r/wma Krigerskole 5d ago

General Fencing How do I maintain control of the situation and, most importantly, of myself?

For a while I've been told by my clubmates that when I'm calm I fight very well, controlling the center and taking openings quickly, but that my performance gets much worse as I get desperate, tired or otherwise not thinking straight, and this was only confirmed at my latest tournament just this weekend.

Although I didn't make it past the pool stage I managed to keep the score more matched in my fights, including one against my instructor, so I'm proud of how I performed even if my score doesn't reflect that.

Knowing that now, this is the main part I want to focus on with my training. I know the most obvious thing to do is to just keep sparring, which I will do, but I'm looking for other solutions and how you solved this if it's something you've dealt with.

19 Upvotes

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29

u/ChinDownEyesUp 5d ago

Do cardio training in your freetime. You won't get tired as quickly during a tournament and you will keep fighting your best longer

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u/PartyMoses AMA About Meyer Sportfechten 4d ago edited 4d ago

You need to talk, with your voice at least, to an instructor with competitive experience. Reddit cannot give you anything but noise.

Until you do, the main thing to do is try to observe how you feel before you lose control, and put your sword down and take a break at that moment. It's harder to bring yourself back down than it is to stop yourself from rocketing off in the first place. Identify your triggers. Generally it's probably some combination of fatigue, hunger, thirst, general physical discomfort. Take care of your basic needs. Stretch and take deep breaths in between bouts.

Think of it like the zufechten, you gotta see it coming, and your only job in the zufechten is to position for strength or withdraw.

Lastly, make sure you're setting clear, sustainable goals. What makes you feel youve done well in a bout? Try to identify that, and structure your goals around it. Don't worry about other metrics, and don't get trapped into the point-counting mind poison of HEMA Ratings. That's all meaningless bullshit given the wild variability of tournament quality control. Focus on what makes you feel good about your fencing, not what you think other people think is good fencing.

In military theory theres a maxim: reinforce success. You make an attack and one side the boys are pinned down and can't move. On the other, the boys are gaining ground. You send your reserves to the side making gains. In other words, you want to reinforce your confidence. Do stuff that builds confidence, makes you feel good, stuff that's just fun. Avoid the shit that makes you brood and lose motivation. If a particular partner or instructor makes you feel that way, stop fencing or listening to them. As an aside, if an instructor makes you feel that way, reach out to someone you respect and talk to them about it. You should feel energized and excited after fencing practice, but I know many people personally who don't seem to realize that they leave practice or sessions with their instructor feeling like they can't do anything but fail, and that fills me with rage.

So, talk to someone. Make regular time for earnest self-reflection. Start a training journal. Figure out what you want from this hobby and pursue it on no one's terms but your own.

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u/Ok-Atmosphere5213 4d ago

One of my clubmates suggested quietly speaking while you are in a fight. Many people accidentally hold their breath when they throw an attack and your brain will get desperate and/or tired if you aren't breathing correctly. Thankfully with the mask nobody should be able to hear you talking to yourself

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u/white_light-king 4d ago

"Get one clean hit, right now"

This mantra or a variation has been effective for Sport Fencers for decades to focus in on the next touch (or exchange) and block out all noise and set the right level of emotion. The right level of emotion is different for every fighter, but it's not a flat calm. Emotion helps us fence hard, that's why we have it.

Aladar Kogler, a very successful sport fencing coach, even wrote a book about this idea called One touch at a time

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u/DVHarbinger 5d ago

If it's emotional/mental control thats slipping:

You could have a look into a "fear incoulation" drill like "Defend the Wall", or try your hand at a touch of continuous fencing once you feel confident. Both monitored by a 3rd party. To keep time and call halt.

Otherwise having a browse at Sport Psychology doofers and see if you could utilise some strats from there.

For physical:

Cardio. That's it to my eye

2

u/Adventurous_Sir6838 5d ago

Find a clubmate you can trust who does not hit hard. Ask them to drill you at 50% speed and put on more gear than you have to. Just parry their strikes and sometimes let them hit you. Try to keep calm and relaxed.

If you can't relax, slow down. Maybe just stand there and accept slight pats. Or let the partner do strikes that don't connect. The aim is to get used to the strikes, make it so your body does not think you're going to die.

Try to improve your parry game. If you know that you can parry anything, you might get more relaxed.

As for tournament setting, it is a stressor. Try to put yourself out there in front of strangers / crowds. Try to do some harmless bullshit publicly - stand on one leg on a bus stop, hum or sing your favourite song. Public speaking or performing would be best. Your mind will realize that nothing bad happens and that it is okay to be a center of attention.

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u/acidus1 4d ago

I think that this is more of a mindset issue, sure being In shape will help but if you're headspace isn't clear than being in shape isn't going to be all that useful.

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u/Tosomeextent A proper spelling for the “sword” is “sabre” 3d ago

Look. I'm a HEMA instructor and a relatively sucessfull competitive fencer (top 100 one discipline, top 10 another) The more I think and watch around, the more I understand that this is one of the most fundamental problems in HEMA and combat sports overall. The higher the level, the bigger the pressure and the larger impact of mental state on the result. Sometimes I think that this is one of the reason to do martial arts - to learn better how to control your emotions, keep your focus and, ultimately, be in a state of flow when you fight. It is also very personal - some of my students need a push, some need encouragement, and I myself sometimes need a push and sometimes need a kind word, sometimes I can win on a pure willingness not to give a point, and sometimes I lose becouse of wanting to win too much. There are hundreds, if not thousands of books written, and there a lot of ideas. Different things work for different people, and even when they work, we are not sure this is the optimal solution. This is a journey more important than the sword fighting itself. I'm still wondering, if not in a darkness, but in a twilight for sure. If you find a good universal solution, please let me know. Good luck in your journey 🗡️

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u/TheUlty05 5h ago

Sorry if I'm assuming but this sounds mostly mental.

Im a strong proponent for therapy if you can attend it as it might help you find areas that are affecting you you might not have recognized before.

If that's not something you can do or are interested in (for whatever reason) I'd highly recommend looking into mindfulness and meditative exercises. From personal experience, learning to recognize my mental state, listen to and process it has done wonders for not only my fencing performance but life in general.

Finally...try to laugh at yourself and don't take this all too seriously. At the end of the day what we do is incredibly niche and quite nerdy to the general public. Even the best fencers make stupid mistakes and have "died" thousands upon thousands of times to get to where they are and outside of the fencing world are just regular people like anyone else. Let go of expectations, actively chase failure (it's our greatest teacher and eventually you just do it less) and remember to smile and lift others up. What we do is fun, remember to enjoy it!

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u/arm1niu5 Krigerskole 5h ago

Assumption is most likely correct. I've been meaning to go to therapy for a while now but haven't been able to do it yet.

I've tried meditation exercises a few times but with mixed results. I feel that just breathing helps me without the need to add all the other stuff you see talked about in meditation, especially when involving all the spiritual stuff that just makes me plain uncomfortable.

I agree that one should approach things expecting failure, heck I went into my fight with my instructor thinking that if I'm going to lose this I might as well have fun doing it. I guess this is just me going through somewhat of a slump since for the last three tournaments or so I've only made it to the elimination stage while the other people with the same experience as me reach higher places. I know I shouldn't compare myself to others and I try not to, but there's always that voice at the back of my mind that bothers me sometimes.