Thursday, November 28, 2013
Friday, November 22, 2013
RCFC Thursday Night Vet Epee
http://askfred.net/Results/results.php?tournament_id=23853&highlight_competitor_id=91067&event_id=95867
Mixed results for me. Poor pools, decent DEs. It was a small tournament—only 12 fencers turned up. Fifteen had preregistered, which would have made it a C1 event, or at least a D1. In a C1 event the winner gets a C rating, 2nd-4th places get a D, and 5th-8th get an E. In other words, if fifteen people had showed up more than half would have won a rating (although most would have already had one, but I might have gotten one). But Monica Exum, Aaron Page, and someone else did not make it, so it was an E1 event, meaning only one rating, an E, is awarded, and you have to come in 1st place to get it. Most of the fencers already had at least an E rating, so, as John Comes put it, "we're fencing for fun tonight". I replied, "hey, I could get an E!" I was mostly joking, of course, but still, of course I aim to come in 1st place! John agreed and over the evening urged me to get that E, although it was no surprise that I didn't. We did "fence for fun", as the winner of that 1st place E was Johannes Klein, who is a C, so.
I did poorly in the pools, winning only one bout out of five. Robert Lampson and I went to 4-4, and I got 3 points against Wulf Carson (who I don't remember having seen fence before, but Johannes knew him and he came in 2nd place). Against Jim Henderson and Mark Blom I only managed to score 2 points to their 5. Losing to Mark Blom wasn't surprising, but I thought I would do better against Jim Henderson. We had warmed up together and I had done well then. But then warming up is not bouting, so.
My pools results:
My scribbled notes after the pools:
I was rather annoyed after the pools, but managed to avoid feeling defeatist, instead channeling energy into something between anger and drive. In the DEs, which began with the round of 16 since there were only 12 of us (the top 4 got byes), I was paired with John Comes. The last few times we've fenced I've done well, so I gained some confidence. I gained an early lead, then he caught up a bit, then I pulled ahead again to 9-6, winning with a double touch, 10-7 (it was a vet event, so the DEs were only to ten points). Like in our other recent bouts I was able to score on his fleches pretty well, either by seeing them coming and attacking into them, or by catching him in a good parry and scoring with a riposte. I also had success with my sometimes-risky "advance with an on guard in 4". The goal of that tactic, or one of them anyway, is to draw an attack—being on guard in 4 is basically a giant invitation to attack straight in, or a bit in 6, to the arm—then you catch the attack with a strong 6 parry and riposte straight in. Twice I was able to do basically that with John. A third time I advanced on guard in 4 and John didn't do anything, in fact seemed to hesitate, with his blade in a centered, neutral position. In that situation I was able to simply lunge in 4 (into his 6) and hit his arm. Had he been on guard in more of a normal 6 position I wouldn't have been able to.
Afterward we chatted a little. He said he's often unsure what to do with me—that my style is confusing or unorthodox, or somehow simply something he has trouble with. I told him about the "advance on guard in 4" thing.
So I made it to the table of 8, yay. And who should I get paired with but Tobias Lee. Toby had done well in the pools and was the 1st place seed (I was 8th). So I had to face the "best" fencer, at least according to pool results. However, out of the final 8 fencers if I was allowed to pick which one I had to fence I might have picked Tobias anyway. He's quite good, and other fencers who are better than me, like George and Jer, say they can't deal with Toby and don't know what to do with him. But for whatever reason I have always felt fairly confident with him. I don't think I've ever beaten him, but I almost did last week in a pool bout, and in general I feel like I know what I should do with him, and what I need to be careful about. In other words, I feel like I know how to beat him, if only I was a little bit better—a little bit quicker to see when things get dangerous with him and react accordingly before getting hit, a little bit more able to focus on and react quickly to the subtle changes of things like distance that I know he relies on. A little bit less likely to make mistakes I know I should avoid but sometimes do anyway.
This is my "look on the bright" side takeaway from this tournament: Although I did fairly poorly in the pools and lost to Tobias, I could see where I made mistakes, I could see how I could have done better. This is an improvement over losing without much of a clue as to what happened and how I might have done better. The most obvious thing I could see was a less than perfect focus. I was trying hard to be as focused as I could, yet I still had moments where my focus flagged, and that was when I tended to get hit—sometimes because I didn't notice distance issues fast enough, sometimes because I reacted instinctively in non-ideal ways—such as trying to retreat when being fleched instead of ducking, or counter-fleching, like I kept telling myself to remember to do! Focus and distance...and sometimes I made semi-impulsive, ill-advised attacks. I could have been better with changing rhythms and tempos too. I had planned to use a lot of changes in tempo and broken rhythm. But in the midst of things I tended to revert a bit too much to an "autopilot" rhythm, which probably became predictable and static. All this goes back to focus and energy. I could excuse myself by saying I didn't get enough sleep last night and was more prone to spaciness than I might have been. And that's probably true to some degree. But another aspect is simply the long, slow process of getting better at fencing. The optimist in me wants to think I've reached the level where I can see my mistakes, and that although that can be a rather frustrating it is probably a normal and good phase of "getting better".
