Free AI web copilot to create summaries, insights and extended knowledge, download it at here

Abstract

ut I went there thinking about the embarrassment that I would give after all the best fencers in Brazil would be there! I had started training THREE MONTHS earlier!!! I didn’t even really know the rules!!!I arrived at the place where the championship would be played and tried to fit in. Here is an addendum: the people who were there were the best fencers in Brazil, but as you might imagine, there are not many fencers in Brazil. That means that there were people of all ages, sizes, weights, and physical training. And because of this, when I introduced myself, they had the impression that I was a threat:<figure id="fa2b"><img src="https://cdn-images-1.readmedium.com/v2/resize:fit:800/1*Y1JlD4xwbzcrlpIzJ2qffQ.png"><figcaption>Image by the Author.</figcaption></figure>After all, I was thin, young, and in reasonable shape. Because of this, I noticed that they treated me with care and reverence…Until I started playing.The competition scheme was simple. They divided the athletes into two groups, the first of the best ranked, the second of the worst. I was in the second, of course. Within each group, everyone played against everyone.The second phase would put the best players in the first group to duel against the worst players in the second, and vice versa. The best player in the first group would play against the worst in the second group, the second-best in the first group would play against the second-worst in the second group, and so on.I was the second-worst in the second group.I just wasn’t the worst of all because there was a guy who was in the FIRST MONTH of training in the championship, and I beat him.I narrowly won it, but I won.The more experienced players laughed at me. They thought it was gr

Options

eat to be smaller, older, out of shape, and beat “the athlete.” To make my humiliation worse, the judges decided to arbitrate in French because the International Fencing Federation allows it, and why not leave me even more lost? I was defeated, and I didn’t even know why since the explanation of each point was made in Platini’s language.So I spent a lot of embarrassment in the first phase and went to play the second phase.Against the second-best player in the strongest group.Imagine entering a goal-to-goal competition against Neymar?My luck is that my “Neymar” seemed to have eaten Neymar for lunch. Two of them. Maybe three.He was REALLY fat.When I saw his size, I thought I could take advantage of that.And that’s what I did. When the game started — which was worth fifteen points — I pushed the guy to the end of the track. When I got there, I missed my stroke on purpose and started to retreat to the end of my track. I planned to defend myself when the track was over and start pushing him to the end of his path again, but it often didn’t work out because he was a good fencer and very strong.But the times I managed to push him back and forth was worth it.In the middle of the game, at a time when I should have been losing ten to one, he succumbed to fatigue.I started to score big time.The final score was fifteen to fourteen… For him.But the fact that I almost turned the table made me respected. Everyone came to greet me at the end of the game; some even apologized for the arrogant way they treated me. I finished the championship in sixth place, a considerable feat for someone who didn’t even know the rules of the game I was playing!</article></body>

The Time I Played a National Championship Without Knowing the Sport’s Rules

The embarrassment was not more significant because I am not stupid.

I was born in 1970. When I was a child, the series we watched on Brazilian TV were all imported. In the morning, before going to school, I remember watching Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea, Time Tunnel, Lost in Space, and my favorite: Zorro!

Going to school wearing a black cape was the rule. ALL the boys wore, some a straight cape (from Zorro) and others, a cape imitating the wings of a bat (from Batman). You can imagine that knowing how to use a sword was the dream of many of these boys. It only got worse when Star Wars was released… Having a lightsaber, then, became another goal in my life.

Time has passed, I became an adult, and the dream of knowing how to handle a sword migrated to some isolated corner of my mind.

I had a hard time finding a profession that I liked, so it wasn’t until I was twenty-seven years old that I started studying to be an actor. And isn’t it that, in analyzing the list of extra courses at the drama school, I found “Fencing for Actors”?

I enrolled myself.

In the first class, my teacher, the third-best sabre player in Brazil, said that I had a knack for the sport and that I should look for his coach, a Russian who commanded the Brazilian Team.

Oops! Brazilian Team?

I liked it!

I went to look for that Russian and started training. The guy was incredible (he still has a very successful fencing academy here in São Paulo). He was enthusiastic about me and, after THREE MONTHS of training, decided to put me in the Brazilian Championship.

Huh???

I agreed, of course… But I went there thinking about the embarrassment that I would give after all the best fencers in Brazil would be there! I had started training THREE MONTHS earlier!!! I didn’t even really know the rules!!!

I arrived at the place where the championship would be played and tried to fit in. Here is an addendum: the people who were there were the best fencers in Brazil, but as you might imagine, there are not many fencers in Brazil. That means that there were people of all ages, sizes, weights, and physical training. And because of this, when I introduced myself, they had the impression that I was a threat:

After all, I was thin, young, and in reasonable shape. Because of this, I noticed that they treated me with care and reverence…

Until I started playing.

The competition scheme was simple. They divided the athletes into two groups, the first of the best ranked, the second of the worst. I was in the second, of course. Within each group, everyone played against everyone.

The second phase would put the best players in the first group to duel against the worst players in the second, and vice versa. The best player in the first group would play against the worst in the second group, the second-best in the first group would play against the second-worst in the second group, and so on.

I was the second-worst in the second group.

I just wasn’t the worst of all because there was a guy who was in the FIRST MONTH of training in the championship, and I beat him.

I narrowly won it, but I won.

The more experienced players laughed at me. They thought it was great to be smaller, older, out of shape, and beat “the athlete.” To make my humiliation worse, the judges decided to arbitrate in French because the International Fencing Federation allows it, and why not leave me even more lost? I was defeated, and I didn’t even know why since the explanation of each point was made in Platini’s language.

So I spent a lot of embarrassment in the first phase and went to play the second phase.

Against the second-best player in the strongest group.

Imagine entering a goal-to-goal competition against Neymar?

My luck is that my “Neymar” seemed to have eaten Neymar for lunch. Two of them. Maybe three.

He was REALLY fat.

When I saw his size, I thought I could take advantage of that.

And that’s what I did. When the game started — which was worth fifteen points — I pushed the guy to the end of the track. When I got there, I missed my stroke on purpose and started to retreat to the end of my track. I planned to defend myself when the track was over and start pushing him to the end of his path again, but it often didn’t work out because he was a good fencer and very strong.

But the times I managed to push him back and forth was worth it.

In the middle of the game, at a time when I should have been losing ten to one, he succumbed to fatigue.

I started to score big time.

The final score was fifteen to fourteen… For him.

But the fact that I almost turned the table made me respected. Everyone came to greet me at the end of the game; some even apologized for the arrogant way they treated me. I finished the championship in sixth place, a considerable feat for someone who didn’t even know the rules of the game I was playing!