Eyes everywhere

I have talked on previous posts about the state of "aware mind" that some expert martial artists develop after years of training. Well, it occurred to me in the salle yesterday that coaches need to develop it too. We were in a rather crowded hall due to our regular venue being unavailable and I spent a lot of my time making sure no one hurt themselves. It's amazing how people seem to totally disregard matters of safety if a coach is present. Foils with no buttons, strange bends in the blade, chairs in the way, crossing pistes without looking, parents coming in, fencers sitting in the way behind other fencers in a match etc. It's no wonder that coaches have to develop eyes in the back of their heads! Thankfully not all fencers are like this but it does put an extra load of responsibility on the coaches shoulders but after as many years in the job as me you kind of get used to it...!