2015 Subway Washington Games and a C

2015 Subway Washington Games

https://askfred.net/Results/results.php?tournament_id=30002&highlight_competitor_id=91067&event_id=117858

A good one! I came in 7th out of 32 and earned my C, skipping right over that D. Well, I was thinking it was only a matter of time before I earned a new rating, although I didn't think I would jump to C. To some degree I was thinking a D would be nice but maybe not a C yet, because it takes me out of Div3 events. I really enjoyed Div3 at Nationals. And maybe a third of the local tournaments around here are D and under, or E and under. So now I have fewer to go to, unless I travel more. Not that I'm complaining—it felt good to do well at this tournament. It was the first tournament after Nationals and I think I was able to tap into the same kind of focus and confidence I had there. After feeling some frustration with my fencing around last winter I feel like I have reached some kind of new plateau. Not that there are not still a million things I am trying to get better at, and probably a million more I am not even aware of but should be.

POOLS

My first bout was against my clubmate Yuly Suvorov. A difficult start! We tied 1-1, then it went downhill and I lost 2-5. No big surprise there.

Second bout was with Jazzy Shepard, one of the people who had come up from Northpointe Fencing, apparently with the Meehan clan. I had difficulty but managed to get to 4-4. Then we had two or three doubles, ack. Then I got the last point and won 5-4, but I think there was some luck involved in it.

Next up was Isobel Fife, another Northpointe fencer I had never met. I won 5-2. I felt rather awkward and too often out of balance, getting scrappy points. Not pretty, but okay.

Then I had John Comes, who is always fun. I was unsure how it would go, but it quickly went well for me. I got up 3-1, then we doubled 4-2. I think I mostly scored by taking advantage of little mistakes on his part. Once I think he made an overly large parry. Another time I think I caught his attack up in six. At 4-2 I apparently got cocky, and/or he got more focused. I figured all I needed was a double, but he got a single, 4-3, then another, 4-4, uh oh. I tried to turn up the intensity and try to trigger mistakes. I don't remember exactly how it happened, but I think he slightly overreacted to a feint and I circled under his parry and scored with a low fleche. So another 5-4 win, phew.

My last bout was with B.J. Block, a fencer I didn't know, from Dynamo in Canada. I forget the exact details, but I felt pretty confident and used distance work to lure him too close or attack from too far. I won 5-3.

So, a decent pool. Four and two, with an indicator of +4, making my 2nd place in the pool and 9th seed overall.

DIRECT ELIMINATION

There were exactly 32 of us, so no byes at all. As 9th seed I was paired with 24th seed Abby Barr. I think we've fenced a couple times before, and I think she beat me in a pool some time back. She has nice form and good parries, although I had a definite height advantage. As I've been doing lately, I tried to keep the first period score low, mostly testing things out. I saw some openings early on and took them, getting a 3-1 lead. But then she scored on my hand, we doubled, and she scored again on my hand. So the period ended 4-3. Russ told me to keep my bell guard lower, to counter her lower hand picks. He also suggested I could be more aggressive, using my height advantage and pushing the attack more. These things worked well and the second period ended 12-8, a comfortable place. Russ repeated that I could push the attack more. So in the third period I did, and it didn't take long to score three singles, winning 15-8.

Looking at the DE tableau I saw my second DE would be against the winner of a bout between Aaron Page and Svetoslav Dimitrov. Aaron had seeded much higher and I thought it likely I would have to fence him. But then I saw him taking his jacket off and went over to ask him about it. He had lost, so I'd be fencing Svetoslav. Aaron said he felt like he should have won, but had been out late the night before and, while his fencing mind could see what should be done, his body hadn't been willing. He told me I should do fine, and that Svetoslav tends to fleche a lot, but in a fairly straightforward way that I should be able to deal with.

So I went into my second DE, with Svetoslav Dimitrov, with a basic plan of working the distance and triggering fleches from too far. I was cautious in the first period, and he seemed reluctant to fleche, even when I pushed him back to his end of the strip. We basically traded points, ending the period 6-6. In the second period he got up a point but then I tied it and then got up a point myself. Once I was up he seemed more eager to fleche, and I did whatever I could to trigger it. Usually I could double or single off his fleches. The second period ended 12-10. In the third period started off more cautious and I was happy to fence patiently, trying to trigger attacks and generally being defensive. In the first two minutes not much scoring happened. With about a minute to go he began to attack more, generally to my benefit. As time got down to about twenty seconds his clubmates began to warn him and I got ready for attacks. At some point the score was 13-11 I think and as we came on guard with not a lot of time it seemed obvious that he was going to attack rather quickly. I had been mostly defensive, but at that point I figured I might be able to surprise him, so I advance-lunged off the time, right into the start of his fleche, scoring a single and getting me to 14. The final point was another quick fleche of his, which I doubled out on, winning 15-13.

