Welcome to the January edition of the Newton Abbot & Totnes Fencing club newsletter.
Happy 2021 to all our fencers and what a Coquille a year 2020 was !!
It can and will get better in 2021.
Attention is basically the action of fixating the mind on some activity or some event. And when I say fixating the mind, it means being able to carefully listen and watch, and be in constant and instant awareness of everything happening in the event of interest. Driving is a fantastic example, right? You’re fixing your mind on the road, and you’re constantly aware of everything that happens near you—whether it’s other cars, pedestrians, traffic signs, a policeman, any obstacles on the road like potholes or objects, animals, whatever it is.
You are constantly watching, you’re constantly listening to what happens. You are in a driving mind zone, where not only you’re aware of what is going on around you, but—because of that—you can essentially predict what will happen in the next moment, because you catch some subtle cues from the surrounding that allows you to predict. You see the body language of a pedestrian, showing that he or she is about to cross. A car starts to do a change of lane, or use their signal. The traffic light turns from green to yellow.
So: Attention is the action of fixing your mind on something by carefully listening and watching, and being constantly and instantly aware of everything that happens around you. And, because of that, being able to predict the next moment.
Similar things happen on the fencing strip. You take some from the other fencer, from your opponent—if they stop moving their arm forward, if they attack, if they take a step back—you are constantly aware of what’s happening with them. And it happens very, very fast. So you fixate your mind on them, and you predict, based on all the cues you take from that moment, what will happen next.
Fencing is, in a way, similar to chess—but in fast motion. They say that fencing is chess at 90 miles per hour! During a chess game, you really need to anticipate the moves of your opponent. You need to calculate different outcomes. What will be the reaction and outcome of your opponent’s move? This is similar to fencing. You try to predict the movement of your opponent. www.acdemyoffencingmasters.com
I have managed to secure a source of a company (Samuel Daw and Co Ltd, 8 Cross Street, Barnstaple, N Devon, EX31 1BA, www.samdaw.co.uk ) who are willing to produce some really nice Polo shirts for our club, in Navy Blue with the club’s emblem on the left-hand side.
I have included a size chart and a photo of the Polo shirt (what a good-looking Chair you have!!)
The cost of each Polo Shirt is £14.10 plus P & P, they are really good material (100% Polyester) and well made. If you are interested, please let me know and we can go about ordering them.
Size | Chest Measurements
X-Small | 34″-36″
Small | 36″ – 38″
Medium | 38″ – 40″
Large | 40″ – 42″
X-Large | 42″-44″
XX-Large | 44″ – 46″
Text box item sample content
