https://askfred.net/Results/results.php?tournament_id=31384&highlight_competitor_id=91067&event_id=123623
Good pools, got a first round bye, lost first DE. So I came in 9th, or "best" of those who did not make the round of 8. Lost my DE to Svetoslav Dimitrov (again!), who ended up coming in 8th, just one spot ahead of me, or "worst" of those who lost in the round of 8. Funny how that works. Had I won that DE (and lost the next, most likely) I probably would not have done much better. In fact, let's see...looking at results and seeds I would have been 6th had I won that DE. Assuming I lost the second DE, which would have been against Andrew Lee.
POOLS
First up I had Donovan Kawewehi, who I hadn't fenced or even seen in a couple years or so. He said he hadn't fenced a lot recently, and I hoped he would be rusty while I would have gotten a lot better. I tried using a "hard" style, with hard beats and the like, but things did not go well. He got a point, and another, and before I knew it the score was 1-4. I had forgotten how "hard" he fences. My attempt to be strong seemed mainly to create openings for him. I had my usual first bout lack of focus. Several times I had a chance to score and simply missed. Finally getting myself a little more together I managed to retreat from his fast attack and manage to end with a double touch, 2-5. Eesh. I wrote in my notes "many issues". Oof.
After waiting several bouts I fenced Kenji Yamamoto. I don't think I had ever fenced him before, or seen him fence. I started off a bit distracted and he got the first point. Wake up! Focus! So I woke up and focused more. I got a point in a way I can't remember. Then we ended up in an awkward infighting situation. We both tried close-in primes. I thought he hit, but when I looked at the lights mine was on and his was not. Apparently I had landed on his back calf? I was starting to feel a little more confident and after some maneuvering, trying to trick some distance, I launched a beat-fleche that worked nicely. So I was up 3-1. Feeling better. Then we were maneuvering again, throwing out various feints and such. I made a feint check-step kind of thing and he reponded with a half-duck and an overly big parry that made a nice big opening for me to lunge into. So, 4-1, the opposite of my first bout. I tried to avoid ending with a double touch so as to be a point up overall so far. Again we maneuvered, makes various feints. At one point I extended and he started a counterattack. I did something I had been practicing a bit: A small retreat with a cutover. It worked nicely. He didn't get my blade in opposition and my point ended up on his arm near the elbow. Sweet, 5-1!
My third bout was with Jeff Lucas. I was ready for one of his attacks right off the line, but he didn't do it, perhaps because we had been talking about that very thing earlier. I tried it on him though, thinking I might turn the tables. It was a little messy though and resulted in a double touch. Otherwise I made several large, ugly attacks and got lucky or just didn't hit. I got in one nice-feeling beat-fleche and eventually got the score to 4-1. Again I tried to end with a single, but he got a counterattack in and doubled. So, 5-2.
So far I was up two and one. Looking at who was left I saw three of increasing difficulty—Abby Barr, Tobias Lee, and, the final bout in our pool, Matthew Comes. I thought I should be able to beat Abby, had a chance with Toby maybe, and would probably lose badly to Matthew. If things went as "expected" I would end up three and three or, if I could beat Toby, four and two. Looking at it that way made my bout with Toby seem particularly important. Of course I knew that anything could happen and I shouldn't invest myself too much in thinking this way. So after noting these things I put it out of my head and focused on "one touch at a time". If anything I just thought that the bouts would get harder and I should try to fence my best and avoid doing anything too stupid.
Anyway, I fenced Abby Barr. She's pretty good, and left-handed too. I remembered to keep my guard lower than usual, to protect against her picks to the hand. Mostly I tried to keep the pressure on and the distance wider than her reach, but close to my reach. At a few points my concentration flagged and I had some bad misses. Luckily she wasn't able to take advantage of my lapses. I think a couple of times she had a chance and missed. Somewhere in there she got a point, while I worked up to 4-1. Then I made an attack that went a bit awkward and I missed, opening myself up badly. But her riposte/counter missed, lucky me. We ended up in infighting distance and I made a desperate prime which almost missed, but just nicked her leg. So I won 5-1, but that last touch was quite lucky.
