The Mental Game

3 Things I Learned from Winning Ugly

Mental-game lessons from tennis book Winning Ugly applied to fencing: scouting opponents, building a game plan, handling bad calls, and reading key points.

7 Steps to Effective Goal Setting

A seven-step framework for setting effective fencing goals: defining a clear target, assessing your current level, building a daily plan, and tracking progress.

A Championship Effort

What it takes to master fencing: a coach's view on loving the sport, embracing hard work, becoming coachable, honest self-evaluation, and good sportsmanship.

Are You Ready to Fence?

How to build a ready mindset before competing: fencing with confidence, trusting your training instead of hoping, and sticking to proven tactics over new moves.

Ask the "Head" Coach

How to handle nerves before fencing an unfamiliar opponent using the C.P.T. approach: control what you can, plan your preparation, and trust your training.

Bouting with Anxiety

What fear of failure does to a fencer's mental game: how it fuels cognitive anxiety before bouts, plus coping tools like journaling and deep breathing.

Control Your Mind, Control Your Bout

How to keep your head in a bout by focusing only on what you can control, using a perspective grid to reframe setbacks as temporary and specific, not permanent.

Everything That Can Go Wrong in a Bout, Will

How to recover when a bout goes wrong: the recognize, regroup, refocus method for handling bad calls, broken gear, and other mid-bout distractions.

Fence to Win or Fence Not to Lose?

Mastery vs performance goals in fencing: the 2x2 achievement goal framework, why avoidance goals hold fencers back, and how to reword yours.

Focus on Fencing

How to stay mentally focused during a bout: using cue words, dropping result expectations, and directing your attention to winning each touch.

Getting Mentally Ready for Olympic Fencing

Sport psychology for Olympic-level fencing: managing expectation and intensity, plus 15 ways to win the 14-14 bout from the USA Fencing Team Game Project.

May I Have Your Attention Please!? - Concentration and Fencing

What concentration means in fencing: how internal and external distractions work, and simple drills fencers can use to sharpen focus before and during bouts.

Mental Preparation Tips for Competition

What mental preparation for competition involves: feeling ready, trusting your skills, focusing on fencing well, and coping with adversity.

Psychological Preparation for Competition

A guided mental training script for epee competition: breathing and relaxation techniques, visualization, and scripted responses to common in-bout distractions.

Psychology of the Team Game

The psychology of team fencing: why the relay format changes team roles, what makes a good stopper or closer, and why the best fencer is not always both.

Should is a Dirty Word - Ask the "Head" Coach

How to stop coasting against weaker opponents: why assuming you should win backfires, and tips for respecting opponents and fencing every touch.

The Effort Effect

What a growth mindset means for athletes: Carol Dweck's research on effort versus talent, and why praising ability can undercut performance.

The Fencer in the Arena

How to reframe failure in fencing: why losses feel personal, and mindset tips for treating setbacks as feedback rather than proof you're bad.

Top Ten Biggest Mental Errors

What derails fencers mentally: a list of the ten most common mental errors, from poor concentration and unrealistic expectations to overtraining.

What is Sport Psychology?

What sport psychology covers: how mental skills training like visualization, goal-setting, and focus techniques help fencers reach their competitive potential.

You Know You're Going to Lose

Why negative self-talk hurts performance: how believing you're going to lose becomes self-fulfilling, and how to coach positive self-talk instead.

“I am the Greatest!” - Fence with Confidence

How to build fencing confidence: selective thinking, controlling self-talk, and using affirmations, illustrated with lessons from Muhammad Ali.