https://askfred.net/Results/results.php?tournament_id=27720&highlight_competitor_id=91067&event_id=109583
I came in third and got another medal. The bust of Beethoven I've been putting medals on is getting a little crowded.
This tournament was oddly skewed toward the beginner side. There were two Ds, two Es (me one of them) and twenty Us. Not all the Us were beginners, but for many this was their first tournament. Perhaps because of this I took things a bit easier than at other recent tournaments. I knew I should have been working harder, but I just didn't feel like it, for some reason. Mentally I tried my best, but physically...well I know I could have pushed myself several notches more.
Maybe part of it was knowing there were so many beginners and having my warm up and first pool bout seem easy. Then I came close to losing all my other pool bouts, but managed to win them all. I was seed #2 and had a couple easy DEs before facing Craig Haworth and losing fairly badly. It was when fencing Craig that I should have turned the energy up a couple levels, but I didn't, at least not until it was too late.
In a way all this was interesting. I haven't had a tournament in which I've done this well against this many people in a long time. I realized this must be similar to what regular tournaments—or at least the kind of ROCs I've been going to—are like for really good fencers: You face a lot of people you should beat, but you still need to work as hard as you can in the pools to get as good an indicator as you can. Then you have an easy DE or two before things get challenging, and somehow you have to keep your energy and drive up through the gap between the pools and the harder DEs. Then you need to fence your very best at the end, after hours of fencing, when you are more inclined to be physically and mentally tired. These are challenges I am not used to! I realized that really good competitive fencers must have many ways to face these kind of things, developed over time—especially ways to refocus and re-energize as you get to your hard DEs. It was an interesting insight.
POOLS
Anyway, my pool:
I had never fenced any of these people, except Jameson Lu, who beat me in my DE at the Leon Auriol Open (I think it was), and Jim Loter, although I didn't remember much about Jim's fencing.
My first bout was with Pieter Daniell. He's from my club but I don't think I've seen him before. He seemed like a beginner, so I basically pushed him and waited for openings or counterattack opportunities. This got me up 2-0 fairly quickly. Then I got another point with what felt like a random hand hit. Well, I kept putting my point back toward his hand and he obliged me by sticking his hand on my point. Then he got a point, in a way I can't remember, making it 3-1. My waiting and baiting continued to work though and I won 5-1. Perhaps this bout made me relax a bit too much, because the rest of my pool bouts were too close.
Second pool bout was Jim Loter. Again I felt fairly in control of things, but the first two points were doubles, so we went 2-2. I was pushing and baiting, sticking my blade out a lot. He got a lovely hand hit one time I did that. So he was up 3-2. This got me a bit worried and I decided to press the attack. First I tried a toe touch. It was close, but I missed. Luckily Jim didn't land a counterattack.
Then, well...a week before Russ had told me something about beats that had gotten me to rethink how to do simple beats (basically doing them more toward the opponent and on their forte rather than so much to the side, like I had been doing), and I had been doing pretty well with beat attacks in practice. So I tried it here, waiting and trying to get Jim to stick his blade out, then, when he did, launching a fast beat-fleche. It worked well. In the past my beats, being too much to the side, too often resulted in my point missing. Now, beating more forward my point landed nicely on Jim's upper arm.
So it was 3-3. I tried to set up another beat situation or coax a mistake—I made a low feint in an attempt to confuse, but Jim made a very nice hit to my hand. Now he was up 4-3, oh no. I fell back to focusing on another beat attack. I managed to set one up and it worked very well, 4-4. Then, somehow, we doubled, which was thrown out. Then I managed another beat-fleche and won, 5-4. That was too close, but I was pleased with how well my beats worked. Thanks, Russ!
My third pool bout was with Zoe Tolbert, a rather small, young woman from MTFC. Having watched her in a couple bouts before it felt like I ought to be able to do well. But I remembered fencing and losing to a similarly small and young woman at the Subway Games (I think it was), Abby Barr. At that time I realized I had been reluctant to fleche or attack too strongly because she was young and small. And I lost. So this time I resolved to fence as well as I could, not to subconsciously hold back. Even so she almost beat me. I pressed her and attacked, maybe too much. She got the first two points. I managed some points but before long she was up 4-3, just like things had gone with Jim. In this case I found myself missing and making poor fleches. Perhaps I was attacking too quickly, perhaps my aim was off, perhaps being small she was harder to hit! Certainly my sense of distance was off, again probably because she is smaller than I am used to. Anyway, at 4-3 I reverted to the same beat-fleche tactic. It worked. I managed to score single lights twice with beat-fleches, to win 5-4. Again too close!
My next bout was against the other E in my pool, Jameson Lu. I had fenced him before, and not that long ago, at an SAS tournament DE. Russ had given me advice after the first period, but by then he was up too much. After I lost Russ gave me more advice. I had written some of Russ's advice down and remembered most anyway. It was mainly to mostly stick to shallow attacks, to worry his hand, to retreat quickly, and to use binds instead of beats. This was basically what I did, focusing mostly on keeping my point aimed at his hand and repeatedly making shallow feint-like threats toward his hand. I got at least two points on his hand too, which felt nice. He got some nice touches too. We got to 3-3, then doubled to 4-4. The final point was one of those things where you both attack and it isn't quite clear if either, or both hit. I looked to the lights and saw that I had scored a single light and won, 5-4. Another whew. I had been most worried about Jameson and was pleased that Russ's advice had been helpful, as it usually is. Jameson won all his other pool bouts, and better than me. I felt like I was rather lucky to have won. The final touch felt like it could have gone either way.
