WWD Senior Division Championships

WWD Senior Division Championships, 2015, Senior Men's Epee

https://askfred.net/Results/results.php?tournament_id=27101&highlight_competitor_id=91067&event_id=107256

Came in 16th out of 28, meaning of everyone who won their first DE I had the worst pool results. I beat Kyle Margolies in that DE, and he came in 17th, or best of everyone who lost their first DE.

My pool began nicely, with a win against Johannes Klein, then went bad with four bad losses, 5-2, 5-2, 5-0, 5-1, ouch. Then a 5-4 win. I didn't have high hopes for the DEs, but got Kyle. Even then I didn't have high hopes, but worked hard and pulled it off, yay. Then I had Andrew Lee and lost, but felt like put up a respectable fight. So I was pleased with everything when it was over. And it was nice to see Steven Benack win 1st and get his A, and Andrew Lee take 3rd and get his B.

POOLS

My pool started off as the one six person pool (the others were all seven). But just before we began Jeff Lucas got there—he had missed the close of registration but they let him fence and added him to my pool, making all the pools seven.

For some reason when they set up the pools they didn't make clubmates fence each other first, so my first pool bout wasn't against John Varney but Johannes Klein. Having fenced him in a pool and DE just a few weeks ago I had a decent plan ready, mainly involving absence of blade, careful distance, not making big attacks, feints and body feints, and attacking into his prep or counterattacking as safely as I could. I got the first two points this way—trying to get him to attack, then attacking into his prep. Then he got a point, I forget how. Then I got another, again attacking into his prep, but this time going low to his leg, making it 3-1. I think he was ready for my attacking into his prep that third time, but expected a higher line, so my low line snuck in.

Then my plan broke down a little and he got a couple points, tying it at 3-3. I think I let my focus flag a little, but at 3-3 I got worried and refocused. Even so I got a lucky break at this point. We were maneuvering, looking for advantage, and he found a good timing and fleched. I was caught a bit off guard. I awkwardly parried, sending my blade far wide. He disengaged and, passing me, hit. I felt like I had made a mistake and left myself wide open, but there was a little uncertainty about whether he had hit before passing or not. I thought his hit was probably good, but the ref decided no, it was after the pass. I didn't argue but felt a bit lucky.

So then we were maneuvering again. I was throwing out feints in various ways. At some point he started an advance just as I made a little flick toward his hand, and it landed, woo, 4-3. Then, at the end, I managed another attack into his prep to win 5-3.

So! That felt like a nice start. But I lost the next four bouts, all badly.

First was Andrew Lee. I thought I was being careful and keeping good distance, but he scored with a nice long attack that surprised me stepping in. Then, if I remember right, he made another nice long attack which just touched my knee. I tried to set something up and attacked with my wavy-wave. But it didn't fool him and he easily parried and scored on the riposte. Then he got a great toe touch, catching me totally by surprise. I think that was the way the points went. Maybe I have the order wrong but in any case he got up 4-0. Not good! Throwing caution to the wind I tried my Dragonetti fleche and got a single light. He had responded with a nice counterattack toward my shoulder, but doing the "drag fleche" my shoulder drops down and to the left, which in this case effectively displaced the target he was aiming for. Soon after that he fleched and I counterattacked for a double. I think he wasn't trying too hard for a single light, maybe being okay ending it with a double. Having been down 4-0 I was okay losing 5-2. At least I got two points. Still, ack.

Then I had John Varney. The last time we had a pool bout, a few weeks before, I won, to my surprise. Not this time. I tried my usual stuff with him but was a little hesitant and got confused by his fleches, making parries in wrong directions. A few days before we had fenced in practice and he beat me pretty badly. I asked him after what I had been doing wrong, but he just said he was "practicing his lesson". Whatever he was practicing, it was working on me. Anyway, in this bout he got up 3-0 pretty fast. On his next attack he missed, so I got a point, lucky me. Then he scored again, 4-1, ack. Next he fleched with larger prep blade action. I saw it coming and was able to duck and hit him from below. At least I got one point not due to a mistake of his. Finally I tried a "drag fleche". It failed and he won, 5-2.

Next up, John Mcdonald. I liked fencing him in the last tournament, and did pretty well too. So I was looking forward to this bout. I wasn't expecting to win, just to try my best and have fun. Well, this bout wasn't like the last tournament. He very quickly destroyed me 5-0. I looked at the clock after it was over and it showed 2:42 remaining. He had beaten me in just 18 seconds of fencing time.

