Seattle International Veterans Cup, 2017

Seattle International Veterans Cup, 2017

Results:
https://askfred.net/Results/results.php?tournament_id=34515

How nice to have a tournament and feel like I did well. Beyond my expectations at least. There were 26 fencers and nearly all of them were as good or better than me, on average. Also, the Battle in Seattle was still fresh in my mind, where I had more trouble in the Vet event than the regular Senior event. These good vets may tend to be a little slower than the 20 year olds, but they are wily and smart. I expected to struggle in this one.

But I arrived with plenty of time to check in and warm up, and quickly felt growing confidence. I warmed up with several people and perhaps worked harder than necessary for mere warm up bouts. But I think I get more out of warming up hard than easing into it. Several people over the course of the day told me I was moving really well, which was great to hear. I felt like I was—putting my all into the kind of in-and-out footwork I’ve been working on for so long now. And also trying to change up footwork stuff a lot, opening up space, closing, slowing down, speeding up. Lots of check steps and half lunges, trying to set traps. I think I got some decent results from “retreat check steps”—starting to step back but not actually, and perhaps turning into an attack instead.

Anyway, to the pool.

I was in a pool of seven, so six bouts for me. Three people were left handed, sigh. And among them, Erich Cranor and Bela Suveg, both scary good fencers. The third leftie was Ommer Bruce, who I’ve seen a few times and maybe fenced. I didn’t quite know what to expect of him. I thought he would be quite tough for me, but perhaps not quite as tough as Erich and Bela. There was also John Comes, who over the years I’ve been more or less on par with. And Jonathan Brace, a clubmate who I “should” be able to beat, but you never know. And finally, Ed Bourguignon, who looked familiar but I don’t think I’d fenced before.

The very first pool bout was Erich Cranor and me. I hooked up and almost on a whim checked my epee’s screws. I had checked everything the day before and upon arriving, but who knows, maybe something happened during my warm up bouts. To my surprise a screw was missing. These NEPS, “new epee screws”, almost never fall out, in my experience. I replace contact springs and whole tips far more often than screws these days. But I was definitely missing a screw just then, good thing I looked.

I quickly switched to my second epee. Although I’d like to have three or four identical epees I have not yet figured out “the perfect setup”. So I have 4-5 Frankenepees instead. For a while I had more or less settled on LP’s standard “FIE blade”, and have a couple LP bladed epees. But a few months ago Marshall, after watching me fence a bit (at the Leon Auriol Open perhaps?) said I would benefit from using a nice stiff BF blade. After a while I got one and have been enjoying it very much. That was the one missing a screw, of course. So I switched to one of my LPs. Would I have done better with Erich if I had the BF? Who knows. Probably not, or not much.

But I can pretend it is an excuse: Erich beat me 5-0. I felt like I had not fenced badly. He scored several lovely touches on my hand and forearm. Once or twice I might have over-committed and opened myself up to easy counterattacks. But generally I felt simply outmatched rather than feeling like I fenced badly. Still, not the best start. On the other hand, I figured I got the hardest bout over first and things could only get better.

And they did. My next bout was with Bela Suveg. We hadn’t fenced in a long time, but when we have he’s decimated me. And I’ve watched him enough to know how good he is. Still, I put my all into the bout, doing footwork as fast as I could, all the in-and-out, check steps, and so on. Also, after Erich I had quickly put a new screw into the BF epee and used it for the rest of the day.

For whatever reason, I was in the zone that bout, seeing things as they happened in that wonderful focused way that can be so hard to find sometimes. I watched him do his strong sweeping low line parries when I probe at his hand. After trying to set up a little pattern of probes I did another in a half lunge, disengaged his sweep and put my point right on his hand. It felt just right. Must be that extra-stiff BF blade, haha. Well, maybe a little—it sure seems like the tip stays far more stable than on my other epees.

Anyway, I kept up the same stuff and after a bit managed to hit his hand again, in a similar way. It wasn’t as pretty, but hit more directly on his hand and felt quite nice. After that we maneuvered around and he seemed more careful about protecting his hand. After a while I managed to make the distance close a bit using a “retreat check step” which he advanced into, at least a little bit. I made some kind of feint, half lunge, then renewed deep to his body, hitting. He counterattacked, but a bit late, too close and too high. My deep lunge had brought my head down and his blade ended up over my head.

After that I worked on being patient—I was up three points after all—yet still as active as possible footworkwise. Time passed as we probe and maneuvered. Finally he fleched. I had my blade turned to point a bit to my left, and lowish—part of something I’ve been practicing and exploring ever since watching Joseph Choo at the Battle in Seattle. I think Bela attempted some deceptive blade action as he fleched, but from my blade’s lowish, somewhat septime-y position I was able to lift up into a high septime, basically nullifying whatever Bela was trying to do with his blade. That was exactly the kind of thing I had seen Choo doing and had been trying myself. It wasn’t pretty in this case, but got Bela’s blade out of the way. Then, as he passed on my left I was able to drop the point and angle it to hit his thigh. Perhaps in this case it helped that he’s left-handed and was thus closer as he passed, maybe. Still, I was a little surprised that I had hit. And I wasn’t sure if the ref (Zoey) would give me the point—maybe he had passed? But she gave it to me. So yay, 4-0, wow.

So then, being nicely up, I continued trying to be very patient, yet active on my feet. There was a decent amount of time left, but still, Bela had to come to me. I could just wait. I tried using footwork stuff to draw his attack, but he was careful. After a while he was edging forward while I kept trying to draw him out. I also tried to keep pressure toward his hand, looking for another hand hit possibility. After a bit of this there was a moment where it seemed like he had edged just close enough and was, perhaps, concerned about my focus on his hand. I made another half lunge toward his hand then renewed and dropped to his foot. My point landed perfectly. His counterattack was high and late. I won 5-0! Against Bela, wow. And ending with a toe touch? Wonderful! I was elated. He was not happy and shook my hand with a grim firmness. As I walked back and unhooked John Comes congratulated me with an impressed expression.

That win was so unexpected and unexpectedly good, I figured I would be quite pleased even if everything fell apart in the rest of the pool. I felt super good—not really because I beat Bela, it could have been any “very good” fencer and felt as good. Mostly it was the wonderful feeling that comes from being in the zone, working my hardest, seeing details at speed and, most of all, being able to capitalize on it all, with two or three touches that felt pretty much perfect.

Also I figured the 5-0 win exactly made up for the 5-0 loss. After the bad start I was perfectly even. And those were the two toughest fencers in my pool, I figured. So I felt pretty good about the situation.

