Nothing is permanent...

Last night through a series of unfortunate events, my Coach Andy had his favourite foil guard and handle broken. This may seem like a trivial matter to most, but us long time fencers will appreciate how attached one can get to these things. I well remember the day my favourite foil blade broke, leaving me feeling moderately bereft of an old friend. (R.I.P Mr Whippy - gone but not forgotten). Still, Andy took it well (eventually) and said to me "Just proves that even in fencing nothing is permanent." And how true a maxim this is; there are many ways the essential impermanence of nature is reflected in fencing. Take my example. I liked Mr Whippy because it was such a flexible blade and could allow me to do really quick flick hits that were in vogue at the time. With the new timings this feature would no longer be such a strong point. When fencing, you might be an absolute demon at a technique one week and absolutely suck at the same thing the next week. You might have/give the best individual lesson ever one week and be an abject failure the next. Muscles that never used to ache will now gripe for days after a match. A favourite student or training partner moves on from the club.... and so it goes on.
One thing which is really noticeable about impermanence is form. At some stage of their fencing career a fencer will reach a plateau and find they are really struggling to improve their game. This can come after weeks, months or years and can be quite unsettling. Some fencers will resign themselves to the fact that this is as far as they can go whilst others will persist and drive on to better things. It can be a testing time for a fencer, particularly younger ones. I am not being ageist but older people tend to be able to cope with the odd set back better, probably because we are more used to them! It is here that the Coach must function and whilst there is no magic potion to get a student through this the Coach can ease the journey by offering patience, advice and encouragement. Much of the effort must come from the student though, as the coach cannot surmount every obstacle for them. It is in these times that the true spirit of the student will manifest itself in their attitude and behaviour and their will to work through this temporary adversity.
Impermanence is a natural thing and there have been many philosophical thoughts written about it. One of the most famous is "You can never step in the same river twice". (Which I prefer enhanced with the emphasis "You can never step in the same river twice" - think about it). This is very true. Your fencing will never be the same between one match and the next, the club will never be identical two weeks running. No matter how hard you try you will never be able to reproduce the same lunge twice in a row. It's the nature of things; the most important thing is to keep trying.