2014 Seattle International Veteran's Cup, Men's Epee

2014 Seattle International Veteran's Cup, Men's Epee

http://askfred.net/Results/results.php?tournament_id=24100&highlight_competitor_id=91067&event_id=96733
http://www.salleauriol.com/liveresults/FTEvent4.htm

I did quite well in the pools, taking 2nd place out of the 7 in my pool. Out of 20 fencers I was the 6th seed after the pools, which gave me a bye in the round of 32 and put me against Carlo Malaguzzi in the round of 16. Yes, Carlo, who I had in my DE just last week in the Rain City Open vet epee. Last week I almost beat him. This week it was not as close. He was fencing very well. In fact he came in 3rd overall, earning his C. Thanks to my good pool results I did best of everyone who lost in the round of 16, thus putting me in 9th place overall.

I ended up writing more than I thought I would, and probably with various typos. I should edit this later.

My pool was Travis Exum (A, SAS), Russ Redding (B, SAS), Mark Blom (C, WFA), Aaron Page (D, MTFC), me (E, SAS), Doug Robinson (U, La Salle), and Peter Yan (U, no club listed, but Northern California Division).

I thought in pools clubmates are supposed to fence each other first, but that wasn't done in this pool. My first bout was with Doug Robinson. I had never seen him before but got to watch him in one pool bout before I fenced him, which gave me just enough information to be concerned. I didn't have a plan other than to "fence my game" and do my best to be as active on my feet as I could. After some probing he made an attack and I did a parry-riposte to score. I think it was a fairly straightforward 4 or 6 parry. Then I tried an attack and he scored with a parry-riposte. I decided to hold back a bit and try for ripostes or counterattacks. He fleched from a little too far and I was able to retreat quickly, giving me plenty of time to deal with his blade and get my point on, scoring and making it 2-1. I'm less clear on the next few points, except that I mostly scored with parry-ripostes. It was clear I was doing best when waiting for his attacks, and he obliged me by attacking fairly consistently. He got another point somehow, perhaps a double. I won 5-2. Nice start.

Next I fenced Aaron Page. I'm sure we have fenced before, but it must have been quite a while ago and I can't remember [edit: I just checked Ask Fred and it looks like we haven't fenced before]. I've certainly watched him fence a bunch of times. I was rather worried about fencing him. He's tall and smart and good at things I'm not, like ceding parries. Later he told me he likes doing counter-binds. I had never heard of a counter-bind. He explained and it is similar to what I was doing with Adam Frank last week—someone takes your blade into a bind and you "go with it" and "around again" to end up binding their blade. With Adam it was "parallel" since he is a leftie (he'd try to bind in 8 and I'd go along in 8 "twice" until I was binding him in 8). With same-handed people the counter-bind thing would result in opposite bind types. Also seems similar to envelopment, but more in reaction to an attempt to bind. Or something. I was also worried about fencing Aaron because I've watched him beat people I have a lot of trouble with, like Jeremy Gee, Tobias, and others. Later in this tournament he almost beat Bela Suveg (they went 9-9). So I was worried but ended up winning 5-1, to my surprise.

I didn't have much of a plan with Aaron, other than to be extra careful of his long reach, and to try and avoid getting too close, where his ceding parries seem strongest. I scored the first point, making a straight lunge into his preparation. He had advanced while making some fairly large blade motions, letting me attack straight in. I scored the second point with, if I remember right, a high septime "lift" and "pop". Then he scored one, but I can't quite remember how. Perhaps with a disengaging attack that got me to parry the wrong way. From 2-1 I ended up scoring the rest of the points, to 5-1. Several times I thought he got me with a flick-like attack or counterattack, but his light never went off. Apparently they were just flat or something. One of them seemed more solid and when I saw I had scored and he hadn't I touched my arm where he had hit and made a gesture of "huh, no?" That time he had the ref check his epee, but it was fine. To some degree I was lucky his flicky things didn't score, and said so afterwards. He wasn't having it though and said I was fencing very well. We chatted for a while later on. Sometimes I wish the Tacoma club was closer. I would enjoy practice fencing there, and I imagine it would be a good place to take the kids. The other thing that worked to my advantage in our bout was fast footwork—what a revelation it is to realize how fast footwork is so useful, haha. I avoided several of his picks with quick retreats, as well as his toe touch attempt (although perhaps it was not an all out attempt but a semi-false attack). Anyway, beating him 5-1 was a great surprise and helped get me more into a good fencing headspace and focus.

However. My next bout was with Travis Exum. Well. We fence in practice fairly often, and he nearly always destroys me. Now and then I do okay with him. It's not impossible to imagine beating him to five points, but it wasn't something I thought very likely. So I planned to be very cautious and stick to counterattacks. I figured it I focused on getting double touches by counterattacking his attacks I might get a reasonable number of points, even if I lost. And perhaps, I thought, if things went slowly enough we wouldn't even get to five points. The fewer points the better, I figured, not really aiming to win. Well, despite having this plan I found myself attacking sometimes. His style involves lots of sudden small advances and what might be called body feints. I think several times I thought he was launching a real attack when he wasn't. So I would end up making a real, committed counterattack into what was little more than a feint. He took advantage of these mistakes every time. After it was over he said, about the last point, "you can't attack and defend at the same time, pick one!" I had attacked into his not-actually-an-attack again. When he took advantage I apparently tried to attack more deeply—half-crossing my feet, he said—and tried to parry his counterattack. It failed, needless to say. He won, 5-1. Well at least I got one point, even if it was a double touch.

Travis was 1st seed after the pools and I thought he might win first place, but Mike Perka beat him in the semifinals, so he came in third with Carlo.

My next bout was with Mark Blom. A year or more ago he usually beat me, but the last time we fenced, in the pools of the Battle in Seattle, vet epee, I had beaten him. He's pretty good, certainly. He came in 3rd place in our pool and 10th place overall. But in our pool I beat him 5-0. Like when we fenced at the Battle in Seattle I felt like his footwork was a little slow, while I was doing my best to be as fast as I could. I bounced in and out of his distance, drawing attacks and scoring either with parries, beats/lifts, or simple counterattacks to his arm. He uses a French grip but even so my reach is about as long, if not even a little longer. A couple times I was able to pull my body back as he attacked, so he fell short, yet extend above his blade and hit him on the arm.

