My Signature Move

It has become apparent to me lately that I have become known for a signature move, something that my young students have noticed and now comment on regularly. Is it an impregnable defence? An unstoppable compound attack? Well, no.... not really. After I have saluted my opponent (or Coach Andy when I am demonstrating with him)* I discretely flip my foil out of my hand and catch it before I put my mask on. It's not an extravagant move, it just allows me to change my hold from the grip to the blade just under the guard. The foil goes from horizontal to vertical in a controlled way. There has been much debate amongst my younger students as the origins of this action but there is no esoteric reason; it is not flashy braggadocio or psychological enforcement. It is just the fact that I wear glasses and as such need two hands to get my mask on without dislodging them (The Captain Mainwaring look that can result if I don't is definitely not cool)** The quick flip of the foil is simply my ingrained teaching from my Coach of not waving my foil point in the air whilst doing so. Years of repetition have turned it into a habit which my students now look out for and in some cases emulate.

This may seem like a trivial point for a post but it has a couple of important points hidden in it for me:

Something that I spontaneously derived as a solution to a problem has become a habit and engrained in my behaviour without me even noticing it. Is there anything else in my fencing that has become like this? Should I have a look and see?

Now that I am conscious of it (thanks to my students) I analyse it. Through analysing it it becomes less spontaneous and more mechanical. Sometimes over-analysis may not be beneficial.....

It makes me realise that as a Coach I am a constant subject of scrutiny and that people will mimic what I do. A salutary lesson.....

I recall reading a story about a kata from a martial arts school of the Bo-staff where the practitioner strikes the floor with the staff during the sequence. No one knew how this originated as it seemed to have no practical purpose. Some people attributed it to esoteric things like 'grounding the chi' or wiping the blood off the staff to get a better grip etc but after some research was done it's origin became apparent. A couple of generations back, one of the school's masters had been quite short. When he practised and demonstrated the sequence he naturally hit the floor at this point. This became erroneously imitated by his pupils until it became ingrained into the form of the kata. It shows how things can get magnified over time, sometimes for good and sometimes not.
There's always more to things than initially meets the eye......


* I always salute my Coach no matter what I am doing


** If you've never seen 'Dad's Army' Gentle Reader, you will have no idea what I'm talking about......