What I Did on My Weekend Vacation
Results of this weekend's tournaments are here if you're interested.
Saturday Epee Stuff:
The great stuff: Tied for 15th out of 28 in epee! No shutouts in the pool bouts. Scored a point against a 'A' in my pool (I consider this an accomplishment!)
I came out of the pools in 25th place and managed to beat the 7th seeded "C" fencer in a major upset to advance to the pool of 16. Nearly managed to win my second DE (which would have earned me a 'C' classification and at least 8th place). That bout was against a "B" fencer and ended at 15-13. Two lousy points.
Oh yeah, the "C" that I beat? She was the one win against the "A" in our pool. Apparently she was a little "upset" about being beaten by an "E". I wonder what she thought when she checked the results and saw that I was unclassified. /snark.
Yeah... it was certainly a good day!
Everyone at my club did an incredible job. I was proud to call myself one of them and I hope they were proud of me. :)
Sunday Foil Stuff:
The bad stuff: I took a win in my pool but also got two spanks -- it's much easier to get those when you've gotta deal with right of way (ie, only one person can get a point per touch). In my DE, I was against a 'D' competitor who definitely won the bout at 15-7. I was, however, told that the ref's calls were all over the place and not consistent.
I believe that three calls against me should have been for me and two calls that went for me should have been against -- so it did mostly balance out. The calls, however, didn't help me learn about the weapon style which kinda bothers me though.
One of the fencers (who happens to be a really cool guy who is trying to come back from a fencing break of a few years) went down on his knee. Hard. Bounced. And he kept going with the bout. Hardcore, dude, totally hardcore and completely badass! I'd have forfeited -- yeah, he was in THAT much pain. I got him some ice after the bout because he was having trouble putting weight on it.
The good stuff: I got a win my pool. ;)
The better stuff: I got to hang out with some really great competitors and several of them gave me very good pointers about my game. This is invaluable to me and well worth the price of going in knowing I was going to have a poor showing. I took a lot away from today's beat-down.
The odd stuff: I witnessed the loudest foil bout in history. Every touch, regardless who landed it, one of the competitors would *scream*. Not just a loud "yeah!" but a bonafide scream. Then the opponent started doing it. I had to run some gear out to my car across the street and could hear them scream. At my car. Across the street. I asked one of the other foilists if it was a saber bout because sabreurs tend to scream but foilists are supposed to be more "dignified." ;)
Saturday Epee Stuff:
The great stuff: Tied for 15th out of 28 in epee! No shutouts in the pool bouts. Scored a point against a 'A' in my pool (I consider this an accomplishment!)
I came out of the pools in 25th place and managed to beat the 7th seeded "C" fencer in a major upset to advance to the pool of 16. Nearly managed to win my second DE (which would have earned me a 'C' classification and at least 8th place). That bout was against a "B" fencer and ended at 15-13. Two lousy points.
Oh yeah, the "C" that I beat? She was the one win against the "A" in our pool. Apparently she was a little "upset" about being beaten by an "E". I wonder what she thought when she checked the results and saw that I was unclassified. /snark.
Yeah... it was certainly a good day!
Everyone at my club did an incredible job. I was proud to call myself one of them and I hope they were proud of me. :)
Sunday Foil Stuff:
The bad stuff: I took a win in my pool but also got two spanks -- it's much easier to get those when you've gotta deal with right of way (ie, only one person can get a point per touch). In my DE, I was against a 'D' competitor who definitely won the bout at 15-7. I was, however, told that the ref's calls were all over the place and not consistent.
I believe that three calls against me should have been for me and two calls that went for me should have been against -- so it did mostly balance out. The calls, however, didn't help me learn about the weapon style which kinda bothers me though.
One of the fencers (who happens to be a really cool guy who is trying to come back from a fencing break of a few years) went down on his knee. Hard. Bounced. And he kept going with the bout. Hardcore, dude, totally hardcore and completely badass! I'd have forfeited -- yeah, he was in THAT much pain. I got him some ice after the bout because he was having trouble putting weight on it.
The good stuff: I got a win my pool. ;)
The better stuff: I got to hang out with some really great competitors and several of them gave me very good pointers about my game. This is invaluable to me and well worth the price of going in knowing I was going to have a poor showing. I took a lot away from today's beat-down.
The odd stuff: I witnessed the loudest foil bout in history. Every touch, regardless who landed it, one of the competitors would *scream*. Not just a loud "yeah!" but a bonafide scream. Then the opponent started doing it. I had to run some gear out to my car across the street and could hear them scream. At my car. Across the street. I asked one of the other foilists if it was a saber bout because sabreurs tend to scream but foilists are supposed to be more "dignified." ;)