At 3-0 I tried a fleche. Mark is left-handed and my notes suggested trying a 8-6 fleche (and also said to "fence him like Charlie", whatever that is supposed to mean). The last several times I've tried fleching lefties with a feint in 8 then lifting straight up into 6 (with no wrist rotation like I usually use when feinting low and fleching high against right-handed people)...well the last few times I've tried that it has failed. I remember it failing with Johannes, Adam Frank, and Matson Lalor. So I've been reluctant to try it. But at 3-0 I thought I'd give it a go. I set it up in terms of timing and distance then launched. It worked nicely.  I think against those other people it has failed because they've done a prime-like parry then bound my blade into 6. To work it needs to draw a parry 8, I think. Mark responded to my feint in 8 with a parry 8, so my lift up into 6 evaded his blade nicely. With the score 4-0 Mark seemed willing to try a fleche of his own, but his timing was a little off and I saw it coming with plenty of time to react. I made a hard beat-parry (thinking about his French grip) and landed the riposte. So I won, 5-0, woo! He was very nice afterward, congratulating me and telling me how well I've been fencing lately. Later we talked more and he again said I've been fencing well. I said something about putting my all into fast footwork and how that seemed to be a key aspect of beating him this time and at the Battle in Seattle. He admitted he does not always move as fast as he could/should. We joked about how easy it is to slip into slower footwork. "It's a tactic!" rationalization, etc.

So I was three and one. Going good. Next up was Russ Redding. Well, he's my coach and all, so knows me very well. He's taught me a good portion of what I know. In practice fencing sometimes I can do pretty well against him, but in tournament he's always beaten me. He knows my fencing quite well, but then again, I know his pretty well too. I know he's technically excellent and has very good blade control. He constantly gets his point aimed right at your wrist. He's quick with accurate parries, and is particularly good with prime parries. He's also quick with ceding parries. His main weakness is his footwork speed. Although his balance and footwork control is excellent he is a bit slow. Also, he can't make deep lunges, probably because he has an artificial knee. Nevertheless he is good at half-lunges and renewed fuller lunges. He's also good at fleching when the opportunity is just right. His fleches are not as fast as some people's, but he is excellent at timing, distance, and bladework. Even when I see his fleche coming he often tricks me with subtle bladework feints and such. When I do well against him in practice it usually involves using speed, beats, and binds (he tends to hold his blade out with a straight arm, inviting beats and binds), and second or even third intention. I know I can't just beat or bind his blade since he's too good at slipping out, ceding, and just getting his point back at my wrist. But sometimes I can anticipate the way he will slip out and use that for a second intention attack. Even then I might need a third intention plan. But that can get complicated and risks getting hit by a straight attack into all my prep. Another tactics I can sometimes use with him is picks to his arm, since he tends to hold it out. But again, simple picks rarely work (although they sometimes do). More likely I need to make some kind of feint and pick from an unexpected angle.

So I went into our bout thinking about all those things. The main danger, I think, is that it's all so complicated. If I try a feint with a second intention in mind and he doesn't react the way I hope he can take advantage, especially if my balance or distance or timing isn't just right. And that's basically what happened. I tried using a lot of fast footwork in and out, feinting and seeking patterns and opportunities, but whenever I mistimed things or misjudged distance he'd attack with some confusing disengages. He was using his French grip, like he has recently. I've found him a lot harder to fence when he's posting. It makes it a lot harder to bind his blade, which is one of my key tactics against him when he's using a pistol grip. Still, I got a couple of nice touches. He got more though. One time he attacked with disengages/feints such that I was totally fooled and ended up making a perfect parry to the wrong side. We got to 3-4, Russ a point up, which wasn't too bad really. I tried to use a tactic Russ taught me, which might not have been the best idea, although in theory it might have worked. It was a "third intention" kind of thing. I repeatedly feinted picks to his inside wrist with what I hoped was just a hint of a circle-six second intention. The idea being that the pick feint draws a direct attack, which is caught in a circle six parry. But I knew that he knew this. And I hoped I gave just the slightest hint of that circle six second intention. Then, when he makes his straight attack he expected my circle six and slips out of it, going a little low. Then my third intention was a prime parry. By the time all the other stuff happened the distance ought to be closer and the prime ought to be able to stop a disengage out of six. Well, I think I set all that up fairly well and he obliged me by eventually making the straight thrust and disengaging out of my circle six. But my prime parry came just too late and he hit me in the chest just as my prime swept his blade aside. Maybe I was just slightly slow, or maybe he could tell what I was planning and pushing the distance just enough to get through. In any case, he won, 5-3.

My final pool bout was with Peter Yan. I had never seen him before but got to watch him fence others in our pool. By the time we fenced I felt fairly confident about it. I figured I ought to be able to counterattack and/or parry-riposte his attacks. That's pretty much what happened. He was quick to attack and I was able to parry-riposte or counterattack without too much trouble. Once I caught him in a circle-six parry. Another time or two he charged with large blade movements and I hit with a simple straight thrust. I won 5-0. He was nice, even saluting me after my touches.

So I came out of the pool with four wins and two losses. Just like last week at the Rain City Open, Senior Epee. That time my pool had a five way tie of fencers with four wins and two losses, and I had come in last of the five due to indicators and touches scored. This time I looked at the sheet a little as I signed it. I saw that Travis was undefeated and took first place but only one other person, Mark Blom, was 4 and 2. And it looked like his indicator would be lower than mine. It was. My indicator was +11 and his was +4, so I came in second in my pool. I don't think I've ever had an indicator as high as +11, except maybe in a U-only tournament.

When the DE tableau was posted I saw I had to fence Carlo Malaguzzi, just like in the DEs of the Rain City Open vet epee last week! He had beaten me last week, by one point. And I had had several changes to win while he came back from behind. I had learned a lot about fencing Carlo in that DE and thought I should have a better chance this time. But it turned out to not be as close, he won 10-5. He was fencing very well and went on to beat Tobias Lee, 10-9, before losing to Bela Suveg, 10-7. That earned him 3rd place and a C rating.

