WWD Div II/III/Y14 Divisional Qualifier, 2015

WWD Div II/III/Y14 Divisional Qualifier, 2015

https://askfred.net/Results/results.php?tournament_id=27049&highlight_competitor_id=91067&event_id=107105#107105

I was about to start this post by saying "I did better than I feared but worse than I hoped", but before I began I looked at the post I wrote for last year's Div II/III qualifying tournament and that's exactly how I began that post. Weird. I guess that's true for a lot of tournaments I've gone to.

I was surprised, looking at last year's post, that my DE was with Kyle Margolies, just like this year. I remember that earlier DE clearly, but had forgotten what tournament it was. Ever since that loss I've been eager for a rematch. I was happy to get it this time, but lost again, and worse than last time, and for reasons fairly similar to last time. But I'll get to that later.

First, apparently I qualified for Div 3 at Nationals. First time I've managed that. I can probably even go, which is exciting. I've never been to even a NAC-level tournament—nothing higher than ROCs. I didn't understand very well how the qualification calculation works. Before the tournament I read on its info page how the "top 25% in each event will qualify", and how a person who has already qualified will not be counted in determining that 25%. An email went out listing the people who had already qualified and it seemed that there was only one for men's epee, Andrew Lee. With 25 fencers signed up and the top 25% qualifying, that seemed to mean only the top six or so would qualify. That seemed like a long shot for me, and after I lost my first DE I knew I would come in no higher than 9th, so I figured I didn't qualify.

I hadn't realized that the calculation is done separately for Div 2 and Div 3, and that people with a C rating can't fence in Div 3 and so aren't counted. Or something like that. In any case, after losing my DE I spend the rest of the tournament watching and assuming I hadn't qualified. After it was over I was looking at the results on one of the TVs and was totally surprised to see my name followed by, in the "qualified for" column, D3ME, VETME. I think I giggled like a little kid and ran around telling anyone who would listen that I had qualified, then felt a little foolish.

I'm a little concerned as I write this because I have no other confirmation of this other than seeing that results screen at RCFC. I tried to find confirmation online but can't. I figure in a few days the info will get to the regional and national USFA offices and put online somewhere. I thought AskFred would show the same info that RCFC had displayed via the FencingTime app, but AskFred doesn't show qualifications, as far as I can tell. Also, I thought the in-club results screen showed me as coming in 12th, but AskFred says 13th. And since it appeared that I only just barely qualified for Div 3 I wonder if maybe a mistake had been made yesterday and corrected before sending the results to AskFred, and I didn't actually qualify. I almost took a picture of the results screen at RCFC, but that seemed a little silly. Now I wish I had! Ah well, I'm sure I'll have a firm answer soon enough.

Anyway, on to the fencing. I really enjoyed this tournament. As always I could have done better, but there were a bunch of good moments. In the pools I beat Andrew Lee and Carlo Malaguzzi, and Shawn Dodge too. Never done that before in a tournament with any of those guys, I don't think. On the other hand I lost to Jeff Johnson despite being tied at 3-3. Lost rather badly to Mark Blom and Charlie Muñoz. Fenced Jameson Lu twice (two sets of pools), the first time losing badly, the second time doing much better, getting to 4-4, but losing the last touch.

Another thing—after having a lot of slow pool starts lately I thought I would benefit from a longer warm-up. I tried to get there an hour early but didn't have quite as much time as planned. Still, I did a fair bit of jogging and footwork warming up, which I think went a long way toward getting me ready. I got in a warm-up bout with Kyle too. After the last tournament I had decided I ought to work harder in warm up bouts, to help get myself into a better place for the first actual bout. So I worked harder with Kyle. I suspect he was taking it a bit easy because I scored quite a lot until the last few, when he seemed to take it up a notch or two.

I also brought music, which a lot of people do but I never have. Ideally I would have more appropriate/useful ear buds or headphones, and my ipod is a thousand years old and the size of a dictionary. AND I wasn't sure I had very much in the way of good music for warming up and getting amped. In the end I listened to just one track, several times—Squarepusher "Journey to Reedham". It really hit the right spot for me. A fast beat with drum-n-bass type twitchy rhythmic weirdness, edgy hard-sync'ed synths, and a simple but very happy, confidence-building theme.

FIRST POOL

Right off the bat I had to fence Shawn Dodge, since he's my clubmate. We had the first bout of the pool. I was a bit worried since my first pool bouts have been off lately and Shawn can be tough. But it seemed like he was a bit off (he got better, but seemed to have that "first pool offness" I was worried I'd have), and I felt much more on than usual. That extra warming up and music was certainly part of it.

He started off with a fleche, pretty quickly. I picked his hand from below as he came in. The day before I spent some time watching videos, especially one I took a while ago of Tristan Krueger and Cole Mallette. I liked the way Tristan kept threatening, and often hitting Cole's hand from below, with fast retreats. I had that kind of thing in my head and tried to do something similar in a number of my bouts this day. I started out with Shawn with this kind of thing in mind, so when he fleched I was quite ready to hit his hand from below. Even so, the fleche came fast and I felt a bit lucky that my hit landed. I wasn't retreating the way Tristan did in that video (I'm not sure I can, at least not with the speed and skill Tristan has, he's miles better than me), and if I had missed his hand Shawn's fleche would have landed, no doubt. Still, it felt like a nice start.

Then we manuevered a little until I tried a beat-fleche and scored. Shawn tends to hold his blade out and use fast disengages and accurate picks, but sometimes it makes beats and binds easier. Usually he recovers from beats and retreats fast enough to at least get a double if not a single. But I got this one. And then, well I'm not entirely sure how the points went, but I think I got the next one too, in a way I don't remember, making it 3-0. Then I managed to put my hand on his point, trying some attack, oops, 3-1. Then we had some weird infighting thing and doubled, I think, 4-2. And then he fleched from a little too far and I caught him in a parry and landed my riposte. So 5-2, a good start for once.

Next up I had Jameson Lu. We've fenced a number of times. I mainly remember a DE we had at SAS a while ago during which I had some insights and after which Russ gave me more ideas. This time I felt like I had a good chance and was confident. But he beat me 5-1, mostly with picks and flicks to my hand or forearm. The one point I got was a counter-beat from an absence of blade position—something Russ has been showing me lately. I hadn't planned to use beats with Jameson, but that one worked. A couple of other times I used beats, despite my plan to not, and they failed, and I got hit. At one point I tried to set up a good chance to use a bind and it worked—I bound him in 8 and it felt quite good in the moment, but then I missed, giving him the opportunity to escape the bind and hit, which he did.

Third bout was with Jeff Johnson. I don't think we had fenced much or at all for a while. I mainly remember fencing him a few times at RCFC open fencing last summer. I knew he had developed quite a lot since then and would probably be a challenge. Then again, I had watched him fence several times in recent tournaments, so I had an idea of what to expect. I thought my "Tristan-like" tactic might be viable. Jeff is a tall leftie french-grip counterattacking kind of fencer. He often holds his hand back pretty far and sometimes high, exposing his lower hand in what I assume is usually an invitation-trap kind of thing. Still, I thought I might be able to hit his hand the way Tristan was hitting Cole's. I just had to be careful about not getting too close and being quick in my retreats.

This plan worked fairly well. I got the first point in exactly this way, hitting his hand from below. I can't remember the next couple of points. I think he got up 3-2 before I got another hand hit like that, making it 3-3. Somewhere in there I remembered he might be vulnerable to hard beats, what with the french grip and all. I started throwing out very hard beats, especially that counter-beat I'd been working on. I seem to be able to counter-beat very hard, yet disguise it fairly well—although it depends a lot on how the other person is holding their blade. My beats threw his blade way out of line and once it seemed I nearly knocked the blade out of his hand altogether. I probably had a couple good chances to score, but I was hesitant. I hadn't been beating with the intention of launching a big attack. I was more just trying it out to see what might happen. Probing for ideas. If there had been a really big opening I planned to go for it. And there probably was a big opening or two, but I hesitated and felt off balance. I was a bit surprised with how well the hard beats worked. After the bout Marshall said I had been leaning way forward with way too much weight on my front foot. In hindsight I realize that my "Tristan-like" plan had played into this. I was trying to sneak in to hit the shallow target and retreat fast, and this got me leaning and reaching too much, when I ought to have kept more balanced and done it with footwork. Part of it was leaning in for the extra reach, and part was having weight on my front foot in order to push back for quick escapes. But with too much weight on my front foot I was not able to take advantage of the openings created by my hard beats. It was a good lesson in balance and footwork though.

Anyway, when the score was 3-3 I suddenly remembered Charlie's leftie flick idea, as something useful against lefties. So I tried it, but in an impatient, impulsive way, without a good setup or escape plan. Also, I haven't practiced it much. In short, it failed and Jeff scored an easy hit. Shawn pointed out after how I got impatient at 3-3. That was probably the worst time to try something risky that I haven't practiced much. It just popped into my head like "oh yea, that's a cool thing to use with lefties", and blam, I impulsively tried it.

Then, at the end, well, Jeff had been doing a lot of little beat or sweep like motions, off and on the whole bout. Even when I used absence of blade he still seemed to be trying to beat my blade, despite being out of reach. For a bit I had my blade out and let him beat it a little, trying to figure out a way to take advantage of this. He seemed to be doing it in a fairly consistent repetitive way and I felt I ought to be able to lull him into a pattern somehow, then break it. The obvious thing was to disengage one of the beats, since he seemed to be doing them in a rather predictable way. But I assumed he wanted me to do a disengage attack because the pattern seemed a little too obvious. So I started working out some kind of second intention thing, where I would offer my blade and let him set up this beat pattern, then disengage and make a feint attack, which would, in theory, draw his real attack, which would fall short because I had only feinted, or would be in a form I could parry, bind, or beat. Yes, this is what fencing is all about, deceptions within deceptions! But when I offered my blade, looking for his beat-pattern, I got a little too close and he simply lunged straight in, hitting me blam on the mask. So much for complicated plans. So he won, 5-3. Ah well, I felt like I learned a lot in that one, not just about Jeff but generally about tactics and footwork, and so on.

