Autumn in the summer

It's that time in the coaching cycle when a number of my longer term students are moving on in life. It's happened before and it will happen again. So I have a number of my group who are off to pastures new over the summer and it's always a little bit sad for the coach when this happens, kind of a bitter sweet experience really as you know it's great for the students to be pushing on with their lives but also that it will just feel that little bit different around the salle for a while.
Luckily I can already see the green shoots of potential in their successors but all the same I am very proud in the efforts made by and successes enjoyed with this group and it has been a total pleasure to coach them. So best wishes to all of you; Abby off to counsel, Rob off to Nottingham Uni, Ben off to be an instructor with PGL, Matt currently in the US coaching at summer camp and Sammy off to Sheffield Uni. I'm very proud to have been your coach and I wish you all the success you deserve. Keep up the fencing (if you want), enjoy whatever you do and if you're ever near the salle do drop in and say hello, I shall still be there!

Assorted Quotes of the week

At the moment I am reading and interesting book with the rather exotic title of "the Demon's Sermon On The Martial Arts" by Issai Chozanshi. It was written in Japan in the 1700s and is basically a synthesis of various teachings into one 'uber-teaching' delivered in story form by a Tengu. These were demons who lived in remote mountains and had a beak like nose and wings. They were, according to popular folklore, gifted swordsmen and many of the original schools in Japan claim to have had their skills passed to them by one of these strange creatures. Anyhow, there are a number of interesting parables in the book; mostly dedicated to freeing the mind of distraction and acting according to the moment and there are some rather intriguing quotes. As regular readers know, I love a good quote, so here are some to ponder...

"The crow that imitates the cormorant is going to drink a lot of water"

"The long legs of the crane and the short legs of the wild duck are both their own natures"

"Man is a moving being. If he does not move to what is good, he will surely move to what is not"

"When you wait to defend yourself and intend to respond to your opponent's actions, you are withholding action, obstructing yourself on your own, and will be unable to advance a single step."

I'll post more as I read along.....

When the stakes are high....

"When you gamble for tiles, you are skillful. When you gamble for your belt buckle, you begin to hesitate; and when you gamble for gold, you get confused. Your skill is the same, but you get cautious because you value something outside yourself. When you do this you become awkward inside."
Lieh Tzu, Chapter 2

I've got a lot of students participating in competitions over the next few weeks (plus my friend Anna looking to retain her UK No 1 title - go Anna!) and it struck me that the quote above was quite relevant. When fencing in competition it is quite understandable that it will feel more stressful with a (sometimes self induced) pressure to do well. In sport this can be more counter productive than anything else. I was watching Wimbledon last night and Maria Sharapova (no 3 seed) got knocked out by a much lower seeded player. I was struck by the fact that Sharapova got visibly more agitated as things deteriorated (contrary to the commentator's opinion). She muttered, shrugged, frowned and generally looked increasingly exasperated the worse things got. When you consider things from her perspective then you can see why. I got the impression that she could almost see those sponsorship deals, interviews, TV appearances etc evaporating before her eyes which must have made things even more difficult. Now I'm not implying that she (or any other top tennis player) is in it purely for the money. They are elite players and as such are there to win but the commercial pressures can't help in these situations. However, I would also say that a truly great athlete should be able to deal with the most high pressure moments. I have been impressed with some of the calmness some football players have shown during penalty shoot outs in the Euro finals; you can almost tell which player will score and which will miss by the way they approach the ball; it's an amusing exercise to play the next time you're watching, although being a died in the wool rugby man I prefer to spot the kicker who slots every penalty or conversion! It's very difficult to treat every match as just another one and extremely easy to feel that all depends on the result. Having said that if you lose, you lose and there's nothing much you can do about it apart from accept it with good grace, move on and learn from it. The sun will come up the next day and the world will carry on as usual, despite your personal sporting disaster. I am not saying that participating in a competition will get any easier, just that the right level of perspective may help you deal with it. Try your best, think it through and play with the right spirit; no one can expect more....

It's ain't all about fencing! (Cheers Darren..!)

Recently I was asked to write a brief article for my colleagues at work as part of a knowledge sharing exercise. This is what I wrote, which shows that you can apply lessons or principles you
learn in one walk of life into another. Here's the article; see what you think...

