mind is everything

May is very intensiv period in my life... always.
Same as december... actually.. always.

I need to believe that I can do everything what I need to do to succed. I always believe!
Thats why I succed already with few of my dreams
hope you believe that you can succed too.
I found one good quote, good enough to share it:

Mind is everything, Every thught you create manifests it self in real world,
if you didnt achieve something you strive for - you simply didnt believe in it enough.
Mario Novak.

Vitti ... Wratislavia ... Its nice to be here!

In the 90's it was "Challenge Vitti", it was qualification for Polish Championships U15.

Big and strong competitions, among those first ones with many international fencers I could fence against. I remember (and I checked) that last time for me was 1996 and I was 10th among 235 fencers. I lose L16 against Marcin Zawada 15:10. Michal Ponaczewny won this competitions in the final aginst Krzysztof Gracki.

I could check it in my "fencing diary"... yes, because I have one, since my very first competitions in 1994 until I start work as a coach 2006, all competitions I was, all places, all matches, always with best top 8 results and my result, if possible with article from newspaper..
who has something like this now??

After Challenge best 30 Polish fencers has qualified directly to Polish Championships, than another 18 fencers gets "ticket" after additional qualifications in regions... and few months later Michal Ponaczewny became Polish Champion, with Krzysztof Gracki in great final, 15:14.. last hit was "squat".. Michal was like 30cm smaller than Krzysztof, so hi just used oportunity.
its history.. I lose L16 again.

Challenge Wartislavia has long history.. 36 years, as a competition for kids, bigger and bigger every year. Since few years ago we have new categories U15, U13 and U11, all six weapons!

I think there is no chance to find any good european fencer who didnt fence there!
Offcourse succes in Challenge will not determinate your fencing future, but its always good memories.

Kids competitions with budget around 80 000 euro.
Kids competitions with all weapons and 3 age categories in each
Kids competitions with over 2000 fencers
Kids competitions with great finals and TV relations

I love come to Challenge Wratislavia.
Meet all people here,
Meet coach Glowacki who seems be always that same, that same since I was 15 years old.. but is already another 15 years later.
My coach Puza, "maestro" Kuzma, ... Im kind of sentimental guy sometimes.
All Coaches who remember me as boy.. boy, girl.. doesnt matter - you are "sword" as Syrio Forell says, Old coahes has always something to say, I like to talk.. and I like to listen about fencing.

I always get news who is coming to Polanica tranings camp during summer.
I hear news which are not always official...
I see many new talents, and what is most fun as a coach I can seee how few of them growing from U11 to U13 and than to U15

Fencing is great, you know, you meet people here who will follow you whole your life..if you just decide to stay with fencing. We were 15 when we compete here, we are 30 and we are still here.
I can imagine that I will meet many of those people even when I will be 50.

So, why I write about it?
Because I think that good competitions should get good "marketing" among fencing people.
And I always try to say between the words, that fencing is the best you can do in your life.

More about competitions here: Challenge Wratislavia

Swedish Foil Team on European Championship

Its time.
For many it was a main goal for this season, for few is just another Championships.
Sweden is sending full team in Cadets (8) and full team in Junior (8).
Chances for winning? ... not really
Chances for great results? ... not really (even if I want to belive, we need to be realistics)
Chances for good fencing? ... I hope
Chances to learn something and get more expierence? ... I wish
Chances to be more motivatet, and se what we need to do to be better? ... its my expectation

Usually to be in cadett or junior national team is quite a great thing.
I remember when I was in national team and get my "POLSKA" track suits..
Swedish fencers need to buy their "SVERIGE" track suits by them self.
They pay for travel, hotel, entry fee, referee fee and everything what you need to pay.

I always try to understand how cool is to practice whole season, travel on few national and international competitions (always pay for everything by them self) and when you get quite good results you can jump in to national team.. and pay by your self if you would like go to European Championships.