Then I had Tobias Lee. I figured this bout would make a big difference for DE seeding—assuming I would lose to Matthew Comes. I like fencing Toby. Over time I had come to a better and better understanding of how to fence him, what might work, what not to do, what to watch out for, etc. I don't think I have ever won even a pool bout with him, but it seemed possible. I had to be careful, watch the distance, look out for picks, and take advantage of opportunities to get control of his blade with beats or binds and attack when the time was right—but not too much! No chasing him down the strip! No reaching far for a seemingly open target only to get my arm picked off. Beforehand I wrote a note to myself: "be careful and active—like fencing Travis". Not that Toby fences like Travis so much as I had to fence like I do when I fence Travis: Avoiding anything rash, being extra-wary of distance, and taking advantage of opportunities, but not too much! If a chance fails, let it fail instead of trying to force it. Stuff like that.
Anyway, I think I did well enough. It was close. He got up 3-2. I did do some chasing, but I think I managed to stop myself before getting hit. I don't remember exactly how the first few points went. At 3-2 he got a lovely hit to my hand that surprised me. I thought I was being careful enough to avoid things like that. That made it 4-2, which didn't look good, but I doubled down and worked hard. I got the next point, somehow. At 4-3 he made an attack that perhaps was aimed to maybe doubled out. I think he expected me to counterattack or use a circle-6 or 4 parry. And I think I started a circle-6 and our foibles caught part way through. If I had continued the circle-6 we might have doubled, but I went into a high-7 instead, which resulted in a single light for me. I certainly hadn't planned to use a high-7, it just happened in the moment. Nice when that happens and it works.
That made it 4-4. A comeback! I tried to stick with something familiar at the end. He made a somewhat low feint, so I used that hard-2 smack thing, hoping to throw his blade far out of line, followed by a high line attack. He recovered fast and caught my blade in 6 then immediately returned to a low line and hit, before I could do my prime-y escape-from-6 thing. It felt like I had done a low-high thing while he had done a nice low-high-low thing, almost like a third intention, one step ahead of me. So he won, 5-4. So close! Then again, it could have been worse given his being up 4-2 at one point.
So I was three and two at that point, with just Matthew Comes to go. I wrote in my notes that I wanted to score at least one point. I didn't want to lose 5-0, as I have with him before sometimes. I don't think I was being defeatist, just realistic. I would still fence my best. And by this point I was well warmed-up and in the zone. My bout with Toby had helped my focus and determination quite a lot. Still...
The bout ended up being a huge surprise. I got the first two points in ways I don't quite remember. I think one of them was a strong feint from me, which he perhaps took to be more of an attack than it was. He did one of his duck-parries but I was not close enough, so he couldn't hit but I could, and did. I think the other point was a simple fleche or beat-fleche on my part. That it actually worked surprised both of us, I think. Then he got a point, I don't remember how. Then after some maneuvering I launched a fleche again but immediately realized I was just a little too far. He retreated and I felt his tip tap my arm as I reached for his shoulder. But his tap was too light and did not score, while my reach eventually landed. That made the score 3-1. He was annoyed. For me it was nice and unexpected, but I tried to put it out of my mind. He could easily come back and win. He quickly launched one of his beautiful fleches. Normally it would have worked, and it really should have worked this time, but by what felt like sheer luck he missed, his tip going over my shoulder. My counterattack landed, making it 4-1. Now he was quite annoyed and I was feeling quite good. But really, even at this point I could picture him winning. I figured I should try to double out, so I tried an off-the-line advance-fleche on him. Maybe he was expecting a double-touch attempt, because he easily retreated and parried, scoring, 4-2. I still figured I would look for double-touch possibilities, but more carefully. We maneuvered a little, then he fleched and I countered. We doubled. So I won, 5-3. So much for my "just one point" plan. It was certainly the first time I had beaten him in any tournament bout. Part of it was luck—he made several mistakes and misses. But I think I did well enough, fencing with focus, energy, and good form. After the last point he went to his end of the strip for a few moments, mentally berating himself or whatever, then came and shook hands. I actually felt a bit bad for him and shook hands unemotionally, not wanting to seem gloating or anything. Then I remember turning and walking back to my strip end to unhook. I saw people who had been watching—Donovan, Jeff, Abby, I think—and I couldn't help but break into a smile and widen my eyes like "unexpected wow!"
