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So.....

First off, a little background.. I'm a fencer. As in swords. Only 1000000x safer, of course Andddd sectionals are being held a mere 20 minutes from my house this year, which means I'm going to fence! for more info on fencing and all of that, check out [href]www.usfa.org[/href]

Incedentily, I've been fencing longer than I have been on these forums.. I haven't posted anything before (about fencing), but I guess it's about time to change that. Besides, this is secionals! The best fencers in the south-east section of teh USA. I'm really pumped about fencing in this.

The tournament is being held at a local high-school. This afternoon was setup. I sincerly doubt if any sport has a longer pre-tournament setup time! You see, you have to have copper strips (a strip is the area where you fence on) at all reasonably large tournaments like this one. Especialy if it's a national qualifier Anyhow, those things are a royal PAIN in the ARSE. They weigh an ungodly amount, are EXTREMELY hard to transport, and take an enormous amount of time and tape to lay down and set up. And we had to set up 12 of them. yeeeoutch. My knees and ankels still hurt from bending down over them.

Er backing up a bit, I got at the gym around 3:00. The only other people there were the three officals from the USFA and a fencer from one of my clubs.. took another 20min or so before anyone else showed up Pretty much all from the two local clubs.. I knew all of them on a first name basis, which was good.

Letsee... ah yes. Tommrrow is the Open, which means any competetor, regardless of age, sex, or skill level can fence. That may seem a little unfair, but the only way to get good in this sport is to lose Besides, we're talking about fencing the best from the southeast section of teh USA. Sunday is the U-19, which means it's limited to fencers 19 years or younger of age. I'm also fencing in that.

Forgive me for jumping around here, but I keep forgetting that no one here knows much other than programming and beer. I've been fencing for 4 years. My primary weapon is Foil, and I've attained a D05 rating, which is pretty decent. (explination of Foil, Epee, and Saber on usfa.org I think) I think usfa.org has more info on ratings and teh like so I'm not going to spend much time here talking about it... Ah I don't know what else to say! Ask if you have questions or the like..




Anyhow, I have to wake up around 6:30 tommrow so I can get waked up Gonna be at the gym around 8:10, regestration check-in closes at 8:30. Fencing starts soon after. Wish me luck and all of that!

Cheers,
Hawkeye

p.s. I'll probally check this thread tommrrow morning, and I'll be sure to post how I do after I come back home tommrow

6:56 AM over here Jsut finished a waffle and a hotshower. Should be leaving in an hour or so..

Dont know how to respond... but its 11:59am here

Wow, I didn't know that the US has different time zones to the UK!!!

Good luck btw

Thanks Neofish

7:49 AM and I'm heading out teh door... here's hoping I have enough enegry to fence, win, and then go see HHGTTG ah why isn't there a garoride bottle smiley!!!

I shall return this afternoon-ish, probally 5 or 6 o'clock..
Cheers,
Hawkeye

Good luck... hoping you'll come back a winner and read this "good luck" message.

That's slick though dude, post more about this, it's awesome.

Back In short, I ended up 46th out of 70 or so. Not quite halfway There were some REALLY stong fencers there tho (this is a national qualifier) and I'm really happy with how I fenced.

Some details: 70-ish fencers there. 2 As, 6 Bs, and er what seemed to be 30 Cs, a smattering of Ds and Es, and 6 Us. Explination of what I just said: the ratings in fencing go from A to E, and then U. An 'A' is awesome-kick-butt-nationaly-known. 'B's are the same, only a little less so. 'C's are still pretty darn good. 'D' is a level below that--still kick-butt, but not at higher levels. 'E's are alright, nothing special. A 'U' is what you get when you regester with teh USFA (United States Fencing Assoc.) Keep in mind that the ratings only sound good on paper--I've had numberous people say I should be a 'C', occasionaly a 'U' will unexpectidly kick someone's butt, etc. etc. I've beaten 'C's before and thought that they were more like a weak 'D'. It varies largely.

