Searchers hit Fencing.Net, but maybe they wanted this...

Since we’re near the beginning of the competitive fencing season (the new season started August 1st), I took a look through some of the search results that got people over to fencing.net.  Looking at those results sometimes gives me ideas for extra articles that need to be expanded or rewritten based on recent rules changes or other stuff going on in the fencing world.

There are some weird results that pop up also.  One that caught my eye today was a search for “roller derby nicknames” and a thread from the forums pops up on page 1 of Google when I do a search.  It’s from 2006 so in the necro-thread land (we auto-close threads that haven’t had new posts to them for 30+ days as a way of keeping discussions current).

I wonder if there are any good fencing-themed names that could be used for roller derby names?  How about fencing nicknames?

Focused on working on flicks over a few nights of fencing and I’ve run into an overuse injury.  Most likely I don’t have the strength built up in the supporting muscles so I’ve got a case of “fencer’s elbow”.  Going in today for diagnosis and rehab with a physical therapist.

I’ve reached out within the fencing community to get an article focused on these kind of joint injuries written.  Learning more about the injury and the pros/cons of the off the shelf solutions other fencers may try is my way of making the most of it.

You can read the comments, including several touching on how Title IX has decimated NCAA fencing here: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/01/sports/01inbox.html

As a fencer who competed against former NCAA teams at John’s Hopkins, the US Naval Academy, NC State, Rutgers, and Cornell, this quote summed up what’s happened to a number of teams:

The Cornell men who practice with the women’s squad are but a vestige of a strong men’s varsity team that was cut long ago because of Title IX. The men still compete against varsity teams, but they are forced to go it alone outside the fencing salle: they have to be their own coaches, trainers, team managers and administrators, all on a small budget outside the athletic department.

Just this week Brown’s fencing program was granted a stay of execution.  Will all NCAA fencing go the way of the Collegiate Club Championships soon?

Set screw holds the epee point partially depressed to make inserting tip screws a bit easier.

This tool was just talked about in the Fencing.Net forum’s armory section.  It’s a machined bit of aluminum shaped to hold an epee point in place so that you can get the first tip screw in a bit more easily.

5th place individual and 2nd place team medals from Detroit for Vet Men's Foil.

The Detroit NAC was a fun one for me as a fencer.  I fenced in the Vet Team foil and Vet Combined individual foil event.  My goals were for the individual event – I wanted to go through it injury free and better my Cincinnati result where I went out in the top-16 to Michael Cho.

The team event started off very shaky for me.  I was using a brand new foil, which I had set up with the cant I like, but hadn’t put a bend in it or practiced with it yet.  That, combined with the fencer’s style (lefty who covered his flank pretty well) had me start out my fist bout 0-3 on missed attacks!  I changed out my foil but fenced tentative from there and lost 1-6, which put us from a 1 point lead to a 4 point hole.

My next two bouts were back on track with 5-3 and 5-2 victories.  We won the match 45-32 and I was a +/- 0 on the match.

Semi-Finals I ran into Michael Cho as the first bout of our team match.  Surprisingly, I notched a 5-1 win against Cho.  Our team went on a roll through the first 3 bouts, with a combined 15-2 score.  I added on a 5-0 win and then a 5-4 in the third round.  Michael went on a run against our anchor (Walid), but there wasn’t enough time for him to do much other than push the pace.  That bout ended 9-5 for Cho and we won the match 45-28.  I fared much better than the first round at a +10.

In the finals we ran into the composite team of Robbie Carrillo, Rolando Balboa, Julio Diaz and Michael Gross.  Rolando had been working to try to put a team together for a while before the NAC and the team finally fell into place the week before.  Julio started off strong against me with a 5-3 bout and their team got a couple of more wins.  Rolando saw that I was up next and subbed in for Robbie because he beat me in pools in Cincinnati.  I rallied and went 11-5 to bring our team back within one point at 19-20.

The ensuing match between Julio and Andy had everything blow up when the side judge called Julio off the strip on his attack.  As far as I can piece things together, the referee originally called halt for Andy going off the strip but the side judge indicated that Julio was also off before either could hit their actions.  At this, Robbie got up in the referees face, a protest/call for bout committee was called and everything was ruined forever.  At then end of the delay, the fencers were reset and that bout ended for Julio 3-2.  We picked up more spectators as 2 (or more?) FOC members stayed to watch the rest of the match.

