Best fencing day ever
If you click on this link you will see all of the results of all of the tournaments I have been in since my triumphant return to fencing back in the summer. My goal has always been to land in the middle. If you notice the trend you will see that I have met my goal more times than I have missed it. The two times I missed the most was my first tournament, I suffered badly from the heat and was pretty bad off. The other worst result was yesterday.
You must be wondering what I did wrong to do so poorly and why am I so deluded as to call it my best fencing day ever? Surely he's suffered from heat exhasution and is hallucinating. Nope. I fenced the best I ever fenced against the toughest crowd I have faced yet. In the "E" and under I fenced a "D", twice! That's how tough it was.
Of course this brings up a problem, I fenced the best I ever fenced, and my results show me at nearly the worst I have ever done. What's up with that? Honestly, the tournament proved to me that my initial premise of "success" was faulty. My goal of landing in the middle of the pack assumes that the "pack" is a constant.
My whole line of thought comming back into competition was that I would strive to be in the middle of the pack, behind the fit and well trained top half and ahead of the less trained and less experienced newbies. When I constantly landed in the middle, as time went on I would slowly find myself closer to the top as I gain fitness and competition experience. I still have no burning desire to win. The guys who have to "win" never look like they are having fun when they fence, and I fence because it is fun. If it isn't why do it?
However, as neat and tidy as my premise was it fails to take into account that at some tournaments the competitors will be better overall and everyone who fences gets just a little bit better after each competition. In order to stay in the middle those below me are going to pass me as the ones above me become rated high enough they can't fence in the competitions I fence in.
I'm not losing any sleep over it, infact as I write this I can hardly keep my eyes open. I now know my whole premise is wrong and at this time I don't even know if I am going to craft a new goal set. Why bother, when I'm still having fun right?