I wasn't thinking about the bigger picture. I took the slip to the bout committee and got a drink, then was surprised when Yuly said "welcome to C land", or something to that effect. I was surprised, a C, really? He said "well, you're in the final 8, so yes". I was quite surprised. He also pointed out I had him for my next DE. There was some talk about how if I beat Yuly I would get a B. I laughed at how unlikely that was, and how I was barely ready to be a C, let alone a B. "Not that I won't try", I said.

So my third DE was with Yuly Suvorov, and although I lost I was happy to have put up a good fight and made him work for the win. I didn't write notes about the score, but I think I kept it close to tied up to about 6-6. He was usually up a point or two, and pulled a bit more ahead toward the end. He won 15-11.

All in all, a good day! Goodbye Div 3.

2015 Nationals Div 3 Epee

2015 Nationals Div 3 Epee

http://usfencingresults.org/results/2014-2015/2015.06-JUN-SN/FTEvent_2015Jun27_DV3ME.htm

A super fun pool in which I did well and felt very confident. Then I won my first DE with a comfortable lead, slightly eroded in the end (I was glad to have a few points to spare for mistakes). Lost my second DE but felt like I fenced well enough and could have won had things gone a little differently, or if I could fence this guy again, having learned about his style.

The day before I browsed the vendors and got new knickers—Leon Paul Phoenix level. This div3 event was the first time I fenced in them and they felt soooo much better than the cheap, old Blue Gauntlet knickers I had been using. I think I fenced better with them. I had come to hate my old ones, and wearing these made me really really hate them. Glad to be rid of them. Of course the new ones are so brilliantly white my jacket looks grey. I tried on the LP Phoenix jacket and it felt very nice. But one thing at a time. Plus I only just got my name put on my jacket!

I was in pool #16, on strip D4. As in vet40 I had a couple friends in my pod. Shawn Dodge was on strip D2 and Jeff Johnson was on D3. In the DEs I stayed in the D pod with Jeff, joined by Kyle Margolies. Shawn went to another pod for his DEs. Luckily I didn't have to fence any of them. I joked that if Kyle and I had to fence a DE I was going to complain to someone.

As with the vet40 event I didn't take notes and so don't have much of a play-by-play. I wrote down some basic stuff a day or two later, but this may be a minimal report.

POOLS

My first bout was with Eugene Vinitsky and I lost badly, 1-5. My sister and I kinda came up with nicknames or identifying qualities of most of the fencers in my pool. Eugene, we agreed, was just very happy. He was very nice, chatty, and seemed just thrilled about being there and everything that was happening. Which was much like I felt, really (my "nicknames" I used in my notes to remember better included happy, bear, leftie, and bouncy). Overall Eugene did well, going four and two like me, but with a slightly higher indicator. Later in the pool we talked and he said I was doing well, and that he thought maybe he was lucky to have fenced me first. And yes, I suspect I would have done better against him later in the pool. But then maybe I would have had trouble with whoever I fenced first. Anyway, Eugene took 2nd place in our pool (I came in 3rd).

My second bout was with Joseph Chong, and I won 5-1, turning around that first 1-5 loss. I think I scored almost entirely by working the distance and waiting for him to step just a little too close. From that point on I felt more and more confident. And working the distance was my main tactic. Throughout the pool Russ kept telling me to stay active, "in and out". Mostly I'd start with quick aggressive forward footwork, then fall back into a long, slow retreating pattern, all mixed up with threats, body feints, and such—trying to draw attacks from too far and/or lure people in too close. Mostly it worked quite well, I think. Everyone in my pool was a lot younger than me. They were decent enough, but I think my sense of distance was better, mostly.