Next bout was with John Comes. We’ve fenced in tournaments quite a lot since I started at SAS. Sometimes I beat him easily, sometimes he beats me easily. Sometimes we have very close bouts. This time it was a very close bout. Things began well for me. I think I got the first two points. One with a hard beat attack, the other a retreating counterattack that landed nicely on his hand. Then, maybe I was overeager, but I attacked too deeply. My point landed, but deep, while his counterattack hit my shoulder. A single light for him. Then, after a bit, we attacked simultaneously and had a clashing double touch, making the score 3-2. I started trying to be more careful but also, I soon realized, slowed down my footwork a bit. Somehow we ended up infighting. I made a decent parry but couldn’t get a riposte in before he was passing me and going off strip. As he did he made a last-ditch prime-like attempt. His tip went into my shoe and scored. So it was tied 3-3. Hmm.

I don’t exactly remember the next couple of points. I think I scored one, then he scored, taking us to 4-4, la belle. We maneuvered for a while, trying to find openings and set traps. Finally I saw an opening and went for it. A nice lunge that landed near his shoulder or collarbone. He had made a counterattack, but it seemed like his blade was too far out of line. I won! But when I looked at the lights, his was on and mine wasn’t. I realized his counterattack had *just barely* managed to nick my elbow. So he won, 5-4. Afterwards he said it was a very close bout and that final point could easily have gone either way. And he had also thought it might have been mine until seeing the lights. We both agreed that it was a good bout.

Next I had Jonathan Brace. We fence now and then in the club, so I had an idea about how it might go. And it went pretty much as I thought it would. He kept attacking from too far, giving me fairly straightforward counterattack points. In this way we got to 4-0. Then he attacked just as I was lifting my blade for some reason. He hit my arm nicely. I got the final point and won, 5-1.

Then I had Ommer Bruce, the french-grip leftie who I didn’t know well. I had watched him in other pool bouts and gotten some sense of his style. His footwork was interesting: He tended to stay rather still, giving the impression of being slow, but he could suddenly fleche, surprisingly fast. He could also retreat faster than his rather static stance would suggest. Having seen that I knew I had to at least be careful. Mostly I did the same stuff I had been doing—very active footwork, lots of feints, attempts to set traps, etc.

We had a good, hard fought bout. I have forgotten how the first few points went, but somehow or other we got to 2-2. Then he fleched. I managed to parry and riposte in a prime-y way as he passed. Then he scored in a way I can’t remember, tying it up again at 3-3. Again he fleched and again I managed a parry-riposte. It was awkward and ugly, and I barely stayed on the strip. As I scored I half-fell off strip, stumbling back-first into the wall. Still, I got the point. More maneuvering and then, maybe remembering my toe touch with Bela, I went low, after trying to pressure his hand. Bad timing though—right as I dropped my blade low he fleched. My tip was nowhere near his foot and his fleche easily landed. So we were tied at 4-4. I don’t remember the last point exactly, but it was mine. I think there was an opening and I took it, but it was close.

So now I had a 5-0 loss, a 5-0 win, a 5-4, and a 5-4 win. Very symmetrical. Plus the 5-1 win against Jonathan. Not bad, not bad. My final bout was with Ed Bourguignon. I had started the pool with almost no idea about his fencing. But I had plenty of time to watch him fencing others and felt like I had a good chance. He seemed susceptible to traps. I got the sense that he hadn’t been fencing all that long, or maybe not too frequently. Anyway, it turned out he was susceptible to traps. I won 5-1, and almost all the points were fairly simple traps. Things like low line feints until a high counterattack was drawn, which could be taken with a six opposition lunge. Or several beats followed by a fake beat, disengage, six take. At 3-0 I began some kind of setup trap prep and he made a straight lunge into my prep, scoring. I simplified for the last two points.

So I ended up four and two, with a +8 indicator. Far better than I had expected I’d do. I ended up getting the 6th seed, out of 26 mostly very tough fencers. Yay. With 26 fencers the top six got byes for the round of 32. So to my surprise I got the last of those byes. I’d almost rather not have, so I could have had a winnable DE. Somehow getting a bye doesn’t feel as good as winning a DE. Then again, with only six byes I felt pretty good about getting one.

Once the tableau was up I saw I would face the winner of a bout between Joel Howard and Travis Exum. Seeing that my heart sank. It seemed highly likely that Travis would beat Joel, then beat me. And that’s exactly what happened. In fact Travis went on to beat everyone, taking 1st place in the end. Before the DEs Travis said he didn’t do so well in the pools. Tobias had beaten him in the pools and talked to me a bit about it, and other tactical and strategic stuff. Watching Travis fence Joel, plus having warmed up with him a bit, I thought maybe he was having an off day and I had a chance.

Also, after some of the things Tobias had talked about, especially stuff about fencing better fencers, I considered trying to keep the score as low as possible with Travis. Perhaps I could try for non-combativity. Maybe I should have. But I worried about my own ability to stay focused and highly active if I went that way. Also, I knew from practice that if I let Travis set stuff up he tends to score on me. Could I have gone for non-combativity while also actively disrupting his set ups? Maybe. Next time?

In any case, things began decently enough. I think we tied at 3-3. Then I attempted a surprise attack fairly quickly off the line. It failed. Then he got another point, and another. Before I knew it I was behind and felt I had to attack if I hoped to catch up. Travis was happy to play a defensive game, although he certainly kept the pressure on. Things went badly and soon the score was 3-7. I killed time until the period ended, hoping I could somehow reset and come up with a desperate plan in the break.

In the second period I was more careful, knowing I needed lots of singles. I managed to get one point, but he got the rest, winning 10-4. Ah well, here is where I need to be happier about getting a bye instead of winning a DE before losing one.

Anyway, the bye put me into the 16, and Travis kept me out of the 8. Thanks to my decent pool I ended up coming in 11th overall, just before Erich Cranor and Jeff Johnson, and above people like Eli Delgado and Fred Frank. So that’s good! Still, after the pool I had been hoping I might make the 8, since doing so would renew my C rating, which is getting dusty.

On the other hand, if I had seeded one or two places higher I would probably have had to face Sean Ameli, Fred Frank, or Eli Delgado, or Bela Suveg. I can’t imagine I’d have done much better with any of them than I did with Travis.

Catching up!

Haven’t posted here in a year. My last post was on the 2016 Battle in Seattle, and the 2017 Battle in Seattle happened just a couple weeks ago. Time to get back on it.

I stopped posting after several tournaments in which I did poorly and felt no desire to write about. Then inertia and life built up. Also, since getting my C I have had far fewer tournaments to go to, and tend to do meh. Last weekend there was a C and under tournament in Tacoma that drew over 20 fencers. That would have been ideal, but alas, I could not go. On the plus side, Alex Rwamashongye came in 1st and got his C. We fence a lot at the club. It was nice to see him do so well.

Looking at AskFred, it seems that I’ve had 11 tournaments since my last post here:

Three small “Open Epee” tournaments at SAS. I did alright at these. Middle of the pack.

The 2016 WWD Divional Qualifier. I came in dead last.

The 2016 Rain City Open. I came in 2nd to last. This was just a couple weeks after the Qualifier tournament, and the double whammy of bad results played a big role in my not posting here. There was also a vet epee event at Rain City Open, at which I came in second! But there were only four fencers, so.

The 2016 Seattle International Veteran’s Cup. I did alright.