Anyway, my DE bout with Tobias. I went in feeling confident that I could win. Although I thought it unlikely I sure was going to give it my all. Toby is fun to fence anyway, so I figured it would be enjoyable no matter what happened. John Comes gave me a bunch of advice beforehand—mostly things I already knew, but it was good to hear it from his perspective. Mainly stuff about how Toby tends to withdraw his hand, which has the effect of making distance seem wider than it is. Also, John stressed keeping my point near Toby's guard and hand—to always have my point in the place where he wants to extend, thus either thwarting him or getting him to put his hand on my tip. That wasn't something I had thought about too much with Toby—mostly I focus on trying to take his blade in unexpected (for him) ways, like 7-6 binds, or using strong beats coupled with disengages, feints, and second intentions; and also I try to focus on protecting my hand and forearm from his excellent picks. John's advice was good in at least one case when I feint-threatened Toby's hand from below, with my hand pronated (something I tried to do enough to set up a "pattern"), then suddenly rotated my wrist into supinated position, turning my low line into a high line and extending to his elbow. That one felt sweet, precise and, I don't know, "Russ-approved" (ie, wrist-rotation rather than big arm movements). Toby said it was nicely done. I also managed a few decent blade-taking hits, usually a 7-6 bind type thing, or even, since Toby slips out of binds so well, a kind of 7 envelopment then bind to 6. I tried to set these up by repeatedly beating, sweeping, or at least feinting toward 8. I figure if I can get him (or anyone really) to expect an "8-ward" motion he may try a fast disengage/escape into a 6 line. If I'm fast enough (ie, have the distance and timing just-so) I can reverse direction part way from 8-ward to 7-ward, catching an "escaped extension into 6" and, if all goes well, either making a 7-type riposte to the leg, or binding the blade up into a 6 opposition. I think I managed this kind of thing once or twice with Toby. Or I should say I think I scored once this way, and used it a couple more times to disrupt and maybe even confuse him for an instant or two. In any case, ever since Russ told me 7 parries/takes/binds are useful precisely because they are not used very often and therefore potentially surprising or confusing, I've been trying them out on various people. On some people they don't work at all, on others, like Toby, they seem to sometimes work. Perhaps this is one of the ways my style is "unorthodox", as I've sometimes been told. But really, 7 parries/takes aren't unorthodox, I would think—it's just that people don't use them much in epee, right? (the septime (7) parry, for those who don't know, is the inside, low-line, supinated one; now you know)
However, where I failed with Tobias (like I said, I was able to see pretty clearly what went wrong) was mainly to do with distance. Maybe I didn't take John's warning as seriously as I should have—that Toby's style of holding his hand back tends to make distance seem wider than it is, allowing Toby to do his very fast, very accurate hand hits. He hit me on the hand or forearm far too many times. Also, I also tried, as I had been the whole night, something I had been watching on a video earlier in the day—doing a beat toward 4 following by a flick to the forearm, which in theory becomes exposed by the beat. It looked great on the video, but I'm not sure I got it to work at all tonight. It certainly didn't work against Toby. He doesn't tend to hold his blade in a way that allows the kind of beat I was aiming for, and his response to a beat seems to usually be an immediately flick/pick back toward the arm that made the beat. In my case, since I was trying to flick after my beat my arm was briefly exposed as I pulled back from the beat to make the flick. So that tactic backfired.
Anyway! Toby took an early lead. I managed to rally a little in the middle, getting to perhaps 7-5 or 8-6 (or both!). But he ended up winning, 10-6. But after winning my first DE against John I didn't mind losing to Toby. He's great fun to fence, and such a nice guy too.
DE table:
The other table of 8 bouts were: Wulf Caron vs. Robert Lampson (Wulf, 10-6), Johannes Klein vs. Dan Berke (Johannes, 10-6), and Mark Blom vs. Jim Henderson (Mark, 10-9, close!). Some people left but about half stayed to watch the last bouts. The semifinals was Tobias Lee vs. Wulf Carson (Wulf won 10-6, exactly reverse of my bout with Toby, it was interesting to watch...Wulf seemed, like me, to take Toby's blade, or at least attack with opposition—but he was better than me at anticipating the proper timing and angles, and at keeping good distance), and Johannes Klein vs. Mark Blom (Johannes won handily, 10-4). That was also an interesting bout since both Johannes and Mark are left-handed and rely to some degree on the advantage that tends to give. Johannes, with his big sweeping beats and strong parries fairly dominated Mark, who had trouble getting an attack through, and had trouble *stopping* Johannes's powerful attacks and fleches. Others have remarked about how Johannes seems to ramp up the his power as a tournament progresses, and this was a good example of that.
The final bout was between Johannes and Wulf. Both are strong, and both are, if I may say, fairly old. They were clearly getting tired. But Johannes tapped into some reserve of energy and by the end had taken control. It was a very close bout though. Johannes was mostly up a point or two, but Wulf tied it a few times. The first period ended tied 7-7. I've forgotten exactly how the final few points went. I think it was tied 8-8 when Johannes made one of his strange, wild-looking, big blade movement fleches. I don't know how he makes those work, because it looks like he swings his epee around hugely, more like a crazed foilists than an epeeist. And yet he manages to hit anyway, while Wulf was left in a kind of half-parry half-counterattack which did nothing. After that fleche Johannes let out a kind of victory whoop mixed with a laugh that ended up sounding like a diabolical cackle. It was funny, and even Johannes realized it sounded funny and laughed at himself. With the score at 9-8, Johannes (perhaps there was one more touch in there after the fleche, I can't remember), and Johannes clearly confident and Wulf not so confident (at one point earlier in the bout, after some failed action, Wulf joked about how he's too old now—I guess when he was younger he routinely beat John Varney and Travis Exum, so I guess he has some history). Anyway, at 9-8 they came on guard and Wulf said something like, "nice job, you won". I don't think Wulf had given up but rather, especially after Johannes's amazing fleche, saw he couldn't prevent a double touch, which, after a bit of action, is exactly what happened. Johannes won, 10-9.
Mixed results for me. Poor pools, decent DEs. It was a small tournament—only 12 fencers turned up. Fifteen had preregistered, which would have made it a C1 event, or at least a D1. In a C1 event the winner gets a C rating, 2nd-4th places get a D, and 5th-8th get an E. In other words, if fifteen people had showed up more than half would have won a rating (although most would have already had one, but I might have gotten one). But Monica Exum, Aaron Page, and someone else did not make it, so it was an E1 event, meaning only one rating, an E, is awarded, and you have to come in 1st place to get it. Most of the fencers already had at least an E rating, so, as John Comes put it, "we're fencing for fun tonight". I replied, "hey, I could get an E!" I was mostly joking, of course, but still, of course I aim to come in 1st place! John agreed and over the evening urged me to get that E, although it was no surprise that I didn't. We did "fence for fun", as the winner of that 1st place E was Johannes Klein, who is a C, so.