Before the bout John Varney told me that Mcdonald was fencing very fast this day. He advised me to "fleche first", and that it would probably be hard to retreat from his fleches fast enough to escape. So I went in planning to attack hard and fast, which is exactly what John did too. It was just that none of my attacks hit before his.

Afterward I told him my plan had been to attack first. He said that made sense but I mostly hadn't attacked first—he had made several attacks immediately right off the line, while I wanted to take a second or two to scope things out or get ready or something. I didn't really think it was wise, or even possible, to attack right off the line without at least a little preparatory footwork. But he got me with an immediate attack to my foot, and another to my leg. I think he did those with big advance lunges, fast enough to do "one tempo", more or less. I was impressed, and I think I will try practicing that kind of thing a little. Seemed like saber-like. And it just occurred to me that the saber event, which John was also in, had been just before epee.

A few times I got my fleching attacks off first, but got hit going in before I could land my point. Afterward I remembered that he had been using a French grip and my attacks were blade avoiding types (like the Dragonetti fleche). When I told him, after, that I had forgotten about his French grip he said something like "yea, you got to deal with my blade if you're attacking".

Well, at least he was nice about giving me a little constructive advice afterward.

After John I had Audun Holland-Goon. After the last three badly lost bouts I hoped I could be better with Audun. Over the last couple of years I've lost to him a number of times. I think I've won a pool bout or two along the way, maybe. I felt like I knew his style fairly well and had a decent chance of winning. But no, it went much like the last few bouts, reaching 4-0 before ending 5-1.

I went in planning to be cautious, knowing his strength is defensive, with good parry-ripostes. I wanted to draw him into attacking me. So I tried pushing him, threatening, feinting, whatever I could to make it seem like I was attacking, hoping to draw his attack. But he just wouldn't bite. Thinking about it now I realize there must be a difference between drawing attacks from someone who likes to counterattack or attack-into-prep, versus someone like Audun who likes to parry-riposte. You might be able to draw an attack-into-prep by feinting in ways that look like "bad prep", but if the person wants to have your blade engaged in a parry maybe you need to actually let them take your blade in order to draw them out. And then? I guess you could use a ceding parry, or retreat so their riposte falls short. Hmm.

Anyway, I can't remember now how Audun got his first point. Probably I got tired of trying to draw an attack and tried to attack into what I hoped was an opening. I probably tried my wavy-wave thing and he parried and scored. Once he was up, even just one point, drawing an attack seemed even harder. He seemed to relax into a very defensive attitude. I kept pushing him back down the strip, feinting and so on. Maybe I should have pushed him all the way to the end. That might be a way to force him to attack. I usually get nervous when the other person is near their end of the strip—doubtlessly in part due to all the fencing I've done with Varney, who loves to be in the box. So I often stop pushing and back off if the other person is getting close to their end. Maybe with someone like Audun it would be better to keep pushing. If someone just won't attack, push them all the way back? Hmm.

Also, before the bout John Varney gave me some advice, using his fingers as blades and showing me a pattern of moving my blade from 6 to 4 and back to 6, or something, ending up with my blade just over his wrist. But I was confused about which finger was whose blade and didn't quite grasp the pattern, and there wasn't time for more. During the bout I kept trying to figure it out, but never quite did.

I'm not sure, but I think Audun got at least one point by attacking as I pushed into distance, surprising me. In any case, once he was up two points I began feeling like I had to try attacking if I hoped to catch up. So I tried my "pool plan" actions one after the other, trying my best to set them up and get past his defenses, but they failed. Either he would parry-riposte and score or at least get my blade out of the way as I fleched by. In this way we got to 4-0.

Then he had an exchange involving, if I remember right, some beats and feints followed by a fleche to his inside. I got a good hit on his chest but the machine showed a single light for him—he had made a late, I thought, counterattack. So I asked the ref, Dan Berke I think it was, to check my epee. Sure enough it wasn't working. I felt a little silly getting another, hooking up, testing, etc, with the score at 4-0. Apparently I had lost hope. I think in the final point I made some kind of fleche attack, he did a parry-riposte and scored, but I managed one of my prime-ish remises and got a double. So I got one point instead of none, losing 5-1. Sigh.

Afterward both Audun and his mom said I should have had my epee checked a couple points before, thinking I had probably lost a point or two. I hadn't felt like I had made any hits in time or I would have had it checked, but who knows. There was only one action I could think of that I might have hit and gotten maybe a double, but if so it wasn't obvious and didn't feel like anything was amiss at the time.

