http://www.fencing.net/forums/blogs/peach-651/ en Sat, 21 Nov 2009 20:29:49 GMT Thu, 19 Nov 2009 23:49:08 GMT http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss vBlogetin craig@fencing.net craig@fencing.net http://www.fencing.net/forums/blogs/peach-651/better-practice-7292/ Thu, 19 Nov 2009 23:49:08 GMT Wednesday night practice was much better. For one thing, I found my plastron hung up, so now I'm just missing my extra jacket. Also, we had a few more fencers and there was some better fencing going on. It was quite a good crowd for a little while, though many left before I had a chance to fence them. I fenced Tony, Dave, Donna, Meng, Mike, and someone else, I forget whom. Dave and Mike beat me and so did the person I can't remember. This is what I get for writing in my journal a day later.

My 15-touch bout with Dave was particularly good. He's been working on stability, intensity, and leg strength and he was moving fast and attacking hard. I'm not sure he's attacking me as hard as the others--he said to me Monday that he was working on speed, but "not with you," which could mean either that he's taking it easier on me or that he can't do it as easily with me. In fact, Wednesday night I got one really gorgeous one-light attack in preparation on him as he was barreling down on me, and I was very happy about that. He beat me by a couple of touches in that bout, and said later that I was fencing even better than before Veteran Worlds. I said it was partly because I've continued to lose weight--I've dropped a total of about 25 pounds since last spring.

It's funny how much I like fencing Dave, who is a former national champion. It used to be that he frightened me, and I always ended up having breathing problems when I fenced him, but even back then I loved fencing him. I actually do pretty well against him, maybe because he fences in a recognizable way with great movement, acceleration, and tempo and with well-thought-out actions. I honestly have a harder time with my club-mates who lean, gallop, and wave their blades around.

My lesson with Ahren was good as well. It was all beat-attack, with the usual development - stationary, with advance, with lunge, with movement. It was a hard workout but I kept up pretty well.

I suppose I'll be ready for Pittsburgh. I got a confirmation from THS of my hotel, but I didn't get a confirmation when I first registered--it was during that brief window when they posted all the hotels and the links early in the season, then took them down again--so I already have a prepaid reservation with Expedia with the connected hotel.

I'm going to try to go to NYC on Sunday for the Liberty Cup, at any rate, just to get some quality practice.]]> Peach http://www.fencing.net/forums/blogs/peach-651/better-practice-7292/ http://www.fencing.net/forums/blogs/peach-651/everybodys-leaning-7283/ Tue, 17 Nov 2009 02:26:49 GMT It was not a great evening. First, someone borrowed my jacket, plastron, and knickers and I could only find the knickers. The back room is a jungle of uniforms of various states of disrepair and it took forever to find a jacket that fit me, let alone my own. The jacket was thinner than mine and I felt every cut.

Second, most of the people there tonight were leaning forward--Charlotte, Bob, the newcomer whose name I forget; Mike always leans, and though I didn't fence Donna, I noticed she was leaning forward too. I told her she was doing it and she told me her coach, Lara, told her to put her weight forward. She demonstrated and I know Lara didn't tell her to have her knee over her toe.

I took a head parry with Mike in our bout, and because he was leaning he just shoved down on the head parry so that I ended up pitching forward myself onto my knees. It always startles me when someone does that, because it's so dumb.

Finally, Mark wasn't ready for me at 8:30 and I've promised myself that I won't stay past nine, so if he isn't ready I just fence a little more and go home.

Oh, well, fencing Dave was fun. He's been working with Lara on some stability and leg strength stuff, and he's moving even better. We had an excellent bout or two and I made one touch I was really pleased with--it's very hard to make a feint-cut on him so instead I made a tempo change into the open target and managed to pull it off.

About par for the course after a weekend tournament when Monday's work was an inservice where I was running endless meetings and working on submitting the notes up until about five minutes before I had to go to fencing.]]> Peach http://www.fencing.net/forums/blogs/peach-651/everybodys-leaning-7283/ http://www.fencing.net/forums/blogs/peach-651/vet-combined-mixed-sabre-7276/ Sun, 15 Nov 2009 01:39:34 GMT I was going to go to the Charm City, but with a week to go it looked as if it wouldn't have enough women to fence separate events, and there was a strong mixed veteran at MFC in New York, so I took the train up.

It was gray out and a light rain was misting, and when I got to the club it was hot, close, and humid. Practice was winding down with all the young fencers, and it was crowded. I wasn't in the mood to begin with, and being that hot made me tired. However, I pulled myself together.

I bouted a little with Donna Pepe and Bonnie Aher beforehand. Bonnie has really improved her sabre. She says there's really only one good epee night at her club these days so she's been doing more sabre. Donna, as always, is a strong competitor and I am glad I'm aging out of the 50's before she ages in.