I did poorly in the pools, winning only one bout out of five. Robert Lampson and I went to 4-4, and I got 3 points against Wulf Carson (who I don't remember having seen fence before, but Johannes knew him and he came in 2nd place). Against Jim Henderson and Mark Blom I only managed to score 2 points to their 5. Losing to Mark Blom wasn't surprising, but I thought I would do better against Jim Henderson. We had warmed up together and I had done well then. But then warming up is not bouting, so.
My pools results:
My scribbled notes after the pools:
- Jim H's fleches tricked me & I retreated; should have ducked or counterfleched.
- Robert Lampson; 4-4, argh, his long reach.
- Blom; yeah.
- Wulf; I was just spacey (but he beat Toby in DEs, huh).
I was rather annoyed after the pools, but managed to avoid feeling defeatist, instead channeling energy into something between anger and drive. In the DEs, which began with the round of 16 since there were only 12 of us (the top 4 got byes), I was paired with John Comes. The last few times we've fenced I've done well, so I gained some confidence. I gained an early lead, then he caught up a bit, then I pulled ahead again to 9-6, winning with a double touch, 10-7 (it was a vet event, so the DEs were only to ten points). Like in our other recent bouts I was able to score on his fleches pretty well, either by seeing them coming and attacking into them, or by catching him in a good parry and scoring with a riposte. I also had success with my sometimes-risky "advance with an on guard in 4". The goal of that tactic, or one of them anyway, is to draw an attack—being on guard in 4 is basically a giant invitation to attack straight in, or a bit in 6, to the arm—then you catch the attack with a strong 6 parry and riposte straight in. Twice I was able to do basically that with John. A third time I advanced on guard in 4 and John didn't do anything, in fact seemed to hesitate, with his blade in a centered, neutral position. In that situation I was able to simply lunge in 4 (into his 6) and hit his arm. Had he been on guard in more of a normal 6 position I wouldn't have been able to.
Afterward we chatted a little. He said he's often unsure what to do with me—that my style is confusing or unorthodox, or somehow simply something he has trouble with. I told him about the "advance on guard in 4" thing.
So I made it to the table of 8, yay. And who should I get paired with but Tobias Lee. Toby had done well in the pools and was the 1st place seed (I was 8th). So I had to face the "best" fencer, at least according to pool results. However, out of the final 8 fencers if I was allowed to pick which one I had to fence I might have picked Tobias anyway. He's quite good, and other fencers who are better than me, like George and Jer, say they can't deal with Toby and don't know what to do with him. But for whatever reason I have always felt fairly confident with him. I don't think I've ever beaten him, but I almost did last week in a pool bout, and in general I feel like I know what I should do with him, and what I need to be careful about. In other words, I feel like I know how to beat him, if only I was a little bit better—a little bit quicker to see when things get dangerous with him and react accordingly before getting hit, a little bit more able to focus on and react quickly to the subtle changes of things like distance that I know he relies on. A little bit less likely to make mistakes I know I should avoid but sometimes do anyway.
This is my "look on the bright" side takeaway from this tournament: Although I did fairly poorly in the pools and lost to Tobias, I could see where I made mistakes, I could see how I could have done better. This is an improvement over losing without much of a clue as to what happened and how I might have done better. The most obvious thing I could see was a less than perfect focus. I was trying hard to be as focused as I could, yet I still had moments where my focus flagged, and that was when I tended to get hit—sometimes because I didn't notice distance issues fast enough, sometimes because I reacted instinctively in non-ideal ways—such as trying to retreat when being fleched instead of ducking, or counter-fleching, like I kept telling myself to remember to do! Focus and distance...and sometimes I made semi-impulsive, ill-advised attacks. I could have been better with changing rhythms and tempos too. I had planned to use a lot of changes in tempo and broken rhythm. But in the midst of things I tended to revert a bit too much to an "autopilot" rhythm, which probably became predictable and static. All this goes back to focus and energy. I could excuse myself by saying I didn't get enough sleep last night and was more prone to spaciness than I might have been. And that's probably true to some degree. But another aspect is simply the long, slow process of getting better at fencing. The optimist in me wants to think I've reached the level where I can see my mistakes, and that although that can be a rather frustrating it is probably a normal and good phase of "getting better".
Anyway, my DE bout with Tobias. I went in feeling confident that I could win. Although I thought it unlikely I sure was going to give it my all. Toby is fun to fence anyway, so I figured it would be enjoyable no matter what happened. John Comes gave me a bunch of advice beforehand—mostly things I already knew, but it was good to hear it from his perspective. Mainly stuff about how Toby tends to withdraw his hand, which has the effect of making distance seem wider than it is. Also, John stressed keeping my point near Toby's guard and hand—to always have my point in the place where he wants to extend, thus either thwarting him or getting him to put his hand on my tip. That wasn't something I had thought about too much with Toby—mostly I focus on trying to take his blade in unexpected (for him) ways, like 7-6 binds, or using strong beats coupled with disengages, feints, and second intentions; and also I try to focus on protecting my hand and forearm from his excellent picks. John's advice was good in at least one case when I feint-threatened Toby's hand from below, with my hand pronated (something I tried to do enough to set up a "pattern"), then suddenly rotated my wrist into supinated position, turning my low line into a high line and extending to his elbow. That one felt sweet, precise and, I don't know, "Russ-approved" (ie, wrist-rotation rather than big arm movements). Toby said it was nicely done. I also managed a few decent blade-taking hits, usually a 7-6 bind type thing, or even, since Toby slips out of binds so well, a kind of 7 envelopment then bind to 6. I tried to set these up by repeatedly beating, sweeping, or at least feinting toward 8. I figure if I can get him (or anyone really) to expect an "8-ward" motion he may try a fast disengage/escape into a 6 line. If I'm fast enough (ie, have the distance and timing just-so) I can reverse direction part way from 8-ward to 7-ward, catching an "escaped extension into 6" and, if all goes well, either making a 7-type riposte to the leg, or binding the blade up into a 6 opposition. I think I managed this kind of thing once or twice with Toby. Or I should say I think I scored once this way, and used it a couple more times to disrupt and maybe even confuse him for an instant or two. In any case, ever since Russ told me 7 parries/takes/binds are useful precisely because they are not used very often and therefore potentially surprising or confusing, I've been trying them out on various people. On some people they don't work at all, on others, like Toby, they seem to sometimes work. Perhaps this is one of the ways my style is "unorthodox", as I've sometimes been told. But really, 7 parries/takes aren't unorthodox, I would think—it's just that people don't use them much in epee, right? (the septime (7) parry, for those who don't know, is the inside, low-line, supinated one; now you know)
However, where I failed with Tobias (like I said, I was able to see pretty clearly what went wrong) was mainly to do with distance. Maybe I didn't take John's warning as seriously as I should have—that Toby's style of holding his hand back tends to make distance seem wider than it is, allowing Toby to do his very fast, very accurate hand hits. He hit me on the hand or forearm far too many times. Also, I also tried, as I had been the whole night, something I had been watching on a video earlier in the day—doing a beat toward 4 following by a flick to the forearm, which in theory becomes exposed by the beat. It looked great on the video, but I'm not sure I got it to work at all tonight. It certainly didn't work against Toby. He doesn't tend to hold his blade in a way that allows the kind of beat I was aiming for, and his response to a beat seems to usually be an immediately flick/pick back toward the arm that made the beat. In my case, since I was trying to flick after my beat my arm was briefly exposed as I pulled back from the beat to make the flick. So that tactic backfired.