So anyway, after starting nice with my win against Johannes, this pool was no good. Four big losses. My final bout, and the last of the whole pool, was with Jeff Lucas. I can usually beat him and felt like okay, I should be able to at least get one more win out of this pool. But the way things were going I was far from confident. And Jeff has been getting significantly better lately. Still, I thought I could probably do well using absence of blade and distance tactics.

Before we started Jeff said he would be happy to get just one point against me. As we hooked up and tested he joked with me and Dan about it, making up a joke story about rigging the bout so he'd get that one point, or something like that. I got the first point, then he got the second. Our "plan" was working! I got the next point, but then he got one, tying it at 2-2. I think I had made a bad fleche, from too far and ending up off balance infighting instead of passing. Annoyed at myself I pulled off a good "Drag" fleche and got a single. Then I played the absence-distance game, working up to a good feint that got him to make too large a parry, letting me lunge in for a single. So I was up 4-2. Better. Then I made another bad fleche, ending up off balance too close. He scored, making it 4-3. Dan said something like "so much for your guys's plan". Yep. We ended with a double, so I won, but barely at 5-4.

So I had won two, 5-3 and 5-4, and lost four badly. My indicator was a sad -12. I figured I had blown the pool and would have a very bad seed and an impossible DE. The tournament was basically over.

I see now that my win over Johannes resulted in my coming in 5th out of 7, since Johannes had gone one and five, and Jeff had lost all his bouts. My indicator was worse than Johannes's, but my win ratio was higher.

So I was 20th seed out of 28 fencers. I see now that my seed was the lowest of those who had won two bouts. All the pools had seven fencers, so the seeds were all in order of the number of wins. Two had won all six bouts, John Mcdonald and Yuly Suvorov. Six had lost only one, including Andrew Lee, who got 4th seed. Two had lost all their bouts and six had lost all but one. Thanks to those eight I seeded 20th, despite having an indicator worse than the three who seeded below me.

I didn't realize any of that at the time. With 28 fencers were would be only four byes, so there would be no "easy" first DE. I assumed I would get someone very hard, like Varney, or Jay, or Matthew Comes, or someone like that.

DIRECT ELIMINATION

So I was pleasantly surprised when I saw I would fence Kyle Margolies, who was 13th seed. The last few times we've fenced I've lost pretty badly. And given the way I seemed to be fencing this time I thought it was unlikely I would win, but at least it was someone I enjoyed fencing. Plus I felt I had learned quite a bit from the last couple of times we'd fenced—particularly what not to do, what to watch out for, and the need for extra distance.

Had indicators been a point or two different I could have ended up with Luke LaRocque, Robert Tiosejo, or Audun, who all had gone three and three in the pools, like Kyle. If I was given the choice of those four I would probably pick Kyle. Maybe Robert or Audun, but I haven't fenced Robert in forever, and given the way I lost to Audun in the pool, well. And Luke? He's fun to fence, but in a first DE? Yea, no.

Anyway, this DE turned out to be the high point of the tournament and made up for my terrible pool. Because, to my surprise, I won. And decently well too.

I mostly got my points by staying relatively far, having fallen to his long attacks before, and being very careful about attacking, having fallen to his parries, especially four and prime. A few times when I was retreating before his fast but small advances I was able to slow my retreats and let distance collapse just enough to score with a fast direct fleche. Despite my trying to keep distance wide he got a bunch of points with long attacks, often to my leg or knee. He also got two or three hits to my arm on the inside. I was playing a little with holding my arm a bit back and out, vaguely like Steven Benack. I stopped doing that after getting hit on the arm a few times.

One thing I remembered from the last time we fenced was the way he would retreat when I attacked, just enough to be able to make nice parries on my foible, while I wasn't retreating from his attacks and trying to parry too late. So this time I focused on retreating when he made any kind of threat, trying to find that position where I could parry and riposte, or wait for him to fall short and then attack. I think my retreating got him to make larger preparatory actions, which I was sometimes able to attack into. It seems like my retreating plan could have let him force me back to the end of the strip, but I rarely felt like I was too close to the end. Maybe as we got closer to the end he got nervous and backed off. Or he got a little too pushy and came too close, letting me fleche. OR, maybe my feints and body feints kept him from pushing too hard. I've been liking this body feinting stuff.