My next bout was with Myles Bear. We had a closer bout. I think we went 4-4 and I squeaked out the last point to win 5-4. Later Myles told me he was mainly a foilist and had only really tried epee at the qualifying tournament, where he did well enough to qualify and earn a D in epee. I think my sister was rooting for him in the pool a little, maybe thinking it funny that there was a bear and a fly in the pool. He did okay, coming out 5th.

Next I had Addison Wessel, a leftie who did well, coming in first place in our pool. I was the only one who beat him, 5-3. It felt fairly straightforward, mostly about distance. Although at one point, when I was up a point or two, I remembered Charlie's leftie flick to the hand thing. The last time this tactic popped into my head and I tried it Jeff Johnson pegged me in the shoulder. I've since been practicing it a little more and getting a better feel for the right distance required (and I've also come to learn how and why it isn't the best thing to try with Jeff). Anyway, it popped into my head and I took a moment to set the distance right, then threw it out. It worked perfectly. A lovely flick right to his inside hand. That felt nice.

Then I had Albert Aboaf, who my sister had dubbed "bouncy", as he sometimes broke into really fast bouncing forward and back. My luring into distance ploy worked quite well with him, and I won 5-2. Albert ended up coming in 6th in our pool.

Last I had Jonas Kulberg-Savercool, who ended up coming in last in our pool. He had lost every bout. A couple were close, 5-4, but three were not—a couple 5-1 and a 5-2. So I am not sure why I lost to him, 5-3. I think I was feeling a little too cocky, and perhaps a little tired. I did some stupid things, and made some mistakes. Oops.

I was still quite happy coming out four and two, with a +4 indicator. My preliminary seeding was 112 out of 145. After the pools my seed was a tie for 46. In the end I finished 48th out of 145.

DIRECT ELIMINATION

My first DE was with David Mackenzie. The way the pod was being run we were told to sit "on deck" and wait for the next strip. It took a while and we sat right close next to each other, which felt a little odd. I felt like we ought to chat, but beyond basic pleasantries I wasn't sure what to say, and kind of wanted to stay focused on fencing. So I watched the DEs going on. I got to see most of Kyle Margolies' first DE, where he came back from being quite a bit behind to win. I think David and I took the strip Kyle had been on.

I stuck with my basic generally defensive plan of working distance, trying to get him to attack from too far, or to lure him too close. It worked quite well in the first period and I got a comfortable 6-2 lead. In the break Russ basically said to keep doing what I was doing. The second period went similarly, although he got a bit better. I was patient, having a nice lead, letting time run down. The period ended 13-7. This was a very comfortable place to be. In the third period I think I let my large lead turn into a bit more passivity than was wise, and he had definitely figured some things out. He caught up to perhaps 13-10, which began to worry me and maybe helped kick me into being more active. Luckily I had such a comfortable lead I was able to eventually finish it, 15-12.

My second DE was with Jack Umanos. Russ warned me beforehand that "the second DE is always the hardest". I'm still not sure this really makes sense. Maybe he was just trying to get me focused and primed to work hard. Jack and I started off somewhat even, but soon I fell behind, deeper and deeper. He was wily. I think my sister said "wiry". He was very good about slipping out of binds and making last moment disengages. He got several points up in the first period. In the breaks Russ suggested envelopments, saying I needed to take his blade around twice or he would just slip out. I managed a few points that way, but it was too little too late. By the third period I was way behind. My defensive strategy was not going to work. Jack was happy to fall into his own defensive tactics, waiting for me. I tried various things, looking for single lights, but they mostly failed. I lost 15-9. I felt like I might have been able to do a lot better if I could have fenced him again, having gotten a sense of his style. But it was too much to solve within 15 points.

But it was all good. As with vet40 I had made all my default goals: making the cut, winning my first DE, and ending up higher than my preliminary seed. This last wasn't too hard since my prelim seed was so low. And my finish result was a little lower than my post-pool seed (48 vs. 46). But all in all it was extremely fun.

I could go on and on about how much fun I had at Nationals in general, and maybe I'll add more to this later. I have some videos and photos to edit. But for now, gotta post.

PICS

Here's some pictures my sister took on her phone.

