Portland NAC, December 2017

My first NAC, and it was a blast. That it was in Portland and I could drive was a key factor in making sure I went. So far the only tournament I've ever flown to was Summer Nationals 2015. That was my first National level tournament, and this NAC my second. But being a NAC I was able to fence Div2 without having to qualify, which was nice.

Here is the USFA results link, although I'm not sure how long it will continue to work: http://www.usafencing.org/dec2017nac

There are a million things I could write about this NAC, and would like to. But if I tried I would never finish and never post. So instead I'm posting some fairly quick notes and a general write-up. Here goes.

DIV2 EPEE
As a C had a good preliminary seed: 20 out of 57. Went down from there. I didn't look at any opponent's rating or anything all weekend, screw that.

POOL
Here is my pool results and some brief notes I scribbled out.

My pool bouts:

Eric Wang. Lost 4-5. Fast lefty. Got down 2-3. Doubled to 3-4. Nice single to  wrist, 4-4. Tried  patience and distance waiting for opportunity. Then, his fast fleche, my flat foot not-retreat. Nice touch, 4-5. I felt okay for at least catching up to 4-5.

Nikolas Corrales. Lost 2-5. Flicky beaty guy—took a few touches to wake up, morning fencing ugh. Got focused and active, but too late. Down 1-4. He'd beat and repeatedly flick. Upped my energy and footwork. Scored with what I've nicknamed (and written about in other posts) "Dragonetti fleche", 2-4. Final touch—thought it was a double but no, so I lost 2-5, ouch. Russ gave good advice after. Hard to figure people out in 5 points.

Alexander Kim. Lost 4-5. Energy up, great start. Got up 4-2. Had some nice, fun infighting-y primes. Thinking i could pressure him into a mistake I increased pressure but ended up actually attacking, and too deep. He adjusted, catching my deeper feints and attacks. I had a nice beat thigh attack—half inch short while he made a lovely weird hit to my back. Then he surprised me with a fleche almost off the line, damn, 4-4. Final more of same—my pressure and his good distance and blade catching. 4-5, damn. Being up 4-2 and losing is so frustrating.

Tobyn Dessauer. Won 5-1. Finally won one. Push push push pull. Shallow shallow. Got a couple nice "4-6 opp" (incl. the final point). Felt great—can handle this, and won't lose all bouts.

McPherson ("Mack", I think) Beale. Lost 1-5. Ouch! Very nice NWFC guy. I had a plan from watching him—low lines, thigh, foot; perhaps strong takes, even the Penner crossover attack (didn't find chance to try it). He hit my arm a lot. I tried a high line, he hit under my wrist. I went low he hit top wrist. Jeez!

Gau-Shieng Lin. Lost 3-5. Gah. Russ said I kept getting caught in 6. Weird how sometimes people catch my blade and i don't understand and cant escape, but it is just a plain old 6. Often from a 6 parry i pronate, prime-y, easily, instinctively, fast. Sometimes i feel caught up in a trap i don't understand, even instinctively, like this.

So, bad pool: one and five, -7 indicator. Made me 52nd seed out of 57 for DEs. Made me anxious about what high seed I'd get for DE, but at least no one was higher rated than C.

DIRECT ELIMINATION

Went better than the pool. Here's part of the DE tableau and my notes.

First I had Edward Worth. 13th seed, E16 (would have guessed C or maybe D, fenced very well). from Bend I think (High Desert FC, Oregon). His pool: 4 and 2, +5 indicator (I didn't look at any of this before DE, just that he was 13th seed (actually i thought 12th, but whatever)). Feeling pissed about my bad pool and having to face a high seed. Realized/decided to channeled my pissed feeling into a kind of anger and energy, determination, which turned out to work quite well (and again on Monday). A new approach for me? Controlled anger?

Edward almost didn't show up in time. The refs called and called, while I was on strip all ready. Announcement on PA called him 3 times, "final warning". They knew he was there and gave him a minute more than strictly required. I was fine with that. Didn't want to win that way (but a little voice was hoping anyway). Finally he ran over, seeming flustered, and knocked over a rail en route, heh. He got a red card for "over 3 minutes" (after final call? not sure how that works). So i started with one point. Seeing him looking flustered I thought to start hard and maybe take advantage of his flusteredness. Plus i had that "angry" thing going (not really anger? need better word).