Next I had Andrew Lee, who usually (always?) beats me in tournaments. This year he and Toby have come up to SAS a few times for open practice fencing. I think having had some of this more relaxed open fencing, where you feel free to try things you might not in a tournament, and everything is friendly and fun, helped make me feel more relaxed facing Andrew in this tournament. Even so I did not expect to win, although I certainly was going to try my best. It turned out quite interesting. I knew that Andrew is very patient and how dangerous it is to get too close or to over commit. I also knew that I tend toward not being patient enough, being impulsive. So I started out by being as careful and patient as I could, and keeping the distance quite wide. We both manuevered into and out of distance, sometimes throwing out feints and what not. I tried some low risk shallow attacks, including a try for his foot (fell short) but nothing too big. A few times the distance collapsed a bit, especially when I got pushed toward my end of the strip. Keeping the distance wide meant I was giving him the ability to push me back. I tend to get worried when I'm near the strip end and am prone to making bad attacks. I've been working on being more comfortable near the end, in part because other fencers often get a little impulsive and/or start closing distance a little too much or a little recklessly. I hadn't actually planned to make this a tactic in this bout, yet I kept keeping the distance open and retreating a lot. A couple times, when we were starting from our on guard lines I even started with a retreat, like Krystal often does—opening the distance even wider and inviting the other person to come to you.

I'd like to say I was working on this tactic all along on purpose, but really I was mostly afraid of Andrew's fleche and trying to be patient and not do anything rash. In hindsight I think it got him thinking about attacking more than he might otherwise. At one point he fleched from just slightly too far. I couldn't score but I was able to prevent him from scoring. Another time, near my end I think, distance closed and we both made shallow-ish attacks that brought us even closer and quickly became infighting. We both tried prime-like infighting things. Mine hit while his went between my legs as I kinda did the avoidance dance.

Anyway, all this brought us to 2-3, with Andrew up a point and time perhaps about half used. Again I'd like to say I had this plan all along but really it was just something that popped into my head and I acted on. A couple days before I was editting videos from the Ray Coates tournament and had been admiring Matthew Comes's style. Sometimes he fleches right off the line and frequently scores. It seems to be one of his dependable "go to" moves. A few other people have a nice "off the line" fleche too. In editting videos I ended up watching a couple of these fleches of his in slow motion, checking out the way he comes off the line in particular. It's too far to fleche right off the line. People who are good at this take a step or two first. The obvious trick to it is doing that first step or two in a non-threatening way that hides the coming fleche. One way is with a calm walking, with a crossover perhaps. But I think this overly "calm" start might actually alert better fencers, it's too easy to see the calmness as a ruse. I'm still not sure how best to do it, but I'm thinking it ideally ought to look very much like the way you've been starting in the bout up to then.

With Andrew I had mostly been starting with a fairly big step that fell into a bit of bouncing, usually bouncing slowly backwards. At 2-3 for some reason I remembered watching Matthew Comes and thinking about his fleche off the line and decided to try it. So I started with a big step, fell into bouncing, but bounced forward rather than backward then fleched. It worked! In the moment I didn't think about the bigger picture and how my more defensive approach up til then might have set things up nicely for a surprise fleche like this. Who knows, maybe my subconscious is smarter than I am. Anyway, after that I continued being more agressive. I forget exactly how, but we doubled, making it 4-4. And then, we maneuvered a little and doubled, thrown out. Then again, we doubled in pretty much the same way. And then, I think  I used an up-beat hoping to hit his wrist from below. He counterattacked, I missed his wrist but continued to the body, and we doubled again, thrown out for the third time.

Three doubles at 4-4 can feel a little funny. What is this, saber? We both laughed a little, I think. Scott was the ref and he had been joking off and on between bouts about how our pool would be done first, but then realizing he had the one larger pool so maybe it wouldn't. Then he had joked about how he wanted to be done first. There was some back and forth joking between bouts about how we should fence faster or something. After Andrew and I doubled three times at 4-4 Scott said something, I forget exactly what, just a little joke, but to the effect of "come on!". That, plus the way we had doubled three times in more or less the same basic way, and how in epee people often break patterns after three of "the same" things—all that made me think Andrew would do something different, something maybe a little impatient. I guessed he might do a quick fleche. I was right! Not only was I thinking he would fleche but he did it from a bit too far. So I was able to counterattack and score a single to win. Whew. What a strangely tactical bout.

My last bout in the first pool was with Colin Skone. I think he is still a bit of a beginner and he hadn't been doing very well so far—except for beating Jameson Lu. I felt pretty confident and it went well. I don't remember the specific details very well. I think it was mostly about working distance and drawing attacks with feints and such. I won 5-1.

So a pretty good first pool. I was three and two, with an indicator of +2. Third place—Andrew and Jeff had both done four and one. Andrew took 1st place because his one loss was 5-4 (with me), while Jeff's was 5-1 (with Andrew).

This tournament had two sets of pools, which is a format I like. But in this case it would have been better for me without the second pool, since I didn't do nearly as well. I seeded 7th out of 21 after this first pool and 12th after the second. But, hmm, looking now, if there hadn't been a second pool I think I would have gotten Charlie for my first DE, so perhaps I was in trouble either way.

SECOND POOL

In this pool I had two bad losses, one very close loss, and one close win. It was a little weird. I knew Charlie would be tough, and he was. I thought I could beat Mark Blom, but I lost badly. I thought Carlo would be a major challenge, but I beat him, to my surprise. And I got a second chance with Jameson Lu, who had beaten me so badly in the first pool. I did much better this time, getting to 4-4, but lost the last point.

First up, Charlie Muñoz, my clubmate. He won, 5-2. He fenced better, to put it simply. One time I had a great chance to hit, but plain missed and he hit. And at the end I attacked too impulsively and he easily hit. One unusual and somewhat annoying bit: I got a lovely hit on his hand from below. I felt like I had set it up nicely and made an accurate, very nice hit. I felt quite pleased. But Scott, who was reffing (by chance he reffed both my pools and my DE), gave me a yellow card an annulled the touch, saying my back foot had gone far to my right, well off strip, before I hit. I'm sure it had—I have a bad habit of sweeping my back foot to the right anyway, and with Charlie being a leftie I was hugging the right side of the strip. AND, the ungrounded strips at RCFC are awfully narrow! Ah well.

I didn't write down much about my next bout with Mark Blom, which I lost 5-2. I was planning to try and use beats like I had with him in Portland a while back. Perhaps he was expecting me to take this approach. I had a couple of good openings that I missed. I think I was tensing my shoulder too much and using my arm and wrist instead of my fingers too much. I made an effort to relax and use my fingers more, but got impatient near the end.

Then I had Carlo Malaguzzi. I don't think I've ever beaten him in a tournament before although we've fenced enough for me to get more and more of a clue what to do, not to do, watch out for, etc. I think I did decently this time, but still not great, making some mistakes and missing some. But he also made some mistakes and missed some. I think he was having an off day. Even so it was close and there was some luck involved.

The first few points are jumbled in my mind. Once I tried a counter-beat attack but went too large and missed. Another time he scored with one of his nice binding fleches. After that I tried to avoid doing things that would let him fleche with a bind. I tried to not give him my blade, used absence and so on. I think this played into my missing a couple more of my attacks. One time he got me on the leg. In this kind of way we got to 3-3. Then he launched an attack that could have, should have scored, but he missed and I scored, 4-3. And then I attacked and I missed, he hit, 4-4. Then he made a nice attack but, yes, missed, just barely. I felt his tip go by my chest. I managed to land a counterattack and won, 5-4. It felt good to finally win against Carlo in a tournament, but that wasn't the best way to do it. Way too many misses on both sides.

Next I had Jameson Lu again. After he destroyed me in the first pool I was ready with a different approach. Charlie, who had beaten him badly, gave me good advice too. In short the basic idea was to be passive and retreat a lot, knowing he will attack a lot. To try and lull him into thinking about his attacks even more than usual, then attacking when he doesn't expect it. Something like that. I was not that passive though. I couldn't help, or thought I ought to use feints and shallow engagements in order to encourage attacks and maybe make openings. I didn't do as well as Charlie, who had won 5-1, but I did better than before, getting 3-4, then 4-4. But he got the last one and won 5-4. One thing Charlie pointed out afterward was how when I did find an opening and fleched I made straight direct fleches, but Jameson is fast and I'd either get a double or lose the point altogether. I ought to have done binding fleches. Also I might have done better by being more passive and patient, waiting and lulling more. Then when he did attack and his blade was out, going for the surprise fleche, with a bind.

Anyway, so in the second pool I was one and four, with an indicator of -6. Not as good as the first pool. In fact, I see now, tied with Carlo for last place. We both won one, scored 13 touches and lost 19. After the first pool I was seeded 7th, but after this one I dropped to 12th. There were 21 fencers altogether and the five who ended up seeded above 16 were cut. So I made the cut, which was my first concern. In last year's qualifying event there were 31 fencers, 24 promoted to DEs, and I seeded 18th. Fairly similar in a way. And in both cases I lost my first DE. But with fewer fencers this time, or maybe fewer D and unders at the top, I managed to squeak into qualifying for Div 3, while last year I didn't.

DIRECT ELIMINATION

I smiled when I saw I would fence Kyle Margolies in the DEs. Just like last year, only this time I thought I knew better how to win. His fencing has changed in various way, but I had gotten the chance to watch him a bit recently, and even warm up with him before this event, so I figured I had some good information. Last year he had taken an early lead but I had crawled back to within a point or two, before he gained in the last few points, winning 15-11. This time, alas, not even that good, I lost 15-9.