Of course Matthew Comes still took first place in our pool, winning five and losing just that one, with a +14 indicator. This made him 2nd seed for the DEs. He later pointed out to me that if not for our bout he would have been 1st seed. Joseph Choo was 1st seed, having won all his bouts, but even so his indicator was lower than Matthew's. This meant Matthew and Andrew Lee had to fence in a semifinal instead of a final bout—assuming they got there. I think Matthew had expected to fence Andrew in the final. Instead they fenced in a semi-final. Then Matthew beat Joseph Choo in the final, which was a fairly close bout.
Anyway, for me it meant I was 6th seed for the DEs, out of 19. If I had lost to Matthew I would have been around 10th seed instead. Now if I had just beaten Tobias too... Actually, Toby and I both went four and two in the pools, and we both had a +9 indicator. But he had one more touch scored, so he came in 2nd in our pool and I was 3rd. I was 6th seed and he was 5th. Just one point! If it had been the other way around my DE would have been with...let's see...Mark Benack. Hmm. Given how much Mark has been progressing recently that may or may not have been a better situation. Toby beat him, but it was close.
DIRECT ELIMINATION
Being 6th seed gave me a bye in the round of 32. It meant I would fence the 11th seed, who also had a bye. That was Svetoslav Dimitrov. I sighed when I saw his name. We fenced for the first time last summer, and I beat him (resulting in my getting a C rating). He had fleched a lot, and often from too far, which made things rather straightforward for me. Since then we had fenced twice and I lost both times. I had him in my pool at BladeFest and an SAS Open. Both times he was much more patient than that first time, and I ended up attacking too much. At BladeFest it was close, but at SAS he mauled me. So here we were again, and in a DE again. In those two pool bouts I expected him to fence like he had in that first DE: lots of fleching. But he hadn't. He had been more defensive and careful. So this time I figured he would again be more defensive. Other people told me to expect lots of fleching, and I had seen him fencing aggressively in other pool bouts. So maybe he was more cautious fencing me in particular. Well, I figured I could be patient too. I would push him, but carefully, and wait. Eventually he would start attacking, especially if I kept pushing him back toward his end of the strip.
That was my basic plan. To out-patience him and get him to start fleching. And as far as that goes, it worked. A minute or two into the first period, after a point or two scored either way, he did start fleching. The problem was his fleches kept scoring. That wasn't part of my plan! By the end of the first period he was up a good amount. Something like 10-4. The second period went much the same. I remember it being 14-8 and scoring a point. Joel was watching and said something like "you got him just where you want him now!" Anyway, he won 15-9.
In hindsight the obvious problem I had was the long amount of time that passed between pools and my DE. It was at least 30 minutes. By the time our DE began I was cold and felt slow. I should have done more during the wait to stay energized. And I could have amped up my energy during the DE. I realized early on that I felt slow, but instead of working to increase my activity I thought I could "pretend" I was slow as a way of luring him out of being defensive and into fleching. I soon realized I was only fooling myself. Giving myself an excuse to stay slow. I've done that before—my brain comes up with excuses to be lazy and I buy into it.
Later, at SAS, I told Russ about the tournament. I described the long wait between pools and the DEs and how I woud benefit from finding a way to stay energized and "in the zone" during waits like that. I thought he might have some ideas but instead said "If you ever figure out how to stay consistent in fencing, let me know!"
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