89 is not 90

If you're practicing effectively, skill plateaus aren't real. Sometimes it might seem like you're stuck in a rut, but I can't tell you how many times I have seen someone think they're not making progress only to suddenly experience a major surge in performance. It happened to me, and it can happen to you.

My great leap forward in performance happened during a wrestling tournament. I had been pretty sick the week beforehand and was finishing up a lackluster season. I just wasn't very good, and my school had just undergone a major illness that saw more than 50% of the students and staff out sick. I'm not even exaggerating that-- whatever it was, it was inescapable and took me out of commission for four days.

When I showed up to the tournament, I felt terrible. It was a double elimination with a consolation bracket for 3rd place, and I think I lost the first round in something like a minute. I felt terrible, mentally and physically. I curled up on the bleachers in the fetal position, ate a bagel, and fell asleep for over an hour.

My next match was against someone I'd already lost to that year. I felt sluggish. Shortly after the whistle, he took me down and started to work to turn me.

And then, I could wrestle.

I sat out, did a Peterson roll, scooped up an inside cradle, and pinned him.

I think my dad lost his voice and my mom bruised the palms of her hands clapping.

It kept on like that. A round or two later, I was in the consolation finals against... the guy I lost to in the first round. Ugh. He definitely expected an easy win from me.

I ragdolled him. I won by technical decision, which means that I was up on points so high that the match ended prematurely.  He had crushed me earlier that day and I beat him in the most decisive way possible.

How does this apply to fencing? How do we recreate this sort of event?

Here's the thing: we have to learn everything right and work on everything at once, even when focusing on particular aspects. Fencing is the sort of activity where if a technique has 5 parts to it, each one might need to be 90% perfect before the technique works at all. 

This means that if you are sitting at 90, 95, 95, 92, and 89... it will work as well as 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, or 50, 75, 80, 89, 60. As a learner, you will not be able to tell which you are. Say that with me again: you will not be able to tell which you are. Your teacher, if they are worth their salt, will know. 

When you work on that 89 over and over and over and it finally nudges to a 90, you explode forward because those 95s get a chance to shine and suddenly you're nailing it. 

Always, always keep at it. Get feedback, focus on your weaknesses, train, improve. You don't know your own potential, I promise you. You don't know your own potential, but we can unlock it and see just what you're capable of. It can be glorious. 

Let's get to work.