The WWD Division Championship. I did horrible, coming in second last. Sigh.

BladeFest 2016. I did poorly in the Senior event but good (2nd out of 15) in the Veteran event.

The 2016 Leon Auriol Open. I did meh, but could have been worse.

The RCFC “Home for the Holidays” tournament. I did pretty good and hope to write more about it in a later post.

And finally the 2017 Battle in Seattle. I did meh in the Vet event and wasn’t too pleased. In the Senior event I did better than I feared and was happy enough with my fencing. I should write a post about it.

And that’s it since last year. I went to more tournaments the first couple of years of this blog, and of my return to fencing. Many were events I could not do now—U and under, E or D and under, etc. I miss those in some ways. Sometimes I imagine dropping to a D rating, if I don’t renew my C within a couple years, and being able to do Div 3 stuff again. But….I’d rather get better, haha.

Maybe the next thing for me is to start going to NACs, especially the Vet ones. I might be able to go to the April NAC in Baltimore, for the vet events. And then, looking farther into the future, I’ll age into Vet50 in a couple years. I daydream about becoming a much stronger competitor in the Vet/Vet50 category. Maybe if I work hard, go to NACs, etc, I could be a high/highish level Vet fencer by the time I reach Vet60.

We’ll see. I certainly don’t plan to stop!

Battle in Seattle 2016, Senior Epee

Battle in Seattle 2016, Senior Epee

As expected, I got fairly stomped on. But on the bright side I had a good pool bout with Matson Lalor, despite losing, and a good DE bout, also despite losing. But mostly I got stomped. Kinda embarrassing, but oh well:

http://www.fencingtime.com/LiveResults/Battle2016/FTEvent110264323.htm

https://askfred.net/Results/results.php?tournament_id=30762&highlight_competitor_id=91067&event_id=121248

While writing about the Battle in Seattle vet epee I looked back and discovered I had had a downward trend over the four years I've done it, until this year. The senior epee Battle in Seattle event is much harder and I usually don't do very well. But do I have a downward trend there too? Let's see...84th out of 112 (2014), 72nd out of 89 (2015), and 82nd out of 91 (2016). Yep. Damn. ...well, actually, last year was very similar to this year (basically getting stomped on, winning just one pool bout), while the year before was the time I won one pool bout, eeked out another, and came close in two more. And oh yea, that was also the year my DE was with John Varney, which I lost of course. I ended up in a slightly higher spot thanks to the better pool.

POOLS

I did poorly, so let's see if I can keep this write-up short.

My first pool bout was with Patric Wallace, who I had never seen before. He was friendly. We chatted a little during the pool. Apparently he is from New Jersey. I didn't check anyone's rating until just now. Patric is an A13. He killed me 5-1. He was strong and used lots of beats. My one point was when he fleched and I smacked his blade in 8 and riposted to the body as he passed.

Second bout was with Matson Lalor, a Canadian from Dynamo I had seen a few times before. I don't think we had fenced before, but maybe. I thought he was an A, but looking now I see he is a B15. Anyway, this was the one pool bout I felt pretty good about. Mostly because I got two toe touches. I rarely even try for them in tournaments. Now and then I've gotten one. I don't think I had ever gotten two in a single pool bout.

He kept pushing me back. I would retreat, but tried to keep up some in-and-out footwork. Early in the bout I noticed his foot seeming rather close. In the midst of other things I went for it and to my own surprise, hit. After that we got to 2-2 somehow. Then he fleched. I parried but could not riposte before he passed. He managed a remise as he passed and scored. The ref took a moment to consider whether he had passed before hitting, but he hadn't. It was a good hit. Then he was pushing me again and I pulled off another toe touch, making it 3-3. The first one had felt nice, but the second one felt even better. Something about getting those. I was hoping they might demoralize him a bit. Maybe they did. He seemed a little more cautious. But maybe they also made me overconfident or something. I made an impatient attack at a bad time and got hit. Then, down 4-3, while we were energetically fencing I tried to pull off another toe touch, but it wasn't close and I got hit.

So I lost 5-3. As I unhooked Patric said "two toe touches, yes, but three? yea, no." He went on to say my toe touches were very nice and well hidden. It was nice to hear. I felt good about the bout.

My next bout was with Dillon Grewell. I had seen him before, and maybe we had fenced before, but I couldn't remember details. I thought I'd have a decent chance. I thought he was probably a C, and looking now I see he is. Watching him, and chatting with Patric, I got the idea that he tended to telegraph his fleches. But when we fenced I fell into a weird mindset where I was either too passively spacey or too impulsively reckless. He killed me 5-0. Ouch.

Then I had Glenn Biasi. I think he had come mainly for vet foil, but was doing epee as well "just because". He did poorly overall. I didn't think about any of that going in. I was annoyed with my spacey mindset with Dillon and eager to refocus and re-energize. So I fenced hard and high-energy. I won 5-1. Afterward Patric, who had been watching, said I didn't have to work so hard to beat him. I said I was trying to get my mind, and body, back in the groove, which he seemed to find reasonable.

Next bout was with Henry Lange, the tall leftie who won the whole tournament. I had fenced him once or twice before and always had a hard time. And he's only gotten better. I had something of a plan, but it didn't work at all. Another 5-0 loss, ugh. Twice he got me with a long lunge into my feint check-steps. Twice with lovely fleches. And once while I was trying to worry his hand while keeping distance. Sigh.

My final bout was with Zach Shaw, a kid who I've fenced a few times and feel like I should be able to handle, but somehow never do.

DIRECT ELIMINATION

With a pool like that I thought I would get an impossible DE, but it turned out better than I feared. I still lost, but it was a good, fun, fairly close bout. It was with Michael Desimone, a guy I had never met, which is one of best things about these large events: fencing people I don't know at all. Especially in the DEs, where you have time to scope them out, do early "reconnaissance", try to figure out tactics and apply them, adjust to changing tactics and new information, and so on. I felt like this DE bout had all that.

By the end of the first period I was down 3-5, but felt like I had learned a lot. Where the proper distance was, recognizing some of his invitation/traps and getting ideas about how to take advantage of them. He kept doing an invitation, opening his outside forearm. I got one hit there early on, but also made some overly deep attacks that failed. During the break Russ emphasized shallow attacks and said something about using a double disengage if I wanted to defeat that arm invitation.

Over the next two periods we both got some nice touches, we both made some mistakes, and the score remained close. I never quite managed to tie it up, but was never more than two points down. I tried to make that double disengage idea work, but never could. Mostly I tried to stay very shallow and keep the distance rather wide. He mostly did the same. Once or twice he fleched and I parried and just missed my riposte. Once he got a nice knee touch on me. Another time I was showing a hand invitation and he hit my hand. Got too close.

