The Zone: part 2

hey earlier i posted about the Zone. some fencers have there own special names for it and not only that but there are many forms of it and i thought it deserved greater detail. for example with my friend Pat it has come to be known as his survival mode. it turns up at the most unusual times sometimes it turns up in an even bout other times when he is behind and often it disappears at the most inopportune times. then you have other fencers who only get in the Zone when they are behind. others only when they are ahead although it is hard to tell if they get into the zone when they are ahead because that is also when the other fencer generally starts to lose it. some fencers usually goof around on the strip and there survival modes only come out when it is make or brake time. what is really cool is a match were both fencers are in the zone and they keep trading of the upper hand until the end of the bout those are the bouts that are really worth fencing because those are the ones were you improve the most. but what is really interesting about fencing is that you can call a time out mid bout and get out of a funk just breaks things up this usually ends a bad streak and or attitude and lets the fencer get back into the zone. really i have seen fencers who were down by three come back because they took a min. to just breath and relax. in my case getting into and staying in the Zone is equally dependant on my mental and physical condition. if i feel sleepy or tired or angry or cocky then you might as well bury me because those all seriously impair my abilities. the best conditions are cold calculating observation the kind were no thoughts exist only instinct, action and reaction, if not that then just enjoying the bout is my second best mental option. being well rested, and being wormed up but not overworked, hydrated and having a satisfied stomach (not full that slows me down) are my optimum conditions physically but like i said this varies from fencer to fencer.