I got up 5-0 or 5-1 rather quickly, maybe in part due to the flustered thing? Maybe in part the "anger-determination thing? One touch on his hand as he lifted his blade, nice. Another toe touch, nice! Feeling good. Then maybe he finally got over flusteredness, and/or I started to get complacent. He started scoring, and I stopped. He caught up and took the lead. I think 5-8 at the break. Russ said infighting wasn't working for me and to avoid it (my usual prime-y infighting failed). Also that I was freezing with blade contact—needed to retreat not freeze! Make him fall short, etc—kinda the usual advice but so helpful to have Russ tell me anyway, even if its mostly the same thing he usually tells me, heh.

Fought hard and caught up, 8-9, 9-9. Patient and active. Not freezing, better footwork, mostly staying shallow, better distance. We were tied-ish to about 10. Then i got one, then another, 12-10. Did a up-beat and hit under wrist, nice. Ended with a double. So won 15-11. Felt awesome, having screwed up my good start, adjusted (with Russ's help), and not becoming stupid near the end (like I often do), and for beating this high seed from my lowly seed spot. Made the day.

Second DE was with Joseph Smay. Seed: 45T. D17 from Boise (only looked this up after). Young (late teens? early 20s?), nice (we chatted several times after the DE and over weekend). He ended up 15th (earning a D I think, but was already a D17).

I fought very hard—maybe too hard, ie, apt to risky and impulsive stuff. We were mostly tied-ish all the way to 13-13. Russ was elsewhere, and in my one break Kundry offered what she could. I don't think she saw too much of the bout and couldn't offer larger picture strategic advice, but it was nice to have her there. She told me I hadn't retreated from one of his attacks and should have, etc. Later, Jeff Lucas, who was watching and had had Smay in his pool (I think) said he wanted to tell me to hold back a little more and draw Smay out (I had had a lead yet kept pressing and attacking, and was a point or two up at break I think), and that Smay is more a counterattacker and I could have drawn him out and then gone straight in. But with Kundry coaching me he didn't think it was his place to (which was probably right—you can't have two people coaching you in the break, but maybe one and then another is okay, I'm not sure).

Smay was using a French grip and I had been beating a lot. At 13-13 had plan, based on various observations made up til then: beat hard, feint hard to foot, then catch the high counterattack. But my foot feint was too deep and became real attack instead of feint, maybe? He got my shoulder while I was still low. Damn, 13-14. I tried something similar (second intention, beat-feint-catch), but it failed. So I lost 13-15. My scribbled notes say: "damn—close! still, fine, won 1st DE and felt good. gave it my all and then some". At the end Smay shook hands and said something like "whoa you had me sweating", and he was clearly tired out. We fenced hard—maybe I fenced harder than he expected or wanted. I wished I could fence him again—figured a lot out by the end. Felt I could beat him if I had another chance. Ah well. Still felt fine about the event overall, mainly due to that first DE.

Final results (table cuts off, there were 57 fencers). Thanks to winning my first DE I made the 32. But due to my bad pool I came in 31st.

On Saturday I did not have an event, but went and watched a bunch. Also spent a couple hours or more practicing with Jeff Lucas, which was awesome. I wish we could do that more. We're great "fencing partners/buddies". Lots of talk of tactics and various actions, drilling a bit, etc.

VET50 EPEE

Sunday was Vet50. Slighty better pool than Div2 but lost first DE, ended up pissed—turned that feeling into "anger" next day for Combined Vet Epee. In Vet50, my preliminary seed: 45 out of 65. There were (counting now), god, 20 As and 13 Bs. Huh, that helps me feel better now (two As in my pool, four people with national points). Again, did not look at ratings or anything at all until after/now.

POOL

Edward Bourguignon. U, 61th seed; ORION, Oregon. Won 5-4.

Tied-ish, me up a bit. Beat a lot, mostly resulting in doubles. Stopped beating and worked on distance—Marshall approved afterwards (he called out some helpful things during bout). Energy felt good, focus..ok.... Got up 4-3, saw opening and went, but deep, doubled. So 5-4. Okay. Marshall commented on my going too deep a lot. He was right—except once i tried Jeff's fleche-to-back-shoulder Cody Mattern thing; it was a double but felt pretty good, though still something to work on.

Stephen Lee. E17; 57th seed; HLBRSDT, North CA. Lost 3-4.