Some Rules of Work – David Beckham, Senior Business Analyst

I have a piece of card on my desk with the following words on it:

Think without any dishonesty

Forge yourself in the way

Touch upon all of the arts

Know the way of all occupations

Know the advantages and disadvantages of everything

Learn to see everything accurately

Pay attention to even small things

Do nothing useless

From time to time I like to glance at it to remind myself what it is I do and why I do it, particularly when it’s “one of those days”. You see I’m the type of chap who likes to think he’s doing something meaningful and this short set of points is the closest I’ve found to summarising my philosophy. So why do these phrases mean something to me as a Business Analyst? Why (to use a consulting buzz-word) do they resonate with me? Lend me a few minutes Dear Reader and let’s explore…

Think without any dishonesty
For me this is a reminder that I need to examine things from many stand points in order to get to the bottom of it; to appreciate and examine other’s viewpoints and also to critically appraise my own beliefs and behaviours around a topic. It also helps me deal with feedback in a positive and constructive fashion.
Forge yourself in the way
Whilst this initially sounds a bit ‘grasshopper’ to me this reminds me that I must make efforts to continually improve my knowledge of requirements development and all things Business Analyst.
Touch upon all of the arts
This reminds me to make sure that not only do I know my way around the requirements processes but that I must balance this off with dark arts such as facilitation, negotiating, influencing etc.
Know the way of all occupations
A reminder that not only must I know my own role, I need to understand the roles of others within my environment such as Designers, PMs, Testers etc.
Know the advantages and disadvantages of everything
Pretty self explanatory really, but you need to know what works and what doesn’t in my trade, together with an idea of when and where it will or won’t work!
Learn to see everything accurately
This is quite a handy strap line and reminds me not to take things at face value but to really examine the situation. It is far too easy to walk into something and let your initial impressions rule your decision making process. It is also quite easy to just see things on the surface and not understand the underlying problem.
Pay attention to even small things
This is a really useful maxim for me, particularly when facilitating or presenting. Why did that stakeholder become disengaged at that point? What do those crossed arms mean? Why were those meaningful glances exchanged? It also helps me when I am QA’ing my own and other’s work.
Do nothing useless
I like this one but it’s bloody hard to manage all the time!!

So that’s a little insight into my mindset. In case you are wondering where these points come from, they were written by Miyamoto Musashi in 1643. Musashi was the most renowned Shugyosha or wandering Samurai in Japan at that time and fought 63 duels without a scratch. He was a gifted swordsman, artist and sculptor. He also wrote the “Book of Five Rings” and included the above as his most important points for the swordsman (and in fact life in general). The book is now used by businessmen, martial artists, coaches and sports-people the world over as a source of inspiration. I refer to it in my other life as a fencing coach and it has certainly helped me develop my particular philosophy of life. What’s yours?

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To be honest, I don't know what the majority of my colleagues made of it (although one of my friends said he found it inspiring, which was nice) but I enjoyed writing it!

Coaching conundrum

This morning I was coaching at the salle and on several occasions pointed out some faults to be greeted with the cheerful response of "Oh yeah, I always do that!" This is gently amusing as a coach (although sometimes the amusement wears thin...) as I never really understand why if someone knows they're doing something wrong they just cheerfully accept it. In my book it would be much more fun to try and correct the error and get it right next time. I guess it's easier to be satisfied with the status quo but to be cheerfully accepting of it strikes me as just plain daft! Sometimes I have encountered students who have the most complex reasons for their poor techniques. "Oh yes, but I thought if I did it that way the opponent would be confused" or "Yes, I've got a bit of a dodgy ankle at the moment" etc. It's almost like the brain doesn't like being confused. Weird huh?!?
The only thing a coach can do in those situations is observe for a repetition and then patiently explain that if improvement is to occur changes must be made. After that, it's up to the fencer!

Things to do for holidays

I shall not be at the Salle for the next week or so as I am off to sunnier (hopefully) climes for a much anticipated holiday. Will return to service on the 18th June.
In the meantime here's a few things to do to improve your fencing when you're not actually on the piste...
Reflect on your experiences - the 'data' you gather from your previous fights is vital information. Think about opponents and how you could beat them more effectively.
Mental rehearsal - practice your moves in your head; it's a great way of building awareness.
Lesson plans - one for the coaches here. Think about structured lessons and how they could work better.
Don't think about fencing - sometimes it's good to have a break!

I think I shall be doing some of all of the above in the next ten days!