what did I expect, anyway?

I went back to my high school fencing club today, and was somewhat disappointed. Crappy footwork, minimal discipline, and people who are generally apathetic about the whole thing. Not to mention last year's sabre newbies...weren't there.

I don't know why I expected anything different, at least on the footwork and discipline. Hoch (the coach) isn't very big on form or footwork. He'll teach enough so that people sort of get the idea, and then moves on to bladework. (He's very much a "whatever gets you the point" type of fencer. And coach.) He left correcting up to the upperclassmen, most of whom had at least a year of fencing under their belt. And that leads to the discipline. Back in the day, we had some authority--5 seniors who knew what they were doing. We could look after ourselves and the rest of the sabre team. I can't speak for the foil squad, but at least we did work for most of the time. And people actually listened. This year, there are 3 seniors. Two of them know enough about fencing to lead at least footwork, but only one of them shows up, according to my sister. And they're all foil fencers. The sabre team would be okay if the people from last year showed up. I know they're busy, but I'm in college, have far more work than they do and I go to practice more often than they seem to! So that leaves a bunch of n00bs trying to teach themselves with minimal instruction from Hoch. (He was an epee fencer in college, so he works mainly with the foils.) It's UGLY.

On the bright side, there is one girl who's pretty good. Now Hoch just needs to get her a jacket and mask.