Adios Cleveland, Hola Barcelona!

Today was great! I made the long venture from Cleveland to Barcelona, over 7 hours, but in the end it was worth it. I survived the flight running on 1 hour of sleep due to the chatty stewardesses and the noisy man that sat behind me. But the endless episodes of the Office during the flight made up for the lack of sleep as well as the fact that I made it to Spain!

Once we reached the Palace Hotel at around 10:30 am, my family and myself found that we would not be able to get into the room until 3pm. Luckily the room was ready before expected and we were able to get settled and freshen up by 2:30pm. With a basic idea of where we were and where we wanted to end up, we headed out to take Barcelona by storm. Taking many of the side streets, we were able to gain a greater idea of the true Barcelona and not just the one seen in travel guides.

I had the opportunity to explore the city and get an idea of where everything was before our in depth tour tomorrow. We saw the Cathedral of Barcelona and the Roman Wall, as well as Main Street. The architecture was amazing and the weather was fantastic! I had a blast getting to know the sites and sounds of this city.

   There were mopeds left and right and Gaudi inspired buildings everywhere you looked. The tiny stores were quaint and unique in their own way. On top of it, I got the chance to practice my rusty Spanish!

After a few more hours of exploring, we were ready to kick our feet up and rest a bit before dinner.

For dinner we went out to a tapas restaurant, something Spain is known for. Dinner was great and I even tried some fried small fish…

After dinner I had this delicious brownie and ice cream for desert! Once we finished we headed back to the hotel to get some rest so we would be all set for our 4-hour tour around Barcelona the next day.

 

Courtney Dumas

Cross Training

This summer has been great, but I am so excited for the end of August. Especially since the end of August means my vacation to Europe for two weeks. I leave tomorrow! I am so excited! My trip begins in Barcelona, Spain. After a few days there, I leave Spain on a Mediterranean cruise. I travel to various parts of Turkey, Greece, and Italy before I head back home. I will be posting pictures and descriptions of my travels throughout my adventure!

In order to keep in shape I will also be cross training throughout my trip. Today I did a lighter load (no weights or running) in preparation for my travels and to prevent sourness and injury before my trip. Below I listed my workout for the day.

1) sit ups-50

2) six inch leg throws-50

3) lunges right leg-50

4) sit ups-50

5) lunges left leg-50

6) squats-20

7) engarde squats-15

8) fire feet squat jumps-10

9) lunge jumps-15

10) high knee fire feet-10

11) engarde jumps-15

12) double engarde jumps-15

13) engird jump lunges-15

14) forward crawls-5

15) caterpillars-5

16) push up hops-5

17) clap push ups-5

18) sit ups-50

Work Out

Hey guys! So everyone has their own personal workout, and for good reason too! What works for your best friend may not work for you. So after much trial and error, I came up with my own personal program to train my fencing. I have listed my summer program below and I hope this gives you guys some idea as to what may work for you! (I found that taking bits and pieces from different camp programs and techniques from coaches and high level fencers helped me to build a foundation for my own plan that I customized further from that point). I hope you enjoy and please leave your comments below! 


Monday

Bench Press
RDL Shrugs
Squats
Pull ups
MB Plate Punch
Shoulder Press
MB Wall Passes
Tricep Extensions
Bicep Curls
Lunges-walking overhead & regular
Broad Jumps
Depth Jumps
Box Step ups
Back Extension
Supermans

MB Ab Twists
Footwork

Fencing Practice

Tuesday

Run 5 miles
Footwork

Wednesday

Bench Press
RDL Shrugs
Squats
Pull ups
MB Plate Punch
Shoulder Press
MB Wall Passes
Tricep Extensions
Bicep Curls
Lunges-walking overhead & regular
Broad Jumps
Depth Jumps
Box Step ups
Back Extension
Supermans

MB Ab Twists

Thursday

Run 5 miles

Footwork
Fencing Practice


Friday

Bench Press
RDL Shrugs
Squats
Pull ups
MB Plate Punch
Shoulder Press
MB Wall Passes
Tricep Extension
Bicep Curls
Lunges-walking overhead & regular
Broad Jumps
Depth Jumps
Box Step ups
Back Extension
Supermans

MB Ab Twists
Footwork

Saturday

Run 5 miles

Footwork
Fencing Practice

Sunday

Video Analysis

Alliance Camp Footwork, Day 2/Week 2

Today was great, lots of intense fencing the entire morning! I got a lesson from Andre today as well during lunch. After some intense blade work (1 hour long), we moved on to super intense footwork. We spent 45 minutes drilling our legs and calf muscles.

Drills:

1) Squats-get into the engarde position and slowly lower your body down into a squat. X 10

2) Fire Feet Squats-get into engarde and pick up your feet quickly, making sure to keep good form. Drop into a squat every couple of seconds. X 10

3) Fire Feet Squat Jumps-get into engarde and pick up your feet quickly, make sure to keep good form during the exercise. Drop down into a squat, varying the time difference between squats. Once in squat, propel yourself upward in a jump and land softly back in engarde on the toes. X 10 

4) Lunge Jumps-get into a lunge and while staying low to the ground hop in and out of the lunge into the engarde. Make sure knee in the lunge is at a 90 degree angle.  X 15

5) High Knee Fire Feet-get into engarde and start alternating feet in fire feet workout. Every so often pick up your knees alternating knees 4 times then continue fire feet. Make sure to keep the back straight. X 10

6) Engarde Jumps-get into engarde and jump forward as far as you can, landing softly on your front foot. Keeping your back foot in the air, push back as far as you can. This is one rep. X 15

