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.
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