Fäktning Adhd
BENEFITS
OF FENCING IN AN "ADD" WORLD
Lots
of Distractions Abound
Most
young children I know treat the world around them in a very different
way than I did when I was
their age. I had a quiet desk in my
room where I could do my homework with no interruptions, it is not
unusual to see a 10 year old splayed out on the floor, doing
their math homework while the television
blares, siblings run
around, and the laptop computer on the kitchen bar "dings"
with each new email
arrival. Fast forward a few years, and that
10 year old is 13, with the added sensory input of the text
messages
arriving on the cell phone which has appended itself to their
hand.
Enter
Fencing as an Active Outlet
Adults
don't have it much better these days, unless they have made a
conscious decision to take
things one at a time, they may find
themselves juggling the emotional needs of children, the basic
food
and shelter needs of their family, work requirements, and myriad
other demands.
Enter fencing.
Spend time at any fencing
practice and you will quickly learn that a sport which looks overtly
physical
actual demands an "alert brain."
This
article is entitled, "Benefits of Fencing in an ADD World."
Although the title is intended to appeal to
a wide array of
people dealing with sensory overload and difficulty focusing, there
is a young fencer
who overcame many of the symptoms of Attention
Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder to achieve a national
fencing
championship: Corwin Duncan. Corwin, who won the U16 épée national
championship in
2005 and the Junior U18 national fencing
championship in 2008, believes fencing has been the
perfect
avenue for him to focus his energies.
In a digitalsports.com
feature, Corwin discusses his fencing journey. Eschewing traditional
team
sports, he states, "You really have to be able to
control yourself in a lot of ways, to be able to bring
that
focus to bear when you're at step one of the script. You can't be
absent minded at all."
It may seem like an oxymoron, but
the ability to relax is a key to successful fencing. If you have ever
gone through a workweek without ever really losing that "gotta
get it all done NOW" tension, it is
possible that fencing
will help you "thrust" all of that tension out of your mind
for an hour (and have
effects that last even longer).
The
Denver Fencing Center (DFC), in its "Parent's Guide to Fencing,"
lists "self control" as one of the
seven reasons
children should fence. DFC asserts that fencing is more effective
than sports that
involve simply kicking or hitting a ball,
because in those sports strategy and self-control can easily
become
an afterthought. In fencing, however, self-control and body-control
are what keep the fencer
from getting hit. DFC advises parents
that, "by fencing, your child will gain greater self-control and
increase concentration. Soon enough, this self-control will begin
to extend to other aspects of their life."
Some fencing
instructors teach children to fence both with their preferred hand
and with their
non-preferred hand. This approach helps children
with focus, academic skills, and gross motor
coordination.
Besides
all the great things fencing does for your mind, it doesn't hurt that
fencing burns 400 calories
an hour --- who doesn't want to
"focus" on a more fit physique?
Source:
http://www.squidoo.com/fencing4add
Additional
Links on ADHD and Fencing:
CORWIN
DUNCAN WINS U19 NATIONAL FENCING TITLE