Aside: How to Live Life Part I

In business school you get a chance to see how the men are separated from the mice. How smart people react to bad grades depends on: a)if they had ever gotten bad grades before, b) if they have ever had anything bad happen to them worse than bad grades. I am a pretty smart guy and a and b have both happened to me. So I have a lot more perspective than some of my peers, and I am gonna share that here.

1. Commitments matter

In school, fencing, life - commitments are like currency. You use them as you see fit, and if those commitments are broken you feel like you were robbed. You should never make commitments in haste and without deliberation, and if you do make a commitment you consider it like you would a contract. If you make commitments and don't keep them, you are like the guy who tries to buy a subway sandwich with monopoly money.

2. Solve someone else's problem once in a while

Here at DU you are asked to do community service as part of class. You are meant to use your business skills to help the organization be better - which is a nice way of saying solve someone else's problem. I apply the same principles to helping a sexy bartender figure out how to use her bachelor's degree. I am not wedded to the outcome, but I put all my mental faculties to the solution just the same.

Fencing Foil at South Denver

I am not a foil fencer. I don't look like one.

I don't act like one. But if I can't beat my high school aged foil students in a tournament, I am gonna be in trouble. I ended up in 6th place (out of 17) in an in house tournament. Mostly because I like to attack, am annoyed when I am parried, and my response is to drive forward rather than recover-retreat-counterparry-counterriposte.

Hangover Open in Denver

First off, I had a decent New Year's Eve/New Year's with my roommates and their awesome friends. I have kinda lost interest in the idea of NYE as a drunkfest hookup time, especially since it is so hard to get home on New Years whether you drive, look fruitlessly for a cab, or take the train. Halloween is much better suited as the pickup holiday.

Even so, my roommates and their friends loved shots of cognac, so I was pretty sauced the next afternoon when I fenced epee with the few enterprising adults and many in shape and well behaved high schoolers of the DFC Hangover Open epee event. I didn't fence badly, but I didn't fence crisply or precisely. Again, it looks like I know what I am doing, but for the last six months or so I have felt off my game.

It's weird, I spend most of my evenings in the fencing club, but only a tiny percentage of that time is devoted to my own training. I give private lessons, teach classes, work in the armory, referee tournaments, but not much actual practice for myself. I like to think of myself as a competitive fencer, but it seems I am doing less and less to justify that title.

No Joy in Kansas City

This was a tough one. I was slated to compete in Div I and Div II Men's Epee, with a new coach and new larger lungs fresh from Colorado. The only difference between this event and the last NAC is that I knew exactly what happened this time.

On Saturday, I got to the venue early - stretched, warmed up, and wasn't hitting anything in practice bouts. My first bout in the event I won 5-4 with some slippery dodges paired with counterattacks. Apparently in the other bouts I lost touches because I would retreat with the parry, and retreat again with the riposte. Apparently I lost my bulldog freight train edge.

On Monday, I got to the venue early - stretched, warmed up, and was hitting a lot more, but was having trouble avoiding being hit. In the event my bouts were mostly even - 5-4, 5-3, 5-3, 4-5, 4-5 - and I lost in DEs to some kid who was fast but not interesting. My first thought after the embarrassment subsided was "I used to be good at this."

Unfortunately, even though I work part-time in a fencing club, I have not trained as much as I have in the past. I also work as an accounting TA and am a fulltime MBA student. While dropping an average of 2lbs a week is extremely good for my current and future help, it might be affecting my fencing as well. The point being - I really don't have time to fully prep for success at an NAC with all this going on, so I am going to walk away from them for a while. Next season (2011-2012) I will be traveling for school and interviewing for full time jobs, as well as trying to graduate - the incentive to spend $500+ for another NAC without some probability of success is insane.

I will still fence locals, and I may travel to tournaments like the Remenyk Open in Chicago or even Georgia Games in Atlanta, but I am done with huge fees for a while.

First Colorado Cup... Wow

Blaming the slippery floors would be acceptable. I was the only person new to the division that day, and some of the more experienced folks were skating their way to touches. I know how to attack in prime, I teach fencers how to do it and refs how to card for turning the back when it is done incorrectly. Still, every time I tried I did an involuntary pirouette (I think?) and turned my back and slid into my opponent. It sucked.

I don't like losing. I hate losing to people I can and have beat. I loath losing to people I can beat in front of people I know. In order to keep my composure and sanity, I just started cracking jokes and not caring - hoping I could bring it back in the DEs. Facing one of my new students put the end to that plan.

Nothing is appreciably different between this year and last - similar financial pressures are present, my diet is about the same, and I am fencing the same number of tournaments (3) in the fall portion of the local season. The only thing is that there is no familiarity between opponents and I am not practicing five nights a week minimum like I did in the past. The coach at SDFA says I look like I know what I am doing, I just come off as REALLY rusty.

The crappy thing is that there are no local tournaments between now and the North American Cup in Kansas City. I have two events there, Division I and Division II. My stretch goals are top 32 in Div I, and a medal in Div II. The first one is looking pretty far out of reach, and the second is possible but difficult. The only thing I can do is practice my butt off between now and then.

Umm, That Sucked.

There are no excuses. I could breathe, the level of difficulty wasn't too high, and I wasn't exhausted at the end. I just couldn't hit the broad side of a barn with two years fair warning and a sawed off shotgun.

Maybe I need to actually practice more - but my point control was anything but controlled. I could hit on the flèche, but nothing else. No parry riposte, no direct attacks in time, no counter time, no just f'ing hit the guy he's just standing there touches. The worst is that the NAC in Kansas City is coming up fast and I didn't spend $200 to get my ass kicked in my home state.

Between now and then I will work on point control with the wall and anyone who is wearing a maks. Good thing it is Halloween. ;-)

Falcon Open this Weekend

Saturday I return to Colorado Springs and glory. I can breathe, I am faster, I am ready.

Flying High and I Can't Breathe!!!

The first time I visited the United States Air Force Academy I was about 13 years old. I remember the beauty of the landscape, and the fact that the only interesting building to my young eyes was the famous chapel. My father was a radar operator in the Air Force on the DEW line - and once upon a time I entertained notions of trying to get an appointment as a cadet there.

Even so, I never dreamed I would fence there.

My second full week in Colorado I was convinced to compete in the 2011 Nick Toth Open. Never mind I still haven't gotten used to the altitude here. Even after work on the treadmill, weights, fencing practice, and pretty much walking everywhere - my lungs and my blood supply were still struggling to deal with the thin air and lack of oxygen. However, I never back down from a challenge - especially if someone calls me chicken.

The first bout was difficult - not because my opponent was so skilled, but I had trouble reacting significantly to two tempo actions. A well timed counter-attack got me the victory with a 5-4 score. In another bout, I was up 4-1, but I completely ran out of gas. My opponent went on a run, and only a well timed stop hit gave me a 5-4 win. My final pool record was 4-2, with three victories won with a 5-4 score. I didn't care at that point, I thought I was gonna get my butt handed to me.

I started caring a lot more when I saw the seeding after pools. There were 49 fencers seeded into a table of 64 - and there were fencers with better indicators but a 4-2 record with Byes into the round of 32. I won my first DE without too much trouble, but I faced the USAFA coach's son in the 32. I did ok, but I never had the lead.

Even though I had reason to be apprehensive - I remember the old saying: the danger is not setting your goals high and falling short, but setting your goals low and achieving them.