I do many things without reason, becaouse I want it, and I just hope that my fencers do fencing with same motivations..
I see no carrot in this system, so I can just wish that mine students parents have good economic situation and their kids likes fencing and has great motivation to work hard.

This is f..g annoying

I promissed to avoid criticism.. so I cannot write more about it.

So here we go, those foil fencers we can see on fencing pistes in Budapest:

Women - Cadett
Ester Schreiber, GFK, 1997, rank 1, coach Henrik Lundegard*
Linn Löfmark, FKC (but GFK actually), 1996, rank 2, coach Henrik Lundegard*
Harriet Rundquist, EGF, 1998, rank 3, coach Tomasz Goral
Julia Engström, EGF, 1997, rank 4, coach Tomasz Goral

Men - Cadett
Josef Rizell, GFK, 1996, rank 1, coach Henrik Lundegard*
Elis Wickman, EGF, 1996, rank 2, coach Tomasz Goral
Carl Ahlgvist, MF19, 1997, rank 3, coach Dmitri Lee
Vincent Mindelöf, EGF, 1997, rank 3, coach Tomasz Goral

Women - Junior
Ester Schreiber, GFK, 1997, rank 1, coach Henrik Lundegard*
Linn Löfmark, FKC, 1996, rank 2, coach Henrik Lundegard*
Alice Engström, EGF, 1995, rank 3, coach Tomasz Goral
Alida Falkenström, EGF, 1994, rank 4, coach Tomasz Goral

Men - Junior
Julius Martin, GFK, 1994, rank 1, coach Henrik Lundegard*
Simon Rizell, GFK, 1994, rank 2, coach Henrik Lundegard*
Josef Rizell, GFK, 1996, rank 1, coach Henrik Lundegard*
Ludvig Flyborg ÄFK, 1993, rank 4, coach Aliksandr Siniak

*You should know that Martin Roth Kronwall is working as a coach in GFK too, but Im not sure which fencers hi is working with, so as a know Henrik is a head coach, so I wrote head coachs name behind all GFK fencers, it can happend that Martin should be there too. :)

Maybe for few of you it seems little "boring" that 2 clubs has so many fencers in this team...
I will wrote about it little latter.

Good Luck for all fencers!
Remember is always just 1 hit which is counting right now... and than another one.

A Championship effort

I found very good text by David Littell . So I hope you will enjoy it too.

Maybe some of you will understand little more what coach are saying now.

 

Since retiring from competitive fencing I have turned my fencing energies toward coaching. I expected that this experience would require teaching fencing skills, strategy, and motivation. But I had not anticipated that it would be hard for students to understand what it took to be good at a sport. I had been an athlete for so long that this stuff was just part of me. Over the years I have been struggling to find the words to explain to my students what I think learning fencing, and for that matter, any sport is all about. Here it is.

 

I hope that you love fencing. Please, please, please, do it because you enjoy it. There are so many sports and other activities out there to pursue. Do yourself, your coaches and your families a favor, pick activities that your really love. I’ve never met a parent that doesn’t want that for their children. Also, I’ve never felt bad losing a student to another passion. I only feel bad losing a student to fear, lethargy or lack of commitment to anything. In addition, if you look around almost all the greatest athletes are the ones who simply love playing their sports.

 

I expect that you will try as hard as you can to master the skills. This is often the hardest. Although it seems simple, it’s really a complex idea. It requires that you appreciate several key concepts of sport. One is " it is not as easy as it looks". Each and every one of us is guilty of this one. Somehow, in the human experience, we think if you can do it, I can. The second concept is "mastery is in the details." Getting good is as simple as learning to master the skills. However, no matter how many times I say this most students don’t practice their lunges, extensions, disengages, footwork and other fencing skills. I wish I could come up with other ways to say it, but the bottom line is learning requires more practice then you can imagine.

