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Coldfire · 11-19-2006, 06:19 PM

I thought it would be a good idea to hear about everyone first tournaments and maybe see what some people do about nervousness and warming up and so on. I just went to my first one today. So yeah...heres my first tourney experience.

After much contemplation and encouragement from my coaches they convinced me to go to outside tournaments. I've been waiting for 2 weeks for the JO Qualifiers for the West-Rock division.
I woke up at 9:30 today-early for me. I was excited and ready. After getting ready we set out for FAW at about 1:30 and the event was scheduled to start at 2:30. We got there in good time. The whole car ride was only about 25 minutes but it was the longest 25 minutes of my life. I was nervous and asking too many what if questions. We got there and I handed in the entry form and registered in the USFA. I got dressed and stretched a bit but not as much as usual. This was probably one of the biggest mistakes I made. I should have gotten there early and stretched more thoroughly. Anyway I saw a fencer that fences on my school team. His name is Raffi and he's an epeeist. The captain of the epee team actually. He wished me luck. The even started and I was up second. This being my first tournament I was a bit confused. The director for our event was looking at everyones masks. When he asked to look at mine I showed it to him. He obviously didnt find what he was looking for. He sent me to the mask checker. I didnt know. It was my first tournament after all. But I felt like a moron. Anyway I won my first bout 5-2. Nothing to worry about. He wasnt that good. I then fenced an E. This was intimidating. I lost to him 5-1 or 5-2. Not a good bout. I didnt know how to approach him because unlike most people I was used to fencing he was pure defense with good parries and distance parries. He never once made an attack. By the way thorughout all of this my legs feel like helly and are shaking but they move like lead. Definately needed to stretch more. Anyway I went on and lost another bout and then proceeded to win another bout. I fenced A D last. I beat him. I didnt know he was a D at the time though so maybe that helped. So for the poules I was 3 and 2. Not bad for my first time. Next for DEs. Guess who I get paired with. Thats right. The E that I lost to badly. Well this time I knew his game and did longer attacks and used a bit of second intention by letting him distance parry on ourpose and move slightly back as he liked to riposte immidiatly without pushing the opponent back. I got to 8 touches first and was ahead by 2 but I was soo tired. Im not used to 15 touch bouts. I got to 10 and he go to 8. Then things just went downhill. I was too tired to move fast enough and he seemed fine. I stopped thinking a bit too. I lost 15-10....in my first DE. But overall it was a good bout. The overall experince was very good and I'm looking forward to going to many more tournaments. None fo the competetion was that good...I was just not having a great day and I was nervous. On a better day I could have beat them all

Things I learned:
Relax. Dont be nervous
Get to the place early to stretch

Hopefully I'll be able to go to many more. It was a great experience and I cant wait to get even better.

Inquartata · 11-19-2006, 06:30 PM

Ah, my first tournament...it was tough, we had to keep our eyes out for sabre-toothed tigers and cave bears in addition to our opponents. But on the bright side they usually got the epeeists*, as they were too slow to escape and too odoriferous for the beasts to miss their scents.

* And by "epeeists" I mean those who insisted on trying to use long, thin sticks with which one could only poke, rather than a good sturdy club such as sensible folk favored.

Coldfire · 11-19-2006, 06:36 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Inquartata

Ah, my first tournament...it was tough, we had to keep our eyes out for sabre-toothed tigers and cave bears in addition to our opponents. But on the bright side they usually got the epeeists*, as they were too slow to escape and too odoriferous for the beasts to miss their scents.

* And by "epeeists" I mean those who insisted on trying to use long, thin sticks with which one could only poke, rather than a good sturdy club such as sensible folk favored.

Sounds exciting. So did you graduate the same year as Jesus ro something?

But seriously someone such as yourself must have more to say than that. Really I want to know what it was like

D'Art · 11-19-2006, 08:32 PM

I think he was being serious......

Coldfire · 11-19-2006, 08:34 PM

This is how Inq used to look --->

D'Art · 11-19-2006, 08:38 PM

Only when he hit middle age. He was ahead of the times then.

eac · 11-19-2006, 10:04 PM

At which club do you fence? Your first tournament experience sounds like mine. I stayed at that club for a while, and got better at tournaments (C rating), but then hit a local maximum and had to destroy most of my technique and start from scratch with a club that is good for tournaments. The reason I think your club might be bad for tournaments is the following:

1. You weren't used to 15 touch bouts, and also they required much stamina for you. (Both of these were very true for me in my first tournament.) Clubs that are good for tournaments give you a LOT more stamina than what's needed for one 15-touch bout; at a competition-friendly club, even people who skill-wise have no chance of making it through their first DE have enough stamina to make it through five. They also make you fence a lot of 15-touch bouts in practice.