My last bout put me against Gross.  Hated this bout because I got to watch my point skitter off his chest plate 2 or 3 times to a one-light against.  I still haven’t learned to really deal with this situation in a fencer that knows how to utilize it.  He would keep his guard extended and high to prevent the shoulder-flick setup and bait me into going deep chest.  Once I was down a point or two on closeouts, I just tried doing what I could to put the light on.  In the end it wasn’t enough I dug our team another 2 points of a hole with a 5-3 loss.  In retrospect, I should have been looking at time and score and wasted time going for an even match.  I wanted to be a good setup person and leave the score even but the situation really dictated my role as not to lose any more points.  I went aggressive when the play should have been conservative.

In the end it didn’t matter as Julio closed the bout 5-1 and our team lost 35-45.  On the plus side for me (leading into individuals), I was a +2 for the last match and +12 for the day.

Individual Event – Monday

Medalists for the Vet Combined men's foil event in Detroit.

We lost a few people to work commitments as the Vet combined was on Monday.  I got into a pool of 6 and rocked it out.  Won two 5-0 bouts, plus a 5-1, 5-2 and 5-3.  There were a couple of people who had chest plates in our pool – only one had the super huge model that looked more like he was wearing a barrel than a fencing uniform.  Had problems with that chest plate again – lost two points on skittering chest hits until I slowed my hand down and just worked on placing the point.  (Again, I’ll have to work on dealing with this tactic vs. someone who knows what they’re doing with it.)

Before the event three of us from the club had a debate on using chest plates.  I put one aside to have for the MAD option, but decided that I didn’t want to use one.  First, I think it’s cheating and second I don’t have experience fencing with one so I didn’t want to mess with what was working for me.  Based on my pool results, I made the right choice for me.  I also noted in the pool that those of us who were playing “straight up” were pointing out who was wearing a chest plate and giving out advice on beating it.  There’s a social stigma to those things that for me isn’t worth the one or two points it may get me.

Going into DEs I was seeded 2nd; there were some bloodbaths of pools where everyone had one loss.  Won my first bout 10-2 and then faced off against Le Blanc in the 16.  I had beaten him in the team event but he came out with a different strategy and was winning for a good part of the bout.  I was able to change things up in the second period and got a 10-6 win.  Then I faced Boksiner who moved very well and kept good distance with me.  We each had a mini-rally but were tied at 5.  After that he made the right adjustment and beat me down the stretch 10-6.

Boksiner ended up beating Julio 10-6 in the final.  I missed the bout because at the same time as our matches, all of the vendors were breaking down and loading out.  As soon as my bout with Boksiner was over with, I was back over at the booth helping to load up.  After the medal ceremony, we went over to the hotel, I grabbed a quick shower, and we headed back got the truck and started the drive back to Atlanta.

Post event:

I placed much better than Cincinnati.  Got 5th place for this event, which put me up in the top-10 in the vet combined and vet40 points lists.  I feel fortunate that I got bouts in pools that were good match-ups for me.  I wonder how many vets will make it out to Reno to play.  I want to see more to have it be a strong, fun tournament.

Still had my aches and pains during the event.  I wanted to go injury free, but had pain in my leading leg hip flexor in the middle of pools.  The trainers did a great job showing me how to stretch it out and that got me through my bouts.  On Tuesday afternoon I noticed pain below my elbow which may be indicative of a tennis-elbow type of problem.  I’ll work on some light weights and avoid any flick actions for a couple of weeks while I get that strengthened.

I’m still learning the types of stretching and warm-ups that my body needs now.  I plan on getting in better shape as the year goes on and getting my body in the place where I can go a couple of tournament days without all of these aches and pains – at least during the tournament.  We’ll see how that goes.

Sabre earrings w/red handles

Originally uploaded by FencingNet

We brought these earrings up to the Detroit NAC and they’ve been very popular already.

