There were eight folks in the men's foil, so we wound up fencing it. I had one pool of four.
I lost all of my bouts, two of them 4-5 and one of them 0-5. I wound up fencing the same guy that creamed me as my first DE (of course) and was creamed again, 4-15.
He kept hitting me with the same absurdly simple action in both bouts and I could not make myself change. I let him do it, over and over. May as well have just lowered my weapon and leaped at him chest first for all I was doing. I had a hard time not becoming furious with myself. When I say simple, I mean all he was doing was a double advance lunge. No fancy bladework, just clop clop, I let him hit me again.
So what's wrong? I thought maybe my main problem is that I've only been fencing one day a week and I haven't fenced in a tournament in about 9 months. Out of practice mostly, sure, but I don't think that's it.
I was afraid to take control because I'm not sure of myself. The mindset I mentioned above is probably a symptom of not practicing and competing, but I think I could have overcome that if I wanted to.
Technical flops; terrible distance because I was afraid to control it, and my point was everywhere as well. The fencers were pretty much all from the same club, and I was told I adapted their style as soon as fencing started. Probably nervousness, and me thinking I have to fence like them to beat them.
So what to do? More tournaments, more practice if I can find time for it, and don't convince myself I totally suck before stepping on strip.
03-24-2007 06:22 PM 