At 12-10 I got a touch that felt quite nice—a bit of subtle distance work and broken time, creating an opening. Then, at 12-11 he fleched and almost caught me unready, but I eeked out a double. That made it 13-12. I felt like the next point was particularly important. I could tie it up. But if he got a point, even a double, he'd be at 14. I was doing my best to work the distance, throwing out lots of little feints/shallow target probes, and showing little invitations. He was doing much the same. At some point I made a little invitation just as he made a little feint and pop, he hit my hand. It seemed almost accidental, maybe lucky, but damn, 14-12. He fleched for a double to win.

Afterward we talked a bit. We both thought it was a good, fun bout. We had both been thinking similarly in terms of tactics. I think we both had had a good time seeing what the other did and trying to figure things out. We had never met before. It was a good example of a problem-solving DE. I think we both thought it could have gone either way. We both had several semi-lucky hits and several almost-hit misses.

I watched Michael's next DE, against Zhice (David) Que, who had seeded quite a bit higher (Michael was 48th, Que was 17th). I thought maybe I would see how a better fencer might deal with some of Michael's stuff—maybe I'd see things I could have or should have done. I watched as this "better" fencer kept getting way too close, it seemed to me, and getting hit. And he kept doing it, apparently not figuring out the right distance. The bout wasn't even close (15-5). Michael and I chatted a bit after that. I said that other guy kept getting too close, and he was like I know, wtf?! I watched his next DE, which he also won, against Bela Suveg, who had seeded closer to Michael (49th), but is tough—I've never come close to beating him anyway. Then Michael faced Kaiden Crotchett, who was the top seed, and lost 15-4. Anyway, I had already felt pretty good about my DE. Seeing Michael go on to do as well as he did made me feel even better, despite having lost.

As always with these kind of events, I enjoyed watching the rest of the DEs, checking out all these amazing fencers, trying to learn stuff. The most exciting bout I saw was Svetoslav Dimitrov and Jason Lipton. Lipton got a nice lead and seemed to figure out how to deal with Dimitrov's nice fleches. But Dimitrov, who I think is like 14 and has only been fencing a couple years or so, did really well adjusting his tactics and timing, hitting again and again with such fast fleches. He clawed his way back to tie 14-14. He lost the last point, but even so he did well enough to come in 8th and jump from a D to an A rating. Before facing Lipton he beat Kyle Yamasaki, impressive. That one was also very close, 15-14.

In the end it came down to an unsurprising few, such as Kaiden, Sam Larsen, Henry Lange. In the final 8 Sam and Kaiden had a very close bout. Kaiden had the lead for most of it, but Sam came back in the end to win 15-14. Then Sam took out Jason Lipton 15-3. That made the final Sam and Henry Lange, which was another very close bout. It went to 14-14. Lange won.

PS, it looks like Lipton uploaded videos of his bout with Dimitrov:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=noeYxmYZNZg
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VzMAzVCMYME
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=31ljU_VOgJE
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zM0RoqQjcIA

Battle in Seattle 2016, Vet Epee

Battle in Seattle 2016, Vet Epee

http://www.fencingtime.com/LiveResults/Battle2016/FTEvent110264329.htm

https://askfred.net/Results/roundResults.php?seq=1&event_id=121254&highlight_competitor_id=91067

The Battle in Seattle! One of the biggest tournaments in the Pacific Northwest. I always look forward to it. People come from far and wide. It is a Div-1A ROC, which means, well I'm still not quite sure what it means—something like, if you do well you earn points that effect your competitive ranking and qualify you for various national events. I don't know exactly how it all works, since I am not good enough for it to matter. But many people are, so tournaments like this tend to attract good fencers from all over the western US and Canada. The points and qualification stuff matter less for the vet events (for people over 40) than for the senior (over 14). Just showing up at a vet ROC qualifies you for summer national vet events.

A few years ago, after I had only started fencing again about six months earlier, I went to the Battle in Seattle vet epee event but skipped the big senior event because it looked scary—but I went to watch, then wished I was in it. Since then I've done both vet and senior epee every year.

That first time I did surprisingly okay. Looking back I see I went four and two in the pools, beating Maria Copelan, William Walker, and Jim Henderson (all of whom I've lost to in later tournaments). How weird, especially given how raw a fencer I was back then. In that first year DEs I beat John Comes before losing to Erich Cranor. I came in 17th out of 33. Huh. Not bad at all. Maybe that was what gave me my love of this tournament.

Let's see how I've done since then <sound of looking stuff up>. The next year, 2014, I did worse in vet epee, coming in 21st out of 35. I did alright in the pools (3 and 2), beating Mike Perka and Mark Blom, surprisingly. But my DE was with James Neale and I lost badly. Then, last year I did even worse, 25th out of 30, losing every pool bout but one and losing my DE to William Walker.

So I've had a downward kind of progress in the Battle in Seattle vet epee. I hadn't realized that until just now. Well, this year I turned it around. I didn't do great, but well enough. I ended up 14th out of 28, the exact halfway spot. That's slightly better than my first year, where I ended up slightly below the halfway spot. My pool result wasn't quite as good this year, but in my defense it was a harder pool.

Overall, well, something I look at is how well I do compared to my initial seed. In this case I ended up 14th and my post-pool seed was 15th. My initial seed? It was 13th. But I was seeded highest of the four C15 fencers. I think the seeding is random within fencers of the same rating and year. So my initial seed could have ranged between 13th and 16th. But whatever, my final result and seeds were more or less the same: right around the middle of the pack. I'm okay with that! The Battle in Seattle attracts a lot of great fencers.

POOLS

My pool had two good A-fencers I doubted I could beat (Ameli and Perka), two guys I "should" be able to beat (Lucas and Robinson), one guy who is tough and maaaybe I could handle (Moore), and another guy I didn't know at all (Goossens).

My first bout was with Sean Ameli. Might as well get the hardest one over with, eh? Maybe Mike Perka is better on average, maybe not, I don't know. Perka did just slightly better in the pools this time (tied victories and indicator, one more touch scored), getting 2nd seed to Ameli's 3rd. But I figured Ameli would be harder for me. I've fenced Perka more, even won a pool bout once, and had ideas about how to fence him. I've only fenced Ameli once, I think, several years ago when I had only recently started fencing again. All I knew was that he beat me badly that one time and I barely understood what had happened. I remembered that he's left-handed, and that had been hard for me back then, and that I felt like a noob, heh. It may have been my first serious experience with lefties. I got hit on the outside line a lot.

This time I felt a lot more comfortable. Less of a noob! Still, he got the first two points, then quickly got up four to my one. I'm better than I used to be, but still have a long way to go. I hardly remember the points, they went by so fast. I think he got me nicely on the leg with an accelerating lunge. Another time I attempted a flick to the inside wrist but apparently mismanaged distance and got hit on the arm.

