Thursday 4 December 2014

And Now For Something Completely Different

Have you ever wondered if you could be as successful, or better, at a different sport than the one you are currently doing. I did, when I was young, changing from a rubbish hockey player to a slightly better footballer and then I discovered running. To be fair I wasn’t much cop when I started running either, but there was something, and I can’t pinpoint what it was, that made me believe I could get some personal satisfaction out of it.

I persevered through the inability to complete a session, through being dropped in speed sessions and longer runs and running through a stitch in my first cross country event, where I finished 129th, well out of the points and completely unnoticed. I improved through dogged perseverance and a small degree of natural ability before deciding I needed some outside help, a coach. My first attempt to use a coach was a disaster, he was much more interested in his established athletes that he paid little credence to me, the session he gave me was completely wrong and totally unenjoyable, so I walked off and went back to running with the old boys at Belgrave Hall, which in fairness, was probably a better introduction for a novice. My 2nd coaching experience was much more enjoyable, as the group of athletes were all of similar age and ability to me, but that coach was competing against us as well and I always thought his coaching was geared more towards himself rather than us, which I suppose is fair enough if you’re not getting paid. It was my next coach, Arthur Bruce who started me onto the road to being the athlete I have become. However by the time I joined Arthur I’d been running for almost three years.

With this in mind, and the fact that the next few years brought me more success than I’d ever dreamed about, there was no way I was going to switch from running to any other sport. In fact I stopped playing other sports, such as badminton and squash, for fear that I might end up injured and unable to run. I would go to parties and not join in with party games that required anything nearing an explosive move.

As time moved on and I started to decline, I wondered if I should switch to something else, where I might be able to use my running fitness to excel, but it was never the right time and I could never think of anything that would give me the same satisfaction of running. Triathlon would be the obvious choice, I knew of many good runners who switched to that, but I am such a poor swimmer and suffer from occasional vertigo so cycling fast downhill is not my thing.

So I just continued with the running, which I still love, I just don’t win as much. However, this year I came across a local fencing group. Now fencing was something that I had always fancied having a go at, ever since I watched the Russian, Boris Onishchenko, cheat at the 1976 Olympics. At the time I came across the fencing group I was wondering if I’d be able to run pain free again, so it was maybe the right time to consider something different. I had nothing to lose really.

I arranged to go to a taster session and I was going to take Carole along too, something we could do together where we were both starting at the same level. But, come the day of the taster Carole was working late and my hamstring was feeling a bit dodgy, so I decided best to leave it. Eventually I managed to get onto another taster session, in September. Carole still couldn’t make it, but I was determined to give it a go, even though I was now, finally, running without any issues.

That first session was interesting, we did a warmup, which was a lot more energetic than I needed, considering I’d already done two training sessions that day, then after some coaching, us newbies were let loose on each other. We were fully kitted out with all the protective gear but it was still carnage as we charged in at each other like jousting knights on elastic bands, there was no finesse and we hadn’t a clue who was scoring what as the finer points of scoring hadn’t been dealt with yet. But, it was great fun, I was dripping with sweat by the end of the session and I hadn’t had as much fun in ages. I was definitely going to sign up for the five week course.

The following week I was back and this time there was a bit more structure to the session, I still felt a little out of my depth but I felt I was more controlled in my fight sequences. Carole made it along this time, but it really wasn’t her thing, so that was another thing we wouldn’t be doing together. Four weeks later I really had improved, sure I was no Errol Flynn but I was scoring well against my fellow newbies and even got close to beating an experienced and cheeky youngster, with age and flexibility on his side.

Now I had to make a decision, was this really the sport for me. I was having fun with it, the people were nice but where was I going to go with it? Despite running being very individual I see it as very much a team thing, cross country leagues, relay champs, etc. But I could see myself being isolated within a fencing environment and that wasn’t what I was after. Plus I was just starting to get my running form back and was in hard training, I didn’t want to pull something by doing too much, and, lastly, I kept getting hit on my right knee, by just about everybody I fought. I was sure it wasn’t a conspiracy theory but it was getting a bit annoying and painful. I was told it was a pay as you go, if I wanted to continue, which seemed pretty reasonable so I decided I would like to continue, but maybe not every week. Unfortunately that was about the time I came down with my cold so all these weeks later I’m not sure I’ll actually get back into it.

What can I try next?   

Written by Roger Alsop

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