bout to say, "I am going to score this touch".

Referee: Salute, mask, enguard!
You: *With a deep breath* I am going to score this touch.
Referee: Ready!
You: Now.
Referee: Fence!

There is fencing.

Referee: Halt!
You: I am going to score this touch.
Referee: Enguard!
You: *Take a deep breath*
Referee: Ready!
You: "Now"
Referee: Fence!

Repeat til end of bout. Congratz, you just found Exercise two.

Notice that I didn't tell you about the score, or the attitude of the other fencer, or his stupid ideas about fencing. None of those things matter. The only time score matters is at the end of the bout, the end of the pool, and the end of your last Direct Elimination match.

If you ever say to yourself:
"I hate fencing this guy."
"He has such an attitude."
"I wish they would shut up."
"What's with that stupid low lunge?"
"Why is he always mumbling to himself?"
"I always lose against this person."