Sunday, March 24, 2013
Sunday, after a break
Nothing to exciting since my last post. Still working on balance. Got new pants. They actually fit, it's great! I missed a couple weeks due to T traveling for work and me being sick with flu/conjunctivitis. Lots of folks went to the Reno NAC last weekend. Jennifer did well. There was also a D and under epee tournament last Thursday I had wanted to go to but was very sick that day. Turned out Jeremy came in first place, earning his D. And Jim came in third, earning his E. Woo!
Today I went in even though I still feel fairly sick. I thought I might end up just watching, but fencing was just the thing. Made me feel much better. A very good fencer was in town and fencing—Bob Rhea. Often you learn the most from fencing people better than you, and I think this was the case for me today. I fenced him twice, not doing particularly well either time. But the second time I took Don and Russ's advice about fencing lefties—mainly staying close to the outside edge of the strip. Bob fenced right on the strip edge, taking every advantage he could of making hits on the outside. By staying right on the edge yourself you can close that off to some degree. I had fun fencing Russ too. Sadly I didn't get to fence Mikol or Jay, ah well.
I had some luck using my newish "trick" of attacking low hoping to draw a high line counterattack, making a hard "upward" parry, deflecting the counterattack high, then extending to the chest. Got the idea from watching Russ give a lesson a while ago. I'm not sure I'm doing it the way he was teaching it, but it seems to work pretty well, given the person counterattacks high. If they actually parry, it doesn't work.
Friday, March 1, 2013
Video of me and John
On Sunday John Varney had a video taken, on a smart phone, of me and him fencing. I asked for a copy since I had never seen myself fencing, not even a still photo. He gave it to me on a memory stick on Monday and I edited it down a bit (and increased the contrast, etc).
The main thing I see in it, besides my fencing pants being too big, which I knew, was how much my footwork could be improved. Which I also knew, but it helps to see it. I tend to be over-balanced toward my front foot. So I've been practicing balance, keeping my back foot more flat and more aligned heel to front foot (instead of toe to front foot, which is my habit).
On Wednesday footwork came up talking with Mikol and he said he tries to keep his back hip down. I hadn't considered thinking about it in hip terms, but it makes a lot of sense. I will be thinking about that.
Thursday, February 7, 2013
New epee
Yay, the epee I ordered arrived today. So now I have three. Well, three once I put a new blade on one of them. My other two are the cheapest electric epees from Absolute Fencing, and so far I've always replaced their blades with the cheapest wired blades from Absolute. So that kind of epee and blade is more or less all I have experience with. I mean, I had a different but equally cheap epee back in Denver, but that was a long time ago. And I've sometimes used one of the SAS club epees when I had to, and Marla's spare epees when she lent them to me and mine failed at a tournament. But I don't have more than passing experience with anything but these cheap Absolute epees. And they have been fine, but over time I've becoming increasingly annoying with the blades. They seem to always get a bit of an S-curve like bend that I can't straighten, and I suspect makes them more susceptible to breaking. They also seem to bend near the tip a lot, and I've now had two break right at the tip.
So, I'm interested to see how this Blue Gauntlet epee turns out. It is also a cheap epee, about the same price as the Absolute ones, although I spent a couple more dollars for a transparent pad. The blade seems quite a bit less stiff than the Absolute ones. A few test thrusts and flicks against a pillow felt nice. Will have to wait a few days to try it out for real—and put some scratches on its oh-so-shiny bell guard.
Also ordered one of Blue Gauntlet's cheapest body cords. To my surprise it looks more like the $30 Uhlmann cords than the $12 Absolute ones. So now I have three and a half working body cords and three epees (albeit one currently with a broken blade).
Tuesday, February 5, 2013
Battle in Seattle report
I competed in the Friday evening mixed vet epee event and was happy with the results. I took some pictures after I was out. On Saturday I went for a while, with Nathaniel in tow, to watch and take some pictures of the much larger men's senior epee event.
