Results:
https://askfred.net/Results/results.php?tournament_id=34515
How nice to have a tournament and feel like I did well. Beyond my expectations at least. There were 26 fencers and nearly all of them were as good or better than me, on average. Also, the Battle in Seattle was still fresh in my mind, where I had more trouble in the Vet event than the regular Senior event. These good vets may tend to be a little slower than the 20 year olds, but they are wily and smart. I expected to struggle in this one.
But I arrived with plenty of time to check in and warm up, and quickly felt growing confidence. I warmed up with several people and perhaps worked harder than necessary for mere warm up bouts. But I think I get more out of warming up hard than easing into it. Several people over the course of the day told me I was moving really well, which was great to hear. I felt like I was—putting my all into the kind of in-and-out footwork I’ve been working on for so long now. And also trying to change up footwork stuff a lot, opening up space, closing, slowing down, speeding up. Lots of check steps and half lunges, trying to set traps. I think I got some decent results from “retreat check steps”—starting to step back but not actually, and perhaps turning into an attack instead.
Anyway, to the pool.
I was in a pool of seven, so six bouts for me. Three people were left handed, sigh. And among them, Erich Cranor and Bela Suveg, both scary good fencers. The third leftie was Ommer Bruce, who I’ve seen a few times and maybe fenced. I didn’t quite know what to expect of him. I thought he would be quite tough for me, but perhaps not quite as tough as Erich and Bela. There was also John Comes, who over the years I’ve been more or less on par with. And Jonathan Brace, a clubmate who I “should” be able to beat, but you never know. And finally, Ed Bourguignon, who looked familiar but I don’t think I’d fenced before.
The very first pool bout was Erich Cranor and me. I hooked up and almost on a whim checked my epee’s screws. I had checked everything the day before and upon arriving, but who knows, maybe something happened during my warm up bouts. To my surprise a screw was missing. These NEPS, “new epee screws”, almost never fall out, in my experience. I replace contact springs and whole tips far more often than screws these days. But I was definitely missing a screw just then, good thing I looked.
I quickly switched to my second epee. Although I’d like to have three or four identical epees I have not yet figured out “the perfect setup”. So I have 4-5 Frankenepees instead. For a while I had more or less settled on LP’s standard “FIE blade”, and have a couple LP bladed epees. But a few months ago Marshall, after watching me fence a bit (at the Leon Auriol Open perhaps?) said I would benefit from using a nice stiff BF blade. After a while I got one and have been enjoying it very much. That was the one missing a screw, of course. So I switched to one of my LPs. Would I have done better with Erich if I had the BF? Who knows. Probably not, or not much.
But I can pretend it is an excuse: Erich beat me 5-0. I felt like I had not fenced badly. He scored several lovely touches on my hand and forearm. Once or twice I might have over-committed and opened myself up to easy counterattacks. But generally I felt simply outmatched rather than feeling like I fenced badly. Still, not the best start. On the other hand, I figured I got the hardest bout over first and things could only get better.
And they did. My next bout was with Bela Suveg. We hadn’t fenced in a long time, but when we have he’s decimated me. And I’ve watched him enough to know how good he is. Still, I put my all into the bout, doing footwork as fast as I could, all the in-and-out, check steps, and so on. Also, after Erich I had quickly put a new screw into the BF epee and used it for the rest of the day.
For whatever reason, I was in the zone that bout, seeing things as they happened in that wonderful focused way that can be so hard to find sometimes. I watched him do his strong sweeping low line parries when I probe at his hand. After trying to set up a little pattern of probes I did another in a half lunge, disengaged his sweep and put my point right on his hand. It felt just right. Must be that extra-stiff BF blade, haha. Well, maybe a little—it sure seems like the tip stays far more stable than on my other epees.
Anyway, I kept up the same stuff and after a bit managed to hit his hand again, in a similar way. It wasn’t as pretty, but hit more directly on his hand and felt quite nice. After that we maneuvered around and he seemed more careful about protecting his hand. After a while I managed to make the distance close a bit using a “retreat check step” which he advanced into, at least a little bit. I made some kind of feint, half lunge, then renewed deep to his body, hitting. He counterattacked, but a bit late, too close and too high. My deep lunge had brought my head down and his blade ended up over my head.