My basic plan was to be as fast as I could, getting in and out quickly, drawing attacks and retreating so he fell short. Waiting for mistakes and openings, then attacking fast and strong. Since last year he's switched to using a french grip and, although I was well aware of this, perhaps I let myself get too close a few times. And when I thought I saw an opening and fleched I too often found myself parried—often in prime, and hit. He quickly got a big lead. I tried to fall back a bit and rethink things, but he pressed the attack and scored a bunch more. As time ran out on the first period I got defensive, wanting time to run out so I could regroup. With about ten seconds left he made another big attack and scored again, which got me annoyed at myself. Can't I even just kill a few seconds? At the end of the period it was 12-6. Not good.

Shawn came over and talked with me, saying I seemed to have a hesitation, but more important, he pointed out how Kyle was making a half or full retreat when I attacked, putting him in the perfect position to make a good parry, while I wasn't retreating from his attacks, and so failing to make good parries. I had been trying to retreat! This is something I definitely need to work on more. I know it has been an issue for me for a while and have been trying to work on it in practice. This tournament made it clear how much more work I need to do.

In the second period, despite being down 12-6, I was determined to fight hard. But carefully and patiently. I got the first two points, making it 12-8. Still a long way to come back, but better, and I began to feel more confident. But then he got a single light. I only scored one more point, although I can't remember when or how. Once he had 13 to my 8 or 9 I grew less careful, in part thinking my only hope was something dramatic and different. We got into an infighting situation. I should have run past him, or gotten out, but I tried to score infighting. Instead he scored. At 14 to 8 or 9 I had little hope. I fleched and lost to his counterattack. Sigh.

The funny part was how I assumed my DE loss meant I hadn't made my second goal of qualifying for Div 3. It wasn't until the final results were posted that I saw I had. Just barely, I think. So much just barely that I'm still worried there was a mistake somehow and I didn't actually qualify.

THE REST

I stayed and watched the rest of the DEs. Aaron Page had gotten 1st seed. Jameson Lu had only just barely managed to not get cut, at 16th seed. So they fenced each other, and Jameson won, 15-11. I didn't see it, but heard people talking about it—unusual for the bottom seed to beat the top seed and all. Jameson's fencing got better and better over the course of the event. After Aaron he went on to beat Tobias Lee, 15-10, making it to the semifinals where he faced Kyle Margolies. Kyle had beaten me 15-9, but then had a very close bout with Adam Chase. They went 14-14. Kyle got the last point to win. Then Kyle did the same with Jameson, going 14-14 and getting the last point. Sheesh. Kyle and Andrew Lee fenced in the final bout.

In the table of 16 Charlie fenced Tobias and lost 15-13. It was close and Charlie was annoyed after, feeling that he could have, should have won, but made some mistakes and should have known better. In the final 8 Andrew Lee beat Johannes Klein in a very close bout, 15-14. And Shawn Dodge beat Mark Blom in another very close 15-14 bout. Then Shawn and Andrew fenced, and Andrew won by a very comfortable 15-5. Andrew won the final comfortably as well, 15-10.

Kyle and Jameson both earned their D ratings, and Shawn renewed his to 2015.

I took a video of the final:

Ray Coates Memorial Team Tournament, 2015

Well I don't have too much to say about this one. I was on a team with Shawn Dodge and Charlie Muñoz but Shawn hurt his back in the first match and dropped out. Since we didn't have an alternate our team had to drop out too. The other SAS team didn't have an alternate either so, although it is technically against the rules I think, either Charlie or me could join that team. We both wanted to, but Charlie really wanted to, and was fencing better anyway. So that was it for me. I was disappointed but eventually enjoyed helping the other SAS team, watching, offering advice, and so on.

It was the first team tournament I've been to. I really enjoyed the team aspect. I guess there are various ways team tournaments can be run. This one was done in a cool way. There were 11 teams (after mine dropped out) and we were seeded by ratings into a DE tree. If you lost a match you continued in a "loser's bracket" tree until all 11 final ranks had been determined by matches. This meant every team got to fence three or four matches. It also mean that the matches got closer and closer in terms of skill, so that the final matches were usually very close, which made things more exciting for everyone toward the end.

I also took a few videos, four from the SAS and one of the WFA teams, and two from the last match of the day (though not for 1st place—one of the Oregon NWFC had already won 1st).

E and Under Epee at Salle Auriol Seattle

E and Under Epee at Salle Auriol Seattle
March 15, 2015

https://askfred.net/Results/results.php?tournament_id=28372&highlight_competitor_id=91067&event_id=112382

Yesterday at the team tournament Tobias told me to get cracking and post more, that slave-driver! Just kidding, actually you inspired me to finally get to this, Toby. But before getting to the team event I have to catch up with this E and under one:

Yay, an E and under tournament. In this, my third fencing season/year since starting up again, it seems that there have been fewer local tournaments around my level. Maybe there were a few I wasn't able to attend, but the only other similar one was the D and under last December. Otherwise I've been getting battered at ROCs like BladeFest, Columbia International, Leon Auriol Open, and the Battle in Seattle. There was a Thursday evening D and under last week but I couldn't go, and it was small anyway. I came in 3rd at the D and under in December and thought I might do as well or better in this E and under.

Up until a couple of days before the event the list of people signed up hovered around 15. Over 15 and it would be a D1 event, with 1st place getting a D and 2-4 getting an E2015. Less than 15 and it would only be E1, with just 1st place getting an E. So I was hoping it got more than 15 fencers. A couple of days before the event the list jumped to about 22, which made me happy. Including myself there were five Es signed up, of which I was most worried about Trip Atkins, plus the unknown of William Henderson from Spokane.  There were lots of Us, some unfamiliar to me and who knows how good, and others I knew might be challenging. Still, the list looked promising for me.

I checked again the night before and the list had jumped to 26, including Kyle Margolies, who had re-earned his E and was an E2015. I hadn't seen him fence in a while and hoped I'd get to—maybe in the finals, haha. In the past I've beaten him in some pools but not in DEs, so seeing his name made me worry a bit. As it turned out we didn't get to fence, ah well. There were also four or five women signed up, which surprised me a little since there was a women's epee tournament the day before. Maybe some preferred this E and under to the open epee of the women's tournament. I think some, like Krystle, couldn't go on Saturday anyway.

On the morning of the event not everyone who had signed up showed up—Trip didn't, nor Andrew Smith, nor Abby Barr. Jeff Lucas showed up though, which was cool. We ended up with 22 fencers of which five were Es, making a nice D1 event (assuming at least two Es finished in the top eight, and they all did). I, of course, was aiming to come in 1st, like I usually do (although this time it seemed more realistic than usual, when I don't really expect it). If I did I'd earn my D, but at this point I'm probably more eager to come in 1st at all, as I never have in any tournament. But coming in 2-4 would be nice too and would renew my E to 2015.

POOLS

The pools seemed somewhat uneven, but I guess that is to be expected in an E and under. We had four pools—two of six and two of five. I was in one of the pools of five. There were five Es in total, so one pool got two of them, which was my pool (me and Joel Howard). It seems like one of the pools of six should have been the one with two Es, but whatever. I've been doing well against Joel recently, for some reason (perhaps I've gotten used to his various tricks?). It was Jonathan Brace, the older British guy who recently joined SAS, who gave me trouble and beat me. I won my other three pool bouts, two of them 5-1. Brent Farnsworth got a point lead on me but I managed to come back and win 5-4.

My notes are sparse and my memory fading now that it's been a couple weeks, but here's what I got.

My first bout was with Jonathan Brace. We've fenced a couple times in practice and I didn't really know what to expect. I underestimated him though. I thought he would be fairly slow, and in some ways maybe he is, but his hand and arm are fast—faster than I was expecting, and accurate too. He hit my arm as I attacked too many times, winning 5-2.

My notes said 5-3 and after the pool I said I thought the 5-2 written on the sheet was wrong. But Jonathan just shrugged, and Joel (we were self-reffing) said we "have to go with what is on the pool score sheet", which isn't quite true—the whole point of signing off is to say you agree there are no mistakes on it. I didn't push it and signed off on the 5-2 score. I might have been wrong. Plus, this was the third time recently I thought I had scored one point more than the sheet said. Maybe I've gotten in a habit of thinking I did better than I actually did—that seems likely. As it turned out the one point did not make a difference in DE seeding.

Another thing about the bout with Jonathan: I feel that I've tended to have trouble in my first pool bouts recently, especially if I have the very first bout. I seem to need a bout or two to get in the right mindset. Even watching other bouts helps with this, it seems. I'm not sure what to do about this. I could and probably should warm up more. Maybe I should warm up differently, with a more competitive mindset. I tend to focus on warming up physically, without caring much about scoring hits or being hit. I purposefully take it easy warming up, not wanting to overdo it. I think I will try changing this a little—focusing more on the mental and competitive aspect, and if I can, doing warm up bouts with several people over a longer time. Usually I only get a chance to warm up with one or two people. Maybe I should also try to warm up with people I know are better than me, which might force me more into the right mental headspace. Before this tournament I warmed up with Mark Benack who, although he is clearly getting better is still a beginner. At some point I realized I was scoring most of the touches and he was getting frustrated. So I started doing things that made it easier for him to hit me but still being practice for me—like pushing distance a little too close and trying to retreat quickly. He got some touches. I know I was being a little reckless but I think I was still practicing, but who knows, maybe I shouldn't do that kind of thing when warming up just before a tournament.

My second pool bout was with Joel Howard. In the past we've been fairly evenly matched, but lately I've been doing well with him. Yet he sometimes does quite well against people I have trouble with. It feels like his general approach has been falling into my best, or at least my preferred style. In this bout he attacked a lot, in ways I was ready for and able to parry-riposte or counterattack into. I felt like I was triggering attacks by feinting low, or even just extending slightly low with my hand turned over, presenting the top of my hand. This is something I've been doing in practice a lot, with mixed but some good results—half-extending and usually in the low line with a pronated hand, usually with a half-advance or half-lunge, hoping to draw a higher line attack to my hand or something bigger, then rotating to a six and, if catching the blade, finishing with a full lunge or whatever seems right. This was basically what I was trying to do with Joel for the first three points, although not always as cleanly as that description. It felt like it was working as planned, but it's possible he was attacking for other reasons. In any case I was quickly up 3-0. Then we doubled somehow, 4-1. I don't remember the last point, but I think it was similar to the others. I won 5-1.