Crazy..ish. Kept pushing him to end of strip. Tried forcing him off, but carefully! And almost did once but got hit. Ref said she was really almost almost about to call halt for off strip end, it was so close (after i realized I could use practice when other person is pushed to end—i get impulsive (though better this time than usual)—Marshall had some good advice about it, should ask him more later). Anyway, had trouble getting through Lee's parries, sweeps, etc. He got a lovely hand hit—maybe i was too active (big)? Trying to overwhelm. He retreated a lot when I feinted (feints to foot a lot). Got a nice leg touch. Still, got to 2-4, guh. One exchange I couldn't tell who got—turned out I did. Close close. I got one the ref called for me, then changed her mind and said floor—I agreed. Wasn't 100% sure but it probably was floor. Got a single, 3-4. His defense was great. I kept pushing and looking for openings and feeling good, and...time ran out!? Being at his strip end i couldn't see the time—was this tactic of his? Keeping me in a place where I wouldn't notice the time running out? Anyway, I lost. Still, 3-4 is better than 3-5. Then again, 4-4 and overtime would have been better. I had no idea the time was running out, was quite surprised.

Robert Malleck. C15/55; 36th seed; FENCERS, Metro NYC). Won 5-2.

Bit uncertain at first—but got tempo control. Good leg hit. Bizarre infighting, he scored (I thought I did, but no). Then i got a nice prime touch. Ended 5-2. Felt good, felt I controlled the bout.

Bela Suveg. A16/24; 16th seed. Lost 3-5.

Based on another tournament where I beat him 5-0, I had plan involving hand hits/threats, but I overfocused on hand & disruptions. With his big sweeps I thought I saw openings and went—but deeper than intended—he parries well, and strong, and holds his parries, preventing my remises, resulting in singles for him. Down 2-4 then finally got nice hand hit (after refocusing on shoulder instead of hand!). fFnal action—another sweep and opening?? I go hard, he parried and hit he solidly in chest. VERY FINAL point, heh. Ah, 3-5, not too bad with Bela (although I did beat him 5-0 that one time, usually he beats me badly).

John Jones. B16/43; 25th seed; TCFC Marx Fencing New England. Lost 4-5.

Got to 4-4. final point: we both went for the same thing at the same time, clashed bell guards and my tip missed, his hit—pure luck, as Chris Aher said (who was watching), and Jones too, afterwards. Jones got first point when I got too close, trying some absence. But as Aher said I adjusted to good distance such that jones couldn't do that attack again, so that's good. And again there were a couple of exchanged I couldn't tell who had hit/scored. Good bout. Bit distracted. Must focus! Also, nice having Chris Aher watching—I felt like our club was particularly good at having someone watching clubmate bouts, even in pools, most of the time. I think Kundry helped make sure that happened (she had a spreadsheet of all SAS fencers and events, making sure at the very least we all had someone to coach us in DEs). There were also quite a lot of us there, and I felt like most of us tried to watch each other's bouts when we could.

Jeffrey Hudson. A17/7 (7 points), 5th prelim seed; Ohio. Lost 2-5.

Amazing fleches, surprised me. Varney called out "distance!" (nice to have clubmates watching!). I adjusted and thought I had plenty of distance. He fleched again and I felt like i had plenty of time to deal with it but he still got me, after 2-3 blade actions during fleche and my retreating (beats and then ending up like infighting). Then more of same. Afterward Varney and Hudson both said I needed 5 inches more distance than what I had thought sufficient—and that my distance was okay for most fencers, but Hudson's fleches really require a bit more. Also, Varney said i needed to retreat more, I was freezing a lot when fleched. Gotta keep working on that.

So, out of pools, I was 48th seed out of 65; two and four, -3 indicator. Not too bad.

DIRECT ELIMINATION

Did not go so well. Here's part of the DE tableau and my notes.

My DE was with Earl Hergert, A16/38; Medeo FC, New Jersey (his pool: 4 and 3; +4 indicator).

He got up a lot fast. Period ended 2-5, I think (Vet so only to 10). Marshall (who was coaching me because Russ was busy with someone else) gave excellent advice: I was leaning forward too much and couldn't retreat and needed to, and i was reacting to him, because i was unsure: Lefty, me trying to be cautious and careful, maybe draw him out, and looking for shallow stuff, but it wasn't working. Marshall asked "Can you fleche?" "Heh oh yes." "Do it." "Really??" Against this guy that seemed very risky, as far as I could tell. But I tried a fleche and scored. Marshall called out "same thing"—and I scored again. Then again, though felt a bit lucky the 3rd time.