Ok starting a new paragaph here Besides the variation in the ratings, you've also got how they're fencing that day--they could have overslept, just broken up with bf/gf, eaten a lousy sandmich that's making them feel like a ton of bricks, etc. etc.

Teh format: first, you have a round of pools with 6 or 7 to a pool. You fence everyone to 5 points, or touches. Then they put your results through a long set of equasions n' stuff of which I hardly understand You stick all of the results from the pools together and ditermine the seeding. This ditermines who you have to fence in the DEs (Direct Elimination) DEs are fenced to 15 touches. Once you lose, you're out. May seem a little unfair, and it is, but it prevents anyone from throwing bouts one way or another like they used to 20 years ago. Back then you had multiple chances. Now, if you lose, you're out.

Ok so my pool had 7 people--one REALLY REALLY kick-arse B fencer (his worst score was 5-1 3 Cs, 2 Ds (including myself), and one U. First bout was aganist teh B--I got one touch on him, which IMHO was pretty cool (you realyl have to see this guy to understand how good he is) I can't really remember anything else, but I know I won 2 bouts and lost 4 (one of those losses I should have won--other guy got lucky. but heck, I've won bouts on luck before, so not a problem )

Was seeded 45 out of the 70 fencers--first DE was (sigh) aganist my friend T. Wilson (I'm not including his first name for obious reasons), a C. C+, more like it Lost 6-15, although I was doing well at the start. He told me afterwards that he wasn't giving me any slack--you see, ordnairly your first bout is fairly easy and you sorta slow down a bit to conserve enegry. But he didn't, and nor did I Pretty cool bout to watch, I wish I had reccorded it


Overall, very fun. Saw lots of friends and got away with a minimum of bruses, although I did get whacked twice on my left hand. Couplared marks there, but they'll go down by tommrrow. One of the best bits of fencing is that you get to show off various owies at practice after the tournament It doesn't realyl hurt for more than 6 seconds on strip, because of all the adreenelin ( sp) Interestingly enough, there's only been 11 or so fatalities in 50 years of the sport, which is TINY compared with the 2000 or so of football...



Well now I've got to go and do it again tommrrow Fourtanitely the check in for the Under 19 Foil closes at 11:30, so I can sleep in a little bit (compared with today's 6:00 wakeup)

Cheers,
Hawkeye

edit: sorry for teh big post got a little carried away there

I used to do a bit of fencing a few years back. Don't really know why I stopped. Congrats on the result.

cool, soapyfigh You ought to take it back up--I've seen dudes who haven't fenced in 15 years and are totalyl out of shape come in and pwn at tournaments before.



Ahhhhh this sucks. 2nd in the state (at divisionals) and I end up 21st out of 40 at sectionals (the Under 19, that is--divisionals was the Open. So I guess I'm actually 41st in the section). I guess my main problem is not being able to have the mental control to fence someone I've never seen before. You know, the ahhh my god what if this guy really pwns omigosh he's a C ahhh. Stuff like that.

Pools were alright--I was really screwed up mentally tho, so I didn't do so well for a while. Then Collin came by and offered some choice pieces of advice.. got me thinking. Fourtinately there was a 15min lull so I sent outside and got myself going stright again. So then I come back inside and pwn the daylights out of a 'C' Probalyl was wondering "what the heck" considering my previous proformance in the pools.

My DE was a disaster--got pwnt by some idjit 15-6. The score should have been the other way around. Part of it was my fault, because I kept doing what I was supposed to, you see... because the referee wasn't calling it for me, and my other choice (simaltanious attack) was no use aganist his weird duck-squirm-leaping-dodge-slamming-parry thingee The times I DID get in a decent attack I eaisly got the touch, but he wouldn't let me.

I honestly thought I'd make it to the top 8 Ah well, that's life--at least I got to the middel mark.

Right now it's 6:33. In about 15 minutes I have to go back to the setup to help tear things down due to the lack of helping hands... all of the fencers are going to say "ah yeah right, you want me to what" and that leaves the 8 or so tournament runners. So I'm going off in a few to help them out. Tommrrow is a Monday, you see, and this is a school gym.. ah man, I'm going to sleep well tonight.