Eye of the Storm

I have recently been incorporating a new philosophy into my fencing- Tranquility.

As a word, it means stillness, peaceful. But deeper than that, I feel it means being at peace. I realise the irony in trying to create a sense of inner peace in a sport that moves with lightning pace. The paradox therein will probably be discussed in a moment.

My technique for tranquility is based largely upon breathing, posture and attitude. Between points I like to breathe deeply and close my eyes, just to isolate myself from the tumultuous goings on of the club. It works, and I feel like the world is moving fractionally (but noticably) slower than before. This gives me more time to react to the epeeist hurtling towards me. Posture also helps because if you are imbalanced or slouched, you cannot really fence properly. It also ties in nicely with the breathing, as the deepest breaths come from the best postures.

Once in this peaceful state, I try new things- attacking from time to time, and gaining ground rather than conceding it (anyone who fences me knows that they are doing most of the work). This brings me to the title, as the eye of a hurricane is an area of incredibly low pressure, which creates the huge vortex around it and aslo becomes an area of perfect weather. I try me level best to imitate, or perhaps even become, a storm of such type.