Anyway! Toby took an early lead. I managed to rally a little in the middle, getting to perhaps 7-5 or 8-6 (or both!). But he ended up winning, 10-6. But after winning my first DE against John I didn't mind losing to Toby. He's great fun to fence, and such a nice guy too.
DE table:
The other table of 8 bouts were: Wulf Caron vs. Robert Lampson (Wulf, 10-6), Johannes Klein vs. Dan Berke (Johannes, 10-6), and Mark Blom vs. Jim Henderson (Mark, 10-9, close!). Some people left but about half stayed to watch the last bouts. The semifinals was Tobias Lee vs. Wulf Carson (Wulf won 10-6, exactly reverse of my bout with Toby, it was interesting to watch...Wulf seemed, like me, to take Toby's blade, or at least attack with opposition—but he was better than me at anticipating the proper timing and angles, and at keeping good distance), and Johannes Klein vs. Mark Blom (Johannes won handily, 10-4). That was also an interesting bout since both Johannes and Mark are left-handed and rely to some degree on the advantage that tends to give. Johannes, with his big sweeping beats and strong parries fairly dominated Mark, who had trouble getting an attack through, and had trouble *stopping* Johannes's powerful attacks and fleches. Others have remarked about how Johannes seems to ramp up the his power as a tournament progresses, and this was a good example of that.
The final bout was between Johannes and Wulf. Both are strong, and both are, if I may say, fairly old. They were clearly getting tired. But Johannes tapped into some reserve of energy and by the end had taken control. It was a very close bout though. Johannes was mostly up a point or two, but Wulf tied it a few times. The first period ended tied 7-7. I've forgotten exactly how the final few points went. I think it was tied 8-8 when Johannes made one of his strange, wild-looking, big blade movement fleches. I don't know how he makes those work, because it looks like he swings his epee around hugely, more like a crazed foilists than an epeeist. And yet he manages to hit anyway, while Wulf was left in a kind of half-parry half-counterattack which did nothing. After that fleche Johannes let out a kind of victory whoop mixed with a laugh that ended up sounding like a diabolical cackle. It was funny, and even Johannes realized it sounded funny and laughed at himself. With the score at 9-8, Johannes (perhaps there was one more touch in there after the fleche, I can't remember), and Johannes clearly confident and Wulf not so confident (at one point earlier in the bout, after some failed action, Wulf joked about how he's too old now—I guess when he was younger he routinely beat John Varney and Travis Exum, so I guess he has some history). Anyway, at 9-8 they came on guard and Wulf said something like, "nice job, you won". I don't think Wulf had given up but rather, especially after Johannes's amazing fleche, saw he couldn't prevent a double touch, which, after a bit of action, is exactly what happened. Johannes won, 10-9.
Monday, November 18, 2013
SAS Open Mixed Epee
http://askfred.net/Results/results.php?tournament_id=24373
Did depressingly bad. Lost all bouts. Came in 2nd last. Couldn't get into the zone and as I kept losing fell into a defeatist mindset. Managed to start my DE with a better mindset, but lost all the same.
My pool: George Raush, managed 3 points to his 5. Hans Engel, not much hope there, he won the tournament. I got 2 points to his 5. One was a double touch and the other was a questionable call. Hans had fleched, I parried and he missed, and I riposted as he ran by. My riposte turned into a long reaching backward stretch that by chance more than anything else happened to hit him well after he had passed. Toby was the ref (we were "self-reffing"). He thought about it. I was unsure and if pressed probably would have said no. Hans clearly didn't think so either. But Toby gave me the point, saying it was a "long and slow" riposte but it was "one action" and you do get one chance in such a situation. In my mind I was uncertain whether it was really one action. I tried riposting as Hans went by but missed, and my attempt become the "long slow" thing. Was it two actions or one long one? I'm still not sure. It made little difference in any case, as Hans is so much better than me. Garrett Armstrong, a young, small U from RCFC. I watched others beat him and thought I had a good chance, but I lost, 5-2. I was the only person in our pool Garrett beat. Then again, later he went on to beat Jer Gee in the DEs and came in 8th, jumping from a U to a C. Tobias Lee, who I warmed up with and always enjoy fencing. This bout was perhaps the high point of the tournament, when I was up 4-3. But then, even with a 2 point lead and only 1 needed to win, Toby scored twice and won. One of those points was a bad move on my part, when I tried advancing in 4, hoping he'd attack in 6 and I'd close him out, but he simply picked my hand, which was exposed for the 4 guard, damn. On the other hand, one of my hit on him was pretty lucky—after a bit of action he made a rapid retreat, like he does, and I made a long lunge and just barely hit him on the hand. Pretty lucky. Matthew Comes, well, he's just damn good, and will probably become extremely good once he's in his 20s, if he keeps it up. He fleches like a rocket out of nowhere, straight-in from a distance and still surprising. I lost 5-1. The only positive thing was after having watched him score toe touches on everyone else, including Hans, and sometimes more than one toe touch in a 5 point bout, I was determined not to fall prey to it. He made a couple of attempts but I was ready and escaped each time. I wasn't able to score, although I tried to get his shoulder. He's just too fast. He also got me once with one of his crazy over the head, behind the back infighting things. I didn't mean to get that close as I knew he'd do that. Ah well. Mark Blom, who defeated me very quickly the last time we fenced, but this time took longer, and I got 2 points to his 5. At one point Mark went for a toe touch and missed as I withdrew my foot and went for his shoulder. He immediately raised his epee up and hit me perfectly on the wrist before I could reach his shoulder. It was an amazing move. I said something like "wow, very nice", and he said it was a "lucky hit". Lucky or not it certainly looked perfect.