I went into the DE with a plan based on last week. Basically I would keep the distance wide and make sure I was very ready to retreat from his fleches, and sometimes I would take the attack to him before he could start his own. Also I tried to be ready to parry his final attacks rather than his preliminary feints. I got the first point with a nice counterattack to his shoulder. That point gave me some confidence, but things went downhill from there. I tried a few times to attack him, the way I had scored some points last week, but I don't think I managed to score with an attack. I tried one fleche that failed badly. And I tried for his leg twice. Nope. And when he attacked and I tried to either get away or counterattack the result was usually either 1) he bound up my blade, 2) I counterattacked and missed, or 3) we had a double touch. He seemed faster than he was last week. Afterward several people commented on how well he was fencing today. Trip said his timing had improved during the pools and was quite good by the time of our DE.

When Carlo had about 7 or 8 points he fleched with a bind. I instinctively tried to power through but he held my blade. I distinctly remember the feeling of pressure between our blades. It felt like something I *could* power through but when I tried the pressure just increased and kept me trapped. He's strong that way. It would have been better to disengage when I felt that blade pressure. At some point earlier on I got a nice touch with a septime lift and *pop*. I love those. When he was nine points I began thinking of a change in tactics, forgetting the bout was only to ten. I had reminded myself before we started that it was only to ten points, and a couple refs were joking about not forgetting it was a vet event. But I still forgot when the score was 9-5. I was thinking I was down but it was still possible to come back. Going to 15 points a score of 9-5 isn't impossible to recover from. I began an attack with a new tactic—although I forget exactly what tactic now...something aggressive—and he hit me with a counterattack. I returned to on guard ready for more only to see Carlo had his mask off and was saluting. Oops. Right, that was it.

When we shook hands he apologized with real feeling for beating me. I was okay with it though—more okay than I had been the week before. Maybe he felt bad because I had made some comment about getting revenge for last week. He was very nice though, and went on to say some things about how he likes fencing me because it's "clean fencing". He said "don't take that wrong", but I understood and we talked a little about how it can be frustrating to fence people who are less experienced (writing this now I feel weird suggesting I am experienced, but I guess I get a little more experienced as I keep at it).

I added some notes about Carlo to my little notebook. It's not just that he likes to attack, has good fleches, and is strong. He likes to beat and bind the blade, either as preparation or within his fleches. Maybe absence of blade would be worth trying. A couple times in our DE I let my blade fall into absence but I didn't keep it there long, afraid that it would only make it harder for me to counterattack or parry. But I remember a few months ago when I was doing a lot of absence of blade in practice and fenced Carlo at a RCFC open epee evening. I did pretty well with it then. If I find I have trouble with his binds maybe I could avoid them with absence of blade. Like some fencers he seems to really want to take the blade, and makes attempts to do so even when I'm using absence of blade. So perhaps as a tactic absence might shut down some of his preferred options. They say fencing is as much about denying your opponent their preferred actions as it is setting up your own.

Later I talked to Trip Atkins about Carlo a little. Trip had Carlo in his pool and beat him 5-4. He said that Carlo does a lot of blade movements, shifting from six to four, high to low, circling, and so on. Sometimes, Trip said, he exposes his hand when doing these things. Trip got most of his points by picking Carlo's hand when he exposed it like that. That was interesting. I was so focused on Carlo's attacks I hadn't noticed his hand.

Of the rest of the tournament: We had three pools in which two people were undefeated, Travis Exum and Bela Suveg. Travis had an indicator of +22—in six bouts he got hit only eight times (I only got one on him). Bela's indicator was +19. So they were the top two seeds. I was pleased to find I was the 6th seed. I had done well in the pools. A couple people, Bob Noble and Mike Perka, had four wins like me but lower indicators, yet seeded higher—they were both in the pool with only six fencers, so their win percentage was higher than mine. Still, 6th seed out of 20 in an A1 event is quite good for me. For once I had a decent place in the DE tableau. Facing Carlo wouldn't have been my first choice, or maybe it would, after last week. My place in the tableau would have put me against the 3rd seed after Carlo, which was Tobias, then the 2nd seed, Bela. It was Carlo who fenced Tobias, eeking out a 10-9 win, then Bela, losing 10-7.

Aaron Page beat Mark Blom then almost beat Bela Suveg, coming back from a couple points to tie it 9-9, but losing the last point. I got the end of that one on video. In the top half of the tableau Trip lost to Varney, and Varney lost to Travis. Michael Chin beat Peter Yan then had to fence Mike Perka. I saw him before that and gave a couple of suggestions based on my pool bout with Mike in the Battle in Seattle, but I guess it didn't help, Michael lost 10-2. Mike Perka beat Travis in the semis, so the final was Bela Suveg and Mike Perka. It was very close, they went to 9-9.

2014 Rain City Open, Senior Epee

2014 Rain City Open, Senior Epee

http://askfred.net/Results/results.php?tournament_id=25705#102855

This was a fun tournament for me. I fenced my best, mostly. Physically I put in all I could with lots of bouncing and fast footwork. Mentally, I felt pretty good about my focus and tactics. It was an A2 event with lots of good fencers. I did much better in the pools than I expected but lost my first DE.

I was going to warm up with Garrett Armstrong, but hooking up I found my LP epee grounding out. I thought I had fixed it the day before! Not having another epee right there and wanting to see if I could quickly fix the LP we unhooked. So I didn't get any fencing warm up, although I did a good amount of stretching, jumping, and so on. Turned out I had fixed the tip of my LP epee and tested it the day before. Then I had remembered the bell guard was on wrong, so I had taken it apart, rotated the guard, and put it back together. I had a little trouble getting the wires through the guard's rather small slot. Apparently I had failed to test the epee after that. Well, later I took it apart again and found one wire had broken right where it went through the guard. I had to rewire.

So I had to use a different epee. Remembering how I wasn't entirely happy with using my Vniti on Friday I used one of my cheaper Absolute epees instead. It worked just fine all through the tournament and felt good. It's stiffness is more like the LP blade, and I felt better about my beats and binds than I had with the Vniti on Friday.

