A brief experience of international training

In June 2004 I had the opportunity to train in Paris for one month. This wouldn't have been possible if it wasn't for my research, which provides me opportunities to travel around the world, where I can coincidentally train in fencing at the same time at no cost to myself.

I landed in Paris with not much idea of where to start. The French don't speak English with a passion, and so I relied on two years of high-school French from ten years ago. My internet searches had been futile, the reason for this rapidly became obvious however. The French don't call fencing fencing, they call it escrime (which I admittedly knew, but chose to overlook). As a side-note French is the international language of fencing and its governing body the FIE, so if you ever do 'make it big' it would pay to be aux-fait with it to some extent. It wasn't long till I found my way to the Prieur-Soudet store and was recommended to either Racing Club or Tour D'Auvergne. Racing is the international fencers club in Paris - all 3 weapons, and Tour D'Auvergne is dedicated foil and French. By chance Tour D'Auvergne was only one metro line away so off I went (they have a great webpage too - http://www.escrime-ta.com). The maitre (master) Vincent Remy translated my terrible French email and invited me and my gear along - though it was nearing summer holidays so fencing was getting pretty low key. Luckily a number of the younger people there spoke English so I got by.

Firstly, I had to preside in French, but that isn't so bad. I even had a few people fooled I was French. Luckily nobody could argue with my calls this way. The 'top' fencers were already on holiday, so I got left with the 'intermediates' - who routinely kicked my arse around the salle (gym). And so training five nights a week began. The first week was about getting my fencing fitness back. My hand was sore for a week. By week two I was back into form and holding my own. By week three I was dealing out some NZ justice - enough to maintain respect for future NZ fencers. By week four (last week) everyone was just having a good time (even visual sabre!).

I learnt a lot while I was there, but some things stood out:

  1. Everyone wore full uniform all the time. Including breeches. This is partly for safety/legal reasons, but it also made it such a more serious environment. Not competitively serious, but 'we take out sport seriously' serious. This is something I am going to do in New Zealand now, and encourage others too.
  2. Everyone was really friendly, always greeting each other every night like they hadn't seen each other for weeks. Very supportive.
  3. Just fence. When you turn up to fence, you just put on your gear and get on the box. Then you fence non-stop (more or less) for 3 hours. Now this has pluses and minuses in NZ. If everyone did this, beginners would be intermediates in under a year, and seniors in three. You get better by just fighting all the time, training your instincts and getting your arse kicked. However in the beginning it is important to have warm-ups and group lessons/training, and this system only works if a few people routinely dish out large sums of money for coaching. In Nz we operate in a much more egalitarian socity.
  4. With regards to fencing (I purposely keep this small and last - I am rather focusing on environment than ability in this email. Something which has dwelled on my mind of late). Hand-speed, hand-speed HAND-SPEED! When you were parried, by golly you were parried. You were dead before you hit the ground as they say. And when fencers chose to hit, you'd know it (or wouldn't as the case may be)*.

I also had the opportunity to fence the maitres while there. I quite literally believed one of them was using the force. He had some sort of precognition and knew what I was going to do well before I did it (or probably even knew myself). Its humbling and refreshing to be beaten so thoroughly, and at the risk of sounding arrogant (though I don't mean it), it was a novelty, and a key way I could actually raise my fencing to the next level.

I would like to thank Tour D'Auvergne for providing such a supportive and friendly environment to fence in while I was in France. They didn't charge me and tolerated me destroying their armoury (ever try to buy a hacksaw blade in French?!). Vincent Remy in particular was pivotal in me coming to fence at Tour, and never needing the opportunity to go elsewhere. There was more than enough competition for me just there. I was invited to come back and train there any time, and I am sure they would love to see more New Zealander's there in future.

Links

* If you'd like to talk to me more about the fencing aspect of being in Paris, meet me on the piste sometime =)

Other columns:

Valid HTML 4.01! Valid CSS!