Posted on 06/10/2021 1:34:14 PM PDT by DUMBGRUNT
SFGATE culture editor Dan Gentile squares off against former Olympic fencer James-Andrew Davis.
As another trainer pulled a mask over my face, I asked if Davis had any weaknesses. The trainer responded with a dry joke: "He’s British," she said.
“People think that it’s slow motion, and it’s actually super fast,” says Massialas. “Your mind has to work a million miles an hour. You’re moving up and down, it’s very intense, you have to make very quick decisions and stay quick under pressure. Most people know that it’s a thinking game, but they don’t understand the speed and intensity.”
“It’s a physical game of chess,” he says. “You’re thinking nonstop.”
He brushed off my meager attacks so effortlessly he could’ve been using his non-sword hand to hold a very hot cup of tea.
“A lot of sports out there, if you’re a peak athlete, you’re the fastest, can jump the highest, and you’re the strongest. Those are incredible feats of athleticism. But throughout my career I’ve seen so many fencers that are great athletes but didn’t have the mental aspect down. To be a great fencer you have to have a balance of both.”
“Most of your life you’re encouraged not to hit anyone with anything,” says Alexander Massialas. “But in this sport you’re encouraged to stab someone with a sword over and over again. What better excuse is there?”
(Excerpt) Read more at sfgate.com ...
I did a HUGE amount of fencing in my youth...(Mostly barbed wire)
I had to give up fencing when I fenced myself in a circle and couldn’t get out without help. That’s embarrassing.
“I’m not left-handed, either.”
This one is better. 
Good stuff. Had not seen that movie. Thanks for posting the link.
Now THAT’S a gay blade!
It goes for most combat sports that the mental is important. Getting in a MmA bout confronts one with many options , strategies and issues of situational awareness while being nearly blind on the ground at times.
Foil:Get closer to them than they are to you.
Epee: Just stick your sword out and they run into it with their arm.
Saber: You just run at each other and yell.
Reffing in French is gay.
This was the sum total of the fencing knowledge gained from two state champions in the family. I don’t think they are getting hired on as commentators for the Olympics.
Split rail? Picket? Chain link? Barbed wire?
—” scene from “The Deluge”
Wow! That was intense and without seeing any development of the characters!
That is a major advance from my previous study of sword fighting with Zorro and the Three Musketeers.
—” two state champions in the family.”
Like many other topics, things I know zero about.
Usually, I can recall someone I knew that had experience in many unusual athletic endeavors.
Knife throwing! Yes.
I worked for years with an archer/slingshot guy and he was good at it.
The closest I can recall was a friend that had been stabbed in a fight.
Ridley Scott’s The Duellists is both good and beautiful.
—”Split rail? Picket? Chain link? Barbed wire?”
Concertina wire.
With trip flares.
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