Salle Green - Thrust and Cut

THRUST AND CUT

Number 2011-05

28 March 2011

In This Issue

April Beginners Class

New Fencing Floor

Thank You

Coaching Training

Competition Results

Congratulations Maggie

Yes, We Get Awards

Lost and Found

Our Values

Quick Links

FRED Tournament Registration

Salle Website

Salle Blog
Our Twitter Feed

The Crowded Schedule:

There is a lot going on at the Salle, and there are competitions virtually every weekend. We are out of time to get in all of the things that we need and want to do to develop our fencers and martial artists. As a result we are going to have to start manipulating our schedule to make the best possible use of our time. A couple of examples:

COACHING SERIES

Starting on 14 May we start a series of coaching workshops to be spread over the next two years to take candidates from Assistant Moniteur to Fencing Master in one weapon. Because these are full day workshops, we will be alternating Saturday and Sunday dates. We will work with our regular programs on the impact dates to make sure that we schedule alternate days and times so that no one misses training.

The first workshop is an Assistant Moniteur workshop on Saturday, 14 May from 9am to 5pm - sign up on Fred at http://askfred.net/Clinics/Prereg/prereg.php?clinic_id=14627.

THURSDAY NIGHT FIGHTS

Until Summer the USFA calendar is steady with events every weekend. To let our competitive fencers participate in Salle events, we will be running Fence Dry! tournaments during regularly scheduled class periods. We already run weapons squad tournaments at irregular intervals, and this will simply formalize that process and add a level of competition.

The first event will be a Lancet Epee tournament on 14 April at 7:30pm. Preregistration is required at Fred at http://askfred.net/Events/Prereg/prereg.php?tournament_id=14791.

The second will be a One Touch Epee on 2 June in the same time block. We are starting with epee because we have competition formats that will work in the time block. If this proves successful, we will expand the program to the other weapons.

April Beginners Class:

... will start on Monday, 4 April at 7:00 pm. The class runs for 8 weeks for one hour each Monday night. The first 5 lessons are foil lessons, followed by 1 epee and 1 sabre lesson to give you a familarity with these weapons, and finally by a class tournament. The cost is $100. Come dressed in comfortable clothing in which you can move. We supply all needed equipment. We do ask that you bring shoes that have clean soles with you to wear on the fencing floor. Our May class starts the first Tuesday in May.

New Fencing Floor:

It is in (waiting for a few minor added parts), in use, and everyone likes it. Thank you to everyone who helped with installation - Abi Black and her father, Maggie Constante, Tom Epperson, David Gott, Chip Greene, Travis Greene, Joe Letteri, Mark Logan, Elizabeth McGillicuddy, Kevin Pratt and his crew, Claire Schlichtherle and friend, Micah Taylor, Stephanie Watkins (if we forgot you, please pardon us - it was so busy that we did not take names). Your contribution of sweat equity was greatly appreciated.

Thank You:

To Mark Logan, Will Fuerte, and Jordyn Wade for their generous donations to the new floor, and to everyone who has put pennies to folding money in the building fund box. Thank you for helping to make the Salle a better place to fence.

Coaching Training:

Our coaching staff now meets at 12:30pm on Sundays during Open Fencing for continuing education. We have three members in training to become Assistant Moniteurs and one in training to test for Prevot at the United States Fencing Coaches Association conference in Las Vegas this summer. Training to be a professional coach is important to the Salle because it gives us more coaching staff to work with our fencers. And it is important to the coaches in training because it makes them more knowledgable fencers.

Competition Results:

Congratulations to our fencers for their results in recent competitions - we are proud of our competitors, the hard work they put in, and their constant effort to be better athletes:

David Allan - 11th place - George Mason Ratings Rally Senior Mixed Foil - Manassas, 6 March - a D1 tournament with 22 fencers

Len Blasiol - 14th place - George Mason Ratings Rally Senior Mixed Epee - Manassas, 6 March - a D1 tournament with 22 fencers

Len Blasiol - 18th place - Referee Testing Tournament Senior Mixed Epee - Charlottesville, 20 March - a C1 tournament with 20 entries

Nathaniel Ewell - 20th place - Referee Testing Tournament Senior Mixed Epee - Charlottesville, 20 March - a C1 tournament with 20 entries

Will Fuerte - 3rd place - CFA Regional Youth Circuit Y10 Mixed Epee- Charlottesville, 27 March - not rated tournament with 5 entries

Travis Greene - 3rd place - CFA Regional Youth Circuit Y10 Mixed Epee - Charlottesville, 27 March - not rated tournament with 5 entries

Jordyn Wade - 8th place - CFA Regional Youth Circuit Y10 Mixed Epee - Charlottesville, 26 March - a not rated tournament with 9 entries

Congratulations Maggie:

Our Snake Fist Karate program passed a major milestone on 26 March when Maggie Constante successfully completed her Yellow Belt test in front of a panel of three examiners. This is the first belt the program has awarded, and represents six months of hard work by Maggie and by her instructors, Sensei's Black and Rogers. Well done all!

Yes, We Get Awards:

EzineArticles.com Diamond Author

Out of 382,000 authors who use EzineArticles, an online publishing service for newsletter articles, fewer than 250 have been awarded diamond status based on the quality of their articles, originality of the content, and excellence in writing. Maitre Walter Green's fencing articles (a selection of which are available on the Salle's website in our Knowledge Base of Published Articles) have received recognition as Diamond quality.

All Star Award

And Thrust and Cut won an award as well. Constant Contact, the marketing service we use to publish our newsletter, named us a 2010 All Star Award winner for the quality of the newsletter, its currency, and the high rate of readership among our members.

You Lost, We Found ...

On the fencing floor on separate days:

1 glove

1 mask

1 pair of sunglasses (placed on the television stand)

Please check your kit and make sure you have everything you think you have. If not, your lost glove, mask, and sunglasses are waiting for you.

Our Values:

In the Salle a hit is a hit when you are fencing dry. If you are hit by an opponent, if you think you were hit, if you saw something that suggests you might have been hit, if you felt a breath of air that suggests the opponent was close enough to have hit, then ... you are hit. Acknowledge it.

The same thing goes for right of way.

There is nothing more unseemly than fencers arguing "I hit you ... no you didn't ... yes I did ..." That is a game for small children who have not learned how to function as real people, and who are obsessed with always winning and not losing face in front of other small children. Arguments like these waste time that is more productively spent fencing. It is unsportsmanlike, and is directly counter to our expected standards of conduct. And it makes it that other people do not want to fence you.

However, there is a worse outcome. Claiming hits that are not yours or denying hits that hit you creates a corrosive false impression of your fencing. First, you start believing your own results - when you face opponents in electric competition you lose because you have not learned the actual lessons of your practice bouts. Second, you generate numbers for our coaching system that inflate your actual ability, and at the same time inaccurately reflect how our other members perform. This reduces our ability to develop you, and everyone else, as fencers.

So if you never lose a practice bout, if you always score the disputed hit, or if the right of way is always in your favor, take a long hard look at who you are, and fix it.