2. You call tournaments 'outside tournaments.' I surmise (and this was true for my former club) that this means you have 'inside tournaments,' i.e. club tournaments. Clubs oriented towards real (i.e. national and international) tournament success don't often have club tournaments, because they are strong enough that the members of a club have enough competition among themselves in USFA tournaments, so they don't need a separate league for themselves. Club tournaments are reserved for those clubs whose members are too weak to fence in USFA tournaments.

3. You didn't mention any interaction with your coaches during the tournament, indicating that your coaches may not have come to the tournament. Coaches from tournament-oriented clubs most often attend their students' tournaments and in fact give helpful advice.

Questions: What weapon do you fence? How do you compare skill-wise to the rest of the people in your club? What are some of the national or international results of people in your club?

If you are one of the more accomplished people in your club, and you don't know if your club has any national or international results to speak of, and you find tournaments exciting and you would like to do well in them, consider switching clubs. Fencing Academy of Westchester, which held your tournament, is an EXTREMELY strong club tournament-wise. Not just USFA, either-- their top fencer (Kurt Getz) is number 6 IN THE WORLD in Junior Men's Foil, and number 1 in the USA. He's also on the Senior World Championship team, the elite group of the best four fencers in the country that get to fence at World Championships. (FAW has many other accomplished fencers as well, of course, but that is their best demonstration.) To give you an idea, this is several levels beyond where you would remotely even care about letter ratings.

(My tournament experience was basically the same as yours, except replace FAW with Halberstadt fencers club, and I didn't win any bouts because the tournament I went to was pretty strong. Also, I was very confused about right-of-way since my coach had taught it to me wrong.)

Coldfire · 11-19-2006, 10:24 PM

I fence for my school's team (Riverdale Country School). Because at our meets we only fence 5 touch bouts we rarely fence 15 touch bouts during practice. To counter this I'll try to only fence 15 touch bouts.
I called it an outside tournament because I fencing outside of school. Most people on the team fence only in school. Some of the better people fence in "outside" tournaments meaning they go to USFA events.
My coach was indeed not there and there is no doubt in my mind that if he had been there I would have done considerably better. It would have made me mroe comfortable and less nervous while giving useful information during my bouts.
I fence sabre. There is an A on our foil team (Epiphany Georges) but she rarely comes to practice and mostly goes to FC. There are only 2 other sabrists on the team that are consistantly a good deal better than me and they do go to outside tournaments but I'm not sure what they are rated. As for switching clubs...well I enjoy fencing on our team. There are some who go to other clubs and only come to practice some of the time but I enjoy being on the team. Maybe when the official school season ends I'll go to a regular club.

eac · 11-19-2006, 10:43 PM

Oh, a high school team-- I forgot those existed (They didn't at my school). As you noticed, those teams are not incompatible with normal clubs-- the high school coach might even welcome you joining a regular club. I assumed you went to a regular non-tournament-oriented club. Probably going to FAW or FC as well as the team is the way to go. (FC is amazing too, I just thought you lived nearer to FAW)

Coldfire · 11-19-2006, 10:53 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by eac

Oh, a high school team-- I forgot those existed (They didn't at my school). As you noticed, those teams are not incompatible with normal clubs-- the high school coach might even welcome you joining a regular club. I assumed you went to a regular non-tournament-oriented club. Probably going to FAW or FC as well as the team is the way to go. (FC is amazing too, I just thought you lived nearer to FAW)

Yeah theres still a few HS fencing teams

I think my coach would like it but it just isnt possible for me transportation wise. Maybe I can try to work something out. Oh I forgot to mention something when it came to results from our school. Tim Morehouse graduated from Riverdale and was coached by Martin Schneider who is my coach. I guess you could say thats a result to some extent

Beowulfman6 · 11-20-2006, 12:20 AM

I don't care to recal my first tournamnt experience, it was traumatic.

My second one was much better- I won!

