Friday, November 12, 2004

Expanding Outside of the Bubble

Well, I tried something new last night--fencing. I figured it was about time I tried something new. I felt like I might have been getting stuck in a rut and with the cold weather fast approaching, I wanted something to do other than sit at home, read, watch movies, and play video games. I know that would have been the dream life if you would have asked me what I wanted to do when I was 12, but now I just need some other things to do.

So how did it go? Well, considering I've never done any fencing before and only watched bits of it on the Olympics, I needed to learn the basics which was pretty much what was went over last night. I learned the rules, the different styles of fencing, the gear, the stance, the movement, how to hold a foil, and some basic foil movement.

After just this initial lesson, I can see that fencing is a lot more of a precision and finess sport than I thought. I've never been particularly good at extremely precise sports as I usually just take the brute force approach to most sports. It'll be different to focus on small things instead of just trying to be the strongest/fastest/most athletic person doing it.

All in all I think it is an interesting sport and I'll have to stick with it for a while to see if I can pick up the techniques that I'll need to actually be a functional fencer! Besides, I need something to fill that sports void that has formed in my life since college ended. Winter volleyball leagues in Rochester have already started, so that's out (unless anyone knows a team that could use an extra player or sub). Basketball leagues are started and I haven't played in a while so I'd probably be one of the bench star wonders. There isn't much for ultimate frisbee here in the winter, so that's out. Looks like it'll be fencing, weight lifting, and running for the winter for me!

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