Obviously, I haven't been posting much in the past few months. Things in my fencing life have been going great, and I've never had much of an idea of what to say in a blog post. So I just haven't posted.

I have a new idea. As I'm being a competitive sabre fencer these days, I think I'm going to use my blog to document that part of my fencing career at the moment. Starting... NOW!!!


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Background, my junior year of college I started fencing a little sabre. Not much, just enough to represent my college club. We needed an extra sabre guy, so thats what I did. I had no concept of technique, and my sabre game was pretty weak, but my conference was weak, so I did pretty well (25-3, silver medal) on the season. I decided I was gonna take it seriously for a few reasons, and I might detail the reasons of that decision, but not in this post.

Since I moved out here, my club has strong sabre, so I've always bouted with the kids in the club. This season, I made the decision I was going to take it seriously, and train as an athlete in sabre. I started taking lessons from Jay, and I usually do about 2 lessons per week.

Season starts

First competition was a D and Under in Sacremento. I was pretty nervous starting it, and was very wound up, as it was my first time seriously competing in a good 3 or 4 years. I'd fenced a couple USFA events, but always in a "why not?" kinda way, never taking it seriously, as I never had the chance to train. I ran my pool, but didn't feel very good about it. Won my first couple DEs, then lost in the gold medal bout to earn my D. I was fencing a very simple sabre fencer who was fast and aggresive, and I couldn't set anything up against him, because he wasn't responding to things most sabre fencers responded to. I lost and came in 2nd, not bad for first tournament.

Second event was another D and lower, that had more people signed up, and was a C2. I felt way better in pools. Fenced fairly well. Got down in a few bouts, but figured it out and came back quite nicely, and ended up as the 1 seed. I crushed my first DE 15-4, then next bout was for a D. Against a big tall lanky vet fencer who was super awkward. After the second time he stopped in the box, and I hit him, I knew I should win it. And once I knew I could successfully finish to his wrist when he countered, the bout was over. I won 15-5 or 15-7. Next bout was against a pretty solid Y14 kid, who wasn't great, but wasn't terrible. I fenced a solid bout, and won 15-12.

Gold medal bout against a kid who's a decent and fast fencer. He knocked out my teammate in an earlier bout, and he was the best fencer in the event besides myself. Bout started with a ref who was a good draw for me. He likes to go super fast and rush, and my best action is attack in preparation. I was ahead 8-6 or so at the break, and I stayed ahead the entire bout to win 15-13. I felt very calm cool and collected the entire bout, and I was thinking and mixing up my actions in a good way. I won the bout and earned my C.

That qualified me entire the D and higher that afternoon. I was unsure about it, but then I remember why I'm doing this, and entered the event. My pool looked manageable. Top seed was a female A who has made 8s of some Div1s, a female B who was ok in my opinion, 2 guys were were Cs who were both solid, a local C who was fast but out of control, and me. There was no one there who I didn't stand a chance against, and I was totally relaxed starting it. I fenced well and ran the pool. Had 2 or 3 5-4 wins, and a couple 5-2 or 5-1 wins.

I was the 3 seed coming out of pools. My first bout was against a kid who used to be from my club, but left last year for reasons I shouldn't get into on F.net. I saw the matchup and knew it was an important bout, because he is a decent fencer, but its a bout I needed to win. I fenced pretty well, and won it 15-12 or 15-13. Again, I had a lead basically the entire way, and was mixing up actions well enough, he wasn't able to pick up a lead. Next bout was against a woman who I'd never sen fence. This was in the 8. I lost the bout 15-8 or 15-9, because I was rushing and wasn't thinking. I think I was also somewhat content with my results that day, that I wasn't 100% there. I finished 5th out of 20, and was happy with that result.

Next tournament was this past weekend. ROC in portland. I was here for coaching and reffing, and figured I'd while the event while I was here. Event was small, with only 10 people. Me, 1 very good fencer, and 2 mediocre fencers. I sucked in pools, and went 2-2. Lost 1 ok bout, then lost a bout I should NOT have lost. Fortunately, the guy that I was embarrassed to lose to was the 3 seed, and I was the 6 seed. I was ahead 8-7 at the break, then won 15-7. That put me into the 4, where I fenced TERRIBLY to a mediocre fencer, and lost 15-13. There were a few calls that I didn't agree with inside the box where I was getting called in prep where I thought my opponent was waiting too long. Whatever, I should of fixed it better. I was going too fast, and rushing, lost and was embarrassed.

On the bright side of that, I made the 4, which because it was a ROC qualifies me into the Div1A at Nationals this year. I've been looking at either this nationals or next fall to do a national event, so this would give me a good event to fence this nationals. I might do it, depending on how I'm fencing. I've only been taking lessons for about 2 months now, so I've got about 5 months to devolop, and see how I'm feeling and fencing to decide if I need more time or not. I don't want to sign up for an event thats over my head, so if I'm going to register for it, I'm going to be prepared to fence it.

I'm now sitting in an airport waiting to board a plane, so I guess I'll continue this line of thought with my next entry.

Thanks for readin.