After that I worked on being patient—I was up three points after all—yet still as active as possible footworkwise. Time passed as we probe and maneuvered. Finally he fleched. I had my blade turned to point a bit to my left, and lowish—part of something I’ve been practicing and exploring ever since watching Joseph Choo at the Battle in Seattle. I think Bela attempted some deceptive blade action as he fleched, but from my blade’s lowish, somewhat septime-y position I was able to lift up into a high septime, basically nullifying whatever Bela was trying to do with his blade. That was exactly the kind of thing I had seen Choo doing and had been trying myself. It wasn’t pretty in this case, but got Bela’s blade out of the way. Then, as he passed on my left I was able to drop the point and angle it to hit his thigh. Perhaps in this case it helped that he’s left-handed and was thus closer as he passed, maybe. Still, I was a little surprised that I had hit. And I wasn’t sure if the ref (Zoey) would give me the point—maybe he had passed? But she gave it to me. So yay, 4-0, wow.
So then, being nicely up, I continued trying to be very patient, yet active on my feet. There was a decent amount of time left, but still, Bela had to come to me. I could just wait. I tried using footwork stuff to draw his attack, but he was careful. After a while he was edging forward while I kept trying to draw him out. I also tried to keep pressure toward his hand, looking for another hand hit possibility. After a bit of this there was a moment where it seemed like he had edged just close enough and was, perhaps, concerned about my focus on his hand. I made another half lunge toward his hand then renewed and dropped to his foot. My point landed perfectly. His counterattack was high and late. I won 5-0! Against Bela, wow. And ending with a toe touch? Wonderful! I was elated. He was not happy and shook my hand with a grim firmness. As I walked back and unhooked John Comes congratulated me with an impressed expression.
That win was so unexpected and unexpectedly good, I figured I would be quite pleased even if everything fell apart in the rest of the pool. I felt super good—not really because I beat Bela, it could have been any “very good” fencer and felt as good. Mostly it was the wonderful feeling that comes from being in the zone, working my hardest, seeing details at speed and, most of all, being able to capitalize on it all, with two or three touches that felt pretty much perfect.
Also I figured the 5-0 win exactly made up for the 5-0 loss. After the bad start I was perfectly even. And those were the two toughest fencers in my pool, I figured. So I felt pretty good about the situation.
Next bout was with John Comes. We’ve fenced in tournaments quite a lot since I started at SAS. Sometimes I beat him easily, sometimes he beats me easily. Sometimes we have very close bouts. This time it was a very close bout. Things began well for me. I think I got the first two points. One with a hard beat attack, the other a retreating counterattack that landed nicely on his hand. Then, maybe I was overeager, but I attacked too deeply. My point landed, but deep, while his counterattack hit my shoulder. A single light for him. Then, after a bit, we attacked simultaneously and had a clashing double touch, making the score 3-2. I started trying to be more careful but also, I soon realized, slowed down my footwork a bit. Somehow we ended up infighting. I made a decent parry but couldn’t get a riposte in before he was passing me and going off strip. As he did he made a last-ditch prime-like attempt. His tip went into my shoe and scored. So it was tied 3-3. Hmm.
I don’t exactly remember the next couple of points. I think I scored one, then he scored, taking us to 4-4, la belle. We maneuvered for a while, trying to find openings and set traps. Finally I saw an opening and went for it. A nice lunge that landed near his shoulder or collarbone. He had made a counterattack, but it seemed like his blade was too far out of line. I won! But when I looked at the lights, his was on and mine wasn’t. I realized his counterattack had *just barely* managed to nick my elbow. So he won, 5-4. Afterwards he said it was a very close bout and that final point could easily have gone either way. And he had also thought it might have been mine until seeing the lights. We both agreed that it was a good bout.
Next I had Jonathan Brace. We fence now and then in the club, so I had an idea about how it might go. And it went pretty much as I thought it would. He kept attacking from too far, giving me fairly straightforward counterattack points. In this way we got to 4-0. Then he attacked just as I was lifting my blade for some reason. He hit my arm nicely. I got the final point and won, 5-1.
Then I had Ommer Bruce, the french-grip leftie who I didn’t know well. I had watched him in other pool bouts and gotten some sense of his style. His footwork was interesting: He tended to stay rather still, giving the impression of being slow, but he could suddenly fleche, surprisingly fast. He could also retreat faster than his rather static stance would suggest. Having seen that I knew I had to at least be careful. Mostly I did the same stuff I had been doing—very active footwork, lots of feints, attempts to set traps, etc.