By then it was about 7-8 and i got cautious again—close score now! It had become a real bout. Also, three fleches seemed pushing my luck, especially with the 3rd one having felt kinda lucky. Surely he'd be expecting it now and have a defense ready, right? So I became careful again, like earlier in the bout. Wrong idea—he scored and scored and won. Marshall said I should have kept doing what was working (those fleches), not gone back to what hadn't been working. But said otherwise I adjusted well, fixed my lean/balance and retreats, etc. Hergert said "nice comeback". It was too! If only the bout was to 15 i might have had a chance to adjust one more time. And if only I hadn't gotten down so far at the start, I could easily imagine winning. Should have kept fleching! Interesting insight—opposite of usual situation (shallow shallow!).

Still, pissed to have it all over so soon. Channeled that into determination the next day, which was much better. My place in final results (can't see it here, but John Varney came in first place, woo!):

COMBINED VET EPEE

Monday was the Combined Vet Epee event. I did well, for me, and was very happy with the result. I didn't take notes during the event (and sometimes I think I'm better off when I don't). So I don't have the kind of play-by-play info of the previous events. I could write quite a bit anyway, but can't spend forever on this post. So instead, here's screenshots of my pool, DE, and final results, followed by a more general post I wrote about the NAC as a whole. It repeats some things I wrote above, but also has some info about the Combined Vet event. Perhaps I'll try to add additional notes, details, insights, etc, later.

I went to the Portland NAC, my second national-level event, and holy crap I loved it. I did Div2 and vet epee. Watching the Div1 people was very cool. So many are scary good.

My Div2 pool was pretty bad. In one bout I got up 4-2 only to get stupid and complacent, thinking I had it, and "fencing not to lose" as someone put it, and losing 4-5. Bad pool, low seed, so I faced a much higher seed in DE. I was angry about my pool and successfully channeled the anger into focus and determination. Although I love tournament fencing I'm not a naturally competitive "must win" kind of person, which makes is easier to deal with losing but also makes it harder to actually win. Trying to find the right mental balance and ways to get my head into a "winning" headspace has been a challenge. So it was very interesting and encouraging to channel that pool frustration into anger into focus and determination.

In this DE I quickly got up five points or so. Then my opponent got his head on right, while my anger-focus flagged, and soon he caught up and got three points ahead. That was enough to rekindle the anger-focus thing. The rest was hard fought, more or less tied to about 10-10. Then I got a couple points up, say 12-10. Now I'm extremely good at managing to lose when I'm up a couple points near the end like this. There's a ton of mental stuff that plays into it, which I've been struggling to figure out for a while. This time I didn't blow it and won.

That made up for the bad pool, but more so, I felt like I learned quite a lot about the mental stuff I've been trying to figure out for a while now. Went into the second DE with even more determination and "anger"-focus-energy, deliberately turning it up. It was a great bout, more or less tied to about 13-13. I turned it up even more and tried a second intention thing that was probably a good plan, but in my new-found anger-energy headspace the feint came out overcommitted and I got hit with a counterattack. Tried again, same result. So I lost but felt like I learned more about this mental stuff—just where is the point between productive determination and too much. Felt good, like I was just reaching a new and very useful mental level.

But then I got trashed in vet50. My pool was ok, but not great. In my DE I tried to be careful and cautious, looking for shallow targets and such, but could not figure this guy out, could not figure out what to do. I was letting him control the bout and was paying for it. I think the period ended 2-5 (and vet DEs only to 10). In the break my coach corrected a couple things and, to my surprise said instead of being cautious I should just fleche this guy. I was surprised because I felt like this guy had a strong defense (thus my being cautious). I was like "seriously? you're saying I should start fleching? well okay, if you say so I'll try it".

Surprise surprise, coach was right, and during the second period I scored several singles with fleches, getting the score to 7-8, iirc. Then my stupid brain did what it likes to do and started to think I could win after all, which made me nervous, which made me revert to being cautious. The last fleche I made hadn't worked quite as well (though still a single light), and my stupid brain said "he's sure to have adjusted and fleching won't work now". So I ended up returning to the way I was at the start of the DE, with predictable results, in hindsight anyway.

