Final results, WWD Div II/III/Y14 Divisional Qualifier

Kinda eh,
http://askfred.net/Results/roundResults.php?seq=1&event_id=79729&highlight_competitor_id=91067

The two sets of pools was very nice. I got to fence nine people, mostly people I had not fenced before, or only had once or twice. But the two pool format meant, in this case, that of the 32 fencers total the bottom 8 after the pools would not go on to the direct elimination round. And I came in 25th. One spot too low, aaargh. And, in the first pool my epee starting not registering hits, it seemed, and like a fool I didn't ask for a test and change of epee but kept on fencing. After that pool I went and checked it myself and sure enough, the contact spring in the tip was mangled and not working right. Thus my foolishness in continuing to use an obviously bad epee cost me at least 4 points, probably more, and probably at least one win, and, doubtlessly, promotion to the direct elimination round. Then again, had I done better in the first pool round I might have ended up in a different second pool and who knows what it would have turned out.

Well, I guess I learned something—if your weapon seems to not be perfect, ask the ref to check. There's no reason why you shouldn't and every reason to do so. Argh.

On the bright side, after my usual slow and unfocused pool start I got into the groove, especially by the second pool round, which I quite enjoyed.

In the first pool round I fenced Adam Chase (lost 2-5, unfocused brain), then Scott Phillips (lost 3-5, but didn't expect to beat him), then John Comes (won 5-3, to my surprise, and despite a hit or two that didn't register), then Heino Hulsey-Vincent (lost 3-5, but had at least two or three, or four hits that didn't register). For that pool I ended with an indicator of -5, and 4th place. Had I changed weapons like I should have, it probably would have been more like an indicator of about 0 or even +1, and 3rd place.

In the second pool round I fenced Andrew Lee (won 5-4, close!), Tobias Lee (lost 4-5, also close!), Jim Henderson (lost 3-5), Gregory Hopper (won 5-4, close!), and Dan Burke (lost 5-1 in just 28 seconds). Results for me, an indicator of -5 and 5th place. Not great, but taking Tobias to 5-4 and almost getting that last point was fun and the best moment of the tournament. Winning against Andrew Lee was nice too, as he's beaten me before (he earned his E beating me). Losing to Dan Burke didn't feel bad since he's very good and I didn't think I would win anyway—and it was funny how fast it went...at least I scored one point! I felt bad beating Gregory 5-4. He hadn't won a single pool bout and ours was his last, and we got to 4-4. He was frustrated after I scored the final point. I felt bad, but what can you do? We talked after, he seems like a nice guy.

Anyway, so that was it for me. I was a little surprised I didn't get at least 24th place. I thought 3 wins and a good number of 4-5 loses would carry me through. Alas. On the other hand, if I had come in 24th instead, and Nathan Cox, who was 24th, came in 25th instead, my first DE bout would have been against Scott Phillips. So it would have been over soon enough anyway.

I stayed and watched the rest. There were was exciting bouts. Dmitriy was doing well against Scott Phillips, but couldn't sustain it in the end and lost 10-15. "Doc" Jim fenced Andrew Lee with close scores, but couldn't pull ahead before time ran out, losing 10-13. Charlie and Dan Berke went to 11-14, I think, then Charlie scores a series of hits, getting to 14-14, only to lose the final touch. George was doing good against Johannes Klein, but in the third period Johannes seemed to have figured something out and came back to tie 12-12 as time ran out. Sudden death priority went to George, but Johannes managed a single light hit and won, 13-12.

Charlie and Jim Henderson

George and Johannes Klein

Tobias fenced Scott Phillips to a very close 15-14 win (I didn't see much of that bout). Matthew Comes and Dan Berke fenced on the raised strip, battling hard, with Dan winning 15-11. Jeramy fenced Johannes, after Johannes had won against George. By this point Johannes was clearly tired and Jeramy took an early lead that got quite big. As Johannes did when he fenced George, during the third period he seemed to figure something out and scored a lot of hits, but couldn't recover the early losses. Jeramy won 15-10.

Then the final four—Tobias took out Dan Berke handily, 15-8. This was interesting to see given how hard Dan Berke had been for me in the pools, and for other people, like Charlie. And also made me feel even better about having almost beaten Tobias in the pools. Then Jeramy fenced Aaron Page. The winner would go on to fence Tobias for first place. I thought Jeramy had the advantage, but Aaron found stamina and insight somewhere, fencing with amazing speed and power. Over and over he managed to push Jeramy's blade aside and very quickly close distance to infighting conditions, or nearly so, where Jeramy's long reach did no good. Aaron won 15-12. Watching it was like a lesson in "how to fence a tall person".

