“Give Tempo” his voice rang out softly but firmly as I attempted to replicate the exercise. “No. Give Tempo.” his voice uttered yet again, this time seemingly confused that I was struggling to find understanding in something so basic and intrinsic as this fundamental fencing action.

And so, in a heap of frustration and nearly at tears I tried again. It is a different kind of pressure for a young coach to have the steady and all seeing eye of such a venerable and skilled maestro as Ed Korfanty watching your every move. I was fortunate enough to be able to attend a coaching seminar held at Oregon Fencing Alliance in January of 2012 and this moment still captivates me as being superbly impactful on my life. It was the moment I realized what I knew, what I did not know, and what I was willing to do to learn it.

In the cannon of fencing actions and tactics, there exist three strata of tactical concepts and they are: offense, defense, and counter-offense. The beauty and art of our sport is how these three themes interplay with each other. The skill of a fencer is seen not only in their athleticism or technical execution, but at the highest levels it is seen in their ability to gracefully bring together these elements and adapt with creative intuition to the ever changing dynamics of the fencing bout.

Offensive actions are the actions of moving towards the opponent with the intention of launching an attack. Defensive actions are those in which the opponent’s attempt at attacking is thwarted, usually by using the weapon to block which in fencing is called a parry. Counter-offensive actions are the actions done again an on-coming attack, the most common is known as a counter attack. The thing about counter-offense is that to be successful, the action must occur within a span of time known as tempo. If the counter-offense action doesn’t exist within the appropriate tempo then it is for all intensive purposes nullified, it is useless and the opponent doesn’t need to give it credence.

But if the counter-offensive action is launched within a specific opportunity with a chance to score, then the opponent is obligated tactically to deal with it, and thus we have the tactics of counter-time. Going into that coaching seminar with Ed, I had a working knowledge of the actions but clearly there were some missing ingredients.

And so I tried again to give the coaching cue correctly to my colleague who was also a coach attending this training session, and on the third attempt I also failed. It was at that point the frustration nearly overtook me. I felt deep anger and frustration welling up inside me. I also felt an odd mixture of shame (why can’t I do this correctly?) and desire (I want to do this correctly!). The truth was, in trying to do the action correctly and give the cue, I was fighting myself. Too preoccupied with doing it correctly and not looking like an idiot in front of one of the worlds foremost fencing masters I was missing it.

Never a quitter, I steadied myself by taking a deep breath and pushing out the negative thoughts. I drove out anything that was getting in my way. I recognized the vulnerability that I was feeling and instead of feeling shame, I took ownership of it. I nodded to my friend/colleague/student-of-the-moment and he began the advance. Without thinking I reached out with my blade and my entire body to offer the counter-attack in the perfect tempo so that he could execute the counter-time parry riposte. The blades met with perfect coordination with the footwork and the timing. Ed looked on and nodded saying only “tempo” like it is the most natural thing in the world, and I understood.