The results of the mixed vet epee are here,
http://askfred.net/Results/roundResults.php?seq=1&event_id=79718&highlight_competitor_id=91067
My pool bouts began with mixed results and I was starting to feel bad about it. First I lost to Benjamin Korn, 5-2. Then I beat William Walker 5-4, which was pretty close. Then I lost 5-0 to Eli Delgado. Then I had to fence Maria Copelan, who had been tearing our pool up, beating people who were beating me. She was obviously very good, very fast, with great toe touches and fleches. So, trying to set realistic goals, I told myself I would be happy if I scored one point against her. As it turned out I did quite well, getting to 4-2 and winning with a double, 5-3. I'm not sure how I managed it, other than keeping good distance and waiting for her fleches and toe touch attempts. At one point, perhaps after she tried a toe touch, I ended up chasing her down the strip almost to the end, all the while thinking "stop chasing!", and yet I managed to score at the end of it. Afterwards she said I did well and did things she couldn't deal with, like that chasing. I said how I didn't expect to win and had been hoping to merely score a single point. She something very nice about how I had won fair and square, or words to that effect.
After that, I was pleased with the night. It didn't really matter what else happened, I was happy. And I went on to win all my remaining pool bouts. I almost felt bad beating Jim Henderson 5-1. He is good, and I didn't think I would do that well. Maybe he was having an off night.
So for the DE round I seeded 12th out of 33. Much better than I have done before at events like this. With 33 fencers almost everyone got a bye in the first round. My first bout was against John Comes, who had seeded 21 and also got a bye. I'd fenced him before and done well. I didn't expect to win, but thought it was a real possibility. I remembered his fencing from before as being somewhat "large" and "telegraphed". This time, however, he was much better than before, and strong. Maybe he's been practicing! :) Anyway, it was close, but he won 10-8. He went on to fence Erich Cranor (seed 5) in the next round, and lost 10-6. I can't imagine I would have done much better.
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| John Varney, left, William Walker, right. |
Also interesting to watch was Mikol Ryon losing to Maria Copeland 7-10. Mikol, someone I could not normally hope to beat, was beaten by the person I beat in the pools! Maria, who had seeded 10th (compared to my 12th!) then fenced Sean Ameli, seed 2. I was rooted for her, but she lost 8-10. It was rather close. Sean went on to beat Erich in the final bout, 9-10.
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| Maria Copeland going for a toe touch against Mikol Ryon. He withdrew his foot and she missed, but he didn't manage to score afterward. |
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| Mikol Ryon scoring on Maria Copeland, with a lovely under the parry thrust. |
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| The vet foil event was going on at the same time as the vet epee. This is the best picture I managed to get of the foil fencing. |
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| From the senior epee event on Saturday, Andrew Lee making a touch. |
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| Also from the Saturday senior epee, a funny moment. |
February 2013 things to work on
Rather simple:
- Smaller blade movements; less wild, more precise.
- Back to footwork basics; left foot more planted, working on combining that with bouncing; try to reduce how often I overreach and end up off balance, sometimes hopping on my right foot.
Wednesday, January 23, 2013
Battle in Seattle this weekend
Battle in Seattle mixed vets epee coming up. Preregistered, 9 As, including Mikol Ryon and John Varney; 4 Bs, Rus; 6 Cs, Serge Timacheff, Tobias Lee; 3 Ds, Mark Blom; 6 Es, Jim Henderson, Carlo Malaguzzi, John Comes, etc; and 5 Us, including little old me. Hmm. ...and of course I broke one of my epees this week, sigh.
Friday, January 11, 2013
Two tournaments and a lull
I've been meaning to write about a D and under tournament in December but while not getting to it I've gone to an E and under tournament. So now there are two I want to report on. Neither went as well as I had hoped. After the U tournament before these two, where I came in second to Craig Haworth, I went into the D and under one almost expecting to rank in the top five and earn an E rating. Turned out I came in 15th out of 21. Humbled, I went into the E and under tournament with less expectation but still with the goal of earning an E, by ranking in the top 5 or so. Well, I was 16th out of 23. At least in both cases I won my first DE, which is kind of my personal "base" goal. In both cases I did poorly in the pools, resulting in the first DE being against another low seed fencer, followed by a bout with one of the top seeds.
Here's the Ask Fred result links:
RCFC Thursday Night D & Under Epee #1
12/20/2012, Rain City Fencing Center: Bellevue, WA
http://askfred.net/Results/results.php?tournament_id=19698
MTFC "E" and Under Mixed Epee
01/05/2013; Metro Tacoma Fencing Club: Tacoma, WA
http://askfred.net/Results/results.php?tournament_id=20061
At the D and under I felt a little shy and alone. Donald Lake, from Tacoma, was there, and we chatted a little, but I failed to ask if he wanted to warm up, being shy, and as a result didn't do any warm up fencing at all. Ursula Lawson, from SAS, was there too, but we didn't manage to chat much until it was over for me.
