It’s been a while since I posted something on my blog. It’s about time I do it again. It’s hard to predict if my assumptions laid out below are still accurate while you’re reading this. It’s fast changing time and it’s COVID19, still. It’s the time of the year when days get shorter and darker, at least in Belgium.

I’ve been in fencing since my early teenager years. Even though my early coaches did not put a lot of hopes into my sports career, I’ve made it quickly to the national team, first younger teams later to the senior team. Later, I have had a chance to work with best coaches in the world (all similarities with my professional career are just pure coincidence). I met my girlfriend (now wife) there. She also made it to the national team(s). We travelled the world. It was my only motivation in life for a long time.

Fencing never really disappeared from my life. For the last 12 years, I have been coaching and giving lessons to motivated people of all ages and sexes, explaining how to be strategic, creative, tactical, fast(er), flexible and how to manage critical situation if the “execution” of your initial plan doesn’t go as planned during the fight or your opponent reads your intentions and sets a trap in which you bite in. It’s interesting to observe how people of different ages accept and implement your instructions. While the generation 40+ always challenges your instructions or wants to understand all the reasons and details behind their failure, younger generation adopts your guidance and moves on to the next “touché”, trying to make it better next time.

I often observe a lot of similarities in government relations.  The fencing match is all around us. All the time. Sometimes we choose whom we want to fight, often is others pushing us into specific fights.  Competitors are getting better and faster and you’re getting older and slower, but smarter. Is this enough to succeed in your objectives? In fencing, it often is. All the tactical and mental skills can make up to 70% of your success. Making points is not only about speed, physics, and size, but mainly about your overall strategy and creativity. It is also about perfect coordination and responsiveness amongst your hands and legs, and how they communicate with the “headquarter” (brain). All need to fit. And it’s about timing, being in the right place at the right time.

Somebody wants a fencing lesson or a fight?