My third bout was with Brent Farnsworth, a fairly new fencer from WFA. Nice guy, and should get a lot better in short order if he keeps working. Reminds me a little of my own fencing from not that long ago (and still, to some degree): Generally good and doing the right things, but sometimes with overly large blade action which can lead to openings, and sometimes falling for tactical tricks like distance traps or setting up and breaking blade patterns. Still, he got a point up early on. My notes start with me down 2-3, but I can't remember how. I think I tried some dangerous/reckless actions and got nicely counterattacked to the arm. I changed my approach, becoming more defensive, waiting for mistakes and trying to set them up. I can't remember now, but I think I got one point when he made an overly large parry, allowing me to close quickly to the opening line. And I think I got another using Russ's multiple beat thing. Shallow beat and flick to hand, then medium beat, to arm, then, that failing, deeper beat and fleche to body.

So I managed to get two points, but he got one, making the score 4-4. I was feeling pretty confident. I tried a toe touch and got it, but he countered and managed a double, thrown out. Somehow I got the last point to win 5-4. My notes just say "both". I think I meant to say we both attacked and, lucky me, he missed. Not quite sure though.

My last pool bout was with Jeff Lucas. I took the first four points and we doubled to finish, 5-1. My notes are a bit better on this one. First one a low feint to draw, followed with a bind in 8. Second, while exchanging blade action saw his blade go out of line a little too much and lunged to arm. Third, a broken time thing, allowing a straight, if long, attack. I'm not sure about the fourth touch or exactly how we doubled at the end. I wasn't aiming for a double, but he managed it.

So, although I lost one bout I felt pretty good about this pool. Interestingly, Joel and Jonathan were also 3 and 1, losing only one bout. My indicator was +7 while they were both +4, so I took 1st place in the pool. Jonathan took 2nd because his touch-scored vs. touch-received was 18-14 to Joel's 16-12. It looks like it was Joel's 5-1 loss to me vs. Jonathan's 5-3 loss to Joel that did it.

I was 5th seed after the pools. William Henderson and Paul Webster had both lost just one bout, but in larger pools and with higher indicators than mine (+9 and +14). Hans Eyman and Kyle Margolies won all their bouts. Their indicators were +11 and +14.

DIRECT ELIMINATION

Being 5th seed I was in the top half of the DE table. Kyle was 1st seed. I had had an image of us fencing in the final but that wouldn't happen with this seeding. Of course we didn't end up fencing at all, and neither reached the final. Actually, looking at the DE table and having watched it all play out it seems to me the best fencers were mostly in the top half of the table. This might have to do with the ways the pools seemed, by chance, a bit uneven. If my theory here is right one result was that the DEs were slightly easier for people in the lower half of the table—seeds 2, 3, 6, etc—and slightly harder for those in the upper half—seeds 1, 4, 5, etc. Maybe, maybe not. But looking at the table I feel like I'd have had a much better chance to make it to the semis or the final if I had been in the lower half of the table—if I was, say, seed 6 instead of 5. Weird how these things work sometimes.

Anyway, I got a first round bye, then fenced Nathan McKorkle. I had never seen him before. I see now that he's from Spokane—perhaps he and William Henderson came together. Before we fenced Paul Webster told me he had had Nathan in his pool and said he was very aggressive and tended to do one particular thing. He didn't really say what the "one thing" was, but said I should be able to handle him.

Paul was certainly right about the aggressive thing. Nathan attacked frequently, often more or less right off the line or from too far. It felt fairly straightforward to catch him in a parry-riposte, often in 8 or 2 with a sideways riposte jab as he passed. A few times I counterattacked as he came in, to his outside arm, which meant arching my back a little to get the angle. This acted like a bit of evasion, though not quite on purpose, getting his blade to miss on my outside. I racked up points quickly and ended up winning 15-3, and all in one period I think. A few times he backed off his attacks and tried being more defensive. But by the time he started doing that I had a solid lead and plenty of time, so I was happy to wait him out. Jeff and Krystal were watching and cheering me on, which felt quite nice.

After that, in the final 8, I had the 4th seed, William Henderson, the other Spokane guy (Bill, I think he goes by). I didn't know him at all, but got to watch his entire DE with David Pesin. It was pretty close, Bill won 15-13. Watching, I saw a number of things that suggested various tactics. Krystal was watching too and we chatted strategy. We both agreed that Bill might be susceptible to a toe touch, as he often had his weight on his front foot. She suggested I try for one early on, maybe right off the bat, then use the threat of more as a tactic. Other things I took note of: Bill used a lot of hard beats and liked to attack with binds. Sometimes this put his blade a bit out of line and made potential openings. I resolved to look for those shallow openings and also to keep my blade moving actively, to make it harder for him to find my blade to beat and bind. He was young and quick, so I planned to be as quick as I could on my feet, using rapid in and out footwork.

Basically my plan was to start with a foot attack right off the line, but disguised if I could, with a calmer first step or two in—like Matthew Comes used to do before everyone started expecting it. Then, a combination of in and out footwork, lots of feints, threats, and active bladework with the main goal of drawing attacks that would fall short, or which went into a line I was prepared to close out. Also shallow attacks, hand picks if possible.

I think it was a decent plan. Afterward I mentioned the initial foot plan to him and he said it was a good idea, that he is sometimes susceptible to foot touches. But even if it was a decent plan it failed badly. Or perhaps rather, I failed at pulling it off. My initial foot attack was close but fell short. I tried to slip one in a couple other times but didn't get as close. The threat of a foot attack might have still helped me, but it would have been a lot better if I had scored that first one.

My plan for fast in and out footwork was also a good idea that I didn't pull off. I was fast enough going in, but not out. And getting out is the really important part! This is something I've noticed recently—well for a long time but especially recently. I don't retreat fast enough, if I even retreat at all. I'm working on it. Sometimes I want to get into infighting and so stand my ground instead of retreating. My infighting is getting better but still has a long way to go. Practicing it during open fencing makes sense, but I should also be practicing good retreating! Even when I do retreat quickly I often get off balance. Another thing to work on.

As for my plan of using active bladework to make it harder for him to beat and bind, well I'm not sure. During the break Joel suggested I was moving my blade too much, and afterward Krystal said she thought I might have been falling into mimicking what Nathan was doing with his blade. I explained that I had planned to do that and wasn't mimicking. Still, I'm sure that sometimes my blade actions were too big, putting me too far out of line and creating openings. He definitely got a few nice hits on my arm. Afterward I realized I had been doing too much with my wrist and arm and not enough with my fingers. The next day at practice I worked on using my fingers more and felt an immediate difference and improvement. I suspect with Nathan I had way too much tension in my arm and shoulder and was probably squeezing the grip too hard. This also worked against my plan of going for hand picks. I tried a lot, but mostly missed and opened myself up. If my arm and hand were too tense my point control was certainly off.

Sometimes I felt like he fell for one of my feints or traps. Then I'd launch an attack, trying to close him out. Several times I did close him out in this way but still failed to hit before he escaped and hit me. In hindsight I see at least two things that happened in these cases. First, when I did a big attack I often wasn't fully committed. My fleches were slow or awkward (too much front foot, etc), giving him ample time to react. His fast retreats and my slow fleches meant I often failed to pass him and we'd end up infighting. Also, as Joel pointed out, I had a hesitation. I think I was somehow torn between my plan of staying shallow and making a good full attack when the time was right, resulting in that fatal hesitation. Second, and related when it came in infighting, our styles were curiously similar, at least as far as beating and binding went. I felt like this made my own beats and binds less likely to work, as he would "naturally" slip out or do a kind of counter-bind.

Anyway, he beat me pretty badly, 15-6. Then he went on to fence Kyle in the semifinals, and won 15-11. Seeing that I felt better about having lost to him.

In the other half of the DE table Paul Webster did very well. He beat Greg Doss then faced Mark Benack. Mark did quite well, especially given how long he's been fencing, coming in 8th. His first DE was against Krystal in the table of 32 (neither had a bye). Normally I think Krystal would have done quite well, but several things worked against her, not least of which was having her epee fail and using a friend's french grip epee instead. After that Mark beat Jonathan Brace 15-7, which surprised me. I didn't see the bout. Then Mark and Paul fenced in the final 8. I think Mark was pretty excited, thinking if he won he'd earn his E. Paul is a lot taller and Mark's main thing, a flick to the top of the arm, wasn't working. Being taller Paul's arm was higher such that Mark's flick couldn't get over the top of his bell guard. Paul raked up a big lead. Mark kept trying his flick and not much else, and kept getting hit with counters and ripostes. During the period break someone talked to Mark and apparently gave good advice because in the next period he stopped trying his flick and did other things (I was only half watching, thinking Paul had it in the bag, and wanting to see Kyle and Bill fence). Mark managed a decent comeback, getting within two points (from being down by something like six or more). But although his tactics change was good he had a deep hole to climb out of and couldn't quite make it, losing 15-12.

That put Paul in the semifinals and his E, at least, which was cool. He had Hans Eyman in the semi. For some reason I can't remember this bout very clearly, but Paul won, 15-12. So the final bout was Paul and Bill Henderson. Bill's speed, beats and binds worked quite well, and he won comfortably, 15-9. So the guy who took me out in the final 8 went on to win 1st place, fairly easily. I think his hardest bout might have been with David Pesin in the table of 16. David was up at one point, I think, but made a few mistakes near the end. I felt better about losing to Bill. He was definitely the best fencer there that day and deserved getting his D.

In all a good tournament, even if I didn't get to the semis. As a D1 four ratings were given out, of which three mattered: Bill got his D, Paul Webster and Hans Eyman went from U to E2015. Only Kyle's rating didn't change as he was already an E2015. I was going to write a little about reffing too, since I did a bunch in my pool and I've rarely reffed in tournaments. But this post is long already, so, some other time.

