The Art of Cultivation: Sports (L'escrime)

I had a dream once that I won the lottery and could retire at age twenty and spend my days holidaying, watching operas and ballets, cultivating various languages, and living happily ever after. Very boring I know, but I just imagined it would be one long holiday. As well as all those things, I imagined that I could take up a select set of sports:

-Fencing

-Archery

-Riding

-Polo

-Sailing

-Tennis

-Badminton

-Golf

-Croquet

-Boxing

-Shooting

-Falconry

I don't know what it is about them all: in my mind they just seem so regal and hold so much history, they all immediately fascinated me. Then one of my brothers made a point of the fact: they're all commonly acknowledged as rich people sports. I'm sure it's difficult to believe, but that's not actually the reason i love them all so much! But anyway, believe it or not, I got the chance to start the first one of those sports today, and it was every bit as amazing as I'd dreamed.

L'escrime, the beautiful art that it fencing! En Garde, Pret, Allez! Off they go in a meticulous dance of clanging metal and entirely-white-clad masterful footwork! The most romantic sport I could conceivably imagine: duels being fought over lovers and swordfights deciding the fates of wars and kingdoms. Well... obviously it's a little different outside the world of fancyland. That being said though, it was perfectly easy to imagine myself in any number or medieval scenarious while learning the footing to start the class. According to the older students i picked it up quite easily which was impressive for a first-timer (i may win my duel yet...!)

Overall the class was amazing, and I highly recommend it to anybody interested. The only part I was a little sad about though was that we were learning Sabre fencing, instead of Foil. From what I've read, Foil is the best style to learn for a beginner as there are more techniques that can apply to all fencing styles, but not the other way around. On the bright side though, Sabre is apprently the style that all of the Hollywood films use (so i may very well be battling it out like this or even this sometime soon! [from what i can see btw they're using épée blades, but just for a good & glamorous fencing example: i mean seriously, Madonna as an instructor, could it get any more "rich people sport"]) ;D

#theartofcultivation #abitaboutme