In addition to not doing any warm up fencing I had trouble getting in the right mindset. Instead of energy and focus I couldn't shake a kind of awkward low-level anxiety and self-consciousness. There were a bunch of "kids"—teens and twenty-somethings—from the Rain City club—who I thought I was prepared for but had an energy that tended to overwhelm my distracted unfocusedness. My first pool bout was against one of them, Matthew Comes and I quickly lost 2-5. Turns out Matthew is much better than his father, John Comes, who I had fenced before. I lost to a couple other "kids", Benjamin Nield (1-5) and Heino Hulsey-Vincent (3-5), fenced two bouts to 4-4, losing one to Jim Henderson and winning one against Mark Blom, and winning one 5-1 against Arthur Wall. So in my pool I came in 6th out of 7, with an indicator of -5. My seed was 15 out of 21. Not horrible, but not nearly as good as I was expecting.
With 21 fencers we had 11 byes—over half the fencers. My first DE was against the one guy I had done well against in the pools, Arthur Wall—another Rain City "kid". He had seeded 18. He was more challenging in the DE. We racked up a lot of double touches, the score being very close all the way to 14-14. After some back and forth I attacked with a fleche and hit, but his counterattack hit too, I thought, and I looked up at the lights expecting a double touch but only my light was on. I won, 15-14! Woosh, that was close. Afterwards I heard one of his friends say "that looked pretty epic".
Due to my fairly low seed of 15 my second DE was against the 2nd seed fencer, Zach Shaw—yet another Rain City "kid". At first I did alright, and even pulled ahead by a couple points, I think. But he soon figured me out and I failed to figure him out. I lost 8-15.
I stuck around and watched the rest of the tournament. Donald Lake, who had seeded 16, won his first DE, against Stephanie English, and lost his second, against the 1st seed Scott Phillips. Don's placement on the DE tree was the same as mine except near the "top" of the tree and the 1st seed, rather than near the "bottom" and the 2nd seed. Ursula did better than either of us. She had seeded 13, not quite high enough for a bye. She won her first DE was against Henry Seurer, 15-13, and her second against Dan Berke, 15-13. I watched her third DE, against Benjamin Nield, who had been in my pool and seeded 5th. It was a close bout. She fell behind by a few points but caught up with some nice hits to the wrist and took the lead with a lovely fleche. I tried to offer advise during the breaks but had little to say except that her hits to the wrist were good. She managed a few more hits but Benjamin did better and won 15-11. Ursula came in 8th overall (whereas I came in 15th and Don 16th).
After that I watched the final bouts. The 2nd seed, Zach Shaw, who had beat me, was out, having lost to Carlo Malaguzzi. Carlo lost to the 3rd seed, Russell Key. The 4th seed, Dan Berke, was also out, having lost to Ursula. So 1st seed Scott Phillips (who had beaten Don Lake) fenced 5th seed Benjamin Nield (who had beaten Ursula). That bout was exciting and fun to watch. Scott seemed to be the stronger fencer, but Benjamin held on, keeping the score tied or nearly so. At a score of around 11 or 12 the ref called "non-combativity", after both fencers spent a minute trying to get the other to attack, with no blade contact at all. Suddenly the game changed. The clock was set to one minute and a coin flip gave priority to Scott Phillips. If I recall right, Benjamin was down a point, 10-11, I think, so he had to score twice to win, while Scott merely had to run out the minute with a tie or better. Benjamin tried all he could to get Scott to attack but eventually he had to attack. With the clock down to less than 20 seconds he managed to tie it up and even pull ahead, if I remember right. But Scott tied it up again with only about 8 seconds left. Then there was a series of rapid attacks as the seconds ran out. In one case, at 4 seconds I think, the action started and stopped without the clock losing a second at all. Finally Benjamin had no choice but to attack as fast as he could. The scored got to 14-13 with 2 or 3 seconds left and Benjamin down a point. Due to the "sudden death" priority, Scott would win if it was a tie, so Benjamin had to attack. Scott went for the fairly simple double touch, winning 15-14.