Chafunkta · 11-20-2006, 12:50 AM

I showed up at the tournament with my knickers, jacket mask and all the fixings. Upon reporting to the director of my pool he took one look at my socks (1/2 calf length) and said, "Um, yea, that's not legal." I had no idea about this rule so I was shocked and worried I wouldn't be able to participate, but he comforted me by saying, "well let's see if we're letting anyone else slide on this" and as I looked around the room every single person had full-length socks. He told me to pull my socks up and stretch out my knickers length, so I spent the rest of the tournament with low-riding knickers and stretched out socks.

BySword · 11-20-2006, 01:16 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by eac

Oh, a high school team-- I forgot those existed (They didn't at my school). As you noticed, those teams are not incompatible with normal clubs-- the high school coach might even welcome you joining a regular club. I assumed you went to a regular non-tournament-oriented club. Probably going to FAW or FC as well as the team is the way to go. (FC is amazing too, I just thought you lived nearer to FAW)

in my area, the high school league got so big this year(epee only though), and the format is pretty much USFA. Although we only have 7 active school clubs in meets, we manage to get around 80ish in men and 50ish in women.
but those are sides notes...
My first tournament is a high school one, we werent as big back then but still a good 30 people in men's event. I just got very early, I ate two bagels(not flaming ones btw) before the tournament and my stomach felt so bad while I was fencing. I was kinda confused and I managed to win my first DE. Neither of my clubs(school and outside) is competition-friendly as described. School club simply has too little time(20 something people, two strips, we use the hallway during basketball season and we only have one real practice a week). Well, my USFA club is sorta like a hang out place, 5-touch bout is what usually goes on. The drills are very repetive every time and not too much stamina orientated. The result I usually do exceptionally good in pools and start fluctuating toward the end(and imagining going to a 80 people high school meet, we have to do 8 people pool for EPEE).

mrbiggs · 11-20-2006, 01:25 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by BySword

(and imagining going to a 80 people high school meet, we have to do 8 people pool for EPEE).

Tell the bout comittee that they're completely out of their minds, and that they should do 8 pools of 7 and 4 pools of 6.

Since it's a high school meet, I think it would be completely reasonable to do 10 pools of 6 and 4 pools of 5 as well, or even 16 of 5.

RITFencing · 11-20-2006, 01:31 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by mrbiggs

Tell the bout comittee that they're completely out of their minds, and that they should do 8 pools of 7 and 4 pools of 6.

Since it's a high school meet, I think it would be completely reasonable to do 10 pools of 6 and 4 pools of 5 as well, or even 16 of 5.

And if they only have 10 strips? It might be quicker to double flight that, it might not.

If they have less than 10 strips and they're already double flighting...

Hell, in those situations, there is no good answer.

mrbiggs · 11-20-2006, 01:38 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by RITFencing

And if they only have 10 strips? It might be quicker to double flight that, it might not.

If they have less than 10 strips and they're already double flighting...

Hell, in those situations, there is no good answer.

The good answer to pools of 8 in epee is always "no."

Seriously though, a pool of 8 is (8)(7)/2 = 28 bouts. A pool of 7 is 21, and a pool of 6 is 15. 5 minutes a bout means that you save a solid half hour just by dropping to 7, more by going to 6 or 5, which is going to make up for any administrative lagging (I should hope)

RITFencing · 11-20-2006, 01:40 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by mrbiggs

The good answer to pools of 8 in epee is always "no."

Yeah, now that ithink more on it, double flighting would probably be the better there. Pools of 8 can really suck.

Coldfire · 11-20-2006, 09:34 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Beowulfman6

I don't care to recal my first tournamnt experience, it was traumatic.

My second one was much better- I won!

Oh come on it couldn't have been THAT bad

Coldfire · 11-20-2006, 09:38 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by BySword

My first tournament is a high school one, we werent as big back then but still a good 30 people in men's event. I just got very early, I ate two bagels(not flaming ones btw) before the tournament and my stomach felt so bad while I was fencing. I was kinda confused and I managed to win my first DE. Neither of my clubs(school and outside) is competition-friendly as described. School club simply has too little time(20 something people, two strips, we use the hallway during basketball season and we only have one real practice a week). Well, my USFA club is sorta like a hang out place, 5-touch bout is what usually goes on. The drills are very repetive every time and not too much stamina orientated. The result I usually do exceptionally good in pools and start fluctuating toward the end(and imagining going to a 80 people high school meet, we have to do 8 people pool for EPEE).

Yeah my schools drills are repetetive and lots of times we jump right into fencing right away. I'm going to bug my coach to make us do more endurance stuff and do more 15 touch bouts