Fencing for Dummies

It occurs to me that the "about me" picture on the left there is about.... 6 years old. Really, I've got to get around to getting a newer one up, preferably one that doesn't have me making such a dumb-looking face in it.

Nationals, part 2.

The last couple of days ended me doing Y-12 Boy's Saber and then a little of a couple of things.

The saber pool went pretty well, I got a compliment from a well-known and respected coach (and former ref who once mentored me). He said I "understand fencing".

However, in the DEs one of his assistants disagreed quite a bit and I know I should have carded him for his disagreement. The call was one of those where "it's only Y-12, you should keep it simple," is not much of a defense when your student makes a BIG mistake and loses a crucial touch because of it.

But other than a few memorable moments, I have no idea what else I did that day. Surely Y-12 Saber wasn't the only thing. I shared a pool of Junior Women's Saber and did 1 DE bout. After the bout, with the final score of 15-7, the coach of the losing fencer walked over and said "I'm sorry you don't understand Right-of-Way." My response was "Thanks, but that's not at all helpful." After that was over, I went to Junior Women's Team Foil to relieve a sick referee. That was interesting, as I'd done saber all day and now had to watch arms and heads twisting and moving. The first couple of calls were tough, but I settled in and found a grove. Once I finished that match, I was released for the day.

The next day (and final day for me), I observed a young lady from Portland, ME (Hi Adam! Her coach and a former teammate of mine) and had fun in Div 3 Men's Foil. I got to ref a few bouts and  then took notes on how she did. That was my second observation this competition. Something that I've only done once before in all my years as a ref. Pretty interesting there. Then I was sent to Girls' Y-12 Saber. Which is still pretty much foil. Although there was one girl in my pool who could actually fence saber. That was also interesting as I got a handshake from a coach from DCFC who just a couple of years ago asked a ref to take his fencer's bouts when we were sharing a pool. Guess I've improved some.

I was then given both a Quarter- and Semi-final bout and apparently didn't suck there either. During the DE rounds one coach was standing about 3 feet from me (so he could the same angle and criticize my calls while still speaking to his fencer), he was screaming at her to move her feet and you could see her fence worse the more he yelled. I looked at him and said "Coach, you're starting to disturb me."

His reponse was a quick "I understand, I'm sorry," and he moved down a bit and stopped yelling and she returned to the actions that were scoring touches.

All-in-all, Nationals was a fun time. Long, and stressful, but fun and I got to see some good fencing (even if I didn't referee much, but that's me not being very active last season).

That pesky U-16 WF bout

That I couldn't remember just now - Quarterfinal - Lee Keifer versus J. Dubrovich.

Another bout where I made a tight call of attack in preparation against the "better" fencer (well, Keifer is clearly the better fencer), and neither the coach nor the fencer liked it. But the fencer clearly knew better and from what I've seen of her fencing she never needed to be in that situation.

I suspect some sort of game ("you can only score X touches using Y action) was going on since she was not actually trying to beat her opponent, more work on something using a huge advantage in the score to pad the practice.

That makes two separate coaches who haven't liked me calling touches against their fencer when they start their lunge with a bent arm instead of using their tip.

Nationals

Since connecting to the wi-fi in the convention center is problematic, at best, it appears there will be no immediate updates to the bouts that I referee. So instead a few words about our sponsor and the competition that I've experienced so far.

First, the Gaylord Texan Resort: frickin' huge and expensive. There's a number of bars and restaurants and all of them are overpriced resort fare, even the Sports Bar. Plus, there's even some interesting decor.

There's a walkway that takes you over the "river" as it winds its way through the atrium, which is topped by the Lone Star of Texas.

A bad angle, I know.  I'll see what I can do about getting a better one.

However, once you've gotten into the convention center, it's a regular ole fencing competition.

There are 61-ish strips (not sure if that includes the platform for the Gold Medal bouts or not) set up.

Now for a moment about me -

On the first day, I referee U-19 Men's Foil first thing in the morning. It had been so long since I'd ref'd that I was a tad bit worried for my first two or three bouts. By the time I'd gotten warmed up and ready to go, half the pool could be over. However, the first two bouts went quite well. It was the second two bouts that didn't go quite so well... I did manage to recover and remember what the tempo was and how to referee foil. Which was good since after lunch, I was switched to Cadet Women's Foil. My pool was really calm and relaxed. I honestly don't' remember how far I went in the Direct Eliminations of either event. I know I did a whole bunch of de bouts (I think), but what, I couldn't tell you (according to my Facebook feed, I did a bout in the Quarterfinal of the Women's Foil.... That's all I know.)

Day 2, I started out in Junior Men's Foil Team and did one match, Northwest Fencing Center versus Mission Fencing. Northwest easily advanced, and then I was switched to Y-12 Men's (Boy's) Foil. I did a pool there and then took half a sheet of of the tableau. Two referees to each sheet and two strips and we cranked it out. I did manage to get a little assistance late in the bracket for a bout so I could refill my water bottle, but otherwise it was crazy.