I tried to keep the score fairly low in the first period, working on being very defensive and shallow, testing things out and trying to get a feel for how the bout might go. Even so the score got up to 7-7. I think I got one more point before time ran out, making it 8-7. Russ talked to me during the break, saying things I mostly was already trying, but reinforcing ideas about what was working and what wasn't. Also some specific ideas that, hmm, I can't remember exactly now. I'm mixing up advice he gave me in the next DE. Kyle got advice from someone, but I can't think who now. I don't think it was Kevin Mar because he was directing bouts, nor John Mcdonald because he was fencing, I think.

In the second period the score stayed tied or a point up or down. We worked up to 10-10. Then things began going my way. I scored attacking into his prep, 11-10. Then again, I retreated and retreated until he started an attack. I attacked into the prep and scored. That time he could have, should have doubled, but missed. Lucky for me, 12-10. Then, again I retreated as he advanced with quick but very small steps. He seemed focused on this footwork, so I slowed/shortened my retreats, letting the distance collapse a little. It felt dangerous as he stepped in closer, but he didn't attack. As he took another step I fleched and hit his shoulder before he could react.

Now the score was 13-10. I tried my best to not get excited about it, thinking "one touch at a time". Remembering stuff Tim Morehouse wrote about in his book I even thought to myself, as I walked to the en guard line, "I'm down, I'm down". Not sure that had any effect. I think the score effected Kyle though. He began to seem frustrated and got more reckless, especially regarding distance. Still, he got the next point, 13-11. Then I got the next, 14-11! I forget the last point exactly. He was trying for a single light, but trying to set something up I was able to sneak in a hit. I'm not sure if we doubled or not. So I won, 15-11 or 15-12, woo! Oddly, on AskFred it shows the score as 14-11, but we didn't even reach the third period.

I felt pretty good about winning. I hadn't expected it and had no idea who would be next. Turned out my next DE was against Andrew Lee, who was 4th seed and had gotten a first round bye. It would be his first DE. Given how he had beaten me badly in the pools, and how he usually beats me, I expected to win even less than I had with Kyle. On the other hand, at least I had a decent idea of his fencing style.

I think I mostly had the right ideas about what to do, which was similar to my approach with Kyle: Keep distance rather wide and retreat, looking for him to fall short, then attack, but carefully! As it turned out I often either did not retreat enough and he'd hit, or I'd retreat more than enough, he'd fall short (very short) and I'd launch an attack from way too far. In the first case, Russ pointed out in the break that Andrew would lunge and I would retreat alright, but then he would fleche out of the lunge and I was being caught flat-footed. I might manage a double in those cases, but it would be better to retreat again. In the second case, well, if I did manage to retreat again and he fell short, great—just don't trying to follow up from too far. I needed to stay away, retreat and let him fall short, then finish, but only if the distance was decent.

As with Kyle, I tried to keep the first period score low. Well, I managed to keep my score low. Not so much with his. I got the first point, which was nice. Then he got one, then another, then another. By the time the period was over he was up 8-3. I don't remember the details well, except that he got a great toe touch and I scored once with that "Dragonetti fleche"—his counterattack going over my shoulder. In the second period, after getting advice from Russ, especially about Andrew's lunge-fleche thing, things began a little better. We traded pointed to 9-5, then I started to catch up a tiny bit, reaching 10-7. Then things fell apart. He got two points to my one, making it 12-8. Then he got the rest except one (probably a double), winning 15-9. Still, I felt like I had done decently. Andrew went on to beat Jay Slater in the next DE, securing 3rd place and earning a B rating.

I stayed and watched the rest, taking videos of the semifinals and final. Mark Benack pointed out how the four people in the semifinals were from the four WWD clubs (the competitive clubs anyway): John Varney SAS Seattle, Matthew Comes WFA Issaquah, Steven Benack RCFC Bellevue, and Andrew Lee MTFC Tacoma. For the division championship that was pretty cool to see. Varney squeezed a win out of Matthew, 9-8. They were tied 8-8 and went into sudden death overtime. Steven beat Andrew 15-13, a good bout. Steven and Varney fenced in the final. I wasn't sure who to cheer for. I mean, you're supposed to root for your clubmate, right? But I like Steven too. And more, if Steven won he would earn his A. While John, well, he's won many tournaments and has been an A for a million years.

Well, Steven won, 15-12. He and his brother were thrilled. It was nice to see. Videos:

Rain City Open Senior Epee

15th Annual Rain City Open, Senior Mixed Epee

https://askfred.net/Results/roundResults.php?seq=1&event_id=116408&highlight_competitor_id=91067

I've been putting off writing about this one. Let's see if I can keep it short. I came in 22nd out of 34.