My first pool bout was against Michael Orzechowski, who had come down from Alaska. I had fenced him before at the Battle in Seattle, vets, pools. I'd come close to beating him then, but lost. He had beaten Walter Dragonetti though, which was quite impressive. So I knew something about his style. He's very smart, but slower than me, if I am working hard. So I worked hard, bouncing in and out of distance a lot, probing. I found I could draw parries, sometimes rather big sweeping parries. I scored first, by drawing one of these parries and disengaging out with an inverse-advance lunge. Then he scored to tie 1-1. After a bit more maneuvering I tried something similar and scored. He was smarter about it and counterattacked. It would have been a double touch but his point just missed, sliding along my chest. The next time he did get a double, making it 3-2. Then he got a single, making it 3-3. I've forgotten what he did to get the single. I think I was setting something up and he attacked into my preparation, catching me off guard. The next point, I was bouncing and check-stepping in and out and he went low, for my foot or knee, leaning forward as he did. I instinctively put my point right on his shoulder long before his point got close. So I was up, 4-3. Remembering how I had let Carlo come back from behind on Friday I worked extra hard for that last point. I got it with a leg touch, winning 5-3.

Nice way to start. My confidence was boosted. I was tired from how hard I had worked but determined to continue to work as hard as I could. Pool bouts are short, I can put everything I have into them. I probably would not fence more than two DEs at best, so there was no need to save energy. And no excuse for slacking off.

Michael Orzechowski seems like a wonderful guy. He's very friendly. He told me I was fencing very well a few times over the day. Later I learned he had a bit of a knee injury and was not fencing his best. He talked to Russ about knee replacements near the end of the tournament. Apparently Michael is a sports doctor and does things like knee replacements. He made a point of warning Russ to be careful with his artificial knee—saying that "we" have gotten good at doing multiple hip replacements but still suck at multiple knee replacements. One knee replacement is usually pretty good, but it won't last forever and a second replacement will be much much worse.

Michael had brought a younger kid down from Alaska with him, and kept saying "if we had my brains and your body" they'd be so much better at fencing. I thought that came off a little wrong, suggesting the kid wasn't smart, but I understood what he meant. Michael is a much more experienced fencer and is really smart about it, but he's older and his body just can't do what he wants it do. When asking Russ about the Seattle International Veteran's Cup event next weekend—I guess he's down here for the week—he was disappointed there wouldn't be age groups, but was pleased that there are awards for the best fencer within each age group. His reaction was something like, "so much for earning a rating" (he's a C now), but he could win best of age—I think he said he's in his 50s, but perhaps he's over 60. Either way he'll still have some tough fencers to beat. No Dragonetti this time, but William Walker is in his 60s I think, and Russ might be. Then there's Johannes.

My next pool bout was against Jeff Goon, Audun's father. I think Jeff took up fencing after Audun started so hasn't been doing it very long. He was my pool's U fencer. I'm not sure if I had fenced him before. I won rather easily, mostly by baiting attacks then parry-riposting. Or just by getting the distance right and attacking straight in. I got up 3-0 before he scored. I had baited another attack but when I went to parry his blade wasn't there—he had disengaged or come in another line. I managed to counterattack as he hit, but I missed. That was a nice one for him. Next we both made a long lunge at the same time, bell guards clashing. His blade was a little outside mine. I didn't parry but the angle of our blades meant his got deflected slightly to the outside and he ended up missing, but I hit. For the final point I kept up my bouncing footwork, waiting for Jeff to have his weight on his back foot. Then I made a long lunge into distance, catching him flat footed and scoring. So I won, 5-1. I realize writing this up I still have never really talked to Jeff Goon. I should. I've talked to Audun's mother, Tanya Holland (Audun is Audun Holland-Goon), and to Audun. Hmm.

This was a very nice start to the tournament. But next I had to fence Zach Shaw. I'm not sure if I've fenced Zach before, but I've watched him beat people who can beat me. He's "only" a D, but a good D. He'll probably be a C before long. He's young, a teenager, and nice. I didn't have much of a plan. Both his footwork and bladework seemed good. I couldn't see any particular weakness. So I tried to just "fence my game". He nailed me with fleches again and again, winning 5-0. I'd try to parry his fleches, but he used little feints at the start of his fleches that tricked me into the wrong parry, again and again. Some of his fleches hit me on the arm. I started to open the distance and just try to get away. I think that worked a little, but still he caught me whenever distance closed a little. At 4-0 I was still trying my best, knowing every point counts in the pools. At one point it seemed like he was holding his arm a little low and I might be able to hit it from above (I'm a little taller than him too). I tried to set it up with a quick feint in another line, then made a lunge to the top of his arm. But he rather easily picked *my* arm from below before I could reach his. I think he had been holding his arm a little low as a trap, hoping for exactly the kind of thing I did. So he won 5-0.

Zach came in 2nd in our pool. I'm still not sure what I could have done differently, other than be more prepared for fleches. Maybe prime or septime parries. More care about getting hit in the arm. Audun beat him 5-3, maybe I can ask Audun sometime about him. They are both RCFC fencers, so perhaps they know each other's styles and weaknesses better. In the DEs Zach was the 10th seed. He beat Johannes, also a RCFC guy, then lost to Denys Kovtunenko, a Canadian I don't know.

My next bout was against Matthew Comes, who...yea. I've fenced him lots of times now and have never won. And he just gets better and better. When I began fencing again two years ago Matthew was a D. Now he's a B and probably soon will be an A. He's only 15 years old or so. I can't imagine where he'll be in a few more years, if he keeps it up. His dad takes him to all the NACs and such. I can picture them going to World Cups someday. Anyway, I know Matthew's style better than Zach's. I knew he is very good at fleches and toe touches, and an excellent infighter. My plan, if it can be called a plan, was to stay far away. I knew I had to keep the distance extra wide or he'd get me with his long attacks. I also knew there was little hope in fleching him and it was suicide to end up infighting with him. So I kept far away. It wasn't much of a plan because I didn't know how I would score, other than wait and hope.