 

Develop an appreciation for how hard it is to master your sport. Mastery is difficult. In fencing you have to master a million skills, put them together in some orderly fashion, develop strategies for different opponents, and learn to do this under pressure. Then you have to start over at every new level of competition. Getting good is hard. Truly knowing this also means that when you do succeed you will enjoy it more. If you ever listen to athletes on TV you notice that the best athletes have a sense of humility about competition. They know that every time they go out there anything can happen. This respect for competition comes usually after losing and getting up and trying again. And when these athletes succeed, you can sense the appreciation even the awe of their performance. On the other hand are those athletes who get frustrated and quit. In my estimation, many of these never appreciated how hard it is to get good. They act defeated and as if they have a lack of self-confidence. They say things like, "I should be farther then I am", and "I can’t believe how bad I am". When I hear this I don’t hear a lack of confidence, I hear overconfidence. In most cases the reality is your right where you should be!

 

Clearly decide where fencing fits in your life and go for it. This means figure out how important this is to you now, balancing your other interests and responsibilities. This requires looking at the time available, your level of interest and your goals. I primarily see the function of goals as helping you determine how much work your going to do. Once this is done, now get down to work! Establishing priorities helps you get what you want and also helps you to enjoy the journey.

 

Become coachable. This is easy for some and almost impossible for others. It requires the belief that you need something, that the other person can offer it, and a willingness to diligently try to master what they have to offer. It seems to me that most fall down in the first category. For many different reasons people have trouble opening themselves up to advice. Be it fear, embarrassment, bad experiences in other learning environments (like school) or overconfidence, opening up to advice and new ideas is hard. Also, know that if you’re going to be great, you have to learn to become coachable. At the same time, I don’t think being coachable means being blindly following the leader. You have to learn to be discriminating. At times, I am certain that you will have to reject some advice- and it might not feel easy to do.

 

Learn to make an honest and rigorous self-evaluation. This means giving full weight to both the positive and the negative aspects of your game, your training program, and your competitive demeanor. If you don’t appreciate your strengths, two things might happen. One, you’ll get depressed and discouraged. And two, even more dangerous, you might throw away what you do best. Another trap here is that sometimes what seems to be a weakness is really a strength. For example, if your best move is your counterattack- it may not mean that it’s time to start over. It may only mean that you need to figure out a better way to set up your counterattack. On the other hand, it’s also important to be able to look at your weaknesses openly and honestly. If you don’t you’re doomed. Saying after every loss "I choked" isn’t going to get you anywhere.

 

Learn to reach out for what you need . Think big. Many people have a closed view of where to get help. The coach, the coach the coach. You, not the coach is at the center of your fencing. This is your activity and the coach as well as the rest of the world is full of tools that will help. Please try and stay and touch with the fact that fencing is yours and where you go with it is up to you. Other life. Part of thinking big, means knowing that what is going on in your whole life can impact on your fencing. For me, those people in my life that support and value me for things other then fencing- have been crucial to my athletic success. They helped to keep fencing in balance and to never seem to important. Also, in many cases, the stuff that keeps us from getting good at fencing has to do with problems outside the sport. When I went to the Olympics I met many athletes, who were not problem free, but had overcome personal problems in order to get there. Keep your ears open. If you listened carefully, everything that you need to know to become an Olympic athlete was said on television by the athletes during the recent Atlanta Olympic Games. Be creative. When you read biographies of athletes, you see that each had a unique road to the top. Many times they chose unusual and creative paths based on their own personalities and experiences.

 

I expect that you will practice good sportspersonship This is not easy, and I have carefully chosen the word practice. It also means that if you fail, you apologize immediately. Still, I’m not sure that I say this enough to my students- it does really mean a great deal to me. One of the hardest parts of being a good sport in a one on one sport is appreciating your opponent’s efforts. It’s easy to be miserable, but it truly is important for you to say to your opponent, congratulations on your performance, today you were the better fencer. And the fact is, it’s true!