The field was pretty good--A B1, 15 people including Bonnie, Donna, Jeannine Bender, Dmitri Kopylov, Paul Apostol, Richard Brown, Vincent Paragano, Ellen Heasley, and a guy I have run into in veteran events over the last year or so, Albert Benzimra, and a guy I met at a veteran Liberty Cup last year, Paul Rosenthal. Compared to the last one of these I did, it was quite strong--last time, I was in a pool with a bunch of U-rated men.

This time I had a pool with a C, a D, an E, and a U. Much better. Jeannine, Jim Bernitt, Paul, and Gerard Owens. Melvin refereed, which was nice because I know what I'm doing with him. Jeannine beat me 5-3 very nicely because she wasn't rushing, but I only allowed two touches against me otherwise and came out seeded 4th.

My first DE was against Michael Jacobson from Candlewood, who didn't know me and was therefore surprised he wasn't doing better. I beat him 10-4. Later, he talked with me and politely asked what I was ranked in the country, and said he felt much better. It was actually a strong tournament.

My second was against Donna Pepe, who had just beaten Werner Jansen from Mission in her first DE, coming from behind to beat him 10-7. She practices against guys a whole lot and has a great game against that, but as she and I discussed afterwards she has a hard time with people like me (and like Dmitri, for that matter) who don't rush in. I told her some things to do (I'm not crazy--she will never be in my veteran age group!). The score on that one was 10-3.

Unfortunately, because I had lost a bout in my pool, I had Dmitri (seeded first) for the next bout (the semi-final). Tiki Kastor was our referee, and she had a hard time keeping track of the score and reversed enough calls that I'm really not sure what the final score was; however, I was pleased with my fencing--I lost 9-10.

The final was between Dmitri and Paul Apostol, and Dmitri won it 10-9 with Arabella Uhry refereeing. Arabella did a very workmanlike job; despite her diminutive stature and tiny frame (she's almost 14), she has good strip presence and dealt well with the two men.

Though Vince lost to Paul, I think he finally earned his C! I hope so. He's been within a whisker several times.

Jeannine and I hiked back to Penn Station together because we were taking the same train--she lives in Princeton and I change in Trenton for the local to Philadelphia. We had a great time talking all the way to Princeton. I really miss having her around at the club.

As usual Julia Gelman runs a tight tournament and makes everybody happy. They had MFC T-shirts for the top four and when I said I preferred a medium and Paul wanted an extra-large, she went and got them for us.]]> Peach http://www.fencing.net/forums/blogs/peach-651/vet-combined-mixed-sabre-7276/ http://www.fencing.net/forums/blogs/peach-651/dead-battery-7267/ Thu, 12 Nov 2009 02:14:36 GMT I got in my car to go to fencing, and my dome light didn't even go on. Battery deader than a bucket of mud. So I went back in and called AAA, and I now have a new battery, a warranty, and a misplaced evening.]]> Peach http://www.fencing.net/forums/blogs/peach-651/dead-battery-7267/ http://www.fencing.net/forums/blogs/peach-651/grouse-grump-grr-7263/ Tue, 10 Nov 2009 03:04:40 GMT I didn't know I wasn't in a good mood until I got to fencing. Oh, well, I suppose that's why I go. It was pleasant enough. Michelle, Mike, Meng, Charlotte, Ed, and Bob; I fenced Mike, Bob, Ed, Charlotte, and Meng. My knee bothered me a little bit. No lesson, because Mark is at the NAC.

Other people were a little wiped out too--Charlotte is taking five graduate courses, Meng is in his MBA program, Mike was tired from his usual responsibilities and taking two weeks off because of the election, Ed is coming back after many years away. Michelle left early. Donna was there but she forgot her knickers, so she just went home.

My bout with Meng was interesting. He was up by about 10 to 3 because I don't have my legs back again and couldn't make a good accelerated attack, so he would just parry and riposte. I beat him 15-10 because I went to actions off of line, got him to become tentative, and then took over.]]> Peach http://www.fencing.net/forums/blogs/peach-651/grouse-grump-grr-7263/ http://www.fencing.net/forums/blogs/peach-651/schedule-change-7252/ Sat, 07 Nov 2009 03:38:04 GMT I am just too tired and stressed to drive down to the veteran tournament in Virginia, and my husband won't go with me, so I cancelled. Then I saw there's a veteran event at MFC in NYC on the 14th, which would not require driving and has a bunch of friends in it, so I signed up for that and withdrew from the Charm City, which had tops about 6 people registered for the mixed open sabre.]]> Peach http://www.fencing.net/forums/blogs/peach-651/schedule-change-7252/ http://www.fencing.net/forums/blogs/peach-651/busier-night-7251/ Thu, 05 Nov 2009 03:14:37 GMT A typical second night back! The first time back after a hiatus, I always fence well, and the second time I'm always terrible.