All this made me really frustrated. The next day was vet combined and I very deliberately made myself feel angry about the vet50 event, and very purposefully channeled the anger into energy, determination, and focus. It was similar to what I had done in div2, but better. I was able to tap into the mental stuff I had figured out in div2 and do it again, better. Result: I had an acceptably decent, even good pool, for me. Three and three. Every single bout ended 5-4.

Before the DEs I continued working on this anger-channeling mental thing. It was weird because I am not naturally angry. I had to actively make myself mad. I walked around forcing myself to frown and seethe—to myself anyway: whenever anyone actually talked to me I was suddenly all smiles and happiness. Then I'd go back to stalking around with a vengeful grimace. These DEs would be the last fencing of the NAC, and damnit, I was going to win.

Well, to cut to the point, after the pools my seed was 44 out of 95. I won my first DE. It was with Leo Caamano (U; NAFAN, West Rock; 85th seed; won 10-6). It wasn't a blow out or anything, but I think I had the lead all the way. Second DE was the best. It was with Bruce McGuffin (C14; New England; 21st seed); won 10-5). Not only did my funny anger-focus mental thing seem well balanced and very useful, but twice I saw problems and solutions, and made tactical adjustments that worked. And that is something else I've been struggling with for a long time. Seeing a tactical problem isn't too hard, but seeing a solution has been very hard for me. And even then, seeing a solution and being able to execute it at a higher level event with someone I've never fenced or even seen before, well that's not something I had experienced before. Winning that bout felt so good, like I had reached a mental place I had been trying to find for years. In a funny way I felt simultaneously overjoyed, "finally, major progress in the mental stuff!" but also "of course I won, damnit, and nothing can stop me from continuing to win!"

My next DE was with Erich Crannor (A17; NWFC, Oregon; 12th seed). I lost 5-10, but so what? I gave it my best, fenced well, and learned, and afterward easily let go of the anger and was happy, yet still determined for the bigger future picture.

Finally, to end this long post, let me say I really enjoyed spending the weekend with everyone there. The fencing community is truly a wonderful thing. I'm extremely happy to be a part of it.

Seattle International Veterans Cup, 2017

Seattle International Veterans Cup, 2017

Results:
https://askfred.net/Results/results.php?tournament_id=34515

How nice to have a tournament and feel like I did well. Beyond my expectations at least. There were 26 fencers and nearly all of them were as good or better than me, on average. Also, the Battle in Seattle was still fresh in my mind, where I had more trouble in the Vet event than the regular Senior event. These good vets may tend to be a little slower than the 20 year olds, but they are wily and smart. I expected to struggle in this one.

But I arrived with plenty of time to check in and warm up, and quickly felt growing confidence. I warmed up with several people and perhaps worked harder than necessary for mere warm up bouts. But I think I get more out of warming up hard than easing into it. Several people over the course of the day told me I was moving really well, which was great to hear. I felt like I was—putting my all into the kind of in-and-out footwork I’ve been working on for so long now. And also trying to change up footwork stuff a lot, opening up space, closing, slowing down, speeding up. Lots of check steps and half lunges, trying to set traps. I think I got some decent results from “retreat check steps”—starting to step back but not actually, and perhaps turning into an attack instead.

Anyway, to the pool.

I was in a pool of seven, so six bouts for me. Three people were left handed, sigh. And among them, Erich Cranor and Bela Suveg, both scary good fencers. The third leftie was Ommer Bruce, who I’ve seen a few times and maybe fenced. I didn’t quite know what to expect of him. I thought he would be quite tough for me, but perhaps not quite as tough as Erich and Bela. There was also John Comes, who over the years I’ve been more or less on par with. And Jonathan Brace, a clubmate who I “should” be able to beat, but you never know. And finally, Ed Bourguignon, who looked familiar but I don’t think I’d fenced before.

The very first pool bout was Erich Cranor and me. I hooked up and almost on a whim checked my epee’s screws. I had checked everything the day before and upon arriving, but who knows, maybe something happened during my warm up bouts. To my surprise a screw was missing. These NEPS, “new epee screws”, almost never fall out, in my experience. I replace contact springs and whole tips far more often than screws these days. But I was definitely missing a screw just then, good thing I looked.

