Footwork as the Foundation of Fencing

Basic footwork is one of the most critical and fundamental factors in becoming a strong fencer.  Without the ability to hold your body in the right posture, move forward and backwards, or adjust to your opponents movements your fencing ability is going to be limited. The footwork is a basic building block in the triangle of footwork, sword play, and mental conditioning. 

Footwork: The movement of the body back and forth. Leads to lunges, attacks, and defense. 

Sword play: The ability to move your arm and swords in coordination with your footwork. The more agile your wrists and quick your arms the more likely you can create movements that attack and defend. 

Mental Conditioning: The ability to attack in defend is based on the recognition of movements and having a battery of responses. The time it takes to condition the mind to integrate recognition and reaction will determine the natural skill that leads to pinpointed actions. 

Professional fencers go back and review their footwork on a regular basis as this is the very foundation of their sport.  New fencers hate spending time in this boring occupation of going back and forth but it is necessary to integrate the movements so they are automatic. Some instructors may allow for some swordplay to reduce the boredom. The goal is to integrate all of the actions together to create relaxed, fluid, and well thought out movements.

Wine Review: Tierra Brisa's 2012 Malbec

Some choice words that describe Tierra Brisa’s 2012 Malbec include ripe, blackberry, spice, and well balanced.  A nine second aftertaste from complete start to finish. There appears to be just a touch of vanilla which may mean it was aged in oak barrels. Crisp with light tannins. It appears to be well balanced for customers.

Produced in the Mendoza region of Argentina the grapes are ripened on the Andes slopes. The region doesn’t receive a lot of rain but has mild seasons. It is the most important grape growing region in the area and has world interest. The growers have moved from quantity to quality production.  

Malbec is a great wine for steaks and other greasy foods. Even though this wine retails for around $8.00 there is little association of the taste with the quality. It would be a strong wine to offer in a restaurant and earn your price back with a single sold glass. You would get somewhere around 4 to 6 six servings per bottle and can charge the $8.00 easily in most places.

Are all Businesspeople Artists?

Art and business are often seen as two radically different fields that appear on the surface to have very little in common with each other. Art is for the romantic while business is for the realist. Art is a dreamer’s occupation and business is for the hard-nosed adherent to the facts of life. This artificial mental barrier may not be true as we think for art and business are integrally tied to the ability to see possibilities.  

There are obvious connections between the two once we start digging into the nitty gritty of their existence. For example, in marketing business requires the use of art to create stories, messages, and themes. It would be difficult to attract new customers in an atmosphere of marketing fatigue unless you are willing to do something unique. Most of us remember the really creative commercials that take into consideration visual artistic design. 

Let us move a little deeper into the use of art and business for product development. Successful business are able to convert products and services to new forms that generate higher value on the market. Art allows one to visualize something new, explore a previous unknown form, or ponder improvements while understanding how people will view them. Without a level of creativity these new products and services will never enter the conceptual stage. 

At an even deeper level we can find an association between theory and creativity. All theory is based on imaginary models that are tested for validity. The ability to visual how different components work together and interact in theory is similar to understanding how the varying colors work together to create an entire picture. Finding, formalizing and testing is all mental play that can generate great products like electricity or airplanes. 

There are differences between art and business but these are surface differences. Art is exploration of human experience while business seeks to reinforce that experience. It is difficult to sell products if you do not have a clear understanding of how self-identity influences the type of products people purchase and the underlining human experience that influence motivations. 

As a business person you may not view yourself as an artist. However, you are the maker and the creator. The better you are at your craft the more likely you are to sell that ability on the market. You must be able to see the options and opportunities through your abstract thinking to make strategic decisions. Failure to see new possibilities, build new products, and generate new sources of revenue means the eventual collapse of your business. 

Type of Art: music, painting, sketching, mechanical drawing, photography, acting, dancing, etc…