So the final bout was between Tobias and Aaron, both of the Tacoma club and friends. They fenced hard, and laughed and joked while they did. Aaron but up a good fight, but Tobias won 15-12. Then I felt even yet better about having done well against him in the pools. Still, 25th place, argh!

Equipment ready for tourny

Yesterday I rewired two epees at home, but lacking the equipment for doing the final tweaks to the tips and springs I couldn't quite get them tournament ready. So today I went into the club to finish up. Happily, both epees seem to work, somewhat to my surprise—I've only rewired one epee before and was not confident I had done it quite right. I adjusted the tips, which was simple once I realized that lengthening the contact spring was the opposite of what you need to do when the light goes off with the shim in. I seem to be ready, equipment-wise, for tomorrow.

But am I ready physically? Mentally? Well, physically, sure—so far I've never found tournaments more tiring than regular open fencing practice; perhaps because I tend to get eliminated early, but then again, I wasn't particularly tired at the end of the SAS U tournament in which I fenced four or five (or six?) direct elimination bouts. Mentally though... After fixing my epees today I watched a bit of today's tournament—women's epee, men's foil, some saber—and noted how different the mood is from open fencing practice. I've only seen one other major tournament at my club (the Leon Open), and I've only been to other clubs for tournaments. So seeing a big tournament at my club was quite the contrast with the regular mood there. Everyone was focused and trying their best, and everything was more formal, with refs calling out scores and directions, some of them doing it in French. The tables with the equipment testing gear, paperwork, the coaches advising and encouraging, and so on.

After being in a number of tournament this last year—how many? over ten for sure—I still find I have some trouble finding mental focus in the midst of all the tournament stuff. It will help, I think, that this one is at my own club, where I feel at home, and that there will be a bunch of people I know pretty well—both fencing in the tournament and helping run it. Still, how to achieve the proper focus in the middle of all the tournament formality, equipment tests, bout schedules, etc? A while ago I mentioned to Mikol how I had not yet been very tired after a tournament—joking about how I'm usually eliminated early—and he responded "then you're not working hard enough in the pool bouts". Hmm, he's right. Part of that is because during the pools I find it tricky to get focused, or get focused just at the end of each pool bout, as they are only to five points. I often end up starting pool bouts not being sure what to do. Hmmm......

Cracked blade, brand new out of the box!

There's a tournament at SAS this Sunday I probably can attend. So of course I broke a blade last Sunday. It was the one that always wanted to bend the wrong way, so I was constantly straightening it. Last Sunday, before I even started fencing, I gave it a little straightening bend and snap, about two inches of blade broke off in my hand. Drat. Luckily, I had ordered two new blades and wires a few days earlier, in part because it is always smart to have extras on hand and in part because another epee seemed close to failing (although I think it's just a failed wire, so I should be able to rewire the blade).

Anyway, the two new blades arrived the other day, from Blue Gauntlet. I opened the tube box today, ready to start wiring, and what do you know, one of the blades has a nasty crack in the steel. Nice work, Blue Gauntlet! I just sent them an email with these photos. Generally, blades are not refundable or exchangeable, for obvious reasons, but when they come cracked out of the box, I assume an exception is made. An exception better be made!

At least the second blade looks fine, so I should be able to get two epees working by Sunday for the tournament. I'll probably need to futz with the tip before the tournament in the club armory, since I don't have shims or weighs or proper testing equipment. But that should, in theory, be a quick adjustment. The club might be rather chaotic before the tournament though. Hopefully I'll be able to access the armory.

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.

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.

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).

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.

John Varney, left, William Walker, right.

Other interesting things from the event: John Varney did well. He got the 1st seed and ended up getting 3rd place, losing to Erich Cranor in the final 4, in an extremely close bout that ended 10-9. At one point there was a question about whether John had scored a touch or hit the floor, and John said he hit the floor. Watching, I wasn't so sure, but he probably knows better than me. Still, a nice guy--saying he hit the floor might have cost him the bout in the end.

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.

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.

Mikol Ryon scoring on Maria Copeland, with a lovely under the parry thrust.

So, in the end I came in 17th out of 33, which is pretty good for me in an event like this. Due to my having done well in the pools I ended up ranked the highest out of everyone who lost their first DE--17th, because the top 16 people by definition won their first DE. John Comes, who I lost to, came in 16th--the lowest of everyone who won their first DE, because his seed was fairly low. Rus got 12th, Mikol 11th. Lee Tobias seeded 13th, one below me, but did better in the DEs--getting to the final 8 before losing to Erich Cranor. Tobias came in 8th overall. Maria Copeland came in 6th.

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.

From the senior epee event on Saturday, Andrew Lee making a touch.

Also from the Saturday senior epee, a funny moment.