POOLS

My first bout was with Garrett Armstrong. We hadn't fenced in some time. I remember losing a pool bout 5-4 at SAS a while ago. This time I did better. I didn't write down the points in much detail. I scored one with my "wavy wave". He got one when I went off balance. We doubled once when I fleched. At one point I fleched, got parried and made a last second prime-type action as I passed him. The machine showed I had scored, but I was not sure whether it was after I had passed, or possibly even a floor hit. But the ref gave it to me. If I had been more certain about it not being good I would have said so, but I was just not quite sure and let it stand. I felt a little bad about it. Anyway, after these things I was up 4-3. After some maneuvering I advanced doing the wavy wave and almost launched a full attack but instead paused. He made an overly large parry, creating a nice opening for me to lunge into. That got me a single and a 5-3 win.

Then I had Mark Blom. It was a close bout. I used my usual tactics against him. We got to 3-3, mostly with double touches. Then Mark made a lovely hand hit, 4-3. I kept trying my beats and feints, finally doing a beat-fleche and scoring a single light, 4-4. Then we both continued trying the same thing. I kept trying to set up beat-fleches and he kept trying to pick me off when I attacked. In this way we doubled, and doubled again. We doubled five or six times doing basically the same thing over and over, each trying to get that tiny edge that would make a single. Finally, while maneuvering I thought he stepped too close, so I tried a direct fleche, without a beat. But he wasn't close enough, and/or his picks are just deadlier. He picked my arm on the way in, getting a single light and winning 5-4.

Next was John Mcdonald. It was a fun bout with lots of attacking, fleching, and crashing together. I did alright, generally attacking into his attacks. It was all very fast and crazy. I think I actually got up 3-2. Then he made a very nice accelerated fleche right off the line, starting slow (slowish) and speeding up, catching me reacting too slowly. That was a nice one. Then he got an awesome leg touch and took the lead 4-3. He fleched again for the last point, which I managed to turn into a double. So I lost 5-4. But it was very fun. And I did pretty well, especially considering our pool bout in the next tournament, where he beat me 5-0 in about twenty seconds.

Then I had Charles Bertone and did well. I got the first point with my wavy-wave attack, and the second in a way I don't remember. Then he scored when I made a bad parry, 2-1. I got the rest of the touches after that, winning 5-1. Mainly I scored when he made mistakes like big parries to my feints, and also with direct fleches when the distance collapsed just enough.

My last pool bout was against Paul Duchow. It began slow, each of us being defensive and cautious. I forget exactly how the first points went, but we slowly got to 2-2. The only specific touch I remember was a nice hit to my knee. Since we had been going slowly there was less than a minute left at 2-2. That was when things went downhill. He got a point in a way I don't remember. Once he was up he became even more defensive, while I tried to set up attacks, hoping to at least tie again before time ran out. I tried to create openings but found it hard. Eventually I launched a risky fleche. It almost worked—I could see my point just reaching his shoulder, but not enough to score. He got me with a counterattack or parry, making it 4-2, with little time left. I tried my Dragonetti fleche, but it failed and he scored, winning 5-2.

So I was two and three out of the pools. Two of my loses were 5-4, and my wins were 5-1 and 5-3. So I came in 4th place out of six, with an indicator of +1. Well...could be worse.

DIRECT ELIMINATION

There were 34 fencers, so the DEs started with a round of 64 and almost everyone getting a bye. Sam Larsen was 1st seed, no surprise there. John Mcdonald was 2nd, which made me feel good about my decent pool bout with him.

I was 22nd seed and got paired with 10th seed Matthew Comes. He beat me fairly easily, the end score being 15-8.

Beforehand I got advice from Sam, who summed it up by saying "out-stupid his stupid". He didn't see the bout, but afterward, seeing me with my jacket off was like, "What happened? Were you not stupid enough?" I replied, "Oh I was stupid." We jokingly agreed that there's a fine line between being too stupid and just stupid enough. Or something like that.

Anyway, the details of his advice, along with some from Russ and some of my own analysis, goes something like this. Get Matthew to attack from too far, falling short, then "crush the distance". He likes to make long attacks and tries to time them to when you are advancing or at least unable to retreat. The key is seeing when he's launching a real attack—ignore all the "stupid" things that are not real attacks; don't attack into the stupid—easier said than done for me. Also, you need fast retreats so he falls short, then quick direction change to crush the distance before he can recover decently. Of course, that kind of rapid direction change is something Sam is way better at than me. I tend to retreat too far (if I manage to retreat at all), then take too long to change direction ("too long" being measured in fractions of a second, but still). So too often I'd end up attacking after he fell short, but from too far and too late, after he had recovered. And that's just suicide.