It was an exciting bout to watch, and sometimes funny, as Benjamin did a lot of "unorthodox" things, apparently trying to draw attacks or at least confuse. He would couch way down, or kind of wave his arms around, or did odd steps and prances. Someone watching said he was from the "Varney school", meaning John Varney's son, who I've enjoyed fencing at SAS. One of Benjamin's "tricks" I found interesting, and had noted during the pools without realizing it was a trick, was to step back and seemingly relax, seeming to let his guard down, as if he thought the action stopped or the time was up or otherwise "no longer fencing". He did this to me a couple times in the pools and I had thought about attacking, but for one reason or another hadn't. Watching him in this DE bout it was obviously a trick with the aim of getting the other person to attack. I thought that was an interesting "meta" tactic and said to Jane Vincent, who was also watching, that I might try it myself sometime. She pointed out that Scott hadn't fallen for it. Still, it makes me wonder what other kind of "meta" tactics one might devise.
The final bout, between Scott Phillips and Russell Key, was more normal. As I didn't know either fencer I wasn't particularly interested and half watched as I packed up to go. Scott won, 15-12.
It was a D1 event, meaning the winner would earn a D rating and 4 others an E. Scott already had a D and everyone in the top 10 except Russell Key had an E or a D. So only one rating was awarded—an E2012 for Russell. Benjamin and Zach were D fencers already, so got no rating change. Carlo Malaguzzi was an E2012, and since this was the last couple of weeks of 2012 he got no change either.
The second tournament was Metro Tacoma Fencing Club's E and under event. I felt a little more comfortable at this one, knowing a few more people a little better. Jeramy Gee was there, as was Ursula and Amber Race, from SAS. Donald Lake as well, and John Comes, Matthew Comes, Carlo Malaguzzi, Andrew Lee, and my nemesis from the last U tournament, Craig Haworth. And I always enjoy the Tacoma club and its friendly people like Aaron Page and Tobias Lee.
Despite feeling more comfortable, actually warming up with Jeramy, and having to face only E and U fencers, I did even worse in the pools than in the previous tournament, losing all but one bout, and barely winning that one, 5-4. I started out losing 1-5 to Robert Tiosejo, then to Audun Holland-Goon, 5-3. I thought I would do better against Natalie Southard, but barely won, 5-4. Craig Haworth was in my pool and I was ready for his circle six moves, but still lost, 5-4. Finally I fenced Tre-mar Baptiste, who I have beaten handily in the past and thought I would again, but he was on and trounced me, 5-1. I came in 5th out of 6 in my pool, with an indicator of -10. My seed was 20 out of 23. Not good! The top seeds were Andrew Lee (1), James Gillaspy (2), Matthew Comes (3), and Craig Haworth (4). Jeramy seeded 7, Ursula 11, and Donald Lake 13.
My first DE was against Donald Lake! This was the second or maybe third time we've fenced a DE bout (the first time he said before we began, in a friendly way, "would you like to surrender now?" And after I won, "I told you you should have surrendered!"). This time we were fairly even, but I managed to maintain a bit of a lead and won 15-13. This put me up against Craig Haworth in my second DE. Ah, Craig! Two tournaments before, at the SAS U event, Craig beat me in the final bout, earning his E. I had left that event thinking about his habit of doing circle six type parries. Later, fencing Jennifer at SAS I got a chance to try some tactics against it because she had a similar circle six style. By the time of this tournament I knew that I could evade the circle six by circling counter-clockwise (I still had to remind myself in my head, "counter-clockwise"!). Some of the tactics I had worked out with Jennifer worked with Craig too, it turned out. Like making quick advance-lunges or fleches with a counter-clockwise "screw" motion. Also attacking with that same counter-clockwise motion, drawing the circle six parry, then, with distance closed a bit, reversing direction and catching the blade with my own six parry and either attacking straight in or doing a simple disengage attack. Having fenced Craig in the pools to 4-4, I knew these kind of things could work. So I went into the DE bout with some ideas ready to go.
In the pools I had scored a point with an immediate fleche and that counter-clockwise evasive motion. In the DE I scored that way three times—twice "immediately" after the ref called "fence!" and once after some preparatory bladework. And I scored in a number of other ways. But Craig scored too, often with counterattacks. I think we scored more double touches than single. The score went up rapidly, often tied and never more than two points apart. I was down a point as we got near the end of the first period. I knew it was foolish to press attacks just because the period was running out, but I didn't want to go into the second period down a point or two. I tried to at least tie it up, but Craig managed double touches. It was over before the first period had even ended, 15-13. Damn!