Ref checking gear, probably the first pool bout. Jeff Johnson fencing in the background:

Me and, I think that is Eugene Vinitsky, with the red socks:

Why am I attacking with a bent arm? Who knows. Maybe it's a feint? I'm not sure who I'm fencing here. Maybe Jonas, my last bout. I mostly fenced on the other end of the strip:

Just me:

The start of my first DE with David Mackenzie:

Another, up four points, nice:

This must be just before I won that first DE:

And apparently this is the winning touch. Looks a little awkward, but hey, nice timing, sis! I think I had attacked with a straighter arm, then let it fall so as not to skewer him as I came forward. That's my theory for the apparent weird form anyway:

2015 Nationals Vet40 Epee

2015 Nationals Vet40 Epee

http://usfencingresults.org/results/2014-2015/2015.06-JUN-SN/FTEvent_2015Jun27_V40ME.htm

(I've been sitting on this partially finished writeup for a month, time to finally get it done and up!)

My first time at Nationals, vet40 epee my first event. I got in the day before but was still feeling somewhat overwhelmed by the whole thing. The vet40 epee didn't begin until 2:00, so I had plenty of time to get to the venue and warm up. Almost too much time: Apparently there was a shortage of refs right then, so we had about an hour delay after being assigned to pools and strips. Most of us ended up doing a bit more warm up fencing in our strip pods while waiting.

We had all four strips in the F pod and three strips in E pod. I was in pool #4 on strip F4. John Comes and Aaron Page were also in the F pod, in different pools. It was nice to have some friends around. Shawn Dodge was watching and gave me advice and coaching during the pool. Jeff Lucas came and watched. Russ and Marshall had other fencers to coach but came by eventually. Marshall coached and cheered me in my first DE, Russ in my second. Others from WFA and MTFC, like Tobias, were around the pod. It was nice having friends watching. Sometimes I imagine I'd feel distracted or a little anxious with people watching—when I did div3 epee my mom and sister were watching too. It was nice to realize how it feels good, not distracting at all, to have friends watching. If anything it made me try harder and focus better.

I had a rough start in my pool, when it finally started. I lost the first three, which started to give me a sinking feeling. But then I won the second three, feeling better and better with each bout. I ended three and three with an indicator of exactly zero. Right in the middle, which for me was not bad at all, I think.

I made a point of not checking the ratings of anyone before fencing. Usually I do, but I've started to think it is not helpful for me to know. Too often I'll let the ratings influence the way I think bouts should go, or what I should do. About a week before Nationals I was talking with Davis Carvey and he suggested I totally ignore ratings. I already knew they don't really mean all that much and I ought to mostly ignore them, but his saying it so bluntly helped me realize that I do let them influence me, generally detrimentally.

So I went into my pool without a clue as to who had what rating. Oh, I had looked at the basic distribution of ratings of all the vet40 fencers before flying down. I knew there were a lot of A, B, and C fencers, just a few D and E fencers, and a fair number of Us. But by the time I was there and my pool was starting I had put such things completely out of mind. Only afterward, looking over the results, did I see that I beat an A15 fencer.

The results also showed me that my preliminary seeding was 39 out of 48. After the pools I was seeded 26th (tied with John Comes). In the final results I came in 26th. So I more than made my goals. Actually I hadn't set specific goals, but by default they were, in approximate order of difficulty, first to make the 80% cut, second to have a final result better than my preliminary seed, and third to win my first DE. Actually, if I had seeded one higher out of the pools I would have gotten a first round bye and faced someone hard. In theory getting a bye should have been as good as winning my first DE, but I was happy it went the way it did. Winning that first DE felt great, as I came back from several points behind. Getting a bye would not have felt nearly as good.

POOLS

I didn't take notes so don't have much of a play-by-play. A lot of stuff here, like the ratings, I did not know during the pool.

My first bout was with Lewis Wadsworth. Lewis and I came out of the pools with an equal number of wins and the same indicator. But he had 24 touches scored to my 23, so he seeded above me. He was rated C13. I put up a decent fight but lost 3-5. Then I fenced David Hitchcock and lost badly, 1-5. David swept our pool, winning all his bouts and getting a +14 indicator. Then I fenced Andrew Davis. A close bout, but I lost 4-5. Not bad, Andrew, a B15, did second best in our pool. I'm not sure, but I think he was the guy with a moustache painted on his mask.

So things were looking a bit grim, down zero and three. I had been watching the other guys and with Shawn Dodge's help had come up with some plans for some of them. And I began to feel more warmed up. Things went better from this point.

I fenced Arejas Uzgirs and did well, winning 5-2. I later learned, a bit to my surprise, that he is rated U. Then I had Tracy Coldwell. He seemed pretty good (and I later learned he is an A15 from Cardinal). But I had been watching him and had a plan of sorts. It was a tough bout but I managed to stay very focused, concentrating hard on "one touch at a time". I won 5-3, to my delight. I thought that was my last pool bout and was happy to have come out two and three instead of one and four. I thought that might well be the difference between making or failing to make the post-pool cut.

So I was surprised when I got called for another bout. Good thing I didn't wander away. A couple of the guys looks a little alike and I had gotten confused. My last bout was with Marc Kuritz. By this point I was feeling much more confident and on. I felt well in control of the bout and won 5-3. I later learned he was a C13.

So I came out of the pools feeling quite good. A rough start, then a couple wins and I thought it was over at two and three, which I was okay with. Then a surprise "extra" win, making me three and three, with an indicator of exactly zero. That felt extra good.

DIRECT ELIMINATION

My first DE was against Onno Van Eikema Hommes. I'm not sure exactly how the scoring went, but I think I started off down 1-3, then 3-6, with the first period ending at 4-6 (and being vets we were only going to ten points). Russ was coaching someone else so Marshall was my coach. During the first period he called out some helpful advice (like "you're leaning, stand straight!"), but it was mostly during the break that I was able to understand what he was getting at. He said I kept doing sixes and he was disengaging them, and that I should do eight instead. Keep "feinting" sixes if I wanted, Marshall said, but when he actually attacks try eight.

So I tried that and got at least a couple points with eights. I also got a nice point doing a strong upward beat and hand pick. That one felt good. I paid minimal attention to the points, knowing how quickly things can change. I noted that I had tied it at 7-7, then got up a point at 8-7. But I think I did a good job of staying focused on "one touch at a time". Once I was up a point I think Onno got concerned and made a less than ideal attack, letting me get to 9-7. Maybe I got him in eight that time, I can't remember exactly. Then I tried killing time, which was starting to run out, being defensive yet active. Eventually Onno fleched and I managed to make it into a double, to win 10-8.

Afterward people congratulated me on my "good comeback". I had been so focused on not thinking about the score but rather on each touch I hadn't really realized I had had a comeback. I mean, I was aware of the score but only in a minimal way. I'm taking that as a good sign.

I enjoyed taking the bout slip up to the big bout committee area, far larger and more official than any other tournament I had ever been to.

My second DE was with Keith Lichten, someone I had never heard of and knew nothing about. I saw that he was the 6th seed, to my 26th. A couple people told me he was good and somewhat like John Varney. Russ was there for this one, and he suggested beforehand to fence him "like Varney". I went in feeling very confident, even while knowing this guy was going to be tough. I was totally ready to give it my all.

Well, he got the first point with a flick to the top of my hand. It came out of nowhere as far as I could tell and landed perfectly right on my hand. My reaction was something along the lines of "oh, so this is how it's going to be?" Well, I kept with my basic plan of fast footwork, getting in and out, trying to draw attacks from too far, trying to "keep the score low" like I might with Varney, and so on. He picked me off over and over, mostly to shallow targets with lovely tight bladework, flicks, and such. By the end of the first period it was 2-8, yikes.

Russ's advice during the break was fun. He said at this point my only real hope was to "try crazy things". And that I might as well because if I tried being defensive he was just going to keep picking me off, and what fun is that? I was like, oh I can do crazy things alright. So shortly into the period I tried that high-low Dragonettti fleche. It didn't work, 2-9. I don't remember the last point, but it was something crazy and he scored, so I lost 2-10. After, Russ said it can feel better to go out fighting than just getting picked off, and he was totally right.

I was very happy with how things had gone. The pools, the first DE. Keith was extremely good, and I didn't mind losing to him. When Marshall heard I had lost to Keith Lichten he said something about how he was surprised Keith had "only been 6th seed", and that he had once been on the National team, or something like that. Oh, and Keith ended up taking first place in this event. In fact, googling him right now I see he is a coach at East Bay Fencers and "ranks nationally and internationally". There's a 2012 video of him fencing Adam Watson in a round of 16 Div I NAC. And it looks like he's been fencing since the late 1980s, and doing very well at Div 1 levels since the 90s. And! Ha, looking at his Facebook page it says "one mutual friend". Bo Lawler, go figure. MIT connection. Bo connects so many disparate groups of friends it is starting to get absurd!