Battle in Seattle 2015, Senior Men's Epee

The 2015 Battle in Seattle Division I-A ROC, Senior Men's Epee, Jan 24, 2015

http://www.fencingtime.com/LiveResults/Battle2015/FTEvent81788931.htm

https://askfred.net/Results/results.php?tournament_id=26994&highlight_competitor_id=91067&event_id=106908#106908

This one was, of course, tougher than the vet event the night before. There were 89 fencers, about three times as many as the vet event (30 fencers), but still smaller than last year's Battle's senior men's epee, which had over 100. With "only" 89 of us they didn't have to do two flights of pools, which was nice. And like last year it was an A4 event (I'm not sure there are larger event types), which meant E ratings given or renewed down to 48th place, and Ds for 25th to 32nd place.

I didn't expect to earn or renew with this tough crowd, but looking at the results I might have at least renewed my E if I had won a few of the very close pool bouts I had—Joël Fafard, for example, came in 39th place and renewed his E without even winning a DE. He got a round of 128 bye for doing well in his pool, going 4 and 2 with an indicator of +2. If I had won my three 4-4 pool bouts I would have been in the same place. Woulda coulda shoulda, but I didn't.

Last year I had a few very close pool bouts that I won by a hair. This time I had close bouts lost by a hair. When I mentioned that to Marshall he suggested I ponder what goes through my head when I'm in a 4-4 situation. I *thought* I had done fairly well staying focused on "one touch at a time" instead of the score, but perhaps I am more likely to make an impulsive attack when it is 4-4, and/or fall to an opponent using a dependable signature action.

So anyway, I started good, winning my first pool, and went downhill, losing everything after that. That was frustrating and I was annoyed at myself. If there's a bright side it might be those three 4-4 bouts. Also getting to fence people I never had before, or rarely get to. Of the seven people I fenced the only one I'd fenced a bit recently was Bela Suveg. Scott Phillips is familiar, but I don't think I'd fenced him since last year's Battle. I had Heino Hulsey-Vincent in my DE, who I'd fenced before but not for a very long time now.

I warmed up with Andrew Lee, which was fun—we rarely get to fence outside of tournament bouts. We were both fencing in a warm up way, not full out, and enjoying it. I was pleased to get him with a toe touch, even if it would be harder in a real bout. Alas it was my only toe touch of the day. After getting three the day before I was hoping to get some today. I tried but the only toe touches made were Heino's three on my foot, ack.

POOL

I wasn't feeling great, getting over a cold, and didn't take the time to try much pre-analysis of my pool fencers. Not even just checking their ratings. All I knew was that Bela is an A and Scott Phillips was, well I thought he was an A by now but he is still a B. Looking now I see my pool was, in rating terms: Bela Suveg and Brentwood Reid (As), Scott Phillips (B), Caleb Alger (C), Austin Lynch (D), me (E), and Dillon Grewell (U). A well rounded pool, and thanks to the size of the event, no one from my own club.

I also enjoyed having Justin Meehan reffing. He's fun. He called me "Mr. Fly" in a friendly way that made me feel welcomed (and also made me think again about getting FLY printed on my jacket).

My first bout, the first bout of the pool, was with Dillon Grewell. He's from Spokane, I see now, and ended up doing slightly better than me, winning two pool bouts (beating Austin Lynch and Caleb Alger (both 5-4). I can't recall seeing him before so I went in with no idea what to expect. I didn't even notice he was a leftie at first. I don't remember the details of the bout very well except that I did well, getting up 4-2 and winning 5-3. And that the fencing was a bit awkward on both sides, and that I was lucky in a couple spots.

Marshall was there as I unplugged and gave me a fist bump. Off to a good start! I didn't know at the time that Dillon was probably my easiest bout of the day and the only bout I won.

Next up, Brentwood Reid, who I think I had at least seen in other tournaments and suspected was quite good. I did alright. Somehow I got a single light (hand pick?). After a couple doubles and a single each I found myself up 4-3. I noted that I had "some luck". I think in one case he should have scored but missed. Being up 4-3 seemed sweet, but perhaps here is where Marshall's question comes into play. I tried a beat-fleche, but "stupidly long", as I wrote after. I was out of distance and knew it even as I was fleching. I couldn't stop fast enough and so reached for his shoulder, but he picked me off. So, 4-4. I was ready to be more patient and wait for a better chance, but he quickly launched a simple, straight attack with nice acceleration. I was caught off-guard, doh. So, a loss, 5-4. Okay, I thought, I'm one and one, and got four points in the lost bout. Still doing fine.

Next up was Austin Lynch. I don't think I've fenced him before, or seen him fence, although his name is slightly familiar. I see now that he's a D from "Cal Poly Fencing Club". He took the lead quickly. I got in a nice beat-fleche (this time from the right distance), but I made some mistakes and misses, and soon the score was 2-3. I remembered doing well in Portland with my 4-6 attack and decided to try it. It failed badly—I didn't do it very well and he easily picked off my arm. So I was down 2-4, not good. I kept fighting though. I tried a toe touch. It was close but missed. His counterattack was a little slow, probably from pulling his foot back. I remised higher and hit, making it 3-4. Somehow I managed to score again, getting to 4-4. I forget how I did it—possibly with my other Portland fall-back, that Dragonetti high-low flank fleche. So, another 4-4 bout, and again I lost the final point. I think I didn't make a badly stupid mistake this time. I felt like I kept good distance. We doubled. Then I think I made a beat-attack and coulda, shoulda scored, but missed, and he scored. Argh. Well, I figured, another 4-5 loss, could be worse.

Next, Scott Phillips. I was worried about him. The last time we fenced a pool bout he won easily, with his long reach and fast, beautiful fleches.

Just before the bout I checked my epee screws, which I hadn't been doing, and saw that one was missing. It must have fallen out in my last bout because I had been using that epee all the evening before and this day up until then. It was my "1" LP FIE epee. My "2" LP epee had been flakey since I rewired it, and had failed the weight test the night before. I knew it needed another rewire—apparently I had screwed up the last one, probably something in the tip, like twisted wires or badly seated contacts. Anyway, seeing the missing screw I went to get my Vniti. But then I reconsidered, thinking Scott Phillips was not a good time to use the flicky, heavy Vniti. I pulled out my crappy-but-stiff cheapo Abolute instead. I had also rewired that one recently, but was pretty sure it was working well. It was, testing fine. It got bent several times during the bout, with a large bent at the end. That blade is going to break sooner or later and I almost wish it would so I'd have an excuse to replace it with something better—perhaps something with a french grip.

Anyway, I did better with Scott than expected. I didn't write down details. It was fairly normal stuff—keeping good distance, in and out, feints, parries, ripostes, etc. We got to 3-3. Then I got into my head the notion of trying to draw his fleche and using a prime parry. Well, I was able to draw his fleche easily enough, but by letting the distance narrow too much. His fleche hit my shoulder before my prime could sweep it aside. At 4-3 he went for a double and got it, winning 5-4. My scribbled notes say I tried for toe touches too much. I think I tried once or twice and felt like it almost worked, which made me want to "try harder" to get his foot. But of course after a couple tries he was ready and the surprise value was gone. Soon when I tried once or twice more he countered, once pegging me nice and hard on the shoulder. Oof.

At this point I started to get annoyed at myself. Down 3 and 1. A couple close bouts and one close-ish, but too many mistakes. And I knew I still had Bela Suveg coming.

Next up was Caleb Alger. I think I've seen him at other tournaments, but don't think we've fenced. He was using extended french and I had had the chance to watch him in other pools a bit, so I had a bit of a clue. His style seemed to be a fairly typical french-grip counterattack and pick thing. So I went in planning to be very careful of picks, to be patient, trying to use feints to draw counters out of distance, waiting for mistakes and opportunities. And perhaps trying to see if hard beats might work against his french grip.

I think this was a decent plan, and I did okay. Hard beats did create openings and broke up his approach, but I wasn't always able to follow up after a strong beat—or I'd follow up awkwardly and miss, leading to infighting. Still, I got up a point early on.

We had a couple of semi-awkward infighting exchanges and somehow I got confused about the lights. Once, unsure who hit I looked and saw a green light and for some reason thought it was his. Then he had another infighting mess. I thought I had managed a hit just before we got close and he landed a prime-ish flick. Seeing the green light I paused, then asked Justin Meehan for a weapon check. Justin looked at me funny, then raised his hand to indicate, again, that I had scored (with the obvious subtext, "you don't want me to check your epee after you've scored, silly"). I realized I had scored the last two, not Caleb, and felt a weird mix of pleasure and self-annoyance. I've forgotten exactly how the scoring went. But eventually we were at 3-3.

I don't remember exactly the next point, but I think it was a double to 4-4. And again I'm thinking of Marshall asking about my headspace when it is 4-4. In this case I was planning to wait for a mistake on his part and/or use a strong beat-fleche. He didn't make an obvious mistake and eventually I launched a beat-fleche, but screwed it up, making a poor beat and getting out of line, letting him score and win. I think I made the beat too early. Instead of one smooth action with the beat coming within the fleche at the last moment, on his forte, I made the beat before the fleche, or just as the fleche began. So I beat his foible, which put my own point too far out of line, and gave him extra time to react. Yesterday at practice Travis was pointing out the ways my beat-fleches were out of sync like this—either beating too early then fleching, or fleching then beating too late. And I thought I had this action down pretty well a month ago. Fencing is hard.

So by this point, when I wasn't feeling very happy with things, of course my final pool bout was with Bela Suveg. I've fenced him a number of times and never won. But George seemed to have figured him out over the last couple of weeks, and I got some advice and ideas from him. I couldn't make it work as well as George and lost 3-5, but I did get one nice remise into a small opening. That one felt good. We doubled a couple of times. So, not so bad except that he also got two single lights on me.