I stayed to watch the rest. I didn't get to see Ursula fence. She also won her first DE, against Natalie Southard, 15-7, and lost her second, to Audun Holland-Goon, 13-15. Jeramy, seeding 7, got a bye. His first DE was against John Comes, which he handily won 15-9. His second was against James Gillaspy, the somewhat mysterious 2nd seed. Mysterious because most people didn't know him, he had come up from Oregon. His style was, as Jeramy put it, kind of like Don Penner with more footwork. That is, he tended to defend and counterattack. However, he could not make this work against Jeramy's height (something like 6 foot, two or three inches), long arm and pommeled french grip. Jeramy won 15-8. That put him in the final four, up against Matthew Comes (who seeded 3rd).
Matthew is young and fast, and had good point control. He is excellent at hitting the foot, and managed it against Jeramy several times. I noted the way he tended to do it: He would advance and initiate some bladework higher up, just enough to draw parries but not counterattacks, then suddenly drop the blade to the foot. He usually timed it so the other fencer's blade was raised in a way that make counterattacks harder. The danger of toe attacks is you expose yourself to being hit higher up, especially if the other person manages to withdraw their foot and fleche. Jeramy was ready to do just that, but didn't manage to actually do it once. The best he did was to not get hit on the foot and counterattack too late to hit.
Jeramy is quite a bit taller than Matthew and had the obvious advantage in terms of distance. Matthew is good at infighting and skilled with some of those weird over-the-head and behind-the-back moves. Everyone watching and both fencers clearly knew that Matthew's main hope was to get into infighting situations, negating Jeramy's distance advantage. Jeramy did a good job of keeping his distance though, and Matthew only managed to score with infighting a few times. Often Jeramy would manage to get a long distance counterattack in and score first or at least make it a double touch. It was a very close bout. Jeramy was up or at least tied quite a bit, and Matthew was getting frustrated. But he managed several toe touches near the end and the score ended up 14-13, Matthew. At that point he could afford a simple double touch and took it, winning 15-14. So close! Jeramy got 3rd place as a result.
Matthew Comes went on to fence Craig Haworth in the final bout. Craig, who had barely beaten me, and gone on to beat Carlo Malaguzzi (4th seed), 15-10, then Andrew Lee (1st seed), 15-7. Watching him I saw how he tended a bit to the defensive, rather calmly waiting for attacks then using his strong circle six parry and riposte. He defeated Andrew with what seemed like ease. I found that bout amusing because both Craig and Andrew had earned their E ratings by beating me in the final bout of two different U tournaments.
So the final bout, for a D rating, was between Craig and Matthew Comes. All the U fencers had fallen out before the final 4, with Audun Holland-Goon having done best, coming in 7th place, and Tre-mar Baptiste doing good too, coming in 9th. So whoever came in first would earn a D rating, and the next three fencers would update their Es to 2013 (all three turned out to be E2012s). Anyway, in this final bout I thought Matthew Comes was more likely to win, perhaps because I had done fairly well against Craig myself. It was fairly close, but Craig's strong parry-ripostes, and his ability to avoid most of Matthew's toe touch attempts, won in the end, 15-13. So Craig, my friendly nemesis, earned his D. Now I am all the more eager to face him again and beat him!
Okay, so that's my report. I tried taking some pictures at the second event, but they mostly came out blurry, as you can see. One of these days I think I will bring the nice Nikon camera to a fencing event and see if I can get better shots, perhaps using a very high ISO setting. I discovered in the issue of "American Fencing" that just came in the mail that Serge Timacheff is a professional fencing and sports photographer. Apparently he runs http://fencingphotos.com, and is an "official FIE Photographer"! If I get the chance I'll have to chat with him about this.
Finally, the "lull" mentioned in the title of this post: Due to the end of December holidays and Tara going to Minnesota for work twice in January, I am not fencing nearly as much as I have gotten used to. After the D and under tournament there was no fencing for over two weeks, followed by a single evening of open epee and then the E and under tournament. I haven't fenced since then and will be getting another "week off" later this month. Sigh...
Blurry pictures posted to Flickr, starting here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/pfly/8372664654
Here's the Ask Fred result links:
RCFC Thursday Night D & Under Epee #1
12/20/2012, Rain City Fencing Center: Bellevue, WA
http://askfred.net/Results/results.php?tournament_id=19698
MTFC "E" and Under Mixed Epee
01/05/2013; Metro Tacoma Fencing Club: Tacoma, WA
http://askfred.net/Results/results.php?tournament_id=20061
At the D and under I felt a little shy and alone. Donald Lake, from Tacoma, was there, and we chatted a little, but I failed to ask if he wanted to warm up, being shy, and as a result didn't do any warm up fencing at all. Ursula Lawson, from SAS, was there too, but we didn't manage to chat much until it was over for me.
