Why do I fence so much worse at tournaments than at practice, and how do I stay calm when a bout starts going wrong?

Almost every fencer who competes fences worse at tournaments than at the club for a while, and the gap usually comes from three things you can train: unfamiliar opponents, pressure you put on yourself, and a long day that wears you down. At your club you know everyone's habits, and your clubmates are often trying new things and making mistakes. At a tournament every opponent is a stranger doing only what they do best, there is a referee, results go online, and you paid entry and travel. Under that load most people tighten up: they take fewer risks, wait too long, cut their attacks short and tire early.

So train the gap in practice. Fence some club bouts as if they count: keep score, get someone to referee, and fence bouts to 15 in three periods of three minutes with a one minute break, the way direct elimination works. Fence strangers whenever you can, at open bouting nights at other clubs or small local events, so new styles stop feeling alien. Build fitness for the whole day, because a full pool followed by direct elimination is far more fencing than a practice, and when your legs go, your decisions go with them. Then simply compete more often. Your fifteenth tournament feels very different from your third.

For a bout that is going wrong, the skill is a reset routine, rehearsed at the club until it runs on its own. After every touch, won or lost, turn away from your opponent, walk back to the en garde line at a steady pace, drop your shoulders, let one long slow breath out and say one word to yourself, such as 'next' or 'zero'. Then pick one simple intention for the next touch: 'shorter distance' or 'arm first'. The score is not your job in that moment; the next touch is. Save the analysis for after the bout, and in a direct elimination use the one minute break to settle on one change, not five.

Judge your day by process goals, such as finishing your attacks or keeping your distance, rather than by results, and write a two line note after each bout about what worked and what your opponent did. If what gets you is the dread before the event rather than what happens on the strip, our answer on tournament nerves covers warmups, food and the morning itself. If competition anxiety is getting worse over a season instead of better, tell your coach. Plenty of fencers at every level work with a sport psychologist, and it is a normal training tool.