I don't remember the exact points of my bout with Matthew. He won 5-3, which isn't as bad as I usually do against him. He's beaten me 5-0 or 5-1 before, more than once. He didn't get any toe touches on me, nor any infighting touches. He did catch me flat-footed, with fleches, a couple times. But keeping the distance extra long seemed to work better than anything else I've ever tried with him. Also, I was able to see his baiting tactics and not fall for them like I might in the past. I watched him in other bouts over the day and saw how he often relaxes and retreats calmly, or even steps back as if he's "stopped fencing". Once, in a DE bout, it even looked like he "stopped" and made a kind of salute-like motion. I think these are all attempts to bait attacks. Or at least they are tempo changes. He seems to change his tempo quite a lot in other ways too. I've been trying similar things in practice after this tournament. I'm finding it feels good to relax and take some slow steps back, especially if I've been tensely focused. It can help me "reset", and sometimes it seems like it might throw my opponent off. Even with someone like Varney, who won't fall for the "bait", it feels like it can interrupt whatever he might have been planning.

Anyway, all that to say I didn't fall for Matthew's tempo changes. Whenever he relaxed I prepared for a possible "surprise attack" from him. By keeping the distance wide I ended up near my end of the strip a few times. I used to hate that, but I'm getting better about it. And I think I scored some of my points when I was in my strip end box. Maybe Matthew got a little more eager to attack when I was in the box, which is a key point about being in the box, right?

After Matthew I was 2 and 2. I wasn't happy about my 5-0 loss to Zach, but okay with my 5-3 loss to Matthew. With my 5-3 and 5-1 wins I still felt I was doing pretty good. But I knew I had to fence Adam Frank next, the A fencer of our pool.

I had seen Adam Frank fence a number of times, and fenced him in at least one pool bout. I watched him win first place in the 2013 Leon Auriol Open. I was in his pool then, and, huh, checking now I see he beat me 5-4, which is much closer than I expected. Still, he won all the pools bouts. Tobias and Russ both got 4 points against him too. In the DEs of that tournament  he beat Zach Shaw, Stephen Wilson, William Wang, and Sam Kaardal. In short, having seen him win the Leon Auriol Open I feared him. He's a young leftie. My notes about him said only "NWFC, A2013, leftie, good flicks, extremely good". Lot of help that was! Jeff Lucas was in the pool next to mine and at some point I told him how I had to fence Adam Frank and was worried about it, and even showed him my non-helpful notes. For some reason I can't remember now, Jeff "requested" that I beat Adam. It was something silly, like because Jeff had lost to Jay, the A fencer of his pool, he said I had to beat Adam. I jokingly said "well, okay fine, I'll beat him for you".

As it turned out, I did beat Adam, to my surprise. I clearly remember after we shook hands at the end I turned and started back toward my end of the strip and saw a group of people who had been watching—mainly the people in my pool. I was amazed I had won and probably had a silly expression on my face. When I saw them watching I opened my eyes wide and mouthed "wow". They were all smiling and I found myself surrounded by congratulations. It felt awesome. People congratulated me on it several times later too. John Comes thanked me for beating him—I guess he doesn't like Adam very much for some reason. I've never really talked to Adam and don't know anything about him personally. He seemed rather crushed when he shook hands though. He still took first place in our pool though. In the DEs he beat Luke LaRocque, then lost to Farooq Habib 5-0. Yes, 5-0 in a DE bout to 15. I got that one on video. Passivity was called three times. They went into overtime with the score still 0-0.

Anyway, my pool bout with Adam Frank. A bit before, when Adam was fencing someone else, Russ came by and I asked if he had any advice. He said he didn't know Adam, but after watching for a minute said something about his parry 8 and how I should parry 8 with him, but I'd have to "do it twice" to get through. So, that wasn't much of a plan but it was something. I spent most of the bout trying to nag at Adam's hand, finding I could draw his parry 8 to some degree. Russ's advice is usually good and I was in fact able to score a few times by circling 8 with his 8, followed by a second parry 8, catching his blade and moving into a higher line. Adam is a leftie so our parry 8s circled together. I think I was up 3-2 when he made an excellent and very hard hit to my leg. Days later as I type this I still have quite a welt about two inches above my knee from that hit. That tied it 3-3. Then, somehow, we got a double, 4-4. The final point was a surprise. We took our time maneuvering. He kept retreating toward his end of the strip. Eventually one of us attacked and the other counterattacked, or something simultaneous happened, I can't remember exactly how it started. Our guards clashed. I heard a beep and the ref say halt. Since we were at his end of the strip the score machine was way behind me and I couldn't see it. But at RCFC they have red and green lights at each strip end and I saw the green light go off. No red light. In that instant I did not remember which color I was and thought he was green, thus he had scored and won. I turned and headed back for my on guard line to salute and only then saw the score machine showing I had won, 5-4. I was green!

That win was the high point of the day for me. Having everyone congratulate me felt very good. And I was able to go to Jeff Lucas and say "well you said I had to", all nonchalantly.

My final pool bout was against Audun Holland-Goon. Audun is very young and still rather small. I think he started fencing around the time I began again, two years ago. We've fenced a few times. At first I think I could beat him fairly easily, but recently it's become more difficult and he's beaten me. In a U tournament in Tacoma last year I had him in a DE and made the mistake of assuming I would win. I lost. Now, facing him in this pool, I knew his style better. He's patient and careful, and tends to wait for chances to parry and riposte, which he's pretty good at. Sometimes he tries for toe touches. It's hard to attack or feint to his low lines because I'm quite a bit taller. Watching him in our pool I noticed his footwork tended to fall into certain repeating patterns. So my plan was to continue the bouncing fast footwork I had been doing, feinting in and out a lot but mostly being patient and waiting for openings or second intentions. I think I was able to see patterns in his footwork and take advantage of them. On the other hand he got me with picks to the arm a couple times.

