A bit of backstory - as a male fencer well out of his teen years and well short of middle age, I only qualify for "open" style. This means I can fence against people of any age, from actual children (starting at age 11) through senior citizens.
One young lad was quite convinced he was a better fencer than I. Indeed, he may have possed a better mastery of the technical skill set, but regardless I held the advantage in size. I stand at 5'8" to his perhaps 4'5. He disregarded this because he possessed a higher fencing rank than my own (a C to my E at the time) and proceeded to talk trash for the ten minutes leading up to our bout during the direct elimination part of the tournament. Again, for those who are unware, a fencing tournament has two phases. In the first, the fencers are assigned to pools and every attempt is made to ensure an even distribution of skill (based on fencer rank). One's performance during the pools determines the initial structure of second half. Basically, the best fencer is placed against the worst fencer and so forth, ensuring crushing victory or defeat at the periphery and allowing for greater competition in the middle ranks. One generally gains rank on the basis of how far into a tournament they penetrate, coupled with the number of participants and (notably) the number of skilled participants. It should be said that in fencing, more than most sports, sportsmanship is paramount as one can be ejected from a tournament if they violate any of a number of usual ideals of sportsmanship (such as talking trash while on the strip), or violations of tradition (refusing to render a proper salute to both the judge and the opponent for example).
I largely ignored him because I was not at all certain of his skill. He had performed as well as I had during my pool (we were both placed in the middle rankings) and had more experience as a fencer (I had only been fencing for about a year to his three). From the outset it was clear that he was indeed the superior technical fencer and his attacks and parrys were better executed than my own. Yet, in spite of this advantage he still faced serious problems, not the least of which was the simple fact that he was attempting to use skill alone to win the day. He obviously had no plan when he launched an attack and instead relied entirely on his ability to counter whatever I executed. Furthermore, he favored a marching attack (an attack that occurs very slowly as an fencer advances, thus maintaining right of way until the defender stops the attack or the attacker finishes), which had served him well during the earlier parts of the tournament.
I on the other hand tend to do a lot of planning and pattern analysis - a requirement for fencing at the highest levels and for me nothing more than a stopgap solution to far from perfect mastery of the technical elements of the sport. The marching attack, when properly executed, is one of the most difficult attacks to defend against normally. Luckily for me, my reach advantage rendered this treat all but irrelevant as I could lauch a threat that forced him to finish his attack without committing, parry his long ranged attack and then finish myself.
In the end, the young lad lost. Badly. The score after less than four minutes (out of a possible 9) was 15-3 (With 15 being the maximum score in this case). After the bout was over, he shook my hand and then proceeded to go on about how he was clearly better because he was doing fancy things and I was doing simple things. I then pointed out that perhaps my plan was a bit better considering the result. He turned bright red, returned to his parents (who glared daggers at me) and went home.
This is a relatively common trend in the only two sports I've ever liked (fencing and paintball) but it has very rarely manifested itself in normal life. On one occasion, while on leave from Iraq, I was at a local community pool when a young lad asked me what I did. When I told him apparently he decided I didn't look like I was army enough and tried time and again to kick or punch me in the water. Tiring of it, I eventually held him under the water for a few seconds any time he tried it. Eventually he got the hint. I may not be a big guy by any stretch, but I'm large enough to push around your average tween if it comes to it.