I got a little confused by the way Bela was using the strip. He's a leftie and usually sticks to the left side of the strip (my right side), like most lefties. Or is a bit more in the strip center. This time he kept moving to his right edge. I was naturally going to my right strip side, like I tend to do with lefties. When he moved to the other side we would be diagonal. I felt like this ought to be good for me, but at the same time I was a little confused by it, and uncertain what to do. I don't know if that was his plan, but he was able to take advantage of my uncertainty in ways I don't quite understand or remember. I think by moving to my left he was able to get me to want to attack his left outside, but was somehow able to parry or counter to my inside. I don't know. It worked though.

So I lost to Bela 3-5, which, given it being Bela, isn't too shabby for me. Still, it wasn't the happiest end to a frustrating pool.

DIRECT ELIMINATION

My initial pre-pool seed was down in the E14s, 71 out of 89. Probably more or less random within the 13 of us E14 fencers. After the pools my seed was, oddly enough, 71 out of 89. Huh. I won one and lost five. Thanks to my three 4-5 and two 3-5 loses my indicator was not so bad, -6. Of the 14 fencers who were 1 and 5 in the pools I did best, which is some small consolation I guess. One other fencer had won only one pool bout, Benjamin Yeh, with an indicator of -10, but his pool was smaller so his victory ratio was higher, so he seeded just above me.

With 89 of us there were a lot of byes. I knew I wouldn't get one and hoped for a winnable first round DE. I was paired with Heino Hulsey-Vincent, seed 58. We hadn't fenced in a long time, but from what I knew about him it seemed a possibly winnable bout. Russ said just that—"it's winnable". He knew more about Heino that I could recall and gave me good advice—mainly that Heino has good parries, especially his 6, so best to avoid deep attacks. Keep things shallow, keep the point aimed at his hand, moving around his bell guard when he parries, use a lot of quick in and out, etc.

When the DE table was displayed on the big screen and a clot of fencers were looking I found myself next to Steven Benack, who had done awesome in the pools and was 1st seed. I congratulated him and we talked a little. At one point I said "so, Heino, ideas?" Steven paused for a moment then smiled and said "I'm not going to tell you." Heh. Then we talked about how Heino and Steven fence all the time, both being RCFC guys. I'm sure Steven had all kinds of inside information about Heino but ah well, club and friend loyalty. I don't think I got the chance to talk to Steven after I lost, but I did talk a bit with his brother Mark Benack, who confirmed what I had just experienced, especially Heino's good, annoying toe touch flicks.

Anyway, I didn't write a detaied report of my DE with Heino. I did poorly, losing 15-8. As Russ pointed out I could have, should have been faster with the in-and-out footwork. He always says that and is always right. I thought I was being pretty quick, but I could have done better. Plus it isn't just about being quick but also using the opening and compressing of distance along with timing and rhythm. I'm sure I was too regular and predictable in my in and out footwork patterns. Probably that was part of the reason he was able to land those three toe touches on me. I guess he is good at them anyway, but my being a bit predictable about stepping in must have made it all the easier for him.

OTHER STUFF

So Steven Benack was the top seed, got a bye and won his first two DEs. Then he lost to Matthew Comes. Apparently he got hurt before or early in the bout with Matthew. His hand/arm I think. I didn't see it, but Matthew Comes beat Bela Suveg 15-6, then had a very close bout with Luke LaRocque. I think they went 14-14. So close, Luke! Luke had a bye and beaten Audun Holland-Goon before facing Matthew. So he came in 19th overall, earning his C. I guess he did quite well in the pools too, being 16th seed (to Matthew's 17th).

Dmitriy got a bye (25th seed), but then had to face Daniel Small, who for some reason was 40th seed. I guess Daniel didn't do as well as I'd expect in the pools. He's very good. He just barely didn't get a first round bye and faced Mark Benack first, winning 9-3. Afterward Mark told me about how Daniel played a very passive game with him, and they had non-combativity called, leading to the low score. I tried to console Mark a little by talking about how good Daniel is—I watched him win the Leon Auriol Open a couple years ago and do quite well in the recent Portland ROC, beating Tobias Lee along the way. Anyway, Daniel went on to beat Dmitriy 15-10, then lost to Kyle Yamasaki. Kyle then beat John McDonald before Matthew Comes took him out.

A fencer from Nevada, Zachary Zeller, did well. I don't know anything about him and barely got to see him fence. He got 5th seed and won several DEs, including Tobias Lee.

John Varney won his first two before losing a very close bout, 14-14, to Jason Lipton. Jason went on to take out Brentwood Reid. Jason Lipton didn't get a bye but won his first DE easily, then fenced Kyle Margolies, who had gotten a bye. Kyle lost, but due to his doing well in the pools he came in 35th overall, renewing his E.

George Raush did pretty well. He lost just two pool bouts and placed 2nd in his pool (Michael Mehall was 1st). George was 19th seed. So he got a bye, then fenced Caleb Alger. Caleb beat Barry Leonardini in his first DE, then lost to George 15-10. Then George faced Michael Mehall. It was a tough bout and George worked very hard to pull off a 13-11 win. If I remember right George was behind a point but came back to tie 11-11. Michael got a little sloppy at the end. Perhaps time was running out. After that George faced Josh Conner, a good young fencer from Oregon neither of us knew anything about. George did okay at first, but Conner adjusted and George was running out of gas, especially after the Mehall bout. Conner won 15-10.

Andrew Lee did good in the pools, seeding 11th. He beat Arthur Befumo before losing in a close bout to Yuly Suvorov. If I remember right they were tied 13-13, but Yuly got the last two points. Yuly didn't get a bye but won his first two DEs, including Scott Phillips (15-13), before facing Andrew Lee. After Andrew he had to face Sam Larsen, who was 6th seed (what, not 1st??). Watching Sam is always amazing and interesting. He beat Yuly 15-7. Several times they had an exchange with no score and Yuly retreated quickly, seemingly to reset. Whenever that happened Sam literally ran to close the distance as fast as possible. At least once immediately launching a low line attack and scoring. Other times simply closing the distance aggressively fast, not giving Yuly any time to reset. It was an interesting tactic I hadn't seen before, at least not quite the way Sam was doing it.

Ryan Arieta was another good fencer who was interesting to watch. He seeded 7th and handily beat Heino, who had beaten me. Ryan then beat Mike Perka before winning a very close bout with Henry Lange, 15-14.

Jay Slater also did well, not too surprisingly. He was 15th seed, beat David Jensen, then Sadler McIntosh, then had a tough, exciting win with Cole Mallette, coming back from behind if I remember right. Cole was 2nd seed.

That all gets to the final 8. I didn't see most of the end, having to get home. But Matthew Comes beat Kyle Yamasaki, Zachary Zeller beat Jason Lipton, Sam Larsen beat Josh Conner (with the fairly low score 11-7), and Ryan Arieta beat Jay Slater (15-6, yikes, maybe Jay had used all his energy with Cole). Then Comes beat Zeller and Larsen beat Arieta. So the final was Matthew Comes and Sam Larsen. Well, Matthew is good, no doubt, but Sam is amazing. He won 15-8. I keep wondering if, or when I'll be seeing Sam in the World Cup. He seemed to blow through the Battle in Seattle with ease. I'm happy to have had him in my club for a while, before he moved to Portland. I've gotten a good deal useful advice and ideas from him.

All the final eight fencers got their A2015. All had been A2014, except Josh Conner and Jay Slater, who were A2013, and Jason Lipton who was a B. Steven Benack, coming in 9th, renewed his B.  Andrew Lee renewed his C. Luke turned his D into a C. Kyle renewed his E. Several people I don't know renewed or upped their rating. And of course, this being a ROC, all of us vets auto-qualified for national vet events. Woo. Maybe I'll go to one someday...

Okay, that's all. Sorry, no videos this time.

Battle in Seattle 2015, Vet Epee

The 2015 Battle in Seattle Division I-A ROC, Vet Men's Epee, Jan 23, 2015

http://www.fencingtime.com/LiveResults/Battle2015/FTEvent81788937.htm

https://askfred.net/Results/results.php?tournament_id=26994&highlight_competitor_id=91067&event_id=106912#106912

Not great, but it was a tough group and I wasn't feeling very good, getting over a cold and etc. On the plus side I scored three toe touches, which made me happy. Also it is always a good thing to fence people I don't usually get to fence. I don't think I had ever fenced Eli Delgado or Doug Robinson before. I'd fenced William Walker just once in a pool. And if I'd fenced Mike Perka before that pool in last year's Battle in Seattle it was a long time ago.

Pool

Started with Eli Delgado, who is strong and fast. I was too impatient and attacked too much too fast, and quickly lost 5-1. Bleah.

Carlo Malaguzzi. Started out well enough, 1-1, then down 2-1. Then I landed a toe touch, making it 2-2. That one felt quite nice. The timing and distance was good and I think I surprised him pretty well. Things went less well after that. Twice I had a decent chance to score but plain missed. Once I was trying to bait him and let things get just too close. He made a straight fleche and scored. Anyway, my notes say I lost 5-3 but the score sheet said 5-2. I thought about saying something, but maybe my notes were wrong. Also, I had done that in another tournament not long ago with him—saying the score sheet was wrong and I had scored one point more. I didn't want to do that again, not being completely sure. So I let it be. As it turned out that one point might have mattered. After the pools I was in a three way tie for the 25th seed. On the other hand, none of us got easy DEs, and mine might have been the easiest of the three. Possibly I could have gotten Jeff Johnson for my DE, which would have been better, maybe. Anyway, even if I lost 5-2 it still felt like I did better than my other recent bouts with Carlo.

Third bout was with Doug Robinson, a Canadian who I don't think I've fenced before. His style seemed to be slightly foil-like, maybe. I felt decently able to draw attacks and score with parries or counters. I also felt like I was able to use beats. Eli and Carlo are too strong for my beats to be reliable, it seems. So I was pleased that they worked better with Doug. I got up 3-2, then made a hard up-beat followed by a toe touch, which worked, to my delight. Other than some toe touches against Us in a recent tournament this was the first tournament in which I've scored toe touches, I think. After that I was up 4-2 and felt pretty good. Our fencing from there was mostly "tangled", with ugly unintended infighting. Some of the tangles had no result. He got a point in one, making it 4-3. Then I got a point in another tangle, winning 5-3.