Another bit was, when crushing the distance make sure you don't end up hanging out in close quarters—if you don't score right away either rush past him or get out fast. I did better than I had in the past about avoiding infighting with him. He "only" got me once with his behind the head thing. Two times he ducked my "crushing" fleche and hit me from below.

In short, distance, balance, let him attack long, falling short then shifting fast, crushing, then hitting or passing fast, avoiding the behind the head thing. Piece of cake, right? Hrm.

OTHER STUFF

I had to leave before the event was over, so I didn't get to see much after the final 8. While cooling off I took a video of Sam fencing Paul Duchow, but left soon after.

To my non-surprise Sam won 1st place. I only saw one of his bouts, but looking at the scores none were close—his DEs were 15-4, 15-3, 15-8, 15-6, and, in the final against Kaiden Crotchett, 9-5. Sheesh.

Despite being an A2 event the only rating change was for Henry Duchow, who came in 3rd place and went from a D2015 to a B2015. He was 1st in his pool, losing only to Matthew Comes and getting 7th seed. In the DEs he beat Jeff Lucas, then Tobias Lee in a very close 15-14 bout. Then he beat John Mcdonald 15-8 before finally losing to Kaiden Crotchett.

Rain City Open Vet Epee

15th Annual Rain City Open
Vet Combined Men's Epee

https://askfred.net/Results/roundResults.php?seq=1&event_id=116410&highlight_competitor_id=91067

Came in third, got a medal and a t-shirt, yay. Of course there were only seven of us, and so, with two 3rd places over half of us medaled.

This, along with the more difficult Senior Epee event of this Rain City Open, a couple days later, reminded me of the Portland ROC last October—where I got third place in the small vet event and was crushed in the larger, harder Senior event. At least I didn't get crushed quite as badly this time in the Senior event, which I'll write about in the next post.

Pools

Since there were only seven of us we had a one, slightly larger than average pool. It was nice to get to fence everyone.

Started off with my clubmate, John Varney. First bout of the pools too. To my surprise I began strong, getting the first two points, taking my time and being as careful as I could. Then he scored with a nice fleche into my advance and confused parry. I continued being very cautious. I'd never beaten John in a tournament bout of any kind and my basic strategy the last few times was to just try and keep the score low. I'd be fine with time running out. So I tried keeping long distance, pretending to be pulled by his slow retreats, killing time, then backing off, opening distance, waiting. After a while he attacked with a fleche but I managed to parry and score a single light on the riposte. I think his fleche had been from a bit too far. Maybe my keeping wide distance was working. So I was up 3-1. I had a moment of feeling good, like I could win. But the instant I thought that I pushed it away. I've been up on him many times (usually in practice but in some tournaments too) and lost. One touch at a time. Defense. Kill time.

Maybe all the practice fencing we have done over the last three years was finally paying off. I felt like I knew what do to, although not sure I could. But I tried. Lots of wide distance and body feints, half-lunges, "half/pretend" fleches. My main goal was to kill time, but I knew I had to stay relatively threatening. If I let him set up something he could probably devastate me. As long as my body feints and such were under control maybe he'd launch an attack I could deal with.

And that's what happened. He launched a fleche from a bit too far. I like to think it was into one of my false fleches and quick retreats, resulting in his attack falling short and giving me a chance to counterattack. My counterattack almost missed, just barely clipping his shoulder for another single light and a 4-1 score. I was amazed. Still, this was the point where he usually turned the tables on me and eeked out a win.

I glanced at the clock (happy that the time is displayed on the score boxes at RCFC). There were about 50 seconds left. I should be able to prevent John's getting four single lights in 50 seconds, but I knew it was quite possible for him to still win. I continued my full defensive thing, even more trying to kill time, pushing and pulling distance—trying to keep a very long distance while not retreating all the way to my end of the strip. After about 15 or 20 seconds he attacked and I managed to turn it into a double. So I won, 5-2. There's a first for everything. Of course it is quite likely John wasn't properly warmed up (although I didn't think I was either), nor trying his absolute best. And he did go on to win every single bout after this one. Still, it made me happy, and I think I might have impressed a couple other people watching. Later Mark Blom said something about how he just can't figure John out. I said something about how I've been practicing with him for three years now, usually multiple times a week. We've certainly fenced over a hundred times, maybe two hundred. That's gotta help.