I had been trying to play it safe, but at 4-1 I changed to riskier tactics. Playing it safe sure wasn't working. I held my blade up in a semi-absent position, making an obvious invitation to the lower arm. I even stuck my arm out a bit, trying to tempt him. He clearly saw this as a blatant invitation and made a few feints into it, perhaps to see how I would react, what my plan was. Or perhaps to hit, as I was being rather risky sticking out a target like that. I let one of his feints come awfully close, trying to dare him to really try. I think I instinctively pulled my whole arm back a bit. After a little bit he made a more committed attack to my arm and I did what I had planned: retreated a step, straightening and raising my arm while angling the blade down a little. It worked perfectly, my tip landing on his arm near the elbow, while his tip went below my arm.

That felt very nice. It was something I had in my mind from watching videos of Max Heinzer earlier in the day. Watching Heinzer do this thing was odd, because it looked so obvious, yet he was getting people to walk into it. That's kind of how I felt here. It felt too obvious to actually work, but it did.

That made is 4-2, still not very good. Next I tried another thing I've gotten watching Heinzer. Not that I think I'm doing what he does by any stretch—more like stuff I've been inspired to try after watching the way he fences, and developed into something of my own. In fact, I think I've developed a small set of inter-related tactics inspired by both Heinzer and Dragonetti. Maybe I could call it my Heinzeretti tactics? I don't know. Anyway, this next one involved holding the blade level but angled maybe 45 degrees to the inside. I'm still working on this and figuring out how and why it works when it does. There are a number of things that can happen. If nothing else the blade position is another semi-absent type of thing, and sets up several invitations. I've found that some people are tempted to attack into my high outside line, and that it is easy for me to move into a strong six parry. I've also played with holding my blade out rather far in this position, then slowly bringing it in, combined with footwork and other blade movements, with the goal of stealing distance. In any case, I haven't tried it much with lefties and thought it might not work very well. But I tried it anyway. We maneuvered about a bit and I at least tried to do the stealing distance bit. I think he probed my high outside line and I responded with motions toward a six parry. Eventually he did attack high and outside, with more speed and more angulation, perhaps thinking he could angle around my six. That is a common leftie thing, isn't it? Being able to get around a "normal" six? But I saw his attack coming and instead of going to six I counterattacked low and inside. In doing this I dropped my body down and inside a bit. As a result his blade went just over my head and I hit his body.

After that 4-1 start those last two points both felt very nice. I had made it 4-3, a much nicer place to be. But I still needed two singles and was running out of ideas. Going back to the line I thought if I was in his place I might just try to double out, get it over with. Perhaps I could do something to encourage an attempt to double, then deal with it? I decided to make a fake charge right off the line. I'd act like the last two points had given me some kind of momentum and I was going to do some kind of fast advance-advance-fleche or something. But I'd break off suddenly and if he attacked into it I would retreat and counterattack. So that's what I did. At the call "fence" I came forward quickly and, hopefully, aggressively, then stopped abruptly, ready to counter and retreat. But I botched it. I had advanced a little too far and perhaps a little awkwardly, and he had advanced too. So when I stopped he easily hit me before I could retreat or counterattack. Whoops. Still, a 5-3 loss was better than 5-1, especially against the guy I thought I'd have the most trouble with.

My next bout was with Michael Moore. I like him. He's fun to fence. Lots of energy! I fenced him once before, in a DE at last year's Columbia Cup in Portland, vet epee. I mentioned it to him, chatting, but he didn't remember that specific bout. I had also watched him at another tournament or two. In particular I remember watching George Raush beat him in a DE, but only by putting everything he had into it, leaving George "out of gas" for his next DE. I mentioned that to Michael too and he said something about how he likes to fence hard, such that even if he loses his opponent will have paid a price for it.

So we fenced, and it was a great bout. I think we have somewhat similar styles. Strong blade actions, for example. Not someone you want to try to power through. We both fenced quite patiently though, which surprised me a little. I thought he would attack more, but we both worked hard to get the other person to attack. And we both seemed to want to use strong bladework counterattacks. So the bout was a fun, very active game of distance and feints. A game of seeing how close you could get, trying to draw an attack, without getting too close.

He got the first point, basically because I was less patient and attacked from too far. Then I began to see how it should go and tried to work the distance right, taking plenty of time. I don't remember who started the next attack, but it wound up a double, making it 2-1. Then he tried an attack right off the line, perhaps because we had just spend a good bit of time setting up patterns of baiting and waiting. He almost got me by surprise. I managed to get my point out and make it a double, 3-2. Then we had another lengthy distance and feinting game, which finally ended up in a bunch of action and...another double? No, I had a single light! Tied 3-3. He had the ref check his weapon, which seemed like a good idea. I had no idea if he had hit me or not. Maybe he had. His weapon checked out. Perhaps he had hit flat.

Then we had another long but high energy distance game, finally resulting in a double, making it 4-4. Exciting! We started up another distance game, but I stupidly got impatient and attacked at a non-ideal time. He got a single and won, 5-4. Why did I attack impatiently? I don't know. Maybe the excitement got to me?

Next I had my friend Jeff Lucas. If I remember right I got up 2-1, then he got a simple pick under my forearm. He put his tip out and I stuck my arm onto it. I felt like it was at least half my fault for sticking my arm out, but later he said he has been working on picking under the guard like that. Then we maneuvered around a bit and I got a touch on his outside arm. I don't remember the details. I think he had let his guard drift a little to the center, opening his outside line just enough for me to pick it off. Then, he got the next point, making a 3-3 tie. I forget what happened. My notes for that point just say "oops, uh oh". Whatever happened I thought I could do better. I tried to up my game, be more careful and tricky, more dynamic.

I got the next point with a "Heinzeretti" type thing—I think it was the "blade to the inside and steal distance" thing. On the last point, he kept making feints and probes, putting his blade out, but from a reasonably safe distance. Somehow I got into my head the notion of closing distance quickly and "taking" his blade in prime. It is something Russ has shown me a few times but I have not practiced much recently. I tried it, advancing fast and moving my blade into prime, with the idea of pushing his blade away as I closed. But he retreated and pulled his blade back faster than I advanced, so my prime "take" missed his blade. By that point I was committed to some kind of attack, so I just made a weird, very pronated fleche out of prime. He tried to retreat and do something about my blade, but I managed to hit. So I won 5-3. Right after that last point he said, incredulously, "what was that??" I said something like "I'm not quite sure, it wasn't supposed to go like that!"

My next bout was with Bruno Goossens. I had never met him or seen him fence before. I lost 5-2 and ended up somewhat confused about what had happened. He had a style that looked like just the kind of thing I like and could do well against—French grip, holds the blade out a lot, that kind of thing. But he was tricksy and smart, and amazingly controlled and accurate.

I think he got the first point, then I got one. Then I tried a fast attack off the line, maybe because he had a calm demeanor and seemed surprisable. He wasn't. Now down 2-1 I took a more cautious approach and tried to find a way to deal with his French grip and extended arm tactics. I tried some kind of beat attack. It worked, but he got his point back on very quickly. We doubled, 3-2. So I tried being more cautious. He was patient and let me edge in. I made various feints and beats while slowly advancing, looking for openings, trying to figure him out. At some point, while my mind was occupied with his blade and how to get it out of the way he went for a toe touch and got it easily. It was nicely done. I was overly concerned with his blade and focused on beating and feinting combined with advancing. He waited for the perfect moment when my weight was on my front foot. I had an instant of time in which I saw the attack coming but was unable to do anything about it. He timed it just right. Next, if I remember right, he made an attack off the line and I wasn't quite ready for that. He scored and won, 5-2.