In addition to not doing any warm up fencing I had trouble getting in the right mindset. Instead of energy and focus I couldn't shake a kind of awkward low-level anxiety and self-consciousness. There were a bunch of "kids"—teens and twenty-somethings—from the Rain City club—who I thought I was prepared for but had an energy that tended to overwhelm my distracted unfocusedness. My first pool bout was against one of them, Matthew Comes and I quickly lost 2-5. Turns out Matthew is much better than his father, John Comes, who I had fenced before. I lost to a couple other "kids", Benjamin Nield (1-5) and Heino Hulsey-Vincent (3-5), fenced two bouts to 4-4, losing one to Jim Henderson and winning one against Mark Blom, and winning one 5-1 against Arthur Wall. So in my pool I came in 6th out of 7, with an indicator of -5. My seed was 15 out of 21. Not horrible, but not nearly as good as I was expecting.
With 21 fencers we had 11 byes—over half the fencers. My first DE was against the one guy I had done well against in the pools, Arthur Wall—another Rain City "kid". He had seeded 18. He was more challenging in the DE. We racked up a lot of double touches, the score being very close all the way to 14-14. After some back and forth I attacked with a fleche and hit, but his counterattack hit too, I thought, and I looked up at the lights expecting a double touch but only my light was on. I won, 15-14! Woosh, that was close. Afterwards I heard one of his friends say "that looked pretty epic".
Due to my fairly low seed of 15 my second DE was against the 2nd seed fencer, Zach Shaw—yet another Rain City "kid". At first I did alright, and even pulled ahead by a couple points, I think. But he soon figured me out and I failed to figure him out. I lost 8-15.
I stuck around and watched the rest of the tournament. Donald Lake, who had seeded 16, won his first DE, against Stephanie English, and lost his second, against the 1st seed Scott Phillips. Don's placement on the DE tree was the same as mine except near the "top" of the tree and the 1st seed, rather than near the "bottom" and the 2nd seed. Ursula did better than either of us. She had seeded 13, not quite high enough for a bye. She won her first DE was against Henry Seurer, 15-13, and her second against Dan Berke, 15-13. I watched her third DE, against Benjamin Nield, who had been in my pool and seeded 5th. It was a close bout. She fell behind by a few points but caught up with some nice hits to the wrist and took the lead with a lovely fleche. I tried to offer advise during the breaks but had little to say except that her hits to the wrist were good. She managed a few more hits but Benjamin did better and won 15-11. Ursula came in 8th overall (whereas I came in 15th and Don 16th).
After that I watched the final bouts. The 2nd seed, Zach Shaw, who had beat me, was out, having lost to Carlo Malaguzzi. Carlo lost to the 3rd seed, Russell Key. The 4th seed, Dan Berke, was also out, having lost to Ursula. So 1st seed Scott Phillips (who had beaten Don Lake) fenced 5th seed Benjamin Nield (who had beaten Ursula). That bout was exciting and fun to watch. Scott seemed to be the stronger fencer, but Benjamin held on, keeping the score tied or nearly so. At a score of around 11 or 12 the ref called "non-combativity", after both fencers spent a minute trying to get the other to attack, with no blade contact at all. Suddenly the game changed. The clock was set to one minute and a coin flip gave priority to Scott Phillips. If I recall right, Benjamin was down a point, 10-11, I think, so he had to score twice to win, while Scott merely had to run out the minute with a tie or better. Benjamin tried all he could to get Scott to attack but eventually he had to attack. With the clock down to less than 20 seconds he managed to tie it up and even pull ahead, if I remember right. But Scott tied it up again with only about 8 seconds left. Then there was a series of rapid attacks as the seconds ran out. In one case, at 4 seconds I think, the action started and stopped without the clock losing a second at all. Finally Benjamin had no choice but to attack as fast as he could. The scored got to 14-13 with 2 or 3 seconds left and Benjamin down a point. Due to the "sudden death" priority, Scott would win if it was a tie, so Benjamin had to attack. Scott went for the fairly simple double touch, winning 15-14.