Audun, being cautious, kept retreating, and we fenced mostly near his end of the strip. I was also cautious but felt it was to my advantage to be at his end of the strip. There I could wait for him to get nervous and try an attack or perhaps more easily fall for a feint. I kept waiting for him to make a mistake, but he didn't give me many. Once, to break things up, I fleched. I thought he parried and nothing happened, but apparently I had just hit. Another time I was making overly large blade movements and he pegged my hand. He managed to get to four points first, 3-4, which made me worry. Somehow I got a single, making it 4-4. In the final point we ended up infighting. I made a low feint then a high attack, closing distance a lot. He parried and our blades got bound up high, our bodies close. I managed to pull out and riposte, or remise, in prime to his hip. It worked and I won, 5-4.

I felt happy about that win too, especially for having been down a couple points. Audun seemed fine with it and smiled when we shook hands, saying "good bout".

So I came out of the pool with four wins and two losses, which was way better than I had expected. I knew no one in our pool was undefeated, so I figured I must have come in better than average. I was wrong!

I learned something about seeding after pools. If there's a tie in terms of percentage of wins and indicator, it is broken by the number of touches scored. I was in a three way tie like this. Matthew Comes, Steven Benack, and I all won 4 out of 6 bouts and had an indicator of +1. I had scored 23 touches and received 22. Matthew Comes scored 24 touches and received 23. Steven Benack scored 25 touches and received 24. Therefore of us three Steven got the highest seed (14) and I got the lowest (16). I'm not sure I see the logic. All three of us lost one bout 3-5. I had the worst loss, 0-5, while Matthew lost one 1-5, and Steven 2-5. So I did worst in that regard, and Steven did best. However I won one of my bouts 5-1, while the best Matthew or Steven did was 5-3. So I did best in that regard. Both Steven and I had two close wins, 5-4, while Matthew only had one 5-4 win. The rest of his wins were 5-3. So Matthew did best in that regard. Anyway, as 16th seed I fenced Matson Lalor, 17th seed. Had I been 15th seed I would have fenced John Comes, who I probably would have had an easier time with. Instead John Comes had to fence his son Matthew.

Seeding after the pools, tie resolved by touches scored.

After the pool was over I was quite pleased with my 4 and 2 results. I knew no one in the pool was undefeated but was surprised when Zach Shaw said we had a "five way tie" for first place. Out of the seven fencers in my pool five had won 4 and lost 2. Zach had lost to Audun and Matthew Comes. Audun had lost to Adam Frank and me. Adam had lost to Zach and me. Matthew had lost to Audun and Adam. And I had lost to Zach and Matthew. So it went to indicators. Adam's was +13, Zach's +8, and Audun's +3. So they came in first to third. Matthew and I had indicators of +1, but he had scored one touch more than I had (and received one more), so he got 4th place and I got 5th. Weird how these things work out sometimes. Makes it even clearer how every point counts in the pools.

My DE was against Matson Lalor, a leftie Canadian kid I had heard of but never fenced or even watched. Hans had been in his pool and I asked him for advice, but all he could say was that Matson had good bladework and footwork. That wasn't very helpful, although his warning about Matson's excellent parries at least kept me cautious. In our bout Matson took an early lead. He was able to hit my arm quite a lot. I tried the various leftie tactics I know and they all failed. Eventually I had some success using septime parries/takes, which isn't something I usually consider a leftie tactic, except perhaps in the form of a 7-6 bind. I also got a point with a prime-like riposte, which I thought of as "Bela approved". As an aside: I learned this tournament that Bela Suveg is quite friendly and nice off the strip. I had only seen him fencing before and thought he seemed rather arrogant, maybe even a jerk. Jeff Lucas, who had apparently chatted with him before, told me Bela was a great guy. He was in Jeff's pool next to mine, and Jeff introduced us—Bela said we already knew each other, although we had never talked before as far as I remember. He was very nice "off strip". He even complimented me on my fencing after a couple bouts, especially on my prime-like ripostes. That's why I felt like my prime riposte against Lalor would be "Bela approved".

In any case, my few points against Lalor were too little too late, and he won 15-5. Afterward Russ talked to me about it. He said I wasn't closing my outside line as well as I should have, especially with a leftie like Lalor. He also said I was going in with a bent arm too much, and Lalor was attacking straight in. I said I had been trying to draw attacks a lot, feinting, thus the bent arm. Russ said if I was going to do that then I needed to "get out faster". Yep.

I felt bad after losing to Lalor by so much. But before long I got over it and enjoyed the rest of the tournament. I took a bunch of videos but haven't gotten them all online yet. I'll add them here as I do.

I'd also like to say more about the rest of the tournament, especially watching some bouts, like Matthew Comes, Farooq Habib, and especially Sam Larsen, who came in first. Perhaps I'll add more later when I have more time.








The overtime period of Matthew Comes and Dnys Kovtenenko's bout. Matthew came back from behind to tie it up at 8-8 as time ran out. Matthew got priority yet got the winning point with a behind-the-back move with seconds left. Afterward Johannes kept saying "that was so dangerous!"-->




The final bout. Sam Larsen was in excellent form:



Bela Suveg and Yuly Suvorov, from a non-ideal angle:

2014 Rain City Open, Vet Epee

2014 Rain City Open, Vet Epee

http://askfred.net/Results/results.php?tournament_id=25705&highlight_competitor_id=91067&event_id=102858

Well, I came in 7th out of 11, but just one point, with several chances, of getting 3rd or better, argh! It was a small event, just eleven of us, so not much at stake. Still, I wouldn't have minded winning one of the shiny medals they gave out for 1st-3rd place. On one hand, when it comes to medals I always think of Mikol Ryan once saying he prefers tournaments where they give out something other than medals, like a bottle of wine or a gift certificate, like they usually do at SAS. Mikol dismissed medals by saying "I have a drawer full of cheap medals". Well, I have three, all from U-only tournaments at Tacoma—two 3rd place and one 2nd place. I have them in my locker at SAS for a bit of inspiration, and would have liked adding another. Maybe when I have a drawer full of medals it will be different.