Then I had John Comes. After seeing his fencing at BladeFest (and getting beaten by it myself) and watching him here (eg, beating Mike Perka) I was concerned. He's gotten a lot better recently, it seems. The tactics I used to be able to use a year or two ago are no longer dependable. The first point was an exchange and a fleche on his part. I managed to catch him up in a parry 6, but too wide and I missed my riposte, while he escaped and scored. Doh. His son, watching, said something like "that was lucky", which seemed right—I felt like I had it, but missed. Things continued with both of us making mistakes here and there. I don't remember the exact details except I think most of the points were made due to mistakes by the other. I remember trying for a toe touch and falling short, then coming up to a higher line. But I can't remember if either of us scored there. Anyway, we went 4-4. In the final action I got overeager and made a poor attack, which he easily scored against to win. Another example of the main lesson I got from the weekend: I've got to stop being stupid! Feels like I'm at a point where most of what holds me back is tactical blunders like that. Things I know not to do, yet do anyway, from time to time. Mostly they are bad attacks, I think—impulsive attacks at the wrong time, from too far, going too deep, etc. Need more patience! ...or maybe I should do more foil, heh.

Final pool bout was with Mike Perka. In last year's vet Battle in Seattle I beat him in the pools. I remembered how and tried to do the same this time. It didn't work quite as well. He got the first point with a simple, straight-in, accelerating lunge. I felt like I was spaced out, not focused enough right then, argh. Then I was able to use my plan to score doubles—the plan mainly being counterattacks or attacks into prep, "straight up his arm". But he was a point up thanks to that first one. Doubles got me to 3-4. I needed a single light. While trying to find an opportunity for a single—I think I was trying to set up a 4-6 thing—he got me and won 5-3.

So, with one win and four losses, and an indicator of -8, I ended up in a three way tie for the 25th seed, with Russ Redding and Bill Swann. In the other pools George Raush was impressive, winning all his bouts (including Bela Suveg, George having learned from his DE with Bela a couple weeks before). George got 2nd seed. Michael Mehall won all his bouts and got 1st seed. John Varney won all his bouts and got 3rd.

Direct Elimination

I was paired with William Walker. He's left-handed, older and seemingly slower than me, but also bigger and taller. We had fenced in a pool in Portland and I had lost. I remembered that part of how I lost was due to making too many attacks. So I went in planning to be more defensive, "jabby", shallow, and faster on my feet, in and out kind of thing.

Well, my "jabby" approach quickly resulted in his getting some nice hand and arm picks on me. I soon realized I needed to be much more careful about sticking my arm out, as his style involves accurate picks from his leftie far outside. By the time I figured out what not to do and had begun to work out what might work he was up quite a few points. And being a vet DE we were only going to ten points. Things looked grim. By this point in the day I was feeling rather annoyed and even angry, mostly at myself. I used this anger as fuel, and did better in the rest of this DE (maybe I should get angry more often...). I became much more focused and bouncy, yet was able to be more patient, feeling kinda snake-in-the-grass. I made a bit of a comeback, including another enjoyable toe touch. But I could not make up the ground lost at the start, and in the end lost 10-8. Maybe if it had been to 15 points...

So I was left with a mixed feeling. On one hand annoyance at all my mistakes and my slow start. Although I had warmed up I didn't feel like I was even starting to get into the groove of things until my third pool bout. And I didn't feel like I was really fencing well until my DE was half over. This isn't uncommon with me, and I've got to get better at getting into the zone during the early pool bouts. I was also annoyed with my various tactical mistakes and episodes of bad technique, awkward actions, bad balance, etc. On the plus side I was quite pleased with those three toe touches. Maybe all that toe touch practice is starting to pay off?

Other stuff

Carlo took out John Comes by quite a bit, afterward saying "sorry" a few times. I remember Carlo saying sorry to me after taking me out by many points in a DE. He's a nice guy, but sure isn't going to not fence his best. Then Carlo fenced Michael Mehall, who was 1st seed (and came in 1st place in the end). Carlo took Michael to 9-9 in an exciting bout, but lost that last point. Michael Mehall had a series of close bouts. After Carlo he fenced Eli Delgado to an 8-8 tie. In overtime Michael managed to score and win. Then Michael beat David Jensen 10-8. The final bout, with John Varney, wasn't as close, 10-5. I fenced Michael Mehall in a DE in Portland, and lost. He's fun to fence, gets excited and shouts a lot, but in a friendly, smiling way.

In other DE bouts...in the Round of 32 Bill Swann went 9-9 with Eli Delgado but lost. Impressive, Bill. That Delgado guy is good! After beating me William Walker fenced Bela Suveg. Leftie vs. leftie, always fun to watch. Bela won 10-8, fairly close. Then Bela fenced George Raush. George was 2nd seed. He beat Michael Moore 10-6 before facing Bela. After fencing Bela two weeks before and in this event's pool, George seemed to have figured him out. He won handily, 10-4. Then George had John Varney in the semifinals. He did okay, but lost 10-7. Had I beat William Walker...well, I can imagine beating Bela and George. It's a stretch, but not unthinkable.

Anyway, George got 3rd place, Varney 2nd, and Michael Mehall 1st. Me, well, since I was in a three-way tie after the pools and all three of us lost our first DE, we came in a three-way tie for 25th place. Sigh.

Salle Auriol Seattle Veteran Epee

Salle Auriol Seattle Veteran Epee, Jan 11, 2015

https://askfred.net/Results/results.php?tournament_id=28370&highlight_competitor_id=91067&event_id=112380

Only ten people showed up for this one, unfortunately. Fourteen had preregistered so there was hope that there might be at least 15, making it an A1 or B1 event. But with only ten it was an E1 and so "just for fun". Even so it was a tough group: three As (John Varney, Bela Suveg, and George Raush), three Cs (Mark Blom, Johannes Klein, and Russ Redding), one D (Jeff Johnson), two Es (Joel Howard and me), and one U (Chuck Nguyen).

Before beginning Russ gathered us and asked if we ought to do something extra, to get more fencing out of just us ten. We could have done one big pool of ten but decided instead to do two rounds of pools, each with two pools of five. The results of the first round would be used to seed the second round. Then the second round would seed the DEs. In hindsight I'm not sure this was the best possible way to go—I had Varney in both my pools, for example, and didn't get to fence a couple people at all. But it was fine and better than just one round of pools.

My result was meh, ending up 8th place out of 10. But things felt better than the final result might suggest. I started out poorly but improved. I lost all my first pool bouts, then won one in the second round. I won my first DE against Joel, then, although I lost, did much better than I expected in my DE against Varney. So I left feeling pretty good.

Round #1 Pool

Started with Chuck Nguyen. I thought I had a good chance to win, but I made too many mistakes, was overeager in my attacks, missed too much, got counterattacked, and lost 5-3.

Another 5-3 loss with Johannes Klein. I tried to stay shallow and use jabs to draw attacks and counterings. I got two points that way. My third point was lucky, I attacked deeper and his counterattack missed.

And another 5-3 loss to Bela Suveg. This time I started well, getting up 2-1 before making mistakes. As with Johannes I used shallow attacks and jabs, getting a nice hit or two on his hand. He quickly wised up and protected his hand better and made some nice binding actions. I made a couple of mistakes—once exposing my hand to an easy hit, another time launching a fleche from too far and getting nailed with a prime parry-riposte.

John Varney was my last bout. I tried to keep things very slow, much more patient than when the pool began. Well I got two points.

Round #2 Pool

Started with Joel Howard. We went 4-4 and somehow I got the final point, but it was not a pretty action. A win, yay.

Against Mark Blom I tried using a lot of beats, like I did with him in Portland in October. It worked alright. But I got too close too much and he got up 4-3. Then I managed a fleche that felt good in terms of timing and distance, making it 4-4. In the final action I got confused and made a bad parry. He scored and won. Still, better than the previous pool...

My bout with Johannes was similar to the previous pool. I lost 5-3.

Then I had Varney again. This time I threw caution to the wind and tried a more pressing and attacking approach. It failed badly and I lost 5-1.

Direct Elimination

With ten fencers there were only two DE bouts in the round of 16, and of course I had one of them. It was with Joel Howard. Usually we are fairly evenly matched, but he didn't fence his best. He attacked a lot, too much, too quickly. I was able to parry and counter his attacks. Quickly I was up 4-0. At 7-2 he changed to his French grip epee, but it didn't help. I won 10-3. It seemed weirdly easy.

Since I was the 9th seed my second DE was against John Varney. I lost, unsurprisingly, but did much better than I thought I would. I went with the very patient approach, waiting for him to attack and not letting him pull me back to his end of the strip. A low score would be fine, I figured. Non-combativity would be fine. I got the first two points. He caught up and tied it at 4-4, then took the lead at 6-5. Still, that felt like a decent place to be with Mr. Varney. Maybe he began to take things more seriously, maybe my focus flagged, but he got the next two points, making my possible win remote. Then we doubled, 9-6. Then he went for a quick double to win, 10-7.

So I came in 8th out of 10. But I felt good about those DE bouts.

In other DE bouts George fenced Bela and, although George lost 9-8 he learned a good deal about how to fence Bela, such that he was able to beat him twice in the Battle in Seattle a couple of weeks later.

RCFC Thursday Night D & Under Epee

RCFC Thursday Night D & Under Epee, December 18, 2014.

https://askfred.net/Results/results.php?tournament_id=27720&highlight_competitor_id=91067&event_id=109583

I came in third and got another medal. The bust of Beethoven I've been putting medals on is getting a little crowded.

This tournament was oddly skewed toward the beginner side. There were two Ds, two Es (me one of them) and twenty Us. Not all the Us were beginners, but for many this was their first tournament. Perhaps because of this I took things a bit easier than at other recent tournaments. I knew I should have been working harder, but I just didn't feel like it, for some reason. Mentally I tried my best, but physically...well I know I could have pushed myself several notches more.