 

I expect that you will try to try to win until the last touch. All you can do is try. And as easy as that sounds, it is almost impossible. Almost all athletic contests are over before the end. Most times one of the athletes has conceded by the end. It’s so hard- yet so simple- try and win this touch, then after that try and win the next one.

I want to finish by saying that often fencers and their parents ask me if I think that they can make an Olympic team. This question is unaswerable, especially in a sport that has so many paths to success. However, what is almost always easy to say is "I believe that it will be a valuable experience for you to pursue a goal of making the Olympic team". Because, doing so means having to pursue mastering all of the goals that I just mentioned, and these can help you in any pursuit that you choose. Also notice that this same process goes for pursuing much less lofty goals. If you succeed at most or even some of these goals, you will take something away from the sport that will be invaluable throughout your life. Also, I, as the coach will be completely, totally, and absolutely satisfied, even if you lose 5-0.

 

When spotlights shut down

Nobody thinks about it, nobody thinks about it so much because everyone hope this is not about him.
But what if things go not exactly as we thod?

Most of us dont think that things can go wrong.
We do fencing, sometimes whole life, running after our dreams.
We achieve our goals and give great moments to our fans, federations and sponsors.
Big time when carrier is end. New life, sometimes just same but on other side, when you decide to work as a coach, or get great position in federation. Some of us are great lawyers, doctors, politics or businessman.
Fencing people usually get what they want, we are succesfull people.
We are great fencing family. Fencing give us our best friends, fencing give us our wives and husbands.
Here are people we can count on in hard times. Thats why Im writing this time about Jacek Gaworski. I hope, there is someone who will read it and can help Jacek as many others fencing friends already do.

There are things we cannot controll.
Illness or accidents which change our life in few seconds.

Jacek Gaworski was a great fencer, I hade oportunity to meet him on the piste. I was young cadett when hi was att the end of his succesfull carrier.
But after all fencing duells in his life, Jacek has one more to win... this time about his life.

Video with slideshow about Jaceks carrier

Multiple Sclerosis became a opponent that Jacek need to fight against now!
Jacek is great fighter, and never give upp. Hi is doing well! But hi need our help.
Fencing, this time on wcheelchair is helping him... and fencers helps him too!
Unfortunatelly health system in Poland cannot help him. There is many administrative bulshit rules.
MS get also help and try destroy Jacek together with cancer, but Hi got us in this fight!
We are members of Jacek Gaworski team..
Hi started foundation "Help fight about life"
Hi can count only on us, other fencers!

About Jacek Gaworski

About Foundation "Help fight about life"

Dreams

I have a dream ...
Many knows those words, but there are dreams which comes true actually.

Many of us dreaming to be Champion..its quite simple and popular dream for every sportsman
(I think)..
and many sportsmen become National Champion, World Champion, Olimpic Champion, few of them even many times. Heroes!

There is always some one else who is standing behind those Heroes... I would like be this man standing behind a Hero.

Its always same draft..
It start with dream, passion, than you make a plan, plan how to do it, than you need a lot of consequence, maybe little luck to step by step come closer..sometimes earlier than You thod, sometimes later, sometimes.. never.

There are small dreams, plans raither.. "I will do it", "I want it".. and you do it, and you have it.
Simple. Because you are ready, you deserve it.
When it hapend, you say: it was good day, it was god practice, it was good, it feels good

There are bigger dreams, dreams which demand more from you, more work! more conseguence!
more efforts! more sweat! more tears! ... more pain!
And when it hapend, you cant stop you happines... few moments is the best reward for all this hard work.

There are great dreams, dreams you can reach only by heroic work, heroic conseguence, heroic effort.. and what is most magic in the sport.. without any guarantee that you will ever reach it.
And when it hapend, you cant stop you tears, you cannot breathe, you cant stop thinking "I make it.. now I can die"

If you are lucky, if you work hard enough you will get earnest of it.
Earnest of you dreams.
I think sometimes is just enough to go forward.. to run after you dreams.
Usually earnest make you stronger. Make you more motivated in your work.
But not always.. shit happends and you need to go forward!

