Thursday Writer's Workshop Prompt: Greatest Triumph

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My Greatest Triumph
Many years ago, my husband and I took a 6-week beginner's course in Foil Fencing. 
Now foil fencing swords are thin and straight with a protective cover on the tip. It's more of a classic dueling style of swordsmanship.
Victory in foil fencing is gained by getting past your opponents sword defense to stick your sword point against their chest.
 It's all about stance and form and is tends to be over fairly quickly. I believe our instructor used the 3 touch point method for a match.
The fencing stance form generally taught is French: you stand in a sideways position, sword in one hand aimed at opponent while your other arm is held aloft behind you, bent at the elbow. (Think of any Three Musketeer movie you've ever seen---this is their stance.)
The general over-all goal of foil fencing is to keep the body area that can be stabbed by the opponent to a minimum.
However, it's important to understand, in fencing, it's not about strength but rather about shrewdness of mind to be able to read one's opponent as well as skill of hand and wrist.

So at the end of 6-weeks of practice, we had a final mini "tournament," with matches of elimination against one another. The final match of the night was me against this huge man. He was 6 feet tall and 250 pounds easy. I was a mere 5 feet and 5 inches and around 150 pounds at the time. I was a small person next him, but that was my advantage. I quickly noticed his reach was very long when he stretched forward into a sword-thrust position and I simply denied him that space. I stepped inside his reach, closer to him to attack. If he backed up, I stepped forward and he simply couldn't defend against me.
 I won the match,
I took home a small trophy and for a girl who was never good at any sport in her life, it was certainly my proudest moment! 

I never pursued fencing further as I didn't have the time and dedication to give it would've required. 


Comments

John Holton said…
My brother was on the fencing team in high school. He wasn't much of a jock but he did pretty well. Congratulations on your victory! (somewhat belated...)
Apr 19, 2024, 7:05:00 AM

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