These are made by the father of one of our local fencers. He’s a jeweler and these are hand made from sterling silver. His daughter is a sabre fencer, so lots of sabres but he also made foil versions. (The bell guards are large enough to pose as epees if needed.)

These have been made with several accent colors for the hands – red, blue, green, black, brown. They also come in silver and gold colored. All of those options will make the online ordering process a bit difficult – lots of options to upload and keep track of.

Next is to try to get some pistol grip versions made of the foils and maybe get some deeper bells for a truer epee.

What I love is that here is another artisan who is developing a product for the fencing market – one that there is a need for based on early interest.

Update: They’re now available in the Fencing.Net Store.

Detroit NAC Strips

Originally uploaded by FencingNet

This is one of the NACs where Fencing.Net will be vending and where I’ll be competing over two of the four days of competition.

Yesterday was a driving day – Atlanta up to just south or Toledo and then this morning we drove the rest of the way into Detroit to get set up.

Michael and I had the booth set up by about 2pm and then waited for some clubmates to show up as we watched the rest of the venue take shape.

Ben is fencing tomorrow in Div 2, I’ll be fencing on Saturday in Vet Team and then Monday in the Vet Combined Foil. I’ve got pretty lofty goals for this event, but haven’t had the time to put in the physical training so we’ll have to see how the matchups work out for me.

• Started fencing as a kid (I was what would be a “late starter” now since I started at 14)
• Went on to college and fenced in an NCAA program (Go Heels!)
• Became a gym rat for a year to hang around the team, do a little coaching
• Moved back to Atlanta to get a real job(tm)
• Got married, had kids, no time, dropped out of fencing
• 10 years and a couple of rating drops later I hit 40 and I’m back trying this out again.

This season I’ve competed in one Vet NAC and am going to hit the second in Detroit.  I’m also slowly getting myself back into shape.  You don’t use the same muscles wrangling several kids, helping with youth sports, and fixing bikes that you do in a fencing match.

So far, it’s been fun.  I’m far enough removed from my competitive days that I can laugh at myself when I mess up, but still have the energy to compete.

I’ll see how Detroit goes, then Reno, and then plan out the next season.

Recently I have been involved in preparing the new building for the Fresno Fencing Academy. The new place is three times bigger and much easier to get to, but needed to be painted quite badly. The work was mostly completed by the people who fence at the academy . While there, I made 11 interesting observations that probably only other fencers could appreciate:

1. Epeeists are tall, and painted the really high places
2. Foilists pay attention to detail and painted all the corners and edges
3. Saberists are fast and painted everything else really quickly

But those things are to be expected, and are blatantly obvious to any fencer worth his tips. The list does, in fact, go on.

4. Pistol grip users tended to press harder than they needed to
5. French grip users were a lot better with the extended rollers
6. Lefties often got in the way, and subsequently, everyone was annoyed with them
7. Veteran fencers complained about how the rules of painting just aren’t good as they used to be
8. The coach tried to give us tips on how we could paint better. He also mentioned that we would “get better with practice”
9. The novice fencers kept painting the same wall over and over
10. The college fencers were surprised that they could actually afford paint
11. The nerdy fencers were everyone, and subsequently understood the reference in the title of this note.

So there you go, 11 observations about fencers outside of their natural habitat. The only conclusion I can draw from this is if you can’t decide what kind of fencer you should be, just look at the way you paint.“

At religious Jewish weddings, there is a part during the dancing for guests to entertain the new couple by displaying talents, skills, or anything that looks fun or cool.  I decided to entaertain my very good friend of 18 years (As I am 21 and the groom 22) by fencing for him.  Unfortunately, I left my jacket at home, but everything else was there.  To cover my dress shirt, I wore a t-shirt I carry in my bag of two fencers with sword fish I bought from woot.  The equipment from fencing.net is my brand new blade by Vinity, used for the first time at this wedding.  Enjoy!

Andrew included some photos as well.

Thanks for the story Andrew!

We’re sending Andrew a $50 gift certificate from Fencing.Net.

Do you have a fencing story to share?  Send it, along with photos or video of you with your gear (preferably from Fencing.Net!) to myfencingstory@fencing.net.

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