We had a good, hard fought bout. I have forgotten how the first few points went, but somehow or other we got to 2-2. Then he fleched. I managed to parry and riposte in a prime-y way as he passed. Then he scored in a way I can’t remember, tying it up again at 3-3. Again he fleched and again I managed a parry-riposte. It was awkward and ugly, and I barely stayed on the strip. As I scored I half-fell off strip, stumbling back-first into the wall. Still, I got the point. More maneuvering and then, maybe remembering my toe touch with Bela, I went low, after trying to pressure his hand. Bad timing though—right as I dropped my blade low he fleched. My tip was nowhere near his foot and his fleche easily landed. So we were tied at 4-4. I don’t remember the last point exactly, but it was mine. I think there was an opening and I took it, but it was close.
So now I had a 5-0 loss, a 5-0 win, a 5-4, and a 5-4 win. Very symmetrical. Plus the 5-1 win against Jonathan. Not bad, not bad. My final bout was with Ed Bourguignon. I had started the pool with almost no idea about his fencing. But I had plenty of time to watch him fencing others and felt like I had a good chance. He seemed susceptible to traps. I got the sense that he hadn’t been fencing all that long, or maybe not too frequently. Anyway, it turned out he was susceptible to traps. I won 5-1, and almost all the points were fairly simple traps. Things like low line feints until a high counterattack was drawn, which could be taken with a six opposition lunge. Or several beats followed by a fake beat, disengage, six take. At 3-0 I began some kind of setup trap prep and he made a straight lunge into my prep, scoring. I simplified for the last two points.
So I ended up four and two, with a +8 indicator. Far better than I had expected I’d do. I ended up getting the 6th seed, out of 26 mostly very tough fencers. Yay. With 26 fencers the top six got byes for the round of 32. So to my surprise I got the last of those byes. I’d almost rather not have, so I could have had a winnable DE. Somehow getting a bye doesn’t feel as good as winning a DE. Then again, with only six byes I felt pretty good about getting one.
Once the tableau was up I saw I would face the winner of a bout between Joel Howard and Travis Exum. Seeing that my heart sank. It seemed highly likely that Travis would beat Joel, then beat me. And that’s exactly what happened. In fact Travis went on to beat everyone, taking 1st place in the end. Before the DEs Travis said he didn’t do so well in the pools. Tobias had beaten him in the pools and talked to me a bit about it, and other tactical and strategic stuff. Watching Travis fence Joel, plus having warmed up with him a bit, I thought maybe he was having an off day and I had a chance.
Also, after some of the things Tobias had talked about, especially stuff about fencing better fencers, I considered trying to keep the score as low as possible with Travis. Perhaps I could try for non-combativity. Maybe I should have. But I worried about my own ability to stay focused and highly active if I went that way. Also, I knew from practice that if I let Travis set stuff up he tends to score on me. Could I have gone for non-combativity while also actively disrupting his set ups? Maybe. Next time?
In any case, things began decently enough. I think we tied at 3-3. Then I attempted a surprise attack fairly quickly off the line. It failed. Then he got another point, and another. Before I knew it I was behind and felt I had to attack if I hoped to catch up. Travis was happy to play a defensive game, although he certainly kept the pressure on. Things went badly and soon the score was 3-7. I killed time until the period ended, hoping I could somehow reset and come up with a desperate plan in the break.
In the second period I was more careful, knowing I needed lots of singles. I managed to get one point, but he got the rest, winning 10-4. Ah well, here is where I need to be happier about getting a bye instead of winning a DE before losing one.
Anyway, the bye put me into the 16, and Travis kept me out of the 8. Thanks to my decent pool I ended up coming in 11th overall, just before Erich Cranor and Jeff Johnson, and above people like Eli Delgado and Fred Frank. So that’s good! Still, after the pool I had been hoping I might make the 8, since doing so would renew my C rating, which is getting dusty.
On the other hand, if I had seeded one or two places higher I would probably have had to face Sean Ameli, Fred Frank, or Eli Delgado, or Bela Suveg. I can’t imagine I’d have done much better with any of them than I did with Travis.