It was an exciting bout to watch, and sometimes funny, as Benjamin did a lot of "unorthodox" things, apparently trying to draw attacks or at least confuse. He would couch way down, or kind of wave his arms around, or did odd steps and prances. Someone watching said he was from the "Varney school", meaning John Varney's son, who I've enjoyed fencing at SAS. One of Benjamin's "tricks" I found interesting, and had noted during the pools without realizing it was a trick, was to step back and seemingly relax, seeming to let his guard down, as if he thought the action stopped or the time was up or otherwise "no longer fencing". He did this to me a couple times in the pools and I had thought about attacking, but for one reason or another hadn't. Watching him in this DE bout it was obviously a trick with the aim of getting the other person to attack. I thought that was an interesting "meta" tactic and said to Jane Vincent, who was also watching, that I might try it myself sometime. She pointed out that Scott hadn't fallen for it. Still, it makes me wonder what other kind of "meta" tactics one might devise.
The final bout, between Scott Phillips and Russell Key, was more normal. As I didn't know either fencer I wasn't particularly interested and half watched as I packed up to go. Scott won, 15-12.
It was a D1 event, meaning the winner would earn a D rating and 4 others an E. Scott already had a D and everyone in the top 10 except Russell Key had an E or a D. So only one rating was awarded—an E2012 for Russell. Benjamin and Zach were D fencers already, so got no rating change. Carlo Malaguzzi was an E2012, and since this was the last couple of weeks of 2012 he got no change either.
The second tournament was Metro Tacoma Fencing Club's E and under event. I felt a little more comfortable at this one, knowing a few more people a little better. Jeramy Gee was there, as was Ursula and Amber Race, from SAS. Donald Lake as well, and John Comes, Matthew Comes, Carlo Malaguzzi, Andrew Lee, and my nemesis from the last U tournament, Craig Haworth. And I always enjoy the Tacoma club and its friendly people like Aaron Page and Tobias Lee.
Despite feeling more comfortable, actually warming up with Jeramy, and having to face only E and U fencers, I did even worse in the pools than in the previous tournament, losing all but one bout, and barely winning that one, 5-4. I started out losing 1-5 to Robert Tiosejo, then to Audun Holland-Goon, 5-3. I thought I would do better against Natalie Southard, but barely won, 5-4. Craig Haworth was in my pool and I was ready for his circle six moves, but still lost, 5-4. Finally I fenced Tre-mar Baptiste, who I have beaten handily in the past and thought I would again, but he was on and trounced me, 5-1. I came in 5th out of 6 in my pool, with an indicator of -10. My seed was 20 out of 23. Not good! The top seeds were Andrew Lee (1), James Gillaspy (2), Matthew Comes (3), and Craig Haworth (4). Jeramy seeded 7, Ursula 11, and Donald Lake 13.
My first DE was against Donald Lake! This was the second or maybe third time we've fenced a DE bout (the first time he said before we began, in a friendly way, "would you like to surrender now?" And after I won, "I told you you should have surrendered!"). This time we were fairly even, but I managed to maintain a bit of a lead and won 15-13. This put me up against Craig Haworth in my second DE. Ah, Craig! Two tournaments before, at the SAS U event, Craig beat me in the final bout, earning his E. I had left that event thinking about his habit of doing circle six type parries. Later, fencing Jennifer at SAS I got a chance to try some tactics against it because she had a similar circle six style. By the time of this tournament I knew that I could evade the circle six by circling counter-clockwise (I still had to remind myself in my head, "counter-clockwise"!). Some of the tactics I had worked out with Jennifer worked with Craig too, it turned out. Like making quick advance-lunges or fleches with a counter-clockwise "screw" motion. Also attacking with that same counter-clockwise motion, drawing the circle six parry, then, with distance closed a bit, reversing direction and catching the blade with my own six parry and either attacking straight in or doing a simple disengage attack. Having fenced Craig in the pools to 4-4, I knew these kind of things could work. So I went into the DE bout with some ideas ready to go.
In the pools I had scored a point with an immediate fleche and that counter-clockwise evasive motion. In the DE I scored that way three times—twice "immediately" after the ref called "fence!" and once after some preparatory bladework. And I scored in a number of other ways. But Craig scored too, often with counterattacks. I think we scored more double touches than single. The score went up rapidly, often tied and never more than two points apart. I was down a point as we got near the end of the first period. I knew it was foolish to press attacks just because the period was running out, but I didn't want to go into the second period down a point or two. I tried to at least tie it up, but Craig managed double touches. It was over before the first period had even ended, 15-13. Damn!