Bad pool meant I got the 2nd lowest seed. I feared my DE would be against one of the super fencers, like Jay, John Varney, Hans, or John McDonald. But it was Carlo Malaguzzi, who in theory I had a chance against. I even had taken notes about him at a previous tournament and formulated a plan. My notes said, basically: "strong, distance! can prep w/ 'tells', attack into. likes to fleche but if caught, blam. patience, wear him out, get him frustrated. impulsive." Well, he was fencing quite well today. If his preparations had "tells" they were hard to see, although I did manage several double touches by attacking into his attacks. I expected him to fleche a lot, but he fleched even more than I expected, and I was usually either just slightly too close or just slightly too slow with my parries and/or counterattacks. I lost 15-8. Not even close.
Normally I am able to avoid feeling too bad when I do poorly, but today had had a bit of a depressing start to it before I even went to the tournament, and getting so thoroughly crushed left me feeling pretty down. I stayed and watched a bit while I cooled off, then changed and left long before the tournament was over—something else I usually don't do. Usually staying and watching helps me get over losing, but I didn't have it in me today and it was getting late and I thought I ought to go home and help with the kids and such.
I saw the very end of Charlie's bout with Toby Lee. It was 14-13, Toby, when I came by, then Charlie scored making it 14-14, and scored again, winning. He was quite pleased. Unfortunately he had to face John Varney next. I didn't see that bout but the results show Varney winning 15-14. So close. Perhaps the main result for my club friends was George. He started his DEs beating Chris Winters 15-10, then Mark Blom 13-7. Then he had to face Jay Slater and lost 15-9. However, by winning two DEs he got into the final 8 and thus earned his C, jumping straight from his E rating. He and Charlie and Russ apparently went out to celebrate afterward. I kinda wish I had stuck around and gone with them—it would have done a lot to improve my mood, no doubt. Perhaps next time I feel like I ought to go home to help with the kids I'll call and see if I really have to. Apparently I didn't really have to today.
So, ah well, another crushing defeat. It mostly makes me want to try all the harder. There's a vet event this Thursday, so the next one is already lined up.
Did depressingly bad. Lost all bouts. Came in 2nd last. Couldn't get into the zone and as I kept losing fell into a defeatist mindset. Managed to start my DE with a better mindset, but lost all the same.
My pool: George Raush, managed 3 points to his 5. Hans Engel, not much hope there, he won the tournament. I got 2 points to his 5. One was a double touch and the other was a questionable call. Hans had fleched, I parried and he missed, and I riposted as he ran by. My riposte turned into a long reaching backward stretch that by chance more than anything else happened to hit him well after he had passed. Toby was the ref (we were "self-reffing"). He thought about it. I was unsure and if pressed probably would have said no. Hans clearly didn't think so either. But Toby gave me the point, saying it was a "long and slow" riposte but it was "one action" and you do get one chance in such a situation. In my mind I was uncertain whether it was really one action. I tried riposting as Hans went by but missed, and my attempt become the "long slow" thing. Was it two actions or one long one? I'm still not sure. It made little difference in any case, as Hans is so much better than me. Garrett Armstrong, a young, small U from RCFC. I watched others beat him and thought I had a good chance, but I lost, 5-2. I was the only person in our pool Garrett beat. Then again, later he went on to beat Jer Gee in the DEs and came in 8th, jumping from a U to a C. Tobias Lee, who I warmed up with and always enjoy fencing. This bout was perhaps the high point of the tournament, when I was up 4-3. But then, even with a 2 point lead and only 1 needed to win, Toby scored twice and won. One of those points was a bad move on my part, when I tried advancing in 4, hoping he'd attack in 6 and I'd close him out, but he simply picked my hand, which was exposed for the 4 guard, damn. On the other hand, one of my hit on him was pretty lucky—after a bit of action he made a rapid retreat, like he does, and I made a long lunge and just barely hit him on the hand. Pretty lucky. Matthew Comes, well, he's just damn good, and will probably become extremely good once he's in his 20s, if he keeps it up. He fleches like a rocket out of nowhere, straight-in from a distance and still surprising. I lost 5-1. The only positive thing was after having watched him score toe touches on everyone else, including Hans, and sometimes more than one toe touch in a 5 point bout, I was determined not to fall prey to it. He made a couple of attempts but I was ready and escaped each time. I wasn't able to score, although I tried to get his shoulder. He's just too fast. He also got me once with one of his crazy over the head, behind the back infighting things. I didn't mean to get that close as I knew he'd do that. Ah well. Mark Blom, who defeated me very quickly the last time we fenced, but this time took longer, and I got 2 points to his 5. At one point Mark went for a toe touch and missed as I withdrew my foot and went for his shoulder. He immediately raised his epee up and hit me perfectly on the wrist before I could reach his shoulder. It was an amazing move. I said something like "wow, very nice", and he said it was a "lucky hit". Lucky or not it certainly looked perfect.