It was very busy -- Dave, Bob, Bridget, Nick L., a couple of the sabre boys whose names I don't know, Michelle, Donna, Charlotte, Dick, Ahren, and Meng. I fenced Dave, one of the sabre boys twice, Michelle, Donna, Dick, and Ahren, and lost at least three bouts (losing to Dave and Ahren is pretty much normal, but I lost another one) because my distance is gone.

I sat down with Ahren to set goals:

--More footwork drill - Ahren suggested rubber-band work because of the way my feet tend to get closer as I move.
--More bladework drill - I can't get my teammates to drill but I have been working on the mask.
--Some stability and leg strength work. I need more oomph in my legs.
--Continue to lose weight - I think I'll aim for 140 (I'm 150 now). Weighing less makes leg strength less of a factor, makes me more mobile, and keeps me from leaning.
--Seek out as many strong tournaments and as much strong competition as I can. Especially and importantly tournaments with good refereeing--real refereeing, not just some young guy on the senior points list who has an intuitive sense of what gets points. Part of my strength as a fencer is my ability to work the referee, and in order to do that I need good refereeing because that's who I'm going to be seeing at Vet Worlds. I need to know what to show in order to get what I want; I beat the Russian in the semifinal because I could be confident my referee would call my attack in preparation correctly.
--Raise the intensity of my tournaments; I should be fencing to win even when I'm working on something. In my experience, that will mean that I lose even more, but it will provide the necessary practice and allow me to calibrate my self-regulation better at a serious tournament.
--The ideal mental state for me at an important tournament is "frantic" as I said to Ahren, and he said "frantically focused." That probably means a sharpening lesson at a strategic point mid- to late-tournament, during which I will swear and hit the strip a lot and spin around in annoyance, and he will laugh at me.
--Ahren suggested I do the April Div I NAC because it's drivable and will fit nicely in between the March veteran tournament and Summer Nationals, and will provide the requisite intensity. We discussed clubs I could visit to get some strong competition too. He's taking a wider view of things these days.
--Work on dealing with my "hitch" or "flinch" reaction to choppy footwork.

It was jammed tonight. Josef Vitepskiy can no longer have his club at Penn with Andy Ma there, so he's paying for space at FAP. All of his adult epee fencers that he took with him when he started his club are now back on our epee nights, Tuesday and Thursday, and he was there tonight too giving lessons. He looks good--he's made out of leather, iron, and baling wire, that man--and he complimented me on my silver medal and my figure Paula Straka hadn't seen me with my longer hair and didn't recognize me at first glance.

I left promptly at 9:00. I sort of pulled something a teensy bit in my lower back, which is not surprising; we have a transportation strike and I have been walking twice as much. Luckily, today I didn't take the regional rail, but drove instead. There was a fire on a train on my line, and a couple of our faculty members who also reverse-commute had to call a colleague in order to get to work.]]> Peach http://www.fencing.net/forums/blogs/peach-651/busier-night-7251/ http://www.fencing.net/forums/blogs/peach-651/no-straight-attacks-7245/ Tue, 03 Nov 2009 02:25:07 GMT Except for a few I got on Meng, I didn't do straight attacks. No profit. But I did do footwork and some target drill, and that was useful. The only sabre fencers there were Meng, Kiersten, and Bob, and I fenced all of them (Meng and Bob twice). Mark asked me if I wanted a lesson, and when I said I didn't know if someone else had moved into that slot during the five weeks I was out, he said the 8:30 slot was permanently mine. That was nice. Of course, that's Mark's version of time--when he finished with Kiersten, it was 8:50, so I chatted with him a little and went home. It's Monday night and it's going to be a long week.

I felt pretty good. No legs, but that's to be expected.]]> Peach http://www.fencing.net/forums/blogs/peach-651/no-straight-attacks-7245/ http://www.fencing.net/forums/blogs/peach-651/finished-the-month-off-7242/ Sun, 01 Nov 2009 22:37:26 GMT Tomorrow I'm planning to go to fencing. I think I'm going to work on footwork and straight attacks. Back to basics.]]> Peach http://www.fencing.net/forums/blogs/peach-651/finished-the-month-off-7242/ http://www.fencing.net/forums/blogs/peach-651/misread-schedule-7233/ Sat, 24 Oct 2009 19:25:03 GMT I looked again at the Sunday tournament, and realized I had misread the close of check-in. There's no way I can make it. I cancelled.

Donna and Dave both commented on my Facebook page, asking me to come back to practice. But Monday night is an evening meeting and Wednesday night I have another meeting. I guess I'll just have to stick to my month off.]]> Peach http://www.fencing.net/forums/blogs/peach-651/misread-schedule-7233/