A little 'me' time

No moaning about tweaked muscles or not-being-able-to-parry in this post. For I am in a good mood.

On Tuesday, I had a one-on-one lesson with my coach. It was only 20 minutes long, but I learned an almost scary amount of stuff.

Beforehand, I was almost stupidly nervous. What if I couldn't do it? What if he said, 'get outta here, kid - you're no good'?

But there was none of that. I discovered my en-garde position left something to be desired - my right knee tended to point inwards a bit, Betty Boop-style - but he patiently told me where I was going wrong each time I lapsed. It's a good thing I corrected it, really - a strapping chap doing a Boop impression in full fencing kit isn't the most attractive of sights.

The rest of the session was endless repetition - lunges and parries - until I got it right. It wasn't boring, either. Tiring, yes. But not boring.

It was a revelation having someone watch every part of my technique - although there was pressure on me to not make mistakes, it was delivered in a friendly way, and I could ask as many questions as I wanted without annoying the rest of the group.

'When would I do a feint and disengage?'
'If your opponent always does a Quarte parry, spot the pattern, and play up to it - feint the attack to make him parry, then disengage and continue your lunge'.

Simple.

I'm going to try and do a couple of private sessions a month - as well as ramping up my club sessions to two a week. I'm becoming addicted!

Next post: Tricky business....