Mama Kat Thursday: The Win

The Mama Kat Thursday blog prompt link-up topic is: 
"You won an award at some point in your life...what was it for?"

I'm terrible at sports. I don't like hitting or chasing or bouncing or catching balls of any sort. I also hated games like "steal the bacon" or "kick-ball."  At the age when one is playing such things in school and developing that skill set, I lacked eye-hand coordination.
However, with age, and eventually a little depth perception correction with glasses, that changed.
I had one occasion to go into a batting cage in my late 30's. Bat in hand, I swung the bat at balls the machine was throwing at me and enjoyed the great satisfaction of actually hitting every one. 

It was a redeeming moment.

But I didn't really find my niche until Hubby and I took a 6-week beginner foil fencing class.

Now, technically, fencing is  a martial art and like other martial arts, it's not about size or strength, but speed, skill--and, most importantly--quick wits.
Luckily, quick wits is something I have in abundance!

The class involved learning the basic sword and movement skills, both offensive and defensive, and proper form.
Then tournaments of student-against-student began. The sole survivor would be awarded a small trophy.
I made it through to the final round against one last fellow student.

He was a big huge guy over 6 feet tall and like 250 pounds and I'm a mere 5 foot 5.
But, as I said, fencing has nothing to do with size or weight, but intelligence.
This guy, when he made his attack thrust, because he was so tall, had a very long reach. I quickly saw I only needed to step close and leaving him no space to make any thrusts at me. (A jabbing thrust is what you use to make a "kill" hit in the chest target zone.)
 It was very frustrating for him, this little bug of a woman right under his nose, stinging him like a bee with her sword.
I scored 3 hits on him and game over. I whooped him and took home the trophy, my first ever trophy for anything. 
It was a proud moment.

And I've kept it because it reminds me that there is always something that everyone can be good at---at least once.

 Thanks for visiting!

And, as a side note, let me say I didn't invest in art of the sword beyond the beginner lessons. I liked tasting it, so I could understand how it worked, but learning the art on all it's levels would have required throwing all of myself and my time into it and I just couldn't give it everything.