I quickly switched to my second epee. Although I’d like to have three or four identical epees I have not yet figured out “the perfect setup”. So I have 4-5 Frankenepees instead. For a while I had more or less settled on LP’s standard “FIE blade”, and have a couple LP bladed epees. But a few months ago Marshall, after watching me fence a bit (at the Leon Auriol Open perhaps?) said I would benefit from using a nice stiff BF blade. After a while I got one and have been enjoying it very much. That was the one missing a screw, of course. So I switched to one of my LPs. Would I have done better with Erich if I had the BF? Who knows. Probably not, or not much.

But I can pretend it is an excuse: Erich beat me 5-0. I felt like I had not fenced badly. He scored several lovely touches on my hand and forearm. Once or twice I might have over-committed and opened myself up to easy counterattacks. But generally I felt simply outmatched rather than feeling like I fenced badly. Still, not the best start. On the other hand, I figured I got the hardest bout over first and things could only get better.

And they did. My next bout was with Bela Suveg. We hadn’t fenced in a long time, but when we have he’s decimated me. And I’ve watched him enough to know how good he is. Still, I put my all into the bout, doing footwork as fast as I could, all the in-and-out, check steps, and so on. Also, after Erich I had quickly put a new screw into the BF epee and used it for the rest of the day.

For whatever reason, I was in the zone that bout, seeing things as they happened in that wonderful focused way that can be so hard to find sometimes. I watched him do his strong sweeping low line parries when I probe at his hand. After trying to set up a little pattern of probes I did another in a half lunge, disengaged his sweep and put my point right on his hand. It felt just right. Must be that extra-stiff BF blade, haha. Well, maybe a little—it sure seems like the tip stays far more stable than on my other epees.

Anyway, I kept up the same stuff and after a bit managed to hit his hand again, in a similar way. It wasn’t as pretty, but hit more directly on his hand and felt quite nice. After that we maneuvered around and he seemed more careful about protecting his hand. After a while I managed to make the distance close a bit using a “retreat check step” which he advanced into, at least a little bit. I made some kind of feint, half lunge, then renewed deep to his body, hitting. He counterattacked, but a bit late, too close and too high. My deep lunge had brought my head down and his blade ended up over my head.

After that I worked on being patient—I was up three points after all—yet still as active as possible footworkwise. Time passed as we probe and maneuvered. Finally he fleched. I had my blade turned to point a bit to my left, and lowish—part of something I’ve been practicing and exploring ever since watching Joseph Choo at the Battle in Seattle. I think Bela attempted some deceptive blade action as he fleched, but from my blade’s lowish, somewhat septime-y position I was able to lift up into a high septime, basically nullifying whatever Bela was trying to do with his blade. That was exactly the kind of thing I had seen Choo doing and had been trying myself. It wasn’t pretty in this case, but got Bela’s blade out of the way. Then, as he passed on my left I was able to drop the point and angle it to hit his thigh. Perhaps in this case it helped that he’s left-handed and was thus closer as he passed, maybe. Still, I was a little surprised that I had hit. And I wasn’t sure if the ref (Zoey) would give me the point—maybe he had passed? But she gave it to me. So yay, 4-0, wow.

So then, being nicely up, I continued trying to be very patient, yet active on my feet. There was a decent amount of time left, but still, Bela had to come to me. I could just wait. I tried using footwork stuff to draw his attack, but he was careful. After a while he was edging forward while I kept trying to draw him out. I also tried to keep pressure toward his hand, looking for another hand hit possibility. After a bit of this there was a moment where it seemed like he had edged just close enough and was, perhaps, concerned about my focus on his hand. I made another half lunge toward his hand then renewed and dropped to his foot. My point landed perfectly. His counterattack was high and late. I won 5-0! Against Bela, wow. And ending with a toe touch? Wonderful! I was elated. He was not happy and shook my hand with a grim firmness. As I walked back and unhooked John Comes congratulated me with an impressed expression.

That win was so unexpected and unexpectedly good, I figured I would be quite pleased even if everything fell apart in the rest of the pool. I felt super good—not really because I beat Bela, it could have been any “very good” fencer and felt as good. Mostly it was the wonderful feeling that comes from being in the zone, working my hardest, seeing details at speed and, most of all, being able to capitalize on it all, with two or three touches that felt pretty much perfect.

Also I figured the 5-0 win exactly made up for the 5-0 loss. After the bad start I was perfectly even. And those were the two toughest fencers in my pool, I figured. So I felt pretty good about the situation.

