MUFG, Z, SJ

A gold metal win was achieved last Saturday at the Chesapeake Fencing
Club (aka CFC near Johns Hopkins), open foil C event.

http://www.crowolf.net/fence/

It was part two of a duel event with an open E foil, starting at 10am
and the C event at 2pm. The E drew 43 fencers from three states. I had
to leave before the end of the final competition lesson class from the
Boscoves (sp) course. Jon looked like he was in a strong lead, before
I had to go. Upon arriving at CFC, a bit over an hour drive, I was
recruited to direct in the E that was still in the second flight of
seeding rounds. Usually this type of turn out for the E is major bad
news for the running of the C event. And it was, again this time, but
not so bad as it had been since these numbers just started showing up.
CFC seems to have figured out how to cope with the logistics a little
better. Look at, JSC; they just stop taking entries after 32 is
reached. So, that model is a type of first-come-first-serve solution.
Having too many people show up for a fencing competition is not the
type if problem that we were seeing at the divisional level events in
the past, even four or five years ago.

Don't let me fool you. I was there till about 8:30 at night. The E
final and the C event were vying with each other for space the entire
time. And the E final was fenced at about 8pm. That's a ten-hour haul
and for some, they were fencing in both - on deck in the C, while
fencing in the E direct elimination. I was in a pool of 5 with a
record on 2-2. 4-5, 4-5, 5-3, 5-2 there are no reasonable explanations
for that poor performance. But here it goes anyway. During my drive, I
developed a stiff neck that would not release. It was very painful and
prevented me from being able to look directly over my right shoulder.
I went right from directing to fencing with out a proper warm-up then
right back to directing again. Of the two losses, one was to an epee
fencer and the other was to some type of Tasmanian-devil attack that I
have never seen before. I have seen this guy fencing in the MD div.
before but never coming right at me. He did not make it to the final.
I seeded 7th out of 15 had to fence number 10.

http://www.usfencing.org/Forms/score/DE16.pdf

That was Pasnac. He was left-handed, now that I think about it, and
choked up his grip on his french foil to gain about three inches of
reach. This sacrifices some speed in the control of the point. He kept
charging and charging. I was using the same action against him that I
used against almost every body else that day, in the final. He would
either try to beat and disengage 4 or try to go indirect into 6.
Either way, a nice parry 6 or counter 6 against the beat was doing
nicely, as long as I left myself enough room to aim the repost. This
means flying backwards some times using double retreat then jump back.
15-3

Next was number 2 seed, Shiff. This is the point where the #7 is
supposed to be knocked out by the #2 spot. We only meet this early
because of my weak performance in the round robin pool. This is a
feisty youth fencer that has been fencing for about three years. He
performance was at about a D level, to his credit. Many of these
fencers are still in love with close range, charging and high angle
attacks conducive to "flicking" the point on. If I insist on keeping a
long distance, this hurts their game. I do not think that CFC was on
the new timings, yet. These kids will all have to re-tool their game.
Good show from Shiff, though 15-9.

The Semi-final bout was with #3. I forget her name, but we met last
week at the Choco-Therapy at BCF. I clobbered her in the pool round in
her own club. This was almost the same bout but three times longer.
Here the counter 6 against the beat attack was paying huge dividends.
If she tries to beat and go direct, she is trapped outside and I am
completing my repost the same time she is completing lunge. If she
tries to beat and disengage parry 4 she is still trapped. I did do
some attacking. Some of our phrases went 6 and 8 levels deep before
someone would break off. Then we were still at a close distance, so I
would just attack and hit direct.
15-6

The final bout was with one of the kids that I directed in the E
second flight. I was amazed to see him at the end of the C. He was
surprisingly difficult to fence - very twitchy fast. Reminded me of
Eric, but without patience or timing. MMMmmm he was left handed to...
no. He was just twitchy. He has a "jump back while leaning in" counter
attack reflex - that I like to call the peter-pan, that was serving
him fairly well. This took away most of the offensive actions that I
would have liked to do. He was very rapid or rabid when he would close
in on his attacks too. Often when doing the repost I was forced to
jump back to leave enough room to aim. Meaning that I was in mid air
at the time that his attack (his chest) caught up to my point. If he
would beat attack then stop or terminate his approach at the end of
his lunge. I would have ended up to far away to hit with repost. His
charging is what put him on the end of my foil; good energy. 15-12

The final strength of the competition was a D. So, I drove all that
way to keep some one from earning their D. Well, it keeps them honest.
I think that we have three or four fencers from "Z" that could have
won that C competition. Also, I do not recommend driving yourself to
fencing competitions that are more then twenty minutes away, but what
can you do? I think it was a good event for me. Not that I needed a
confidence booster. Well, maybe a little. I felt, in control of the
encounters enough to be paying attention to what was going on with my
posture, footwork, parries and to be able to adjust things without too
much risk.

Distance control
Don't stand, stay low
Show some love, do a lunge!

Cheers!
chris french