May 2018
I've not been spending a lot of time on content for this site over the last year. I plead work and my own fencing taking up a considerable amount of time, but the other factor is that I've not had any good ideas in the last year that I felt wer worth an entire article. I'm working on some new content right now, but most of that is still some ways away. In the meantime, I've been making a few entries in a more traditional blog, found here: http://www.coachescompendium.org/CompendiumBlog/ and linked to on the front page of this website.
August 2017
In the process of cleaning out some old directory files, I managed to delete/destroy most of the underlying directory structure of the website, as well as the new Word Press blog I had started a few months ago. Fortunately, the website was backed up. Unfortunately the blog was not.
The website is almost entirely back on line (I'm still looking for broken links) but the blog will have to be recreated from scratch, unfortunately. I have—however—learned my lesson, and I'm backing up the blog entries as well.
I had thought while I was in the process of restoring the site, to give the site a complete makeover, perhaps using one of the Word Press templates. That turned out to me more of a headache than I had time for, however, so the site is going to remain in its current configuration, though I hope to clean it up a touch and try to give it a more consistent "look and feel". Since the site is entirely powered by my own efforts at HTML, it's going to continue to look a little crude. The upside (for me) is that I have complete control over how things are organized and set up. I will continue to experiment with giving the site a more modern look, but I thought it more important to get the pages back up immediately. Revamping will have to go on behind the scenes.
Over the course of the next two to three months, I'm going to be adding at least one or two more articles on mental training, and hopefully making some additional coaching entries to the site.
January 2016
While I've been making some gradual changes to this site over the last few years. I'm making a much larger revamp and update this year. I'm also starting to add additional content to the site.
Some articles, like the ones addressing my lesson changes in light of the 2005 timings, have lost their usefulness, and will be taken down this year.
I've also added an additional site to my collection: a Word Press blog (also called "a Coaches Compendium" That will enable to address new topics briefly and take a more editorial/personal opinion approach to some fencing topics.
August 2012
Easy to see how things get away from you when you're having fun. My day job (working for a large DC law firm) and my night job (teaching at Dominion Fencing) both managed to interfere enough that my transition from tables to straight CSS has been taking a lot longer than I thought.
As part of the process of moving to straight CSS formatting, I've also completely re-written at least one of the articles on the site (The Art of Strip Coaching) and made minor corrections to a few others.
I've also been happy to hear that a few coaches have approached me to tell me how much they've gotten out of the site, and to ask for more articles. I'm working on some new ideas, while I've got a bit of free time, and if there is something you would like to see, drop me a line at info(at)dominionfencing.org, and I'll see what I can do. I have at least one article on saber in the works, and some other odds and ends that have potential, as I do more research.
August 2011
I'm working on a slight revamp of the site, to move away from tables and adopt a complete CSS approach to formatting. I'm also going to be reviewing each article for speeling spelling and grammar. I hope to make some navigational changes as well to make editing and updating the site simpler.
At some point, I am going to investigate moving the site to a more "cut and past" template from one of the big blog hosting companies, but I'm not quite there yet. The site is not only an expression of my thoughts on fencing, but has been an entertaining project to teach myself very rudimentary html and CSS. It's been instructive, even if the results have been somewhat amateurish.
June 11, 2010
I'm working on two new articles, the first is a look at "flow" in fencing. Since my return to competition, I've discovered that my mental game is significantly stronger than it was when I was fencing twenty years ago. I'm not fencing much better, mind you (twenty years away from lessons and training has that impact) but I am fencing much "tougher". I attribute much of this change to the mental work I've done in the last twenty years of focusing on processes (rather than outcomes) and work in teaching my own students how to fence competitions.
The other article I'm working on is a complete redo of my articles on Tempo. After re-reading a lot of source material, and re-examining my own writings from ten or fifteen years ago (when my article on tempo on this web site was first drafted) I've come to the conclusion that my original examination of tempo was far too complicated in some ways and not complicated enough in others.
I'm struggling through this re-write, however. This is probably an expected course of things, since no one, not even Zbignew Czajkowski seems to be able to come to an agreement on what exactly "tempo" should stand for.
May 30, 2010
I haven't been able to spend much time on this blog in the last year. I've been busy with a number of other projects that have kept me away from any new articles. I have been doing a survey of web hosting possibilities. I need to up grade some of the error handling for this site, begin to phase out the duplicate site on my old Earthlink account, and in general do some housekeeping that is long over due.
I also have fixed the link to my blog at www.fencing.net. About the time I had sent an email out to all of my students about my blog, Craig brought down the blog feature in his site to upgrade the software. I'm considering replicating my blog on this web site, and I'm looking into how difficult that will be, and if I can keep the "look and feel" of the rest of the site on the blog.
August 6, 2009
I've finally had some time since Nationals to load Dave Littell's articles onto the site. I would urge anyone who likes these to visit Dave's site (url below), full of good fencing information.
June 28, 2009
The new article on dealing with counter-attackers in foil is up on the site. I'm still working on David's articles.
I have changed some of the verbiage in Lies, Damn Lies, and Feints to make it a little clearer to read. I'm still looking for a link to the study I remember reading concerning the physiology of swinging at a baseball pitch.
June 21, 2009
I am busy reformatting Coach Dave Littell's articles on the Hungarian Foil methodology and his short monograph on his lessons with Victor Bukov. Hopefully these will go up on the website in the next two weeks, after he reviews the formatting and approves. I would still refer everyone to Dave Littell's excellent web site at http://mysite.verizon.net/vzeegyz6/index.html, but I wanted to "mirror" them on my own site, to ensure that they get the distribution they deserve.
I go through all of the articles I have written on a regular basis, checking for correct spelling (a constant challenge for me), grammar, and awkward phrasing. IN addition, as I learn new things, or clarify concepts, I'll edit articles to reflect this. On the basis of an email exchange, and re-reading my article on feint attacks, I am cleaning up Lies, Damn Lies, and Feints, to make it read more clearly.