if..

2010-08-04T21:37:00.006+08:00

i hope google brought you here! woohoo!~! tag tag tag tag. nus fencing

if i were the QM, i'll start throwing things away. there are so many faulty and spoilt equipment lying around, you'll think that you have surplus equipment, and wouldn't need to buy anymore.
- 4 out of 5 fencers are fencing with a dead lame.

if i were the treasurer, i'll start figuring out where all the money are going to. the club fees are extra-terrestrial-ly high, but at the same time the club "is too poor to afford equipment"

if i were the captain, i'll make sure there is a training routine. i won't let people free fence, people they can't even stand and hold their weapon properly. i will not let people join competitions as and when they feel like. they dont attend training, they are not prepared, they are not team nus, they dont earn the right to compete, they are wasting their own time and money. people don't have the incentive to train at all. feel like, train (actually, dont want to train, just go with the flow then after that just want to free fence). dont feel like, then dont feel like lor~

if i were the president, i'll try and find out why the club is so screwed up (i already did it for you woohoo~ (: ) i'll ensure the above people do the above, and ensure that the coach come more regularly. i will pick the right people to fill the exco position, and not some people who don't even turn up for training, less say their exco-duties. i will try to get a better training ground for tuesday, so that my fencers will not get hit by flying floorballs.

if i am a member of the club, i will just quit the club and stay home and watch youtube. you save $100 - which is enough for twice a week starbucks chilling session with friends. serves the same purpose, without all the fustration.

no kidding. 2 x $5 grande mocha = $10
about 13 weeks in a sem = $130

1 sem fencing is $100 mar. then plus competition fee about $130 also right. the club dont sponser comp fees because everybody competes. too many to sponser. no such thing as team nus lar. adds up to be around that lor! WOOT! absolute genius.

My fencing fustration

2009-12-17T22:59:00.005+08:00

I decided to revive this blog, for the sake of ranting all my fustrations. My friends out there who had read my blog will know that I never blog unless there is something enough to piss the death of out me. And that was this very evening during nus fencing training.

Okay just let me tell you about my fencing thus far. I have 6 years of fencing experience, 4 in foil and 2 in sabre. I was lucky enough to have an olympic level foil coach giving training me alone privately, but he persuaded back to his home country to resume his national coach position. Since then, I switched to sabre and then was at the states and was again lucky enough to engage an olympic level coach (expensive lor), trained 4 times a week.

When Im back for uni, I forecasted that Z probably would not be interested to take in a second-hand student, and I was right. If you enrol yourself in there, you're only going to go as far as your money can bring you. But I was looking forward to joining NUS fencing club, because I guessed there would not be politics, nobody knew who I were, and I could start afresh. But to my dissapointment, nusfc was not particularly active in sabre training.

There was 2 sabre girls, and we were just happy and content fencing each other. Training amongst ourselves at one corner.

But the least they could do was stop discouraging the new fencers from trying out sabre.

After the FAC, 3 of the newcomers joined the club because they were interested in sabre. (they saw us fencing sabre at the corner during FAC) It was one of their first few trainings and they were all doing bladework. The newcomers were all asked to grab a foil and do bladework. The 3 guys were standing with us sabreurs asking us sabre stuff and playing with the weapon. A senior came, told them to put away the sabre, grab a foil and join the rest in training.

"But we wanted to try out sabre, can we do it with a sabre?"
"No, everybody starts out with foil, its the basics, quick quick"

They were visibly disappointed. The very next training, I noticed they were all gone.

Fast forward to training today, I was the only sabrerur around. While idling around, I jokingly asked 'Sabre anybody?" and one of the newer fencers gamely agreed. I was delighted because I remember he also had interest in sabre, but was 'streamed' into foil like everybody else. One senior saw this and wasnt very happy. How much could a sabre bout hurt?

He fenced a sabre bout with another new fencer, and I can tell you his offence sequences and footwork speed could possibly match mine. It was a waste for him to do foil, he clearly had everything a sabreur needed, and he had interest!

After everything ended, the senior made a firm remark.

"You should stop fencing sabre. It will make your actions too big."

For that brief moment, I couldnt believe what I heard. He said that right in front of me.

My point is, whoever said that he wanted to do foil in the first place? My counter argument would be 'You should stop doing foil, it would make your actions too small and weak for sabre"

The new fencers barely had formal training in foil. I asked one of them and they said they only had ONE 1-on-1 sessions with the coach at this point (3 months into training) and I question how solid are their basic foundations, and are there even any existing high level foil technical skills that a casual sabre bout could possibly affect.

The fencers are young, let them explore all 3 weapons. Dont tell the athletes what they should do, they should decide for themselves what they want to do. It is really worrying because that was exactly what I went through. I didn't want to do foil, but because of my club's (at that time) private interest, I was never allowed to switch. They gave a lame excuse of me not suited and not being able to make it in sabre, but look at where I am now. I had a good physique for point weapons but I went furthur in sabre because it was my interest.

Is nusfc training a competitive team? I don't think so, there is no formal training programme/routine. Everybody stands around and chat. A friend in the club came by and told me that this was not a place i could get competitive training if i was expecting one, it was more of a recreational club and that i had to understand.

Then all the more you should just let the fencers choose what they want to do! If there are not enough resources, commitment and discipline in the club to bring the foilists anywhere, then I say you just let them do what they like to do and they might even go furthur.

I wished I was a better sabreur and that I could confidently say that I'll help train them in sabre. But I really am not that good. Besides, I'm only a Y1. All I can do now is watch talents go down the drain...... sigh.........

I googled for nusfc history in sabre and chanced upon a forum post in 2003 regarding a experienced sabre fencer joining nusfc. Sounds familiar? He ended being forced into and converted to a foilist.

To tell you the truth, I wasn't at all shocked when the sabre girls told me they wanted to quit/ go to foil. The dynamics and environment of the club simply was anti-sabre and it required absolute determination if anyone was keen in pursuing sabre in nusfc. I guess they are all tired fighting, like I am right now. The way things are looking now, I don't think I'll come down regularly next semester. Not that I don't want to, but for whom? for what?

For myself, I'm really driven to the end of fencing. My fencing friends, what do I do?

PS: the new girls look really bored. they look like they might quit anytime lol!

HELLOOOOOOO

if..

My fencing fustration