There is no guarantee that you or I will reach our dreams!
But I think its worth to just try it..
Try to make it hapend.

I make my dreams come true.
Not all, but quite many, maybe I have quite simple dreams, or maybe I just choose right steps I should take to go still forward and reach my dreams.

I always have one rule:
Everything you do, do your best!
Its not easy rule... and I need to say that sometimes I need to give up.. go back or wait.. and try it again.

As I wrote before I never planed to be a coach... it wasnt my dream.
BUT
Im coach, and I believe that this is the best way for me, best way to create something!
I have dreams about creating, I wanna be great creator
Im not sure if I will create something as a coach... I will try!

Im quite sure that I will work hard to make it happend.
As a man with great passion for fencing.
As a man with dreams about fencing.

Some day I will open door to great fencing center...

Some day I will meet a boy or girl with great passion to fencing, and togheter we will do something no one have done before

Some day I will show them all results of my work, something speciall

Some day I will be surrounded by houndrets of my fencers, my pupils

Some day I will stand behind swedish foil fencer.. olimpian

Some day I will meet my old fencers with their kids who will start fencing too, with me, next generations

Some day, some one really good will replace me, some one who get this passion from me

What about your dreams?

Magic people... Fencing people!

Everyone has friends, (I hope!)... I can be quite boring, but I have only "fencing friends".
Yes I have friends from elementary school, childhood, high school or university..but there are friends.. and "friends".

For me its f...g big difference when you know people.. and when you can call them friends.
I know thousand of people, but I havent to many friends..
Maybe it depends of my character, maybe its not so easy to be friend with me.
Maybe I dont want to have many friends..

There are few people I would like to present.
People who here in far, far away Sweden do some fencing.. not always like me, but beauty of fencing is that enyone can do fencing on his own way, and it can work pretty well.

I love fencing, and I have great respect to people who work with fencing, almost all of them.
So, please meet "my" Magic people,  "my" Fencing people.. here in Sweden.. my pack!

I need to start with Pawel Mancewicz, because its actually his fault that Im here (long story!)

 

Pawel "Mancek" is coming from Poland, from same city as me, from same club as me (Budowlani Torun), Hi was already national team epee fencer when I tried to be good in foil. Not as regular epee fencer, Pawel is also dangerous in foil! Hi is also FIE referee.. in foil.

Hi is a "Mrs Fencing" on Gotland island. Working as a coach and PE teacher.

Master degree in PE and fencing coach from AWF Katowice - "produced" by famous prof. Czajkowski.

His wife is an angel, if Pawel is "quite" impulsive, Ewa is totally opposite to him.

His two soons, Bartek and Mikolaj already fence, with quite good results. It can be quite loud about Bartek, Mikolaj can be another Zlatan too.

The best with Pawel is that we can call to each other and tell everything with many "kurwa" between.

 

 

Orvar "Maestro" Jönsson. The Old Fox, actually in my opinion the last one of those "classical fencing masters", the last one in Sweden, the last Swedish who got my great respect. Great Experience. Great passion.. to golf and his dog. Live in Malmö and working there, also as a PE teacher in High School. Orvar is Swedish Fencing Federations board member. I love old stories, and Orvar knows "few".

 

 

Pierre Thulberg, champion of diplomacy. Actually hi is a general secretary in Swedish Fencing Federation now, and I have great expectations to him on this position. Pierre know fencing well as a DT on biggest competitions include Olympic Games. Many people know him, and hi knows many people. I like Pierre for many things, one of those most important is that hi understand that, we, here in Sweden, need to change a lot of things to be better. I just hope that Pierre will make it happen.

 Ivan Makkai. Most famous Swedish among Hungarians, and almost most famous Hungarian among Swedish (I think Bella Rerisch is still more famous hungarian). Epee coach from Stockholm, Djugården, educated in Budapest.

