Swords and stuff

After several years, I finally convinced my family that the Tulsa library is superior to the Bartlesville library. For the last year or so, we have been making a weekly trip to the downtown library. Late last summer, as we were leaving, we noticed some people swinging swords about in the Aaronson Auditorium. It seems we had found the Tulsa School of Defense, a group of people dedicated to the study of western martial arts. They do German longsword, German side sword, and rapier. Now it happens that Sophia has wanted to learn fencing since before she was five. We were signed up on the spot. I am attending also. Now, many years ago, I did a little heavy weapons fighting in the SCA. I sucked. Actually I didn't do it long enough to know if I would suck or not, but I did get beat on a lot. Never won a fight. Not sure that I ever landed a good blow. I have been treating these lessons as a kind of Tai Chi with a stick. Actually getting hit or hitting someone wasn't really something I thought about. Last night was bout night, when the students go out and put theory into practice, and, as usual, I watched. During some of the time between bouts one of the instructors took Sophia and I the side and started to work with us. Started asking questions like "If you are in left Pflug and your opponent comes at you with right Zornhau, what do you do?" They are expecting me to let someone try and hit me! I'm afraid my responses usually would have had me dead. Sophia, on the other hand did much better. She got the right guard every time. She is also getting to be faster than me. Is it wise to teach your children to use weapons, when they might be better at it than you?