This entry documents my performance and discoveries at last weekend’s tournament. We had 27 epeeists and I was in a pool of 7. My goal for the day was to have a plan of attack against every opponent and on every point. Things started off well. I won my first 4 bouts – one against a fencer that usually beats me, but he got over-confident and I took advantage. The fifth bout was the only one of the day that I lost that I should not have. It was against an old friend who I have not seen or f
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If someone offered you a job in which you would make good money to sit around, drink coffee (or whatever) and surf the net for 8 hours a day, you would take it, right? It's like money for nothing.
I had such a job and I walked away from it. I now have a job where I am busy all day - so much so that I can't even log onto f.net for a few minutes. There are plenty of problems, a fair amount of stress, and no end in sight.
I love it!
I am only a week and a half into the new job and
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I have a friend who, when he loses to an opponent that he had judged to be little or no threat says, "I counted those chickens before they hatched." I should pay more attention to his little sayings.
Lately, I have been working on a couple of things - scouting my opponents (more than usual) and having a plan. The two go hand in hand. Having a plan happens at multiple levels - in general, what am I going to do with an opponent based on my scouting, and specifically, when I step off the on-
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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 confidence. As suggested
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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 while and
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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 a good o
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If you’ve watched the new Batman trailer, you’ll recognize the line as one delivered by Heath Ledger in a deliciously demented tone. That line helps me to remember some of the key learnings that I found at Walt Dragonetti’s Epee Tactics and Gamesmanship clinic.
The clinic was a full day. While teaching tactics is conceptually difficult, Walt and Brian Stone did a good job. I took notes. Rather than misplace the paper I wrote them on, I am capturing them here, with some editing to flesh
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I am signed up for Walt Dragonetti's "Epee Strategy and Gamesmanship" clinic this coming weekend. It is a full day of epee training with a one-touch tournament at the end. I am really looking forward to it.
I have had the opportunity to visit his club, Hooked on Fencing, for the occasional tournament and I am always impressed with what he is doing and the results of his coaching. I was, in fact, the first person to sign up for this clinic 2+ months ago. There are now 34 people register
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This entry is an attempt to capture my thoughts on the NAC E in Chicago before they drift away altogether. To sum things up, I fenced four days in a row, I had fun, I learned a lot, but I forgot to pack my "A" game.
Day 1
Div III - I started off the day (7am) with few expectations of success or failure. I knew that the talent I would be facing was, in general, better than similarly rated talent I find locally. I don't think I underestimated anybody. I got a very good ref for my pools.
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05-13-2008 09:16 PM 