I stayed to watch the rest. I didn't get to see Ursula fence. She also won her first DE, against Natalie Southard, 15-7, and lost her second, to Audun Holland-Goon, 13-15. Jeramy, seeding 7, got a bye. His first DE was against John Comes, which he handily won 15-9. His second was against James Gillaspy, the somewhat mysterious 2nd seed. Mysterious because most people didn't know him, he had come up from Oregon. His style was, as Jeramy put it, kind of like Don Penner with more footwork. That is, he tended to defend and counterattack. However, he could not make this work against Jeramy's height (something like 6 foot, two or three inches), long arm and pommeled french grip. Jeramy won 15-8. That put him in the final four, up against Matthew Comes (who seeded 3rd).
Matthew is young and fast, and had good point control. He is excellent at hitting the foot, and managed it against Jeramy several times. I noted the way he tended to do it: He would advance and initiate some bladework higher up, just enough to draw parries but not counterattacks, then suddenly drop the blade to the foot. He usually timed it so the other fencer's blade was raised in a way that make counterattacks harder. The danger of toe attacks is you expose yourself to being hit higher up, especially if the other person manages to withdraw their foot and fleche. Jeramy was ready to do just that, but didn't manage to actually do it once. The best he did was to not get hit on the foot and counterattack too late to hit.
Jeramy is quite a bit taller than Matthew and had the obvious advantage in terms of distance. Matthew is good at infighting and skilled with some of those weird over-the-head and behind-the-back moves. Everyone watching and both fencers clearly knew that Matthew's main hope was to get into infighting situations, negating Jeramy's distance advantage. Jeramy did a good job of keeping his distance though, and Matthew only managed to score with infighting a few times. Often Jeramy would manage to get a long distance counterattack in and score first or at least make it a double touch. It was a very close bout. Jeramy was up or at least tied quite a bit, and Matthew was getting frustrated. But he managed several toe touches near the end and the score ended up 14-13, Matthew. At that point he could afford a simple double touch and took it, winning 15-14. So close! Jeramy got 3rd place as a result.
Matthew Comes went on to fence Craig Haworth in the final bout. Craig, who had barely beaten me, and gone on to beat Carlo Malaguzzi (4th seed), 15-10, then Andrew Lee (1st seed), 15-7. Watching him I saw how he tended a bit to the defensive, rather calmly waiting for attacks then using his strong circle six parry and riposte. He defeated Andrew with what seemed like ease. I found that bout amusing because both Craig and Andrew had earned their E ratings by beating me in the final bout of two different U tournaments.
So the final bout, for a D rating, was between Craig and Matthew Comes. All the U fencers had fallen out before the final 4, with Audun Holland-Goon having done best, coming in 7th place, and Tre-mar Baptiste doing good too, coming in 9th. So whoever came in first would earn a D rating, and the next three fencers would update their Es to 2013 (all three turned out to be E2012s). Anyway, in this final bout I thought Matthew Comes was more likely to win, perhaps because I had done fairly well against Craig myself. It was fairly close, but Craig's strong parry-ripostes, and his ability to avoid most of Matthew's toe touch attempts, won in the end, 15-13. So Craig, my friendly nemesis, earned his D. Now I am all the more eager to face him again and beat him!
Okay, so that's my report. I tried taking some pictures at the second event, but they mostly came out blurry, as you can see. One of these days I think I will bring the nice Nikon camera to a fencing event and see if I can get better shots, perhaps using a very high ISO setting. I discovered in the issue of "American Fencing" that just came in the mail that Serge Timacheff is a professional fencing and sports photographer. Apparently he runs http://fencingphotos.com, and is an "official FIE Photographer"! If I get the chance I'll have to chat with him about this.
Finally, the "lull" mentioned in the title of this post: Due to the end of December holidays and Tara going to Minnesota for work twice in January, I am not fencing nearly as much as I have gotten used to. After the D and under tournament there was no fencing for over two weeks, followed by a single evening of open epee and then the E and under tournament. I haven't fenced since then and will be getting another "week off" later this month. Sigh...
Blurry pictures posted to Flickr, starting here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/pfly/8372664654
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| Pools, Metro Tacoma Fencing Club |
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