There is some kind balance in the world. Jang and Jing, if there is one impulsive coach like Pawel or me (but in this compare Im calm), there need to be another very calm. Ivan is calm. Hi likes fencing and do his jobb, quite good distans between life and work. Hi always find a time to go fishing. Hi can be world champion in fishing on fly among fencers. I heard that Ivan likes slavisk music and "burnt wine". All nice girls should notice that Ivan is still single.

 

Martin "Rektor" Roth Kronwall, the guy who beat Salvatore Sanzo when they were juniors. Working in Gothenburg with Henrik (about him later). Hi is like sport menager and help coach in club. Hi was a principal in High School, but love to fencing (and to us) was stronger than good sallary. So hi is teaching som wired subject like culture history in part time and rest of his time spend on fencing gym. Hi can be record holder if you count all nights hi slept in fencing club. Martin is also autor of book about "cold swimming houses in Sweden"... I have this book, even with autograph, but Im not ready yet to start reading it. I will tell you about it when it will be done.

 

 Henrik Lundegard is this guy you se always with Martin, and believe they are not togehter!. Henrik became a coach few years ago, try learn everything from everyone by himself and create his own fencing phylosophy. Great motivation and very good results so far. Hi is a head coach working with foil in Gothenburg. Actually Gothenburg is a only one fencing club in sweden with 3 coaches! Yes, I know its quite funny, but this is how it is in Sweden.. in my situation 100 kids.. 1 coach - part time paid, and its not a club foult, this is "swedish model" its quite interesting so I will write about it some day.

Henrik is a "made in sweden" product. Involved to his jobb, with own instinkt and not always good teoretical base. Unfortunatelly Sweden hasnt any national education for fencing coaches, there are just very simple instructor courses, so Henriks "by himself" way is correct. Who told us that coach need to have a master degree in sport since? Yes, I know all coaches from post comunistics countries have it. But Henrik is from Sweden. On other side Henrik is try to beat Pawel on "go carts" as I remember, so long without results.

 













Mariusz Zimmerman is another Coach coming from Poland and working here, in far, far away Sweden. We are almost like mafia here :)  Hi is the "silent" one. Hi never gets yellow or black cards, not like Pawel or me. Representing Muszkieter Gliwice and educate as Pawel on AWF Katowice produced by famous professor Czajkowski. Mariusz like Ivan has a great distans between work and life. I dont have, fencing - my work, my passion.. is my life. Its make me dangerous.

Mariusz is like catalyst you can talk with him like with Pawel, but without so many "kurwa, ja pierdole" I have a feeling that Mariusz can produce great fencers, questions is only if there are any candidates out there.. in Örebro?

 

Alexandr Siniak, the newest one in the pack. Hi came to Sweden two years ago from Minsk, and hi replaced me in Ängby Fencing Club. Because of my moving with quite big group of fencers and starting En Garde Fencing Club, hi started almost from begining in Ängby and his small ninjas are already on top in youngest category. I can speak polish with Pawel and Mariusz, and with Sasha I can still practice my russian, which is great, unfortunatelly Sasha want to practice swedish more often.

Sasha like go carts to!  We like to talk about fencing, similar ideas, similar fascination. All nice girls should note that as I know Alexandr is already taken, but you can always try.

 

I think that Im quite magic too.

 

 
As you can read in my profile, coming from Poland, Torun, educated on AWF Warszawa. Walking always his own ways. Always something to say, and say always what hi thinks. Quite active in Students Union during studies, if I cannot succe in fencing, I will be a politican, the orthodox one.

Black and white.. there is no grey.

Maybe black sheep, but I dont care. No others hobby than fencing, have no time. Actuall focused on En Garde Fencing Club - the dream which comes true. But there are few dreams more to come true.

 

 

So here we are. No girls this time.. because fencing is a sport for real man!

There are few more in Sweden working with fencing, but not so many, unfortunatelly. Hope it will change some day.

I need to apologize all my friends in other countries! You are great too, but I will write about you all next time.