heading home
Yesterday was the final day of Nationals. Sarah and I both fenced in the Division II event, where I pretty much bombed, and she excelled superbly.
I still had plenty of good ideas in my head, but I guess I was just enough slower and/or stiffer than the day before that I wasn't able to execute those good ideas very well. In my first round I won only two bouts, and lost 4. Three of the losses were by one point!
That gave me a very low seed into the direct elimination phase of the tournament, so I ended up facing the 8th seed. On a good day I could have beat her, because I knew exactly what to do. I timed my first couple of attacks beautifully, just as she started to come forward, and scored on both of them. She responded by counter-attacking, and got a couple of hits in. I responded to that by setting up something called a "second intention." The idea is that I come in for a attack, but I know she's going to counterattack, so I switch midstream to a parry, and then hit her. The problem is, I couldn't get it to work, and she pulled ahead, and then I couldn't close the gap.
The Vet event was my "important" event, though, and I had achieved my goal there well and thoroughly, bringing home a medal, earning Veteran Points, and re-earning my "C" classification. http://www.usfencing.org/usfa/content/view/2339/131/#V40
Sarah, in the meantime, was flying. She lost only one bout in her seeding pool, which put her into about 12th place, and then she just kept winning till she was in the top 8, and was beat by the woman who ended up winning the day. By then we had a big crowd of people cheering for her, which was nice. Sarah ended up winning a very excellent third place.
It was very strange to me, however, having been her sole fencing teammate/strip-side coach/entourage for so many years, to yield these roles to Andrew!
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In the evening, we went to the sushi feast that scotica arranged. It was very wonderful sushi, and terrific fun company. We sat next to learnteach and ermine_rat, and could have hardly asked for more entertaining dinner companions. I wish I'd had a chance to talk more with other people too, though, because many of them I had only met face to face briefly or not at all before last night!
Our hearty thanks go to scotica for setting it all up, and figuring out the bill -- not to mention her hospitality that made this great trip possible!
My traveling companions went off for a half-day visit to the Rosicrucian Egyptian museum, and we are catching a plane this evening, and finally heading home.
I expect the tomatoes and squash will be quite overgrown. Weeds everywhere. Cats annoyed. But there air will be clear of smoke, so maybe my bronchitis will finishing exiting my lungs. And oh boy, do I have a lot of work to catch up on!!
I still had plenty of good ideas in my head, but I guess I was just enough slower and/or stiffer than the day before that I wasn't able to execute those good ideas very well. In my first round I won only two bouts, and lost 4. Three of the losses were by one point!
That gave me a very low seed into the direct elimination phase of the tournament, so I ended up facing the 8th seed. On a good day I could have beat her, because I knew exactly what to do. I timed my first couple of attacks beautifully, just as she started to come forward, and scored on both of them. She responded by counter-attacking, and got a couple of hits in. I responded to that by setting up something called a "second intention." The idea is that I come in for a attack, but I know she's going to counterattack, so I switch midstream to a parry, and then hit her. The problem is, I couldn't get it to work, and she pulled ahead, and then I couldn't close the gap.
The Vet event was my "important" event, though, and I had achieved my goal there well and thoroughly, bringing home a medal, earning Veteran Points, and re-earning my "C" classification. http://www.usfencing.org/usfa/content/view/2339/131/#V40
Sarah, in the meantime, was flying. She lost only one bout in her seeding pool, which put her into about 12th place, and then she just kept winning till she was in the top 8, and was beat by the woman who ended up winning the day. By then we had a big crowd of people cheering for her, which was nice. Sarah ended up winning a very excellent third place.
It was very strange to me, however, having been her sole fencing teammate/strip-side coach/entourage for so many years, to yield these roles to Andrew!
---
In the evening, we went to the sushi feast that scotica arranged. It was very wonderful sushi, and terrific fun company. We sat next to learnteach and ermine_rat, and could have hardly asked for more entertaining dinner companions. I wish I'd had a chance to talk more with other people too, though, because many of them I had only met face to face briefly or not at all before last night!
Our hearty thanks go to scotica for setting it all up, and figuring out the bill -- not to mention her hospitality that made this great trip possible!
My traveling companions went off for a half-day visit to the Rosicrucian Egyptian museum, and we are catching a plane this evening, and finally heading home.
I expect the tomatoes and squash will be quite overgrown. Weeds everywhere. Cats annoyed. But there air will be clear of smoke, so maybe my bronchitis will finishing exiting my lungs. And oh boy, do I have a lot of work to catch up on!!