The were only eleven fencers, all vets of course, and no As. Russ was the only B. Tobias and Johannes were the Cs. Then there were three Ds and three Es, and two Us. In theory I could beat everyone there—or at least I could see how I might be able to beat each person. In reality, well, I'd have to be fencing very well, and/or others poorly, to come out on top. Still, it was imaginable, which was exciting. Things didn't get off to a good start though. My pool:

A distraction during the pools: Since I got my Leon Paul SR-71 blade a few weeks ago I've been using it all the time. I really like its stiffness—my beats feel much stronger, and my parries/takes seem to hold better. I tested it after fencing on Wednesday and it was just barely failing the small shim test. So I fiddled with the contact spring and got it to pass the shim test. However, when it was tested  before my first pool bout it failed the small shim. So I switched to my Vniti. I went to the Vniti by default, as it is my "second best" epee. In hindsight maybe I should have used one of the cheaper but stiffer Absolute blades instead. The Vniti is quite whippy, especially compared to the LP, and I was aware of this throughout the pool bouts. I felt less confident and a bit hesitant about beats, takes, and parries. I tried to compensate by trying some flicks, since the Vniti is more whippy, but I don't think I scored with any flicks. Also, the Vniti is noticeably heavier than the LP. I tend to let the blade fall into absence of blade tactics more than might be wise, especially because it seems slower to get it out from absence of blade—I can move the handle fast but the blade seems to lag behind. I got the Vniti because I was tired of breaking cheap blades and heard Vnitis are practically indestructible. They are also cheaper than LP SR-71 blades. But maybe I should start treating the Vniti as a reliable last resort spare. ...or maybe all this is just an excuse for not doing as well in the pools as I had hoped.

Another weapon thing. When warming up with Tobias he pointed out how I had the bell guard wrong on my LP epee. I remember putting it together a few weeks ago and being a little rushed at the end, and even feeling uncertain about the guard's orientation. I hadn't thought about it since then, but sure enough, once he pointed it out it was clearly wrong: I had the wide part of the guard to the "southwest" when it should be to the "southeast" to cover the back of the hand better. Oops. But thanks, Tobias. Last Monday at practice I kept getting hit on my hand, especially my bottom fingers. I even said to David, "my hand feels big tonight". Sheesh.

So in the pools at least the Vniti epee's guard was on right! Even so, between the pools and DEs I fixed my LP's tip. First I tried tightening/shortening the contact spring. But I must have tightened it so much it stopped registering touches at all. And I was having trouble loosening it again, so I just switched to one of the new spare LP tips I had. At first it also failed the small shim. I tightened it just a little and it seemed good. It was fine in my first DE but then failed the small shim again in my 2nd DE. I guess I need to fiddle with it more.

Anyway, pools. I started with Jim Arrigoni. We fence all the time in practice and are pretty evenly matched. It was by beating him in a DE that I earned my E. I think I have a decent idea of how to score points with him—mainly lots of working the distance with active footwork, waiting for the distance to close just enough for a fast direct lunge, perhaps with a beat. But in practice I tend to try many different things, not trying to win but to practice various things. My pool bout with Jim was over before I realized I was in "practice mode" more than "winning mode". And like in practice we kept getting into low parry messes followed by wild attempts to escape and jab. He scored most of those. And he won, 5-3. I felt like my brain hadn't tuned into fencing yet, although it had when warming up with Tobias. I just didn't think to make the tactical switch to Jim's style I needed to make, I guess.

My second pool bout was with Tobias Lee. We hadn't fenced in a tournament for a while, I think, but we had warmed up together. We joked that having warmed up together we both knew what to expect, but each knew that the other knew and would adapt accordingly, but knew that the other knew and would adapt, and so on. Even so, I think it was fairly similar to our warm up. He won, 5-3. Afterward we talked and he said it was pretty even, but for two points: One a hit to my leg—he said I was protecting the high lines pretty well but my leg made a nice target, but it wasn't something he thought he could pull off twice. Two, he made a direct lunge to my chest that I failed to catch with my parry six. I had been doing pretty well with parry six but in this case I was too slow, he was too fast, and probably I had allowed the distance to get  too close. I think I had scored on him with a nice six parry-riposte and was trying to bait him into it again. I should know about the dangers of distance with Tobias, I've written about it on this blog before!

My third bout was with Johannes Klein. Sometimes I can do okay against him, sometimes he destroys me. Tonight I was doing quite well, and my brain seemed to finally be fully engaged in fencing. My plan was to keep good distance and patiently try for his hand, always returning my point to aim right at his wrist. I have had some success with that approach in the past. I also planned to just get away if he fleched, and not to try to fleche him myself. The last time I fenced him in a tournament pool he won 5-1, mostly by fleching me or by swatting my blade away when I tried to fleche. So this time I would not fleche, and try to avoid his fleches, and simply nag at his hand a lot. Well, I didn't get any hand hits, but my nagging seemed to trigger his big, strong low line sweeps—a kind of parry two type thing. Eventually I saw some patterns in this and got the courage to try to take advantage. I scored a few times by triggering his low line sweep, then circling around with it into the high line and lunging to his arm. I think I scored single lights twice that way, and once a double. I began to feel confident. If I remember right I got to 4-3. Then he scored with one of his fleches. I tried to get away but he managed to land a touch just as he leapt off the strip. So it was 4-4. We were both patient on the last point, maneuvering and seeking openings. Then he fleched again. I retreated and parried. Our blades got bound up in a rather messy way, out of which we both counterattacked, or remised, or jabbed, or whatever to call it. I heard the machine beep and the ref call halt but didn't know who had scored. I looked and saw: he had, I hadn't. He won, 5-4.

Three losses, no wins, and only one bout to go. This was going to make my plan of coming in first place harder! My final pool bout was with Ben An. He's relatively new to fencing, I think. And I think we've fenced before. He has a lot of energy and speed. Earlier in the pools Tobias and I were watching Ben and Jim fence. Tobias observed that Ben was doing a lot of little flicky things. Not real attacks, not even false attacks, but just a lot of flicky blade movement. Tobias said one should fleche straight in when Ben does one of those flicky things. I'm not sure I would have seen that, but once Tobias pointed it out I saw it. A few seconds later Jim lunged into one of the flicky things and scored, seemingly proving the point.