I watched him fence a bit after our bout, and chatted to a couple other people about him. I was not able to "figure him out", but got the idea that he had a "French style". I think he is French. At least his jacket said FRA on it, although he lives in Oregon and is a B13 in the USFA. He came in 8th overall, winning two DEs, including one against Joel Howard. In my pool he did well, beating everyone except Sean Ameli and Mike Perka.

My next bout was with Doug Robinson, down from Canada. We've fenced a few times and although I couldn't remember the details I felt fairly confident. But I started off a bit awkwardly and he got up 2-1. Then he attacked into my six line with a disengage to the inside. Instinctively I went into prime and scored. That felt nice. After that we doubled, making it 3-3. At that point I started using "Heinzeretti" tactics more. I had been trying to use them less, but when things got close I tended to fall back to them, and they worked pretty well for me, late bout. Maybe, for pool bouts, a slight change of tactics toward the end, to something I am comfortable with, is useful.

So I was doing a slightly blade-up thing, showing a bit of arm invitation. He made an extension, probably just a feint. I did a double beat advance fleche and scored, which felt good. After a meh start things were feeling better. Confident again I tried to use better footwork, bouncing in and out, looking for openings or trying to draw attacks. Eventually he attacked and I was able to bounce back and counterattack, getting a single light. So I won 5-3, yay.

At this point in the pools I was 2 and 3. My last bout was with Mike Perka, an A-rated fencer who often wins or places high in vet events. I had almost beaten him a couple years ago, in the pools of an earlier Battle in Seattle vet epee event. I remembered thinking he seemed a bit slow, at least footwork-wise. Also, someone in that pool had suggested I attack "straight up his arm" when he does  "blade wiggle" things. So I went in with those things in mind, planning to use quick in-and-out footwork while looking for chance to go "up his arm".

I don't remember the first few points exactly, except at one point he got me with a lovely hit to the hand—to the finger even. And another time he fleched with disengages or "wiggles", getting me to go for a prime parry while his blade ended up on the outside. Wrong parry! Soon he was up 3-2. Then, maybe getting a better sense of timing I attacked "up his wiggle". I scored on his arm, but he managed to get my arm from below, doubling. Now we were at 4-3 and again I turned to Heinzeretti tactics. As with Doug I tried a slightly blade-up position, using in-and-out footwork, hoping to tempt him toward my lower arm. He extended, perhaps just a feint, I beat hard and went up his arm, getting a single. Yay, 4-4. Then I tried my Heinzeretti "to the side" guard. I was not at all sure this was a good idea, but wasn't sure what else to do. At some point he made a "blade wiggle" and I went for it, and got him on the arm again. Single light. I won 5-4, woo!

So I came out of the pools 3 and 3, which was what I had been hoping for, but didn't think I would manage after losing to Michael Moore and Bruno Goossens. Sean and Mike did the best, both winning five, and both with a +11 indicator. Bruno had won four, +8. Michael and I had both gone three and three. His indicator was zero while mine was -1, so he seeded higher.

DIRECT ELIMINATION

I seeded 15th out of 28. Not bad. Michael Moore was one spot above me, but looking at the DE table I don't think it would have been better for me if I had had his spot. He started with Mark Blom, who I may or may not have been able to beat. Then he had 3rd seed David Jensen, who I probably couldn't beat. Then again, I don't think I've ever fenced Jensen, so that could have been cool.

Instead I started with Gerald Duffy and then had Mike Perka, again. Still, although I've fenced Perka before, and just had in the pools, it was interesting to see how things differed between the pool bout, which I had barely eeked out a win, and the DE, which was a lot harder.

But first my first DE, which was against Gerald Duffy. I had never even seen him before and went in with no idea at all about his style. But that is one of the things I like about tournaments like the Battle in Seattle: Getting to fence people I've never even seen. Especially in a DE where there is more time to figure things out.

I started out cautious and probing, trying to figure out how this guy fences, what might work, what to be careful about, etc. I used a lot of in-and-out footwork, trying to set distance traps, and Heinzeretti-type blade stuff, combined with probes, feints, and shallow attacks. I also tried to use a lot of tempo changes—switching up being bouncingly aggressive with slowing down, breaking off, or even suddenly freezing for a moment. I was planning to keep the first period score low while I tried to figure things out. But he made attacks perhaps a little too quickly, or into my traps. I got a lead, and soon a sizable lead. The first period ended 7-3 or 7-4. A comfortable lead in a DE to ten.

In the second period I felt comfortable being patient and killing time, while doing the same sort of stuff I used in the first period. Maybe he attacked more than was wise because he knew he had to catch-up. In any case I got the three points I needed while he only got one, or none. I won 10-4. I enjoyed the feeling of being in control of a DE bout. After the first few points I felt relaxed and confident. I felt like I was in control of the tempo, like I had the initiative, while he was more reactive. That was nice because it is something I have definitely been working on, and have too often been on the wrong side of—being reactive to someone else's tempo.

I was near the bottom of the DE table, so my second DE was with the 2nd seed, which was Mike Perka. Seeing that made me laugh. The odds of winning were slim, but I had just beaten him in the pools. Then again, I had barely beaten him and felt there had been at least a little luck involved. Well, a DE should show if either of us had learned something useful in that pool bout.

He got a lead early on. I tried to do the kind of things that had worked in the pool bout, while also trying to see and adjust to changes he might make. He made some nice attacks, confusing me with his blade wiggles. Once he was up two or three points I got a little smarter and started scoring doubles. Or maybe he was content to double. Either way we reached 9-5 before the first period ended. Not a good score in a vet DE to ten points!

So it was a long shot, a very long shot. Still, I wasn't about to give up, especially since this would be the last bit of fencing I would get that day. I went into the second period determined to at least get a good point or two. I got a single light on his arm, attacking "up the wiggle". Okay, good. Then, although it is risky, I tried that high-low-outside fleche. It came off well and gave me another single light. Good, good. Then, after a little maneuvering, I tried it again, which was probably not the best idea. As a tactic it depends on the other person responding to the high feint with a parry or high-line counterattack. The first time he made a counterattack, which went over my shoulder. This time, however, I could not surprise him and he counterattacked lower, perfectly nailing my arm long before I came close.

I lost 10-7. But those last two points of mine had felt nice, so I was pretty okay with it.

Perka went on to lose 10-8 to Carl Loeffler. I don't know Carl, but he did well. He went on to beat David Jensen to face Sean Ameli in the final. I watched the final closely, knowing that Sean is very good, but Carl had been fencing very well. Should be good! But it wasn't even close. Carl won 10-3.