My second bout was with John Sharpe, from Spokane, who I had never fenced before. I didn't get a chance to watch him before our bout and went in knowing little more than seeing he was left-handed and used a French grip. I readied myself for left-handed and French grip type tactics. And also for patience. I've been trying to look at fencers I don't know as puzzles. As something to explore slowly, trying to scout out strengths and weaknesses, while also working on my own deceptiveness—trying to make it seem like I have weaknesses that are actually strengths.

But right off the bat John confused me by hugging his inside strip edge (his right side, my left). Usually lefties tend to hug the outside edge, but there he was way over on the inside edge. So that was weird, but I figured I ought to be able to use it to my advantage. I worked on setting up attacks to his outside line, since it seemed so open. But he was faster than I expected, and accurately picked off my arm from the inside a couple of times. I wised up a little and was more careful about exposing my arm, and I drifted more to the center of the strip. Somehow we both fleched at the same time and ended up in a crashing double, making the score 3-1. Then we did it again, 4-2. I tried hard to focus on one touch at a time, patiently looking for openings and keeping the distance wider than I had at first. We had some kind of exchange during which I managed to sneak in a single light. I forget exactly how. A score of 4-3 seemed much better, but still I needed two single lights. Well, he attacked and I countered and we doubled again. So I lost 5-4. Oh well, not bad, I figured, for starting out down 2-0. I felt like I had figured something out and dealt alright with a surprising style.

Next up was Brent Farnsworth. Here maybe I underestimated someone I felt I should be able to beat. I began with a kind of blade out, moving in and out kind of thing. He quickly took me in a nice bind and scored. I think we doubled after that and then he got a couple points to my one, making the score 4-2. He was doing nice strong binds. I adjusted by switching to a more absence of blade approach, trying to work the distance. I got him with a fleche as he stepped in, making it 4-3. Then I tried it again, but he managed to counterattack my fleche for a double, winning 5-4. Doh.

Then I had Johannes Klein. We've fenced a bunch and I feel like I sort of know what to do. But he is smart and quick to take advantage of any tiny lapse. I followed the advice I had in my little notebook, which suggested keeping my point aimed at his wrist and staying shallow, working for hand picks and the like. That meant having my blade out a lot, and he scored several times with nice beat and bind fleches. I could not quite figure out what he was doing. His beats often seemed very small, but worked like a charm. I tried a fleche of my own and it failed badly. So he was up several points, 4-2 I think.

I switched tactics. Instead of trying to keep my point aimed at his wrist, which basically gave him my blade to beat and bind, I went with absence. I increased my bouncing and used more body feints, hoping to lure him into distance and bad attacks. Not so easy with Johannes! But I managed to get it to work a couple times. Basically I'd make almost real attacks, drawing a real counterattack from him. Then I'd fleche into the opening, if there was one, perhaps with a beat. I got two singles this way, crawling back to a tied 4-4 score. Then, as I kept trying the same tactic I ended up bouncing just a little too close, into his distance. He did not hesitate to take advantage and score a single, winning 5-4. So after my nice start with Varney I was down one and three. With two more to go. Ack.

Next was Jeff Lucas. As with Brent things did not begin very well and I had a mindset of thinking I ought to win. I forget the exact details, but I was being fairly aggressive and it wasn't working. He got up a point or two. So I slowed down and, as in the last two bouts, switched to a more defensive approach, using absence of blade, body feints, and generally working distance. I was able to either lure him in just too close, letting me score with a fleche, or draw attacks from too far, which I could parry-riposte or counterattack. From being down 4-3 I managed two single lights this way, getting 4-4, then luring an attack from too far, creating an opening I could score in. So I eeked out a 5-4 win.

My last pool bout was with Mark Blom. We go back and forth. In the last tournament, the SIV, he beat me badly. This time went a lot better. I think I was quicker on my feet this time. I continued with the absence of blade, feints and body feints things, more or less—couple with hard beats, mostly upward from my absence position, trying to make openings. In these ways I managed to get up 3-1. Much better than at the SIV where he got up 4-1. At 3-1 I tried a beat-fleche, but he was able to recover and score a single, making it 3-2. Then I scored with a kind of broken time upward beat, pause, go attack. I felt good at 4-2 and took up a fairly defensive, waiting approach, knowing he had to attack. Eventually he did. I counterattacked straight in and got a double, winning 5-3.

So I came out of the pools three and three. And my three losses were all 5-4. My wins were 5-2, 5-3, and 5-4. So I had a positive indicator, yay. This put me third place for the pools. John Sharpe had also gone three and three, and our indicators were tied at +3. In such cases the tie is broken by the higher "touches scored", I think. And since I had 27 to his 25 I was third to his fourth. That was close!

