Ego: The Good, the Bad and the Ugly

Greetings, Your personality will have an effect on how you fence and how you approach it. This is an important point that must be considered with regards to all aspects in your fencing. This blog is an examination of the effects of personality on fencing, and more to the point an examination of the effects of ego on fencing. The information below will address various aspects of personality and ego and its impact on training and competition. It is something that we should all consider as to how our own personality and ego will affect the way that we train and the way that we fence. The blog will address both the positive and negative effects of personality and ego upon the fencing process including training and competition. Your personality will have an impact on your training it will affect the way that you approach your fencing and how you perform on the field and this is an important point that we must all realise. There are good aspects that will promote the best in us and there will be negative effects that will detract from what we do and how we are percieved in our fencing. Both of these aspects need to be taken into account and the positive enhanced and the negative reduced as much as possible.

"You must keep egotism out of your fencing. Egotism has no place in your training, ... or your fencing persona. It is an ugly, misleading companion." (Evangelista, 2000:219)

Your personality will affect your approach to fencing. This is more focussed on our personal philosopy that grounds the reasons for fencing. The reasons for fencing are many and it is these reasons that will drive us to succeed or not. If our aim is simply to beat every opponent that we encounter on the field, this will have a different effect than if our goal is to further our search for the truths in swordplay. A person whose simple goal is to beat every opponent on the field may reject certain approaches in their fencing in order to enhance their ability to win. In most cases once this person has found what will work best for them on the field they will stop learning and just attempt to enhance these skills. A person who is seeking the truth in swordplay, however, will seek more than the simple win, and will search out better technique and train this. This will lead this individual to learn more and more and thus enhance their knowledge of the art that they have chosen to pursue. Thus it can be seen that the overall approach is affected by our personality and approach. Personality will affect your conduct on the field, where it is purely driven by ego, any hit against us will feel like an assault on our ego. On the other hand if this is approached as a learning experience any hit against us will be seen as a chance to learn something from the experience. Thus in this approach every encounter with an opponent is a learning experience and benefits the fencer regardless of the result. The person who seeks to enhance their experience in fencing will take every chance to learn and this will benefit them in the long run. This will also affect the way the person trains, seeking to learn from every encounter and every lesson in order that they can become a more complete swordsman. We must examine how our personality affects or performance and approach to every encounter.

"I’m not sure if I can stress enough how important having confidence is to your success at fencing (or life in general). What I’m talking about is not brash, loud, empty bravado or egotism, but the quiet assuredness you can feel emanating from people who are secure in themselves and their abilities." (Kellner, 2009)

Ego is a necessary thing in fencing. It is what drives our aspirations in fencing, it is what enables us to succeed, and also to accept successes. In this way having the effect of ego is a necessary and good thing for the fencer, but this must be tempered by the fencer's approach to what they are doing and learning. The ego must be balanced with the knowledge that fencing is a learning experience, thus the ego must realise that there will be elements where you will not succeed the first time. These times must be taken as a chance to learn rather than a personal affront. In this way, with the ego kept in check and used to drive a person to succeed through the best methods, ego can actually be a good thing. Of course, as with everything there is a negative side which must be taken into account.

"there is a point when ego takes a step beyond the normal scheme of things, when feeling good about yourself and having aspirations become self-inflating conceits. When this happens, you will most certainly get in the way of your own progress." (Evangelista, 2000:219)

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The rest of this article can be found in Un-Blogged: A Fencer's Ramblings by Henry Walker, which is available in paperback from:

Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Blogged-Ramblings-Henry-Leigh-Walker/dp/098764470X
Booktopia: https://www.booktopia.com.au/un-blogged-henry-leigh-walker/book/9780987644701.html
Among other places...

It is also available in electronic format (pdf) from: https://buy.stripe.com/fZecP419c7CB9VKeUV

... or direct from the author.

Bibliography Crown, A. A. (2006) Why Study Classical Fencing, http://www.classicalfencing.com/whystudy.php Evangelista, N. (2000) The Inner Game of Fencing: Excellence in Form, Technique, Strategy, and Spirit, Masters Press, Illinois, USA Kellner, D. (2009) Building Confidence in Your Fencing, http://www.sofaemployed.com/?p=1507