The sabre population was large tonight. Ahren made up a pool sheet with space for fifteen fencers because we had Nick L., Jessi1, Jessi2, Kiersten, Ben, Meng, Donna, Tom, Alexei, Dick J., Matt, Ahren and me. I fenced everyone except Alexei in five-touch bouts, losing to Nick and Ahren, and managed to fence I think Jessi1 and Meng fifteen touches before it was time to take a lesson with Ahren. Nick is becoming a very strong fencer with nice timing, and I will have to work hard to beat him. Also, ...
I figure Il take this time to just sort of reflect on my own progression as a referee. I feel like I have greatly improved this semester. Im not talking about my calls (although those have probably improved) but I mean more my mental approach to reffing. I reffed 12 days last semester, and I nearly burnt out. I was getting sick of reffing, sick of the stress, sick of the complaints, and sick of the atmosphere. I have reffed 12 days so far this semester, and Im not even close to ...
My last three blog entries talk about things I have learned recently. The place where I put my learning to the test is at a tournament. Last Saturday, there was a small local tournament that allowed me to do exactly that. There were 8 epeeists so we had one pool of 8. I employed the strategy of having a plan. Even if I had not scouted out any given opponent, I had some kind of plan in mind when the ref said, "Fence!" Having a plan allowed me to fence with ...
I had dinner with my brother. He is a music teacher. I have been trying to get him interested in fencing, and he is, but his finances are tight right now and he is dragging his feet. Nonetheless, he is always interested in engaging in a discussion about fencing. Over dinner, we were discussing the difficulty of teaching/learning tactics. I mentioned to him that Chuck had gone to the tactics clinic with me but he was expecting something more structured. We kicked around for a ...
Chuck has been noodling on my issue with opponents who use heavy beat attacks. Using a French grip, he says, is an invitation to them to use this tactic. He suggests that I may want to go back to a pistol grip. (I am reluctant to do so as the French grip is IMO more flexible in in-fighting situations.) I can deceive a lot of beat attacks with absence of blade, derobing the attack, and distance management. A lot of the attacks will fail. Some will get through. If I don't have ...
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