Next bout was with John Comes. We’ve fenced in tournaments quite a lot since I started at SAS. Sometimes I beat him easily, sometimes he beats me easily. Sometimes we have very close bouts. This time it was a very close bout. Things began well for me. I think I got the first two points. One with a hard beat attack, the other a retreating counterattack that landed nicely on his hand. Then, maybe I was overeager, but I attacked too deeply. My point landed, but deep, while his counterattack hit my shoulder. A single light for him. Then, after a bit, we attacked simultaneously and had a clashing double touch, making the score 3-2. I started trying to be more careful but also, I soon realized, slowed down my footwork a bit. Somehow we ended up infighting. I made a decent parry but couldn’t get a riposte in before he was passing me and going off strip. As he did he made a last-ditch prime-like attempt. His tip went into my shoe and scored. So it was tied 3-3. Hmm.

I don’t exactly remember the next couple of points. I think I scored one, then he scored, taking us to 4-4, la belle. We maneuvered for a while, trying to find openings and set traps. Finally I saw an opening and went for it. A nice lunge that landed near his shoulder or collarbone. He had made a counterattack, but it seemed like his blade was too far out of line. I won! But when I looked at the lights, his was on and mine wasn’t. I realized his counterattack had *just barely* managed to nick my elbow. So he won, 5-4. Afterwards he said it was a very close bout and that final point could easily have gone either way. And he had also thought it might have been mine until seeing the lights. We both agreed that it was a good bout.

Next I had Jonathan Brace. We fence now and then in the club, so I had an idea about how it might go. And it went pretty much as I thought it would. He kept attacking from too far, giving me fairly straightforward counterattack points. In this way we got to 4-0. Then he attacked just as I was lifting my blade for some reason. He hit my arm nicely. I got the final point and won, 5-1.

Then I had Ommer Bruce, the french-grip leftie who I didn’t know well. I had watched him in other pool bouts and gotten some sense of his style. His footwork was interesting: He tended to stay rather still, giving the impression of being slow, but he could suddenly fleche, surprisingly fast. He could also retreat faster than his rather static stance would suggest. Having seen that I knew I had to at least be careful. Mostly I did the same stuff I had been doing—very active footwork, lots of feints, attempts to set traps, etc.

We had a good, hard fought bout. I have forgotten how the first few points went, but somehow or other we got to 2-2. Then he fleched. I managed to parry and riposte in a prime-y way as he passed. Then he scored in a way I can’t remember, tying it up again at 3-3. Again he fleched and again I managed a parry-riposte. It was awkward and ugly, and I barely stayed on the strip. As I scored I half-fell off strip, stumbling back-first into the wall. Still, I got the point. More maneuvering and then, maybe remembering my toe touch with Bela, I went low, after trying to pressure his hand. Bad timing though—right as I dropped my blade low he fleched. My tip was nowhere near his foot and his fleche easily landed. So we were tied at 4-4. I don’t remember the last point exactly, but it was mine. I think there was an opening and I took it, but it was close.

So now I had a 5-0 loss, a 5-0 win, a 5-4, and a 5-4 win. Very symmetrical. Plus the 5-1 win against Jonathan. Not bad, not bad. My final bout was with Ed Bourguignon. I had started the pool with almost no idea about his fencing. But I had plenty of time to watch him fencing others and felt like I had a good chance. He seemed susceptible to traps. I got the sense that he hadn’t been fencing all that long, or maybe not too frequently. Anyway, it turned out he was susceptible to traps. I won 5-1, and almost all the points were fairly simple traps. Things like low line feints until a high counterattack was drawn, which could be taken with a six opposition lunge. Or several beats followed by a fake beat, disengage, six take. At 3-0 I began some kind of setup trap prep and he made a straight lunge into my prep, scoring. I simplified for the last two points.

So I ended up four and two, with a +8 indicator. Far better than I had expected I’d do. I ended up getting the 6th seed, out of 26 mostly very tough fencers. Yay. With 26 fencers the top six got byes for the round of 32. So to my surprise I got the last of those byes. I’d almost rather not have, so I could have had a winnable DE. Somehow getting a bye doesn’t feel as good as winning a DE. Then again, with only six byes I felt pretty good about getting one.