Videos from Battle in Seattle 2016

Three videos from the 2016 Battle in Seattle, senior men's epee:

Mark Segal (L) v Jason Lipton (R), table of 16:




Sam Larsen (L) v Kaiden Crotchett, table of 8:



Henry Lange (L) v Sam Larsen (R), final gold medal bout:

Broken blade

It was just a matter of time. I had a good run with two Leon Paul FIE epee blades. They've been quite reliable. Held up perfectly during Summer Nationals. Lately they have both been bending near the tip too easily, in a way that suggested breaking might be in the future.

One of them—the one that hasn't broken yet—still has the original LP wire and barrel it came with (yes, I bought it wired because lazy). It never seemed as robust as the older ones I've had.

Yesterday at open fencing I got a touch that made a small bend. I straightened it by hand and crack!—it broke in my hands. Better than breaking on another person anyway.

The one that broke has been my main epee for well over a year. That might not seem like a long time, but I beat on the thing about three times a week, and thanks to my less-than-perfect technique it has had more than its share of overly hard hits. I think a year and a half life is fairly normal for a FIE blade that takes as much abuse as this one got. I rewired it two or three times, changing it to a German barrel and tip. Recently the wire was starting to come off a bit. I glued it back in, but poorly, and thought I should probably rewire it again soon. I almost rewired it last week. I'm glad it didn't break right after a rewire.

After it broke I had to decide what to replace it with. I've been thinking of trying a different kind of FIE blade, especially since the newest LP blade I got doesn't seem as good as the older ones. And LP has been fiddling with their blades, I think, since the FIE made them pull their SR-71 and other folded steel blades. I've heard good things about BF and StM, but have never tried either. I figured when one of my LPs broke I might try one of those.

Joel told me about a fencing supply place called Fencing Star that is going out of business and selling everything at 30% off. He said their stock was dwindling and there might not be a huge selection. So I checked and sure enough, everything is 30% off. The only FIE epee blades they had were StM. They are about half the price of a LP FIE blade, which was too good to pass up. Unless maybe there are different kinds of StM FIE blades and this exact one isn't great. Well, we'll see. It will be here in a couple days.

If nothing else it should help me decide what to do when my other LP blade breaks, sooner or later.

RCFC "Home for the Holidays" Open

RCFC "Home for the Holidays" Open

https://askfred.net/Results/results.php?tournament_id=31384&highlight_competitor_id=91067&event_id=123623

Good pools, got a first round bye, lost first DE. So I came in 9th, or "best" of those who did not make the round of 8. Lost my DE to Svetoslav Dimitrov (again!), who ended up coming in 8th, just one spot ahead of me, or "worst" of those who lost in the round of 8. Funny how that works. Had I won that DE (and lost the next, most likely) I probably would not have done much better. In fact, let's see...looking at results and seeds I would have been 6th had I won that DE. Assuming I lost the second DE, which would have been against Andrew Lee.

POOLS

First up I had Donovan Kawewehi, who I hadn't fenced or even seen in a couple years or so. He said he hadn't fenced a lot recently, and I hoped he would be rusty while I would have gotten a lot better. I tried using a "hard" style, with hard beats and the like, but things did not go well. He got a point, and another, and before I knew it the score was 1-4. I had forgotten how "hard" he fences. My attempt to be strong seemed mainly to create openings for him. I had my usual first bout lack of focus. Several times I had a chance to score and simply missed. Finally getting myself a little more together I managed to retreat from his fast attack and manage to end with a double touch, 2-5. Eesh. I wrote in my notes "many issues". Oof.

After waiting several bouts I fenced Kenji Yamamoto. I don't think I had ever fenced him before, or seen him fence. I started off a bit distracted and he got the first point. Wake up! Focus! So I woke up and focused more. I got a point in a way I can't remember. Then we ended up in an awkward infighting situation. We both tried close-in primes. I thought he hit, but when I looked at the lights mine was on and his was not. Apparently I had landed on his back calf? I was starting to feel a little more confident and after some maneuvering, trying to trick some distance, I launched a beat-fleche that worked nicely. So I was up 3-1. Feeling better. Then we were maneuvering again, throwing out various feints and such. I made a feint check-step kind of thing and he reponded with a half-duck and an overly big parry that made a nice big opening for me to lunge into. So, 4-1, the opposite of my first bout. I tried to avoid ending with a double touch so as to be a point up overall so far. Again we maneuvered, makes various feints. At one point I extended and he started a counterattack. I did something I had been practicing a bit: A small retreat with a cutover. It worked nicely. He didn't get my blade in opposition and my point ended up on his arm near the elbow. Sweet, 5-1!

My third bout was with Jeff Lucas. I was ready for one of his attacks right off the line, but he didn't do it, perhaps because we had been talking about that very thing earlier. I tried it on him though, thinking I might turn the tables. It was a little messy though and resulted in a double touch. Otherwise I made several large, ugly attacks and got lucky or just didn't hit. I got in one nice-feeling beat-fleche and eventually got the score to 4-1. Again I tried to end with a single, but he got a counterattack in and doubled. So, 5-2.

So far I was up two and one. Looking at who was left I saw three of increasing difficulty—Abby Barr, Tobias Lee, and, the final bout in our pool, Matthew Comes. I thought I should be able to beat Abby, had a chance with Toby maybe, and would probably lose badly to Matthew. If things went as "expected" I would end up three and three or, if I could beat Toby, four and two. Looking at it that way made my bout with Toby seem particularly important. Of course I knew that anything could happen and I shouldn't invest myself too much in thinking this way. So after noting these things I put it out of my head and focused on "one touch at a time". If anything I just thought that the bouts would get harder and I should try to fence my best and avoid doing anything too stupid.

Anyway, I fenced Abby Barr. She's pretty good, and left-handed too. I remembered to keep my guard lower than usual, to protect against her picks to the hand. Mostly I tried to keep the pressure on and the distance wider than her reach, but close to my reach. At a few points my concentration flagged and I had some bad misses. Luckily she wasn't able to take advantage of my lapses. I think a couple of times she had a chance and missed. Somewhere in there she got a point, while I worked up to 4-1. Then I made an attack that went a bit awkward and I missed, opening myself up badly. But her riposte/counter missed, lucky me. We ended up in infighting distance and I made a desperate prime which almost missed, but just nicked her leg. So I won 5-1, but that last touch was quite lucky.

Then I had Tobias Lee. I figured this bout would make a big difference for DE seeding—assuming I would lose to Matthew Comes. I like fencing Toby. Over time I had come to a better and better understanding of how to fence him, what might work, what not to do, what to watch out for, etc. I don't think I have ever won even a pool bout with him, but it seemed possible. I had to be careful, watch the distance, look out for picks, and take advantage of opportunities to get control of his blade with beats or binds and attack when the time was right—but not too much! No chasing him down the strip! No reaching far for a seemingly open target only to get my arm picked off. Beforehand I wrote a note to myself: "be careful and active—like fencing Travis". Not that Toby fences like Travis so much as I had to fence like I do when I fence Travis: Avoiding anything rash, being extra-wary of distance, and taking advantage of opportunities, but not too much! If a chance fails, let it fail instead of trying to force it. Stuff like that.