Also, because of Russ's warning about using binds instead of beats, Jameson was the only person in my pool with whom I didn't rely on beat-fleches.
My last pool bout was against Brandon Ross, another youngster. I'm not sure but I think he's done more foil and this was his first epee tournament. I don't remember the details of the bout except that it got to 3-3, which worried me. Brandon was fairly small, and like with Zoe I felt like I was misjudging distance and getting too close. He scored another and took the lead 4-3. Again I fell back to simple beat-fleches and again they worked. I scored two single lights with beat-fleches, winning 5-4. That beat insight from the week before sure came in handy!
So I won all my pool bouts, but it could have easily been much worse. In part I was lucky. But in another way, well, I felt good about being able to keep cool and patient when down 4-3 and having a good attack to fall back on.
DIRECT ELIMINATION
I didn't write down details about my DEs, in part because I was kept busy fixing my LP tips between bouts. As expected my LP blades kept failing the small shim. I tweaked one during the pools and both before the DEs, and again between DE bouts. They are so finicky. I keep planning to rewire them with German points, but haven't gotten to it. I probably should before the Battle in Seattle.
Anyway, my first DE was against Brandon Ross, who had been my last pool bout. Going to 15 with him was different than going to 5. He got some points but I kept up a steady pace of getting more, including several toe touches (I think...I might be confusing my first two DEs). I was patient and careful, relying mostly on waiting for mistakes. I think it was with Brandon that I set up a nice prime riposte—doing circle-6 threats until he fleched with a disengage, letting me fall back into prime nicely. I love it when that works.
My second DE was with Greg Doss, who is from my club but I don't think I had seen before. I can't quite remember this bout compared to my first one, but I think I scored a lot of toe touches. I don't think I had ever scored one before in a tournament, and almost never tried. I had enough of a lead with Greg to take chances. I ended up winning 15-4.
Winning that put me in the final 4. I would fence either Craig Haworth or Jerry Lu. And watching them I wasn't sure which I would rather fence. Watching them fence I felt like I would have a good chance against Jerry. Then again, I had never fenced him and I had fenced Craig a number of times. I had beaten Craig the last two times and felt like I had figured him out, to a point. And I knew he had not done a lot of epee recently. On the other other hand, as Craig pointed out I had never beaten him in a DE, while he's beaten me twice in DEs. Granted, both of those DEs were quite a while ago. I have progressed a lot since then, and he seemed to be fencing in the same basic way he was back then—relying strongly on his circle-6, his strength, and long lunges to the leg. Still I wasn't sure, and watched Craig and Jerry's bout closely. They went 14-14. I realized I was hoping Jerry would win, for some reason, but Craig did.
So I fenced Craig Haworth and lost pretty badly, 15-8. In hindsight there were several things. I should have turned up my energy level several notches. The last time we fenced, in a pool, I beat him in part by being a lot more active, actually pushing him off his end of the strip at one point, and retreating from his long attacks. This time I was slower, and after some initial pushing got lazier, giving him time to set up attacks and score with long lunges. Also, I was overly focused on my plan, even when it wasn't working too well. It took me too long to start looking for other options, at which point I began to see mistakes he was making. Most especially, he kept exposing his forearm, like a foilist might—especially during his circle-6 motions. Once I saw it I was able to score a few hits on his hand and arm. After the first period Toby talked to him and it was obvious that one thing he warned him about was his arm. Even so he kept exposing it, but by that point I was down too much to come back. I wished I had had someone as helpful as Toby to coach me right then! I needed it more than Craig, heh.
So I got third, tied with Benjamin Lee—Andrew Lee's younger brother. I think this was Benjamin's first epee tournament and that he usually does foil. I didn't get to fence him but it was interesting watching him. He has a lovely fleche much like his brother, although he seemed to use it a little too much, reducing the surprise value, and sometimes fleching from too far or at the wrong time. But he's only like 13 or 14. It seemed obvious he will be as good as Andrew soon enough if he keeps working.
The final was Shawn Dodge and Craig Haworth. Shawn won by as much as Craig had beaten me, 15-8. Shawn saw how Craig "presented" his arm right away, and took advantage from the start. Shawn's style is particularly good for making picks to the arm. Even when Craig scored with a binding attack Shawn was almost always able to slip out and get a double with a last second hand pick. Very nice.
If I had beaten Craig I would have fenced Shawn for first place, which if I got would have earned me my D. Shawn and I fence a lot in practice and I'm skeptical I could have beaten him, but it wouldn't be impossible, and Shawn seemed to think I'd have had a good chance. Maybe, but probably not that evening, the way I had been fencing. So the way it turned out I "re-earned" my E2014, which doesn't mean anything real in terms of ratings, but still felt nice since I had only earned it "once" this year. Doing it twice made me feel more like I actually deserved it. Even so both times were rather "ideal" situations for it. Shawn "re-earned" his D2014. Benajmin Lee earned his E—he had been a U. Not bad for what I think was his first epee tournament.
Goofy medal pics:
