It is the dawn of Day Three at the US Fencing Association's Coaches College session for Level I Foil coach certification.  I'm surrounded by athletes in peak condition from various sports.  I'm no longer sucking in my gut when I walk around the campus, though.  I'm letting myself appreciate the view instead of comparing myself to what I see.

As I said in the last entry, it's amazing to me.  We're all from rival clubs who will try to beat each other soundly during the coming months.  Yet here we are, working with each other to help each other become better coaches.  It turns out I'm one of the more experienced fencers here (although mostly in sabre, not foil, and at a mediocre skill level).  Many people here have only been fencing for a few years.  In some cases, they took up fencing because they teach at schools which needed fencing coaches, so they've had very little time to learn the sport.  On the other end are people who have competed at high-level tournaments, who are moving into coaching.  All of us will return home and stand before a group of beginning students, who have only seen fencing in the movies.  We'll all face a similar challenge:  How do we help these people add skills to their interest?  Can we encourage some of our students to move from interest to passion?

Here we aren't competitors, but collaborators.

Two months from now?  Different story!