Bad pool meant I got the 2nd lowest seed. I feared my DE would be against one of the super fencers, like Jay, John Varney, Hans, or John McDonald. But it was Carlo Malaguzzi, who in theory I had a chance against. I even had taken notes about him at a previous tournament and formulated a plan. My notes said, basically: "strong, distance! can prep w/ 'tells', attack into. likes to fleche but if caught, blam. patience, wear him out, get him frustrated. impulsive." Well, he was fencing quite well today. If his preparations had "tells" they were hard to see, although I did manage several double touches by attacking into his attacks. I expected him to fleche a lot, but he fleched even more than I expected, and I was usually either just slightly too close or just slightly too slow with my parries and/or counterattacks. I lost 15-8. Not even close.
Normally I am able to avoid feeling too bad when I do poorly, but today had had a bit of a depressing start to it before I even went to the tournament, and getting so thoroughly crushed left me feeling pretty down. I stayed and watched a bit while I cooled off, then changed and left long before the tournament was over—something else I usually don't do. Usually staying and watching helps me get over losing, but I didn't have it in me today and it was getting late and I thought I ought to go home and help with the kids and such.
I saw the very end of Charlie's bout with Toby Lee. It was 14-13, Toby, when I came by, then Charlie scored making it 14-14, and scored again, winning. He was quite pleased. Unfortunately he had to face John Varney next. I didn't see that bout but the results show Varney winning 15-14. So close. Perhaps the main result for my club friends was George. He started his DEs beating Chris Winters 15-10, then Mark Blom 13-7. Then he had to face Jay Slater and lost 15-9. However, by winning two DEs he got into the final 8 and thus earned his C, jumping straight from his E rating. He and Charlie and Russ apparently went out to celebrate afterward. I kinda wish I had stuck around and gone with them—it would have done a lot to improve my mood, no doubt. Perhaps next time I feel like I ought to go home to help with the kids I'll call and see if I really have to. Apparently I didn't really have to today.
So, ah well, another crushing defeat. It mostly makes me want to try all the harder. There's a vet event this Thursday, so the next one is already lined up.
Sunday, November 10, 2013
MTFC E & Under Epee
MTFC E & Under Epee, Nov 10, 2013. This was my 14th 15th tournament [edit: Ask Fred isn't showing my tournaments correctly, weird].
[edit: The results have been posted on Ask Fred; fixing a few mistakes; link: http://askfred.net/Results/results.php?tournament_id=24003&highlight_competitor_id=91067&event_id=96313 ]
There were just enough fencers to make it a D1 event. In the final count I think it was 15 fencers, 5 Es (needs to be 15 and 4 to be a D1). We had three pools of five fencers. My pool was me, Robert Lampson, Gregory Hopper, Donald Lake, and John Comes. I had five epees, all of which had passed the shim and weigh test when I checked them last Wednesday. The newest epee addition is a lovely Vinti FIE blade I had gotten a few weeks ago. Also, I figured out I could fit the epees in a camping chair bag, making it a lot easier to carry them. I still don't have a proper fencing bag.
My first pool bout was against Robert Lampson. I hooked up and brought the Vinti blade epee up for inspection. The ref was Craig Haworth, of all people. That was cool. A couple weeks earlier he had earned his E in foil, so now he's rated in all three weapons (having earned his epee E by beating me, naturally). Anyway, he tested my epee and to my surprise it failed the weight test. Failed the weight test?? I'd never had that happen before, or even seen it happen. And I had just tested it a few days earlier, argh! So I got a yellow card for that and went to get my next favorite epee—the other one with a Dragonetti grip. Craig tested it—and it was completely dead. What?? Getting ridiculous here! Okay, fine, I have three more epees, I'll get another. The second weapon failure turned the yellow card into a red card and thus one point against me. Robert Lampson started a point up before we even began fencing. So I got out one of my epees with a regular Visconti grip. That one passed the tests and the bout began at 0-1.
We fenced for a minute or so, with Robert scoring once or twice. At some point I made a hard beat-parry and, get this, my blade broke! Craig didn't notice at first and I moved back and held my hand up. "Um, half my epee is gone..." Really, about half the blade had snapped off and apparently went flying across the room. Gregory found it and I went to get a *fourth* epee. At least that one passed the tests and you don't get carded for having an epee break. But my focus was a little off, shall we say, for a while. I lost to Robert,3-5 I think 2-5.
Next I fenced Gregory Hopper. We had fenced twice before—once in a pool and once in a DE bout, and I had won both times (although the pool bout ended 5-4). Well, not this time. It ended 2-5, or maybe 3-5 (the results are still not online, I think MTFC is having computer trouble today—I'll add a link when there is one). I could blame the loss on my epee troubles making me distracted, or that the epee I ended up using was not canted enough and throwing my aim off, but actually Gregory fenced quite well. He's clearly been practicing! Still, even he said, afterward, that I had 2 or 3 times almost hit but simply missed. It's possibly he was fencing well and my aim was off. Also, I am pretty sure I made a foot hit, but Craig called it as a floor hit (we weren't on a grounded strip). My tip was on the floor, but I thought I had slid it to Gregory's foot. Hard to say for sure though.
Next up was Donald Lake. I've fenced him a number of times; I think I've always won. And, I don't know, maybe over time I've been getting better. It seemed fairly easy to work the distance and score with straight shots to his shoulder. He got a couple points, but I won,5-2 I think 5-3.
My final pool bout was against John Comes, who I've also fenced a number of times, sometimes winning sometimes losing. I particularly remember losing a DE bout to him at RCFC. At the start of the pool I had figured he would be the hardest fencer, but he seemed to be having a bit of an off day (although in the DEs he did much better and came in 2nd place overall). Our pool bout was similar to the one we had at the Subway Games at RCFC last August: I found myself able to catch his attacks and score with strong parries and blade takes. In this case I actually shut him out, winning 5-0. That made up for the rough start to the pools!
During the time between the pools and the DEs I fixed my Vinti epee, the one that had failed the weight test. At first I thought I'd just try taking the tip apart and putting it back together, but then figured I could replace the tip with the one from the blade that had broken. Craig let me test it with his weight, and then helped me test it on a strip. It worked! When I mentioned it to Amber, and how I had never failed a weight test before, she said usually it means the big spring is just worn out. It shouldn't have been, since the blade and tip is only a few weeks old, but whatever. I fixed it and it worked great for the rest of the tournament.
