We spent most of Saturday at Alex's fencing tournament. This was his second ever tournament and his first since he switched to a new weapon (epee) a couple of months ago.
He was a bit younger (age 11 fencing Y14) and less experienced on epee than the other competitors, so he definitely went into it with the attitude that this was a learning experience and he probably wasn't going to win any medals. There are only so many epeeists in the world, so it is always a valuable learning opportunity when you can fence a few that you haven't fenced before.
Sure enough, he didn't win any of his bouts, but he actually did a lot better than we expected in terms of the number of touches he scored. He got touches in every bout, some were quite close, and really held his own against his opponents.
Maybe it helped that his expectations were low, but I was really happy to see that he stayed on top of them mental part of the game - not getting upset or frustrated, just staying focused and putting his best effort out on the strip each time. He had fun, and really seemed to enjoy the challenge of figuring out how to fence people with different styles and strengths.
Fencing is a life time sport! Enjoy. Looks like a good day at Rain City.
Posted by: Susan | December 12, 2011 at 02:02 PM