Practice in a Nutshell

Announcements

Fees

If you haven’t paid your fees for July, please do so. Thank you!

Bring an Item

If you are planning on attending the Masquerade Ball Saturday, bring a personal item to represent you on our anonymous dance card.

Masters School

Next Saturday, the 17th, at 9 am, is Masters School. We are going through an exciting period of updating and experimenting at Masters School to better match the wants and needs of those who attend. Come and help us make this an even better experience for our fencers. And for anyone who is interested I will stick around a bit and help you with your juggling. So even if you don’t fence show up towards the end and I’ll help you get to the next level in your juggling.

There is a pre-wedding practice thing

The lovely bride who is getting married this weekend has reserved Woodland for Friday and Saturday so let’s just stay out of her way. Meet at Forbush Park 99 S. Main St. See you there!

Shay’s Thoughts

Hey, I am learning a new thing and I’m relating it to fencing. My kids have been after me for years for ukulele lessons. So I finally caved and we three are all taking ukulele lessons together. For reference, I haven’t played an instrument in like 20 years and my kids have like 6 months of spotty piano lessons under their belts. Bless her, we have a very patient teacher.

So right off the bat, I can tell you two things. First I went in overconfident, and two, I quickly learned that I’m terrible at it. And I love it! It’s so good to be really bad at something! It’s good for helping me look at things carefully. It’s good for helping me work on my problem-solving skills. And it’s really helping me to dig inside and find my motivation and determination. I haven’t had to use these skills in a while and I’m really grateful to have to pull them out now.

Yes, I said skills. And these skills are translatable to fencing. Observation, problem-solving, finding your Why, and goal setting are all super important fencing skills. I guarantee there is something that we all suck at in fencing. Maybe you shy away from that skill, maybe you’re just mad at it, maybe you’re defeating yourself with it. But if you will focus on these 4 skills you will get better at it. I have done it several times in my fencing journey, I’ve literally just spent the last 3 and a half years working on blocking, and I’m way better now than I was when I started. I’m doing it with the ukulele and even in just a month, I can see I’ve made a bunch of progress.

I challenge you to bring out these skills over the next few weeks and see how much better you can get. Work hard and Be SHASy!