#competitive fencing

[oneopiniononethinker]

[askjennie]

hi. i started fencing at competitive level a few months ago. Apparently I’m talented and I learned quickly, and got on the same level of people who have been doing it for a few years. I started competing to get experience. When I compete, I know I’ve only been fencing for a few months while my opponents have been fencing for like, 5 years. Basically I don’t trust my abilities, and play “not to lose” instead of “to win”. I’m overly-cautious and play bad at the end. How do I change this?

I guess part of it is learning to accept that all fencers lose at some point, regardless of how experienced they are. If you’re at a competition where skilled, experienced fencers are competing against other skilled, experienced fencers, there will be skilled, experienced fencers losing matches all around you - they can’t all win! So, taking some risks while competing isn’t going to make everyone around you point and whisper “wow that person has no idea what they’re doing, they actually LOST a MATCH, how embarrassing”. Even the most experienced competitors will be losing some of the time.

But also, you’ve only been fencing for a few months, so it’s pretty normal that you might not trust your abilities yet! Even though you’re doing well, you’re still in the early stages of learning, relatively speaking. While you might be ‘on the same level’ as people who have been fencing for years in terms of the moves you’ve picked up, you might still be a beginner in terms of honing your tactics and techniques in a competition situation. Learning not to be overly cautious, learning to take some risks in your tactics and learning to have confidence in your abilities are skills that take time to learn. 

The best way you can learn is by allowing yourself to have different experiences - experience playing to win and winning, experience playing to win and losing, experience trying things that you haven’t done before, and succeeding, experience trying things you haven’t done before, and failing. Take winning or losing the match out of the equation for now, and focus on what you’re actually learning. If you can come out of a match saying “that was different to any match I’ve had before, I’ve learnt something new from that”, then it was a successful match, regardless of whether you actually won or lost.