2004-10-08 - 2:22 p.m.

Stage I

Six years ago, I held a blade in my hands for the first time in my life. It was an epee, and at the time I thought that it was heavy even though all I did with it was hit the wall.

Later on, I went and purchased my very first weapon, a $50 little foil with a sabre guard from American Fencers. It was the coolest thing.

Armed with that little foil I went ahead and made as many practices as I could and I eventually authorized. Heck, I even won a tournament. Imagine that.

Having no formal training in rapier, modern or otherwise, I learn to use that little weapon the best I could and learned stuff from anyone who was willing to teach me. The result? I adopted the "rabid dog" approach which consisted in closing as fast as I could on my opponent and scare the pants (or skirts) out of them. I love doing that even to this day.

This resulted in various things: a) Some people were really freaked out about it; b) Got yelled out a lot by marshals and fighters alike; c) Won a respectable number of fights; and d) Got killed just as many times while I was closing -- double deaths anyone?

It was clear that my act needed some refinement, and I set myself up for more learning.

Stage II

I then went on to practice a different kind of skill, with mixed results: The outer and mid-range. Because of that, I don't get killed as often in the way in. I have learned my lesson well. Control first, close second. And if you can get that shot without closing, you are golden. Oh, and don't forget to parry!

At any rate, one of the things that were pointed out to me over and over were: "Belphoebe, you are leading with your head" and "Belphoebe, for crying out loud, your heels don't line up properly." When I saw some video footage of my fighting, I realized how awkard I looked and how my balance was really screwed up.

Enter the gym . . . About 4 years ago I decided that I needed some physical training, not only because of my fencing but because I do not want to reach old (or even middle) age in really bad shape. I have seen that happening to some members of my family and to be honest, it's not pretty.

A year later I got Marcellus to come with me and we started training together. (We ended up getting married too, clear proof that physical training does pay off, he, he.) During the past three years we have been working hard on our exercise program and we have changed completely our nutrition plan.

The results have beem wonderful.

Marcellus has gone from a scary fighter to a terrifying one (with a reputation for *teleporting*), and even though I am not even close to becoming the fencing goddess of death, my balance and footwork have improved tremendously.

One of the things that have improved my footwork is practicing it over and over in front of a mirror, in the gym, between sets. It is amazing what you can see in that mirror. ("Holy cow! I do lead with my head!" and "Are those *my* feet?") The result is that you pay attention to form and you start to correct those pesky bad habits.

Now that my footwork has gotten infinitely better, I have had the opportunity to "deconstruct" what I do and realize that my bladework needs a lot of work. Which brings us to:

Stage III

One of the things that people tell me all the time is "Bel, you are so good at killing people with drawcuts!" Little do they know that I resort to drawcuts because my bladework is not really that good. Messy, is the word that I would use to describe it. When you are not very good at landing clean shots, you will do yourself a favor by just pulling the blade and go for the drawcut. A nice touch, but not something you want to rely on all the time.

Last night I decided that if drilling incessantly did miracles for my footwork, drilling for bladework should work as well. The first thing to worry about is how to get those drills correctly. I had a long chat with Marcellus, who agreed to work with me on that. We went back to the basics, just doing slow work as if I were a newbie. By doing that, we realized where the glitches in my parries and ripostes were.

We also decided to pay more attention to the bladework of the rest of our fencers and encourage them to drill more. Winter is coming and we will be doing a lot of it.

You know, sparring is a great thing, but it will not do you a lot of good if you are simply perpetuating your bad habits. I am willing to sacrifice some sparring time for bladework. And if I learn it correctly, I can teach it correctly. If I teach it correctly, I will remember it correctly.

And then of course, there is Stage IV, the Mind Game, which sort of overlaps all the other stages. But that's a subject for another time.

Belphoebe out.

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