Direct Elimination

As third seed I was paired with the sixth seed, Brent Farnsworth. Had I been fourth seed I would have had fifth seed Mark Blom. Who knows if I would have been able to beat Mark in a DE. Brent though—after the pools, where I felt like I figured out what to do, but too late to win—I had my tactics ready. Mainly I wanted to avoid his beats and binds and try to lure him into distance mistakes. This seemed to be his main strength and weakness, that I could see anyway. So I went with strong absence of blade and active, often broken footwork. It worked. I got him to step in too close, letting me fleche into his advances. I got up a few points. He seemed to not know what to do with my absence of blade. Sometimes he tried to beat my blade despite it being very low. This made me feel like I was doing the right thing. I have forgotten the exact details, but I think I got a healthy lead and kept it, winning 10-5.

It was nice to feel like I learned a lesson in the pools, losing to him, and was able to adjust tactics appropriately. I think afterwards he said he didn't know what to do with my absence of blade approach, and I tried to explain what I had been trying to do with it.

With just seven of us winning that first DE guaranteed me at least third place and a medal, which was my only real goal for this tournament. Yes, I'm still at the point where getting a medal feels special. Even if it only takes one DE, I'll take it! I tried to use this feeling of "I made my goal" to approach the next DE with calmness and enjoyment—knowing that that might help me win, but also knowing it was true: I'd be okay losing and coming in third. If nothing else my kids would enjoy seeing another medal on the bust of Beethoven.

My next DE was against Johannes Klein, who was second seed. Similar to Brent, I felt like I had figured out some tactical things in the pool. And like with Brent I tried using a lot of absence of blade, distance work, feints and body feints. I tried to mix things up a little more, offering invitations at long distance and such (I don't think Johannes fell for any of those). It was a very close bout. We got to 4-4, then doubled, then doubled again. At 6-6 the first period ran out and we had our minute break. I had no one to coach me, so I just breathed and relaxed and tried to not fret.

During the break I decided to start the next period with the same tactics but much faster footwork. In part I was thinking maybe I could tire Johannes out a bit and maybe he would be more prone to making a mistake. I should have remembered that he doesn't really seem to get tired easily, and rarely makes mistakes. But I was also thinking that faster footwork might help draw attacks that I could take advantage of.

Whatever my reasoning I started the next period with fast, aggressive footwork, while still holding mainly to absence of blade and looking for counterattacks, second intention, countertime, etc. He remained rather calm as I bounced in and out, feinting and trying to be confusing, and slowly pushing him back down the strip. And then, I bounced just slightly too close. It was a small mistake but Johannes was waiting for it. He attacked straight into my bounce-advance and scored a single light, taking the lead 7-6. Whoops. In pushing my footwork activity up I had crossed into a region of slightly less control. I suspect he could see this, and perhaps could see patterns in my footwork that I wasn't aware of. So when I made that small mistake he was quite ready.

Walking back to on guard I realized these things and adjusted by slowing down a little. With someone like Johannes mistakes of footwork are deadly, and I can't quite manage that level of aggressive bouncing without losing a bit of control. Being down a point and knowing we had been doubling a lot, I tried being a bit more cautious, reverting to more body feinting, trying to draw one of his big parries/beats/counters. Things went very much as they had before my mistake. If I remember right we doubled to 8-7, then he got a single, 9-7. Then we doubled again. So I lost 10-8. Well, considering how I've done with Johannes in the past I thought that was pretty good. And I learned something. Several things. Something about staying in control. And something about how rarely Johannes makes mistakes!

In the final John Varney beat Johannes 10-7. I don't think anyone was surprised that they took first and second place.

So I got third, and another "bronze" medal to go with the four others, and the one silver I have. I've come in second and third a few more times than that, but in tournaments that did not have medals. Still never first place. I think that is my main goal now. Going up the ratings would be nice, but eh. Getting a D would be just fine. C or higher though, I'm not even sure I want that these days. It would put me out of Div 3 for one. I feel like I ought to be competitive in Div 3, but would probably get crushed a lot in Div 2. Plus this year I only just qualified for Div 3 at Nationals, but not Div 2. I'm realizing that going up in the ratings isn't always a good thing, although a D would be nice. Mostly I am enjoying feeling like I am getting better, slowly. Someday I'd like to take first place in a tournament, even if it is just a seven person vet tournament.