Anyway, I think I did well enough. It was close. He got up 3-2. I did do some chasing, but I think I managed to stop myself before getting hit. I don't remember exactly how the first few points went. At 3-2 he got a lovely hit to my hand that surprised me. I thought I was being careful enough to avoid things like that. That made it 4-2, which didn't look good, but I doubled down and worked hard. I got the next point, somehow. At 4-3 he made an attack that perhaps was aimed to maybe doubled out. I think he expected me to counterattack or use a circle-6 or 4 parry. And I think I started a circle-6 and our foibles caught part way through. If I had continued the circle-6 we might have doubled, but I went into a high-7 instead, which resulted in a single light for me. I certainly hadn't planned to use a high-7, it just happened in the moment. Nice when that happens and it works.

That made it 4-4. A comeback! I tried to stick with something familiar at the end. He made a somewhat low feint, so I used that hard-2 smack thing, hoping to throw his blade far out of line, followed by a high line attack. He recovered fast and caught my blade in 6 then immediately returned to a low line and hit, before I could do my prime-y escape-from-6 thing. It felt like I had done a low-high thing while he had done a nice low-high-low thing, almost like a third intention, one step ahead of me. So he won, 5-4. So close! Then again, it could have been worse given his being up 4-2 at one point.

So I was three and two at that point, with just Matthew Comes to go. I wrote in my notes that I wanted to score at least one point. I didn't want to lose 5-0, as I have with him before sometimes. I don't think I was being defeatist, just realistic. I would still fence my best. And by this point I was well warmed-up and in the zone. My bout with Toby had helped my focus and determination quite a lot. Still...

The bout ended up being a huge surprise. I got the first two points in ways I don't quite remember. I think one of them was a strong feint from me, which he perhaps took to be more of an attack than it was. He did one of his duck-parries but I was not close enough, so he couldn't hit but I could, and did. I think the other point was a simple fleche or beat-fleche on my part. That it actually worked surprised both of us, I think. Then he got a point, I don't remember how. Then after some maneuvering I launched a fleche again but immediately realized I was just a little too far. He retreated and I felt his tip tap my arm as I reached for his shoulder. But his tap was too light and did not score, while my reach eventually landed. That made the score 3-1. He was annoyed. For me it was nice and unexpected, but I tried to put it out of my mind. He could easily come back and win. He quickly launched one of his beautiful fleches. Normally it would have worked, and it really should have worked this time, but by what felt like sheer luck he missed, his tip going over my shoulder. My counterattack landed, making it 4-1. Now he was quite annoyed and I was feeling quite good. But really, even at this point I could picture him winning. I figured I should try to double out, so I tried an off-the-line advance-fleche on him. Maybe he was expecting a double-touch attempt, because he easily retreated and parried, scoring, 4-2. I still figured I would look for double-touch possibilities, but more carefully. We maneuvered a little, then he fleched and I countered. We doubled. So I won, 5-3. So much for my "just one point" plan. It was certainly the first time I had beaten him in any tournament bout. Part of it was luck—he made several mistakes and misses. But I think I did well enough, fencing with focus, energy, and good form. After the last point he went to his end of the strip for a few moments, mentally berating himself or whatever, then came and shook hands. I actually felt a bit bad for him and shook hands unemotionally, not wanting to seem gloating or anything. Then I remember turning and walking back to my strip end to unhook. I saw people who had been watching—Donovan, Jeff, Abby, I think—and I couldn't help but break into a smile and widen my eyes like "unexpected wow!"

Of course Matthew Comes still took first place in our pool, winning five and losing just that one, with a +14 indicator. This made him 2nd seed for the DEs. He later pointed out to me that if not for our bout he would have been 1st seed. Joseph Choo was 1st seed, having won all his bouts, but even so his indicator was lower than Matthew's. This meant Matthew and Andrew Lee had to fence in a semifinal instead of a final bout—assuming they got there. I think Matthew had expected to fence Andrew in the final. Instead they fenced in a semi-final. Then Matthew beat Joseph Choo in the final, which was a fairly close bout.

Anyway, for me it meant I was 6th seed for the DEs, out of 19. If I had lost to Matthew I would have been around 10th seed instead. Now if I had just beaten Tobias too... Actually, Toby and I both went four and two in the pools, and we both had a +9 indicator. But he had one more touch scored, so he came in 2nd in our pool and I was 3rd. I was 6th seed and he was 5th. Just one point! If it had been the other way around my DE would have been with...let's see...Mark Benack. Hmm. Given how much Mark has been progressing recently that may or may not have been a better situation. Toby beat him, but it was close.

DIRECT ELIMINATION

Being 6th seed gave me a bye in the round of 32. It meant I would fence the 11th seed, who also had a bye. That was Svetoslav Dimitrov. I sighed when I saw his name. We fenced for the first time last summer, and I beat him (resulting in my getting a C rating). He had fleched a lot, and often from too far, which made things rather straightforward for me. Since then we had fenced twice and I lost both times. I had him in my pool at BladeFest and an SAS Open. Both times he was much more patient than that first time, and I ended up attacking too much. At BladeFest it was close, but at SAS he mauled me. So here we were again, and in a DE again. In those two pool bouts I expected him to fence like he had in that first DE: lots of fleching. But he hadn't. He had been more defensive and careful. So this time I figured he would again be more defensive. Other people told me to expect lots of fleching, and I had seen him fencing aggressively in other pool bouts. So maybe he was more cautious fencing me in particular. Well, I figured I could be patient too. I would push him, but carefully, and wait. Eventually he would start attacking, especially if I kept pushing him back toward his end of the strip.

That was my basic plan. To out-patience him and get him to start fleching. And as far as that goes, it worked. A minute or two into the first period, after a point or two scored either way, he did start fleching. The problem was his fleches kept scoring. That wasn't part of my plan! By the end of the first period he was up a good amount. Something like 10-4. The second period went much the same. I remember it being 14-8 and scoring a point. Joel was watching and said something like "you got him just where you want him now!" Anyway, he won 15-9.

In hindsight the obvious problem I had was the long amount of time that passed between pools and my DE. It was at least 30 minutes. By the time our DE began I was cold and felt slow. I should have done more during the wait to stay energized. And I could have amped up my energy during the DE. I realized early on that I felt slow, but instead of working to increase my activity I thought I could "pretend" I was slow as a way of luring him out of being defensive and into fleching. I soon realized I was only fooling myself. Giving myself an excuse to stay slow. I've done that before—my brain comes up with excuses to be lazy and I buy into it.

Later, at SAS, I told Russ about the tournament. I described the long wait between pools and the DEs and how I woud benefit from finding a way to stay energized and "in the zone" during waits like that. I thought he might have some ideas but instead said "If you ever figure out how to stay consistent in fencing, let me know!"