Once the tableau was up I saw I would face the winner of a bout between Joel Howard and Travis Exum. Seeing that my heart sank. It seemed highly likely that Travis would beat Joel, then beat me. And that’s exactly what happened. In fact Travis went on to beat everyone, taking 1st place in the end. Before the DEs Travis said he didn’t do so well in the pools. Tobias had beaten him in the pools and talked to me a bit about it, and other tactical and strategic stuff. Watching Travis fence Joel, plus having warmed up with him a bit, I thought maybe he was having an off day and I had a chance.

Also, after some of the things Tobias had talked about, especially stuff about fencing better fencers, I considered trying to keep the score as low as possible with Travis. Perhaps I could try for non-combativity. Maybe I should have. But I worried about my own ability to stay focused and highly active if I went that way. Also, I knew from practice that if I let Travis set stuff up he tends to score on me. Could I have gone for non-combativity while also actively disrupting his set ups? Maybe. Next time?

In any case, things began decently enough. I think we tied at 3-3. Then I attempted a surprise attack fairly quickly off the line. It failed. Then he got another point, and another. Before I knew it I was behind and felt I had to attack if I hoped to catch up. Travis was happy to play a defensive game, although he certainly kept the pressure on. Things went badly and soon the score was 3-7. I killed time until the period ended, hoping I could somehow reset and come up with a desperate plan in the break.

In the second period I was more careful, knowing I needed lots of singles. I managed to get one point, but he got the rest, winning 10-4. Ah well, here is where I need to be happier about getting a bye instead of winning a DE before losing one.

Anyway, the bye put me into the 16, and Travis kept me out of the 8. Thanks to my decent pool I ended up coming in 11th overall, just before Erich Cranor and Jeff Johnson, and above people like Eli Delgado and Fred Frank. So that’s good! Still, after the pool I had been hoping I might make the 8, since doing so would renew my C rating, which is getting dusty.

On the other hand, if I had seeded one or two places higher I would probably have had to face Sean Ameli, Fred Frank, or Eli Delgado, or Bela Suveg. I can’t imagine I’d have done much better with any of them than I did with Travis.

Catching up!

Haven’t posted here in a year. My last post was on the 2016 Battle in Seattle, and the 2017 Battle in Seattle happened just a couple weeks ago. Time to get back on it.

I stopped posting after several tournaments in which I did poorly and felt no desire to write about. Then inertia and life built up. Also, since getting my C I have had far fewer tournaments to go to, and tend to do meh. Last weekend there was a C and under tournament in Tacoma that drew over 20 fencers. That would have been ideal, but alas, I could not go. On the plus side, Alex Rwamashongye came in 1st and got his C. We fence a lot at the club. It was nice to see him do so well.

Looking at AskFred, it seems that I’ve had 11 tournaments since my last post here:

Three small “Open Epee” tournaments at SAS. I did alright at these. Middle of the pack.

The 2016 WWD Divional Qualifier. I came in dead last.

The 2016 Rain City Open. I came in 2nd to last. This was just a couple weeks after the Qualifier tournament, and the double whammy of bad results played a big role in my not posting here. There was also a vet epee event at Rain City Open, at which I came in second! But there were only four fencers, so.

The 2016 Seattle International Veteran’s Cup. I did alright.

The WWD Division Championship. I did horrible, coming in second last. Sigh.

BladeFest 2016. I did poorly in the Senior event but good (2nd out of 15) in the Veteran event.

The 2016 Leon Auriol Open. I did meh, but could have been worse.

The RCFC “Home for the Holidays” tournament. I did pretty good and hope to write more about it in a later post.

And finally the 2017 Battle in Seattle. I did meh in the Vet event and wasn’t too pleased. In the Senior event I did better than I feared and was happy enough with my fencing. I should write a post about it.

And that’s it since last year. I went to more tournaments the first couple of years of this blog, and of my return to fencing. Many were events I could not do now—U and under, E or D and under, etc. I miss those in some ways. Sometimes I imagine dropping to a D rating, if I don’t renew my C within a couple years, and being able to do Div 3 stuff again. But….I’d rather get better, haha.

Maybe the next thing for me is to start going to NACs, especially the Vet ones. I might be able to go to the April NAC in Baltimore, for the vet events. And then, looking farther into the future, I’ll age into Vet50 in a couple years. I daydream about becoming a much stronger competitor in the Vet/Vet50 category. Maybe if I work hard, go to NACs, etc, I could be a high/highish level Vet fencer by the time I reach Vet60.

We’ll see. I certainly don’t plan to stop!