7) Double Engarde Jumps-get into engarde and jump forward as far as you can just like before, except this time when you land hop in place once on your front foot before you hop back. On the back hop when you land also do another small in place hop on the toe. This is one rep. X 15

8) Engarde Jump Lunges-get into engarde and continue the exercise like above. This time though after the second back hop lunge forward then reset into engarde. X 15

9) Reaction Lunges-Find a partner and a tennis ball. Have your partner extend their arm with tennis ball in hand, when they drop the tennis ball lunge as quickly as possible. The point is to finish the lunge with clean form before the ball hits the ground. 1-2 minutes

10) Short/Long Reaction Lunge-Set up the exercise just like before, except your partner has two tennis balls. When they drop the ball in their left hand you are to do a double lunge before the ball hits the ground. When they drop the ball in the right hand just do a regular lunge. 1-2 minutes

11) Short/Long Hand Target Lunge-Find a partner and have them stand with one hand closer to you than the other. Have them randomly open one hand at a time and you must react quickly to lunge and hit it. The closer hand for the short lunge and the farther hand for the long lunge. X 20

12) Fencing Suicides-get into engarde and start at the very back of the strip. Go as quickly as possibly and keeping good form go to the 2 meter line and back, the engarde line and back, and so on.   

Strength Work

Strength work is very important for athlete's muscles. Strength work helps to prevent injuries as well as improve muscle capabilities. Today at the Alliance International Fencing Camp after our massive bladework and long day of epee fencing, we took 15-20 minutes to work on muscle strengthening activities. Below I have listed the exercises we worked on and their descriptions.

1) Squat Forward Jumps  X 15 (reps)
Go into a squat and jump forward and land softly on the heels. Slowly go back into a squat and immediately continue to the next hop forward.

2) Squat Backward Jumps X 15
Go into a squat and jump backward and land softly on your toes. Slowly go back into the squat and immediately continue to the next hop.

*After these two exercises you should feel really sore in your legs*


3) Wall Jumps 1 minute
Find a spot on the wall that is challenging to jump to and reach with your fingers. Jump up continuously, landing on your toes, for 1 minute straight. This exercise works the calf muscles.

4) Forward Crawls X 5
Start from bending to reach your toes with feet a little less than shoulder length apart. Crawl out to the push up distance and crawl backward staying low to the ground. Keep your legs straight during this exercise.

5) Caterpillars X 5
Start from bending to reach the toes position with the feet a little less than shoulder length apart. Hop forward on the hands 4 times to push up length distance and then hop back 4 times.

6) Push up Hops X 5
Get into the push up position with arms extended and feet a little less than shoulder length apart. Hop on hands and toes to the right 3 times, then back to the left 3 times.

7) Push up Circles 1 clockwise, 1 counter clockwise
With feet together, get into the push up position with extended arms. Walk your body with your hands clockwise in a full circle with the back straight. Then do the same counter clockwise.

8) Kick Turns 1 minute
Start by picking the right leg up into the air and kick up with the left leg so that you are now balanced on your right leg. Hop turn counter clockwise so that you are now balanced on the left leg. Continue the hopping and switching of legs. Works balance and coordination.

Alliance International Fencing Camp Week 1

Well week one is in the books. The Alliance International Fencing Camp has been fantastic! There was over 40 fencers, men and women, this first week and I have been fencing non-stop. This whole week was inconstant motion, everyone was always on the go doing things. Whether it be fencing at camp or going to the movies, shopping mall, frozen yogurt, we were always moving both during practice and afterwards.

I met all new people too. The Russian and Israel National teams are here as well as some French fencers. It has been a little difficult communicating with them, but still fun as well.

Almost every day we began with warm ups and stretching. One day we even learned this funny train dance that worked our coordination skills. We had to kick right twice, kick left twice, hop forward, hop backwards, then forward forward forward. Then the next time we would do the three hops backwards instead of forwards and so on. It was a bit confusing and difficult to coordinate with over 40 people to say the least :P

Every day the camp was divided into two groups, one would do footwork while the other fenced in a giant pool and we would switch at lunch time. Oh and speaking of lunch-we didn't let a day go by without playing an epic game of Egyptian Rat Screw (if you don't know the card game finish reading then IMMEDIATELY google it! best game ever!).

By the end of the week everyone was sore and tired, but pressed on. We held a giant mixed tournament on Friday. It was tough. The tournament was mixed and took all day in the unforgiving heat. Pools were in the morning and we had a shortened lunch in order to have enough time to finish the direct elimination bouts. (I finished 17th).

All in all the week was great. I learned some new great footwork, part of which I included in the footwork page of the blog, and focused on my game's week points while competing with top-notch fencers. We had great bonding activities after practice with camp parties, movies, and shopping nights. I got to know some of the Russian fencers pretty well-Tanya and Nastia. They would teach me some Russian and I taught them some English-there definitely some stumbles on the parts of both parties hahaha. For instance I could not for the life of me pronounce the word for the number 4. It was impossible! I really truly can't wait for the fun to continue this upcoming week!

Victory and Defeat

Winning is great, but winning and improving are two totally different things. Victory is only improvement when we learn from our mistakes. That is why a positive attitude is so important in one's defeats. Defeats are not failures, they are only steps toward the greater goal and allow us to learn from our mistakes. Without mistakes we have no improvement and without improvement we can never get better.

Never be a sore winner and always be a good loser. Treat everyone with respect regardless of the outcome on the strip. Analyze bouts to improve your analysis skills.

Courtney Dumas