MUFG, "Z"-fencing,

I won Silver at the SJC "C" foil event last Sunday that I attended
with Roger. I was initially in a pool of 6. My record was 5-2, 5-1,
5-1, 5-0, 5-0 with a 25 – 4 = +21 indicator, but there was a withdraw
- dropping me to +16 and dropping me to second seed overall. Maybe
Eric can help me with some of the names here: the first place seeding
into the final was Lotta. Did I mention that there were 30 entries and
of these 5 "C"s - not to shabby. I thought that the C's took the top
five positions but that may not be true if Lotta was a D. Again this
is where Eric can help me out, because he seems to know the stats on
everybody. I had a Bye in the first round and did a lot of directing
bouts. Did I mention that I showed up early and ended up directing
almost non-stop all day long. I do not mind it so much, but that it
can be taxing and there are never enough stopwatches or clipboards or
test weights to go around. I would also not turn down a refund of my
entry fee for one event if I were asked to direct in another, which
only ever happened once. My DE bouts were manageable but not all a
piece of cake. My first bout was against a college club fencer who had
a cheering section with him. He was doing quite well and keeping the
score even except for once in a while I would ace him with a blitz
attack on "fence", this seemed to make him very nervous. Also he was
getting hit when he would try to counter attack with that epee
"peter-pan" type of hop back onto one leg maneuver. It may have worked
in an epee bout but there is a longer lockout time in foil. My next
opponent was a Lefty girl named McMullen who has fenced with me
before. She was psyched to fence me again and went on the attack. She
was extremely aggressive and was quite good at keeping my foil busy
while closing on the right side of the strip to hit on my back. Even
if I was able to find a parry, by the time I repost she shifted into a
position to remiese the attack from where it was hard for me to find
her with repost. Again the score was even up till about 8-8. She was
very aggressive and very pleased to be so. On one of our breaks, when
she took off her mask she spent some time barking at me from her end
of the strip, funny. I decided that I better be able to start winning
touches when she attacks. So I tried showing the first repost but not
trying so hard to sink it because she was going to shift out of it
anyway. I would take another step back right away and make a second
attempt at parry after my first repost "feint". That caught her tryng
to finish her action and she was always in octove and I was able to
land all those second reposts. I will remember that because her
approach reminds me of 90% of most bouts I have with aggressive
lefties. My next bout was with another youth fencer. He rested on his
defense and would stay in invitation even under the most serious
attack. Unless he was pressed up against the end he would just retreat
wile maintaining absence of blade at the last possible instant. Often
I would advance-lounge and be on his target and he would retreat
quickly and I would try to press the attack and was able to keep the
point on his chest but he would match my acceleration and I would not
have pressure and he would then escape. I should have pressed him off
the strip but I was concerned that he had a ploy for that event. So as
usual people who are pressed now cannot retreat and this puts the
attacker in the position of trying to close distance, but when I would
close he would repost or attack in time, he was being very difficult.
He would not attack under his own initiative, ever. So I resorted to
counter-time. Since he would only parry, counter attack or attempt
time hit on my initiative I started mixing in false attacks and false
preparation that where like a march forward, then whenever he would
start to try to do something I would break off and parry/repost. This
worked every time. Neither of these two opponents had an adjustment or
a fall-back strategy. My last bout was the final with Lutka. Eric can
fill you in on this guy – Navy cadet, maybe 21 years old, in the top
condition of his life. This kid could chew glass if ordered to. He was
highly mobile and would use mobility to disguise his intention to
change directions. So it looked like this, he makes a false attack to
close distance and make retaliation seem attractive, then he would
start bolting away from the attack just to turn on you as you
accelerate to give chase. He was also ducking with counter attack and
with redoubelment and would try to worry you with his blade to lure
you into a close distance then drop all the beadwork to do a nice
straight fleshe. He hit about three of these. I was barley hanging on
with reposts he was changing the distance on me too much for me to hit
my long attacks and he was already aware of my blitz attack on "fence"
so he would start by retreating. I should not be surprised by attacks.
He paid his money he brought his foils, he is going to attack. It is
just a matter of when. Lutka attacks from mobility just as often as he
attack from a static position, he is not hard to predict, but hard to
see coming because he transitions and starts his attack with no
telegraphing. So, you have to read his timing. This is our third
encounter and I am 0-3. He deserved to win his C04 that day. I hope I
get a change to even the score.

Cheers!
CLF