My first DE was against Amber Race. As when we've fenced at SAS I tended to push her back to the end of the strip. But after I got a few points up I began to wait her out more and she was reluctant to attack. When she did attack I was usually able to counterattack or parry-riposte and score. The ref was George Peebles. Near the end of the first period, after a point was scored, I glanced at the time remaining. It was about 20 seconds. I pushed Amber back to her end of the strip and waited for an opening or for time to run out. But time kept passing, more than 20 seconds, and George didn't call time. I couldn't see the machine from where I was so I just kept on. Eventually there was some action and an obvious point scored, but the machine didn't register. The machine showed about 30 seconds. I assumed time had run out and that was the rest period time showing. I said as much to George but he didn't believe me and had us continue fencing. No points were scored before time ran out. Then George was confused when the machine showed 3 minutes instead of 1 for the rest period. He fiddled with it a bit before admitting I had probably been right in the first place. After a minute we were ready to start the second period but after George's fiddling the machine showed a score of 0-0. I asked what the score was and George seemed to not know. As he worked to reset the machine I said I thought it was 7-5. Amber sportingly said no, it was 8-5. George agreed after thinking about it.
With a three point lead I played things safe and slowly built a larger lead. As the second period wound down the score got to something like 14-10. When there was less than 30 seconds in the period I simply held back, waiting for Amber to come to me, but she also stayed back. When the time got to about 10 seconds George called non-combativity, to my surprise. So instead of letting the period end he moved us straight into the third period. Okay, whatever. It was over soon enough,15-10 or 15-11 15-8.
Because I had only done mediocre in the pools my second DE bout was against the 1st place seed, a kid I hadn't met before named Luke LaRocque. When I saw I was to fence the top seed, who had won all his pool bouts with an indicator of +15, I quailed a little. But talking to Amber, who had been in his pool, well, she said he had done so well because he was in "the easy pool" and that I shouldn't worry too much. She also described his style as being flashy and big, but somewhat wild and uncontrolled—that his height (about 6'2" or 3") had been an advantage in his pool ("made up mostly of short women", she said), but shouldn't be a major concern for me (I'm 6'0"). She suggested I watch for openings in his overly "big" style. And that's pretty much what I did.
Luke's style was "big", active and attack-focused, but also, just like she said, rather wild. Some of the wildness was deliberate—he was, as the kids at RCFC might say, of the Varney school of fencing (meaning John Varney's son)—seeking to confuse or throw people off by being somewhat "unorthodox". But some of his wildness was simply overreacting or using overly large motions. I found I was able to do well by keeping good distance and using a variety of feints, second intentions, and generally setting up patterns in order to draw out certain attacks, or breaking the patterns when the timing was just so. I used a lot of slow "sweeping 4" type motions, mostly with the aim of either drawing an attack in 6 which I could stop with a strong parry 6 or, if he came close, parry prime, or attacking low in a 4-5 cross kind of way. I never did a real 4-5 cross but I did score at least once with the low flicky motion of the cross while his blade went over my half duck. In a couple other cases I scored with a prime or "prime-ish" parry-riposte. That always feels nice.
For most of the bout I was up a point or two. Two or three times he tied it up. A couple times he pulled a point or two ahead but I managed to regain a lead again. It went rather quickly. Luke rarely waited long before attacking. I was up 10-9. But near the end of the 1st period I made a couple of mistakes and he got a couple good hits, including a nice fast flick that surprised me. I made an ill-advised, badly planned attack that failed (he scored). The period ended with Luke up, 12-10. Charlie gave me a pep talk and was cheering me on, which was nice. In the second period I knew I had to score a good number of single lights. I continued to work on distance and timing—and also tried to "break up his preparations", as Charlie suggested. After a feint he made an overly large charge and I was able to score with a nice counterattack. 12-11! But then, alas, a series of touches that were close but his, 13-11, 14-11. I got one more point in there, but it ended 15-12. I'm not sure exactly how those last touches went. Perhaps I wasn't keeping distance as well, in my desire to make single light points. Maybe trying to break up his preparations made me get a little too close. Maybe I was thinking too much about single lights and looking for openings. Maybe at the end he reined in his wildness and simply didn't make the kind of mistakes I was looking for. Maybe a little of all of those things.
In any case, thus went another almost-E rating. Had I won that bout I would have gotten that E. So it goes. A good tournament nonetheless. Although I lost to Luke I mostly felt in control of the bout, and it was a very exciting, fast-paced bout. It felt good to be able to face someone I had never fenced, or even watched before, and be able to assess things with a decently calm clarity of mind, while working hard physically. It was especially nice to be able to see aspects of his fencing I could take advantage of, devise plans to do so, and actually carry them out fairly well. There was one parry prime riposte I made that felt especially well done.
And there's always next time, and the time after that. In just a week there is an open mixed epee event at SAS. Currently there are 19 fencers signed up, and it would be an A1 event. I don't hope to win or anything, but I plan to do well, damnit! Plus, looks like lots of people I like fencing: Toby and Andrew Lee, Chris Winters, Russ, Carlo Malaguzzi, Gregory Hopper, John and Mathew Comes, Jim Henderson, Joel, and even Luke LaRocque. Perhaps I can avenge myself.
[edit: The results have been posted on Ask Fred; fixing a few mistakes; link: http://askfred.net/Results/results.php?tournament_id=24003&highlight_competitor_id=91067&event_id=96313 ]
 |
| Vinti blade, nice and black! My first FIE maraging steel blade. Feels great—almost springy, hard to explain. |
My first pool bout was against Robert Lampson. I hooked up and brought the Vinti blade epee up for inspection. The ref was Craig Haworth, of all people. That was cool. A couple weeks earlier he had earned his E in foil, so now he's rated in all three weapons (having earned his epee E by beating me, naturally). Anyway, he tested my epee and to my surprise it failed the weight test. Failed the weight test?? I'd never had that happen before, or even seen it happen. And I had just tested it a few days earlier, argh! So I got a yellow card for that and went to get my next favorite epee—the other one with a Dragonetti grip. Craig tested it—and it was completely dead. What?? Getting ridiculous here! Okay, fine, I have three more epees, I'll get another. The second weapon failure turned the yellow card into a red card and thus one point against me. Robert Lampson started a point up before we even began fencing. So I got out one of my epees with a regular Visconti grip. That one passed the tests and the bout began at 0-1.