So that was my basic plan with Ben. At first he wasn't giving me much blade movement and I was afraid I wouldn't get the chance to use that tactic. But eventually he gave it to me enough to try, and it worked. I scored that way at least a couple times, and also going straight in when the distance collapsed enough, and another time straight with a quick disengage. At one point I tried my 4-6 tactic, but it failed and he scored. I think I was up 3-0, then 4-2, and we ended with a double, 5-3.

So I came out of the pool with one win and three losses. Not great. Ben was also one and three, but my indicator was higher. Johannes was two and two. Jim and Tobias were three and one, with Tobias having the higher indicator. Going into the DEs I was the 9th seed. Ben was 10th. Tobias was 2nd and Jim was 3rd. Johannes was 6th. The other pool had one more fencer, and Carlo Malaguzzi had won all his bouts, so was top seed.

Since there were only eleven of us I can fit the whole DE tableau here:

The top five seeds got byes, while us bottom six had to fence it out. As 9th seed I was paired with 8th seed John Comes. I did what I usually do with him recently: Play with distance, trying to get him to come close enough for a quick direct lunge, try to catch him in six, especially when he attacks, or use my 4-6 tactic. Things began well. I got up 4-0 fairly quickly. Maybe using my LP epee instead of the Vniti helped! I certainly felt like I could hold parries better. Then he scored with something that tricked me. Some kind of disengaging attack. Then he tried a toe touch but didn't have the distance and fell short. He quickly remised to the chest but not before I had my point on his shoulder. At the end of the first period it was 8-4. I don't remember the details of the second period very well. We each scored twice, maybe both doubles. It ended 10-6.

Since I had done fairly poorly in the pools my next DE was against Carlo Malaguzzi, 1st seed. Well, I thought, I can beat Carlo. Being 1st seed doesn't mean I can't. I'm not sure I've ever beaten Carlo in a tournament, although we've only fenced twice in tournaments I think. I've done fine with him the few times we've fenced in practice. I ought to go to RCFC open epee more often. Russ gave me some advice beforehand. He said Carlo likes to attack and attack strong, often with fleches. And he is good at slipping out of parries. I knew these things. Russ suggested several things to do when Carlo attacks. One, just get away. Be ready to make a rapid retreat. Two, I could attack into his attacks, but I need to "deal with his blade" if I do, and to be ready for him to slip out of parries. Third, to parry his attacks, ideally with at least stepping in, but to be ready with a second parry because he's likely to slip out of the first.

Well, I had trouble with all those things and Carlo took a quick lead. At some point I decided that since I was having trouble dealing with his attacks I should take the attack to him. I began to launch my own attacks before he could get his off. Since he tended to attack fairly quickly this meant being aggressive right off the line. I got several points this way, including a nice thigh hit he said was well done. Another time I attacked with a six and our blades got bound up high but I managed to remise in prime to his hip. That one felt good. Before long I had tied the score and then pulled ahead. I think the score got to 8-5. Being ahead I began to ease off and he began to adjust, I think, and he began to score a little more. Even so the score reached 9-7. I only needed one point to win. A double would be fine. He needed four single light points. I did what I instinctively do when ahead like that: I eased off and began looking for counterattacks. This was the wrong thing to do. I had been doing well when attacking and not very well when he was attacking, so by easing off I was abandoning the very thing that had been working for me. Also, in easing off I slowed down, which made it harder for me to get away when he attacked. I knew I was slowing down but in my head I thought of it as a tactic, something like the way Dmitry will sometimes freeze and wait. In hindsight I might have been rationalizing things and really I slowed down because I was a little tired. But I could have, and should have keep my energy and movement up, or better yet taken it to the next level. Well in short, Carlo scored and scored. At 9-8 I became concerned and began taking the attack to him again, but he scored again, making it 9-9. At 9-9 I, again, instinctively became a bit more cautious, giving him the time to launch one of his lovely fleches. He scored and won, 10-9.

That was the big argh of the evening. I had an excellent chance to win, and if I had I would have been in the final four and thus at least tied for 3rd place. I would have fenced Russ in the semifinal. It seems unlikely I could have beaten Russ, but not unthinkable. But even if I couldn't beat him I'd have been much happier with coming in 3rd place than I am with 7th. Ah well, learn a little every time. The tournament was definitely enjoyable otherwise. I liked seeing and chatting with everyone.

Other DE bouts: Russ fenced Mark Blom in the final 8 and they went 9-9 before Russ got the final point. Close one. Jeff fenced Johannes in the round of 16 and almost beat him, 8-10. Johannes went on to take Jim out handily, 10-5. Tobias beat Ben 10-5, doing a lot of what we had talked about earlier: attacking into Ben's flicky preparations.

In the final four Tobias beat Johannes rather easily, 10-6. And Russ beat Carlo, also 10-6. Then Tobias and Russ fenced for first place. They fenced a DE bout at the last tournament I went to, and Tobias won 15-12. This time Russ won, 10-7. Afterward Tobias said something about Russ using a French grip but apparently not posting. But later Russ told me he was posting but with a "variant method" with his index finger pointing up the handle. Maybe this style isn't quite as far back as the pommel, or maybe the hand position makes it look like it isn't as far back as it is. I'm not sure. Russ also said that this time, unlike the time before, he did better with the distance. There were at least a couple times when Russ made a half lunge and Tobias didn't retreat much, letting Russ score by stepping into a fuller lunge—a renewal and/or remise, I'm not quite sure what the right term is. I think Russ calls it a renewal, where you make a less-than-full lunge then, without recovering or pulling the arm back, stepping the front foot into a fuller lunge, with or without a change of line.

No video or pictures this time. The whole tournament took just over two hours. It was small but also, the RCFC people said, we fenced "efficiently". Now a day off then the larger senior epee event of this year's Rain City Open. Currently there are 33 fencers signed up for it, including six As and four Bs. Among them Bela Suveg, Sam Larsen, Adam Frank, and of course Hans, Yuly, Jay, Matthew Comes, and Scott Phillips. Eek. But hey, looking just now I see Michael Orzechowski is signed up, the guy from Alaska I fenced and watched at the Battle in Seattle. Fun fun.