Maybe part of it was knowing there were so many beginners and having my warm up and first pool bout seem easy. Then I came close to losing all my other pool bouts, but managed to win them all. I was seed #2 and had a couple easy DEs before facing Craig Haworth and losing fairly badly. It was when fencing Craig that I should have turned the energy up a couple levels, but I didn't, at least not until it was too late.

In a way all this was interesting. I haven't had a tournament in which I've done this well against this many people in a long time. I realized this must be similar to what regular tournaments—or at least the kind of ROCs I've been going to—are like for really good fencers: You face a lot of people you should beat, but you still need to work as hard as you can in the pools to get as good an indicator as you can. Then you have an easy DE or two before things get challenging, and somehow you have to keep your energy and drive up through the gap between the pools and the harder DEs. Then you need to fence your very best at the end, after hours of fencing, when you are more inclined to be physically and mentally tired. These are challenges I am not used to! I realized that really good competitive fencers must have many ways to face these kind of things, developed over time—especially ways to refocus and re-energize as you get to your hard DEs. It was an interesting insight.

POOLS

Anyway, my pool:

I had never fenced any of these people, except Jameson Lu, who beat me in my DE at the Leon Auriol Open (I think it was), and Jim Loter, although I didn't remember much about Jim's fencing.

My first bout was with Pieter Daniell. He's from my club but I don't think I've seen him before. He seemed like a beginner, so I basically pushed him and waited for openings or counterattack opportunities. This got me up 2-0 fairly quickly. Then I got another point with what felt like a random hand hit. Well, I kept putting my point back toward his hand and he obliged me by sticking his hand on my point. Then he got a point, in a way I can't remember, making it 3-1. My waiting and baiting continued to work though and I won 5-1. Perhaps this bout made me relax a bit too much, because the rest of my pool bouts were too close.

Second pool bout was Jim Loter. Again I felt fairly in control of things, but the first two points were doubles, so we went 2-2. I was pushing and baiting, sticking my blade out a lot. He got a lovely hand hit one time I did that. So he was up 3-2. This got me a bit worried and I decided to press the attack. First I tried a toe touch. It was close, but I missed. Luckily Jim didn't land a counterattack.

Then, well...a week before Russ had told me something about beats that had gotten me to rethink how to do simple beats (basically doing them more toward the opponent and on their forte rather than so much to the side, like I had been doing), and I had been doing pretty well with beat attacks in practice. So I tried it here, waiting and trying to get Jim to stick his blade out, then, when he did, launching a fast beat-fleche. It worked well. In the past my beats, being too much to the side, too often resulted in my point missing. Now, beating more forward my point landed nicely on Jim's upper arm.

So it was 3-3. I tried to set up another beat situation or coax a mistake—I made a low feint in an attempt to confuse, but Jim made a very nice hit to my hand. Now he was up 4-3, oh no. I fell back to focusing on another beat attack. I managed to set one up and it worked very well, 4-4. Then, somehow, we doubled, which was thrown out. Then I managed another beat-fleche and won, 5-4. That was too close, but I was pleased with how well my beats worked. Thanks, Russ!

My third pool bout was with Zoe Tolbert, a rather small, young woman from MTFC. Having watched her in a couple bouts before it felt like I ought to be able to do well. But I remembered fencing and losing to a similarly small and young woman at the Subway Games (I think it was), Abby Barr. At that time I realized I had been reluctant to fleche or attack too strongly because she was young and small. And I lost. So this time I resolved to fence as well as I could, not to subconsciously hold back. Even so she almost beat me. I pressed her and attacked, maybe too much. She got the first two points. I managed some points but before long she was up 4-3, just like things had gone with Jim. In this case I found myself missing and making poor fleches. Perhaps I was attacking too quickly, perhaps my aim was off, perhaps being small she was harder to hit! Certainly my sense of distance was off, again probably because she is smaller than I am used to. Anyway, at 4-3 I reverted to the same beat-fleche tactic. It worked. I managed to score single lights twice with beat-fleches, to win 5-4. Again too close!

My next bout was against the other E in my pool, Jameson Lu. I had fenced him before, and not that long ago, at an SAS tournament DE. Russ had given me advice after the first period, but by then he was up too much. After I lost Russ gave me more advice. I had written some of Russ's advice down and remembered most anyway. It was mainly to mostly stick to shallow attacks, to worry his hand, to retreat quickly, and to use binds instead of beats. This was basically what I did, focusing mostly on keeping my point aimed at his hand and repeatedly making shallow feint-like threats toward his hand. I got at least two points on his hand too, which felt nice. He got some nice touches too. We got to 3-3, then doubled to 4-4. The final point was one of those things where you both attack and it isn't quite clear if either, or both hit. I looked to the lights and saw that I had scored a single light and won, 5-4. Another whew. I had been most worried about Jameson and was pleased that Russ's advice had been helpful, as it usually is. Jameson won all his other pool bouts, and better than me. I felt like I was rather lucky to have won. The final touch felt like it could have gone either way.

Also, because of Russ's warning about using binds instead of beats, Jameson was the only person in my pool with whom I didn't rely on beat-fleches.

My last pool bout was against Brandon Ross, another youngster. I'm not sure but I think he's done more foil and this was his first epee tournament. I don't remember the details of the bout except that it got to 3-3, which worried me. Brandon was fairly small, and like with Zoe I felt like I was misjudging distance and getting too close. He scored another and took the lead 4-3. Again I fell back to simple beat-fleches and again they worked. I scored two single lights with beat-fleches, winning 5-4. That beat insight from the week before sure came in handy!

So I won all my pool bouts, but it could have easily been much worse. In part I was lucky. But in another way, well, I felt good about being able to keep cool and patient when down 4-3 and having a good attack to fall back on.

DIRECT ELIMINATION

I didn't write down details about my DEs, in part because I was kept busy fixing my LP tips between bouts. As expected my LP blades kept failing the small shim. I tweaked one during the pools and both before the DEs, and again between DE bouts. They are so finicky. I keep planning to rewire them with German points, but haven't gotten to it. I probably should before the Battle in Seattle.

Anyway, my first DE was against Brandon Ross, who had been my last pool bout. Going to 15 with him was different than going to 5. He got some points but I kept up a steady pace of getting more, including several toe touches (I think...I might be confusing my first two DEs). I was patient and careful, relying mostly on waiting for mistakes. I think it was with Brandon that I set up a nice prime riposte—doing circle-6 threats until he fleched with a disengage, letting me fall back into prime nicely. I love it when that works.

My second DE was with Greg Doss, who is from my club but I don't think I had seen before. I can't quite remember this bout compared to my first one, but I think I scored a lot of toe touches. I don't think I had ever scored one before in a tournament, and almost never tried. I had enough of a lead with Greg to take chances. I ended up winning 15-4.

Winning that put me in the final 4. I would fence either Craig Haworth or Jerry Lu. And watching them I wasn't sure which I would rather fence. Watching them fence I felt like I would have a good chance against Jerry. Then again, I had never fenced him and I had fenced Craig a number of times. I had beaten Craig the last two times and felt like I had figured him out, to a point. And I knew he had not done a lot of epee recently. On the other other hand, as Craig pointed out I had never beaten him in a DE, while he's beaten me twice in DEs. Granted, both of those DEs were quite a while ago. I have progressed a lot since then, and he seemed to be fencing in the same basic way he was back then—relying strongly on his circle-6, his strength, and long lunges to the leg. Still I wasn't sure, and watched Craig and Jerry's bout closely. They went 14-14. I realized I was hoping Jerry would win, for some reason, but Craig did.

So I fenced Craig Haworth and lost pretty badly, 15-8. In hindsight there were several things. I should have turned up my energy level several notches. The last time we fenced, in a pool, I beat him in part by being a lot more active, actually pushing him off his end of the strip at one point, and retreating from his long attacks. This time I was slower, and after some initial pushing got lazier, giving him time to set up attacks and score with long lunges. Also, I was overly focused on my plan, even when it wasn't working too well. It took me too long to start looking for other options, at which point I began to see mistakes he was making. Most especially, he kept exposing his forearm, like a foilist might—especially during his circle-6 motions. Once I saw it I was able to score a few hits on his hand and arm. After the first period Toby talked to him and it was obvious that one thing he warned him about was his arm. Even so he kept exposing it, but by that point I was down too much to come back. I wished I had had someone as helpful as Toby to coach me right then! I needed it more than Craig, heh.

So I got third, tied with Benjamin Lee—Andrew Lee's younger brother. I think this was Benjamin's first epee tournament and that he usually does foil. I didn't get to fence him but it was interesting watching him. He has a lovely fleche much like his brother, although he seemed to use it a little too much, reducing the surprise value, and sometimes fleching from too far or at the wrong time. But he's only like 13 or 14. It seemed obvious he will be as good as Andrew soon enough if he keeps working.

The final was Shawn Dodge and Craig Haworth. Shawn won by as much as Craig had beaten me, 15-8. Shawn saw how Craig "presented" his arm right away, and took advantage from the start. Shawn's style is particularly good for making picks to the arm. Even when Craig scored with a binding attack Shawn was almost always able to slip out and get a double with a last second hand pick. Very nice.

If I had beaten Craig I would have fenced Shawn for first place, which if I got would have earned me my D. Shawn and I fence a lot in practice and I'm skeptical I could have beaten him, but it wouldn't be impossible, and Shawn seemed to think I'd have had a good chance. Maybe, but probably not that evening, the way I had been fencing. So the way it turned out I "re-earned" my E2014, which doesn't mean anything real in terms of ratings, but still felt nice since I had only earned it "once" this year. Doing it twice made me feel more like I actually deserved it. Even so both times were rather "ideal" situations for it. Shawn "re-earned" his D2014. Benajmin Lee earned his E—he had been a U. Not bad for what I think was his first epee tournament.

Goofy medal pics: