There are twenty-one confirmed WSV50 entries for the Summer Nationals and I don't recognize many of the names on the list. This is going to make for a tough competition (imho) and I very much want to stay in the top 8 on National Points. Thus, I'm planning to crank up the training another notch and see if I can add Tues. to the already fencing Wed., Thurs., and Sat. I also plan to stay later Sat. and see if I can fence the kids. I figure I can do the footwork drills at the same time they do them and practice defense against the kids. [They're slow enough that I might actually succeed on some of the things I learned at the NJ camp.]

The fencing camp/get together in New Jersey was so well liked by the participants that it may be followed by others elsewhere.

There MIGHT be one in Washington in the fall. That's the state, not DC. If so, I will try to go to that one as well. Some of us are tossinig around ideas and dates of when people we know might be able to host a fencing session. One of the problems in my area is that veteran fencers are few in numbers here. Also, my local club rents space by the hour. There are, however, alternate possibilities and I plan to do as much as possible between now and 2009 because my major near term goal (before reaching 60) is to make it to the Masters or the World Championship in Moscow.

My near term plans from now through age 59 are:
Try to make it into the top 4 for 2009 (very much a long shot).
Try to be in the top 8 for 2010-2011.
Make the top 4 in the WSV60 age group in 2012.

The odds for me qualifying for the world team in 2009 are only slightly lower than the odds of Hillary Clinton winning the Democratic nomination on the first ballot. However, I'm one of the few, the proud, the foolish, who continue past the BINGO point. Thus, I'm fighting on. I even cut my hair and may get it dyed a Hillary fake blonde. I will stop short, however, of telling the referee that he should award the touch to me because I am the fencer with the support of the working class white people and thus the better representative to send to represent the US.