I was then assigned a bout in the Quaterfinals, which was quite easy. When I went for my handshake (the traditional way to get released for the day, you get the handshake from the Head Referee), I was told I had the Gold Medal bout. That occurred on the raised platform strip and was quite interesting. One of the fencers from my Quarterfinal had advanced and won easily.

Thomas Dudey from Salle Mauro is the 2009 Y-12 Men's Foil champion!

During the bout, his coach thought I missed two calls. I only missed 1. I called one much tighter than he liked and he (as some coaches, I'm finding) disagreed with my version of the events.

Today, was an interesting day - I was an observer for a young gentleman from the club in Birmingham, AL. I suspect that he'll be a fine referee after more practice and work at the Y-14, Cadet level, as he's a Cadet fencer himself. Then, we moved into the DEs and I was assigned a Semi-final bout as well as Assisting with the Gold medal bout (as the refs from the Semis do).

Tomorrow will start with Y-12 Boy's Saber, which is still foil-ish, and then who knows what. My philosophy at these events is to just take whatever scoresheets I'm given and then turn them back in.

On a side note, if the last two days are any indication, I'm never going to get bingo.

Perhaps if I could combine the first couple of days, but the rule stipulate that there is a different bingo scorecard for each day.

Lincoln Square Fencing update

It's been a while since I've said anything about my fledging club's health. In the interests of blogging things my "readers" don't really want to read (based on the search results...), here's a note about where we stand at the start of summer.

My youth class has expanded by 100% to 4, since a woman who lives two doors down stopped in one Thursday evening to ask about fencing for her 10 year-old son. The kids were playing on the front lawn and saw one of the fencers and his mom leaving with his equipment. I was delayed just enough for her to stop in in time to catch me as I was coming down the stairs. Their neighbor has also joined us and both kids are quite excited to be doing it. Although, I think July's weather might dampen some enthusiasm.

My adult program has taken a summer break.... My one (!) Women's Foil fencer bought a condo, started renting her other one and in the interim has had meetings and whatnot going on. So I've not seen much of her. Which is too bad, because the last lesson we had was a tremendous breakthrough. She finished the lesson excited and happy with her performance rather than frustrated and upset. One of my Women's Saber fencers went home for the summer, and my other two adult saberists took June off, since one had an injury and another had several weddings to attend. I hope to see them both in July once I'm back from Nationals.

Also, I plan on having the entire summer as an Open House. First try is free, then we go from  there. My website should be up in a running in a couple of weeks and then I can plaster the neighborhood with notices about the club.

I've gotten goals from a couple of the youth fencers, and I can start making annualized plans for them, plus I'm planning my next coaching development trip in September to Ontario (United has 2-for-1 tickets to Canada for the Summer).

While my number of students is a bit lacking, I've really not done all that I could in getting people in the door, but since I'm not taking a class this summer, I'll have time to work on doing that and contacting schools in the area (one of my new students goes to the Catholic church around the corner from my club) to see if I can't work something out.

Nationals?

already?

My biggest problem with going to Nationals and refereeing is that I almost always haven't ref'd in a couple of months (this year a few  more...). When I get there, I always feel just a little overwhelmed that first pool. This year looks especially exciting since that first pool will be Under-19 Men's Foil (or Y-14 Men's Epee, I'm betting that I'll be assigned to the foil).

Hopefully I survive that enough that I make it to the U-16 Women's Foil in the afternoon.

I hope to have daily (or more frequent) updates on my pools and events as I've been able to do at other tournaments this past season.

This week

I've been on vacation from work trying to get things around the house in order in case one of our bids comes through and we get to move this summer.

We've got one bid that has been offered and counter-offered, but the sellers aren't yet seeing that we're the only interested people in months and months of them trying to sell the place and that the condo needs a lot of work before it's really livable (the paint on the cabinets HAS to go).

I got a call yesterday after my workout from my realtor about seeing a place before it goes on the market. The agent from our first bid is listing the floor above and wanted to know if we were interested in seeing it before she lists it.

Yes, please. So we resume our viewing and looking and whatnot this weekend.

My contribution

to "Fencing is a Sexy Sport" comes from a Southeast Asian blog -

I'm going out on a limb that she's not a fencer, but she's got a saber in hand. The model's name is Nok Ausanee, apparently an actress of some repute in Thailand.

Update: TIM-lanche! Thanks Tim. Feel free to browse and let me know you think.

Glenn Reynolds continues to be ahead of the curve 30 minutes ago with this summer's news template:

OIL PRICES SURGE, Media Yawns. If gas gets up to five dollars a gallon again, we’ll get stories on ….

Nationals Travel

I made my reservations once I got back from vacation and it was sent to the National Office that afternoon. On Monday, I sent an email asking if I was approved. I received a response that I was, and that an approval had been returned to United  the day  the request was received.

I still have yet to receive anything from United to the effect that I have a seat on a plane to DFW on July 2nd.

How's everyone else's travel plans?