Injury? Opportunity? Or Injuritunity….?

I have recently been talking to my students at length about utilising opportunities when they arise in fencing. One strange opportunity that I have been given over the last seven months is chronic tennis elbow. This is described as a low impact medical injury but anyone who has had it will know it is high impact on the sufferer. Basically it is like someone sticking a red hot needle into your elbow on a continuous basis. I injured mine at epee and have been unable to fence competitively (or do any circular actions against resistance) since mid-May. Initially this proved very frustrating and a tad depressing but I have come to regard it as an opportunity. Why? Well I have been able to spend more time on my coaching, particularly with our budding foilists and it has proven to time well spent. There is now a great sense of camaraderie within the group and I am getting regular requests for individual lessons. I have also taken great pleasure in seeing some new coaches beginning to thrive. This is really the ultimate pleasure for a coach, seeing some of his students taking on the mantle and enjoying it. So I guess the moral of the tale is that even though something may initially appear to be a major pain in the backside it can turn out to be an opportunity in the end!