We fenced for a minute or so, with Robert scoring once or twice. At some point I made a hard beat-parry and, get this, my blade broke! Craig didn't notice at first and I moved back and held my hand up. "Um, half my epee is gone..." Really, about half the blade had snapped off and apparently went flying across the room. Gregory found it and I went to get a *fourth* epee. At least that one passed the tests and you don't get carded for having an epee break. But my focus was a little off, shall we say, for a while. I lost to Robert,
 |
| That really put the butter on the spinach. |
Next up was Donald Lake. I've fenced him a number of times; I think I've always won. And, I don't know, maybe over time I've been getting better. It seemed fairly easy to work the distance and score with straight shots to his shoulder. He got a couple points, but I won,
My final pool bout was against John Comes, who I've also fenced a number of times, sometimes winning sometimes losing. I particularly remember losing a DE bout to him at RCFC. At the start of the pool I had figured he would be the hardest fencer, but he seemed to be having a bit of an off day (although in the DEs he did much better and came in 2nd place overall). Our pool bout was similar to the one we had at the Subway Games at RCFC last August: I found myself able to catch his attacks and score with strong parries and blade takes. In this case I actually shut him out, winning 5-0. That made up for the rough start to the pools!
During the time between the pools and the DEs I fixed my Vinti epee, the one that had failed the weight test. At first I thought I'd just try taking the tip apart and putting it back together, but then figured I could replace the tip with the one from the blade that had broken. Craig let me test it with his weight, and then helped me test it on a strip. It worked! When I mentioned it to Amber, and how I had never failed a weight test before, she said usually it means the big spring is just worn out. It shouldn't have been, since the blade and tip is only a few weeks old, but whatever. I fixed it and it worked great for the rest of the tournament.
 |
| Yea, it's, like, black. A black blade, just like Elric's. |
With a three point lead I played things safe and slowly built a larger lead. As the second period wound down the score got to something like 14-10. When there was less than 30 seconds in the period I simply held back, waiting for Amber to come to me, but she also stayed back. When the time got to about 10 seconds George called non-combativity, to my surprise. So instead of letting the period end he moved us straight into the third period. Okay, whatever. It was over soon enough,
Because I had only done mediocre in the pools my second DE bout was against the 1st place seed, a kid I hadn't met before named Luke LaRocque. When I saw I was to fence the top seed, who had won all his pool bouts with an indicator of +15, I quailed a little. But talking to Amber, who had been in his pool, well, she said he had done so well because he was in "the easy pool" and that I shouldn't worry too much. She also described his style as being flashy and big, but somewhat wild and uncontrolled—that his height (about 6'2" or 3") had been an advantage in his pool ("made up mostly of short women", she said), but shouldn't be a major concern for me (I'm 6'0"). She suggested I watch for openings in his overly "big" style. And that's pretty much what I did.
Luke's style was "big", active and attack-focused, but also, just like she said, rather wild. Some of the wildness was deliberate—he was, as the kids at RCFC might say, of the Varney school of fencing (meaning John Varney's son)—seeking to confuse or throw people off by being somewhat "unorthodox". But some of his wildness was simply overreacting or using overly large motions. I found I was able to do well by keeping good distance and using a variety of feints, second intentions, and generally setting up patterns in order to draw out certain attacks, or breaking the patterns when the timing was just so. I used a lot of slow "sweeping 4" type motions, mostly with the aim of either drawing an attack in 6 which I could stop with a strong parry 6 or, if he came close, parry prime, or attacking low in a 4-5 cross kind of way. I never did a real 4-5 cross but I did score at least once with the low flicky motion of the cross while his blade went over my half duck. In a couple other cases I scored with a prime or "prime-ish" parry-riposte. That always feels nice.
For most of the bout I was up a point or two. Two or three times he tied it up. A couple times he pulled a point or two ahead but I managed to regain a lead again. It went rather quickly. Luke rarely waited long before attacking. I was up 10-9. But near the end of the 1st period I made a couple of mistakes and he got a couple good hits, including a nice fast flick that surprised me. I made an ill-advised, badly planned attack that failed (he scored). The period ended with Luke up, 12-10. Charlie gave me a pep talk and was cheering me on, which was nice. In the second period I knew I had to score a good number of single lights. I continued to work on distance and timing—and also tried to "break up his preparations", as Charlie suggested. After a feint he made an overly large charge and I was able to score with a nice counterattack. 12-11! But then, alas, a series of touches that were close but his, 13-11, 14-11. I got one more point in there, but it ended 15-12. I'm not sure exactly how those last touches went. Perhaps I wasn't keeping distance as well, in my desire to make single light points. Maybe trying to break up his preparations made me get a little too close. Maybe I was thinking too much about single lights and looking for openings. Maybe at the end he reined in his wildness and simply didn't make the kind of mistakes I was looking for. Maybe a little of all of those things.
In any case, thus went another almost-E rating. Had I won that bout I would have gotten that E. So it goes. A good tournament nonetheless. Although I lost to Luke I mostly felt in control of the bout, and it was a very exciting, fast-paced bout. It felt good to be able to face someone I had never fenced, or even watched before, and be able to assess things with a decently calm clarity of mind, while working hard physically. It was especially nice to be able to see aspects of his fencing I could take advantage of, devise plans to do so, and actually carry them out fairly well. There was one parry prime riposte I made that felt especially well done.
And there's always next time, and the time after that. In just a week there is an open mixed epee event at SAS. Currently there are 19 fencers signed up, and it would be an A1 event. I don't hope to win or anything, but I plan to do well, damnit! Plus, looks like lots of people I like fencing: Toby and Andrew Lee, Chris Winters, Russ, Carlo Malaguzzi, Gregory Hopper, John and Mathew Comes, Jim Henderson, Joel, and even Luke LaRocque. Perhaps I can avenge myself.
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