How to be a good guest
Occasionally at fencing clubs people drop in for a night as a 'guest' fencer, pay a one-off fee, do some fencing and then disappear again. Last night we had such a visitor at our club. He was obviously a well intentioned gentleman; he had all the kit and took part in the group lesson, which wouldn't normally be expected of a guest. Within a few minutes I had him pegged as a particular type of fencer that most coaches will recognise... "the over-enthusiastic participant". Why did I notice this? Well, here's a few give-aways....
During Coach Andy's group lesson he paired up with a regular club fencer and then immediately started to coach him instead of practising what the lesson was about. This was not really his job and was compounded by the fact that he was coaching him incorrectly.
When Coach Andy asked the group whether any of their attacks had been working the mystery guest jumped at the chance to point out his "short lunge with cut-over riposte" worked nearly every time. I'm still not sure what this technique is, as it doesn't seem to make any sense to me.
Once practise was over he challenged as many fencers as he could, taking great pleasure in telling them in his opinion exactly what they were doing wrong. Interestingly enough he didn't seem to notice the fact that his own on guard position was wrong and that he didn't seem to know how to lunge. He also fenced a lot in quarte and regular readers may know my views on that.
Finally, at one point I was talking to my group and our guest was setting up a piste. He wandered over, butted into the conversation and asked us to move our "helmets" * A brief pause ensued as my pupils waited for me to explode but as they could see I was frozen into shocked immobility the offending masks were moved.
My points may seem churlish but there is a reason for my ire. If as a fencer you visit another club it is, in my opinion, your duty to act respectfully towards the fencers and coaches of that club. If they do things slightly differently to your club you should respect the differences and comply with any reasonable requests. It is the height of poor manners to coach where you are not a recognised coach, provide opinions when not asked and generally try to impose your view on someone else. Also, if you can say nothing that improves the silence, then please say nothing. And if you do say something make sure it is in the correct terminology! **
Anyway, this was not intended as a rant more as an opinion on the correct way to behave when acting as a guest..... in my humble opinion!!
* For reference helmets are worn by motor-cyclists, masks are worn by fencers. I have never seen in any reference book masks referred to as helmets...... it would be like asking a Karateka to move his 'coat'.....
** I appreciate that this gentleman was probably acting with the best of intentions but my concerns were amplified when I subsequently found out that he was a coach who looked after junior fencers at another UK club which in my book compounds the problem and also passes a whole load of "enthusiastic" behaviours to another generation.
During Coach Andy's group lesson he paired up with a regular club fencer and then immediately started to coach him instead of practising what the lesson was about. This was not really his job and was compounded by the fact that he was coaching him incorrectly.
When Coach Andy asked the group whether any of their attacks had been working the mystery guest jumped at the chance to point out his "short lunge with cut-over riposte" worked nearly every time. I'm still not sure what this technique is, as it doesn't seem to make any sense to me.
Once practise was over he challenged as many fencers as he could, taking great pleasure in telling them in his opinion exactly what they were doing wrong. Interestingly enough he didn't seem to notice the fact that his own on guard position was wrong and that he didn't seem to know how to lunge. He also fenced a lot in quarte and regular readers may know my views on that.
Finally, at one point I was talking to my group and our guest was setting up a piste. He wandered over, butted into the conversation and asked us to move our "helmets" * A brief pause ensued as my pupils waited for me to explode but as they could see I was frozen into shocked immobility the offending masks were moved.
My points may seem churlish but there is a reason for my ire. If as a fencer you visit another club it is, in my opinion, your duty to act respectfully towards the fencers and coaches of that club. If they do things slightly differently to your club you should respect the differences and comply with any reasonable requests. It is the height of poor manners to coach where you are not a recognised coach, provide opinions when not asked and generally try to impose your view on someone else. Also, if you can say nothing that improves the silence, then please say nothing. And if you do say something make sure it is in the correct terminology! **
Anyway, this was not intended as a rant more as an opinion on the correct way to behave when acting as a guest..... in my humble opinion!!
* For reference helmets are worn by motor-cyclists, masks are worn by fencers. I have never seen in any reference book masks referred to as helmets...... it would be like asking a Karateka to move his 'coat'.....
** I appreciate that this gentleman was probably acting with the best of intentions but my concerns were amplified when I subsequently found out that he was a coach who looked after junior fencers at another UK club which in my book compounds the problem and also passes a whole load of "enthusiastic" behaviours to another generation.
posted by Dave at
8:45 AM
1 Comments:
Wow. This story sounds like something that has happened in every martial arts dojo a couple of times. And your take on what was inappropriate in his behaviour jibes very well with average budo dojo etiquette.
Can the gentleman in question have been active in some re-enactment type of fencing, do you think? These people - or we, I used to be one of them - sometimes takes a fencing mask and adds reinforcements on the back of the head, then calling the result a "helmet".
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