Sunday, November 28, 2010

One Hiccup

There is nothing like disappointment. Failure happens to everyone. Few ever go undefeated. But to climb so high and trip on a stone at the summit hurts worse than anything.

Yesterday I fenced at the Crown Fencing November Tournament, and it was wild. I was in the large pool, and managed to come out 5-1, losing only to the C10 from my club and was #2 in the pool. After pools I was #4 of 25 in the tournament, and had a relatively easy path to the round of 4 and renewing my B. I also had a not so difficult path from there to the final. Given this, I was asked to help ref the other bouts, coach some of the kids in youth events, and when it came time to fence my first 15 touch bout, I lost. It wasn't a shellacking, it was a brawl. Eight double touches and four points traded off in the first 2:30 - this is not a bout I am controlling. I couldn't get command of the tempo, and I didn't have the presence of mind to just flèche at him over and over again.

The good news is that I have strung together two strong pool results in A2 level tournaments, and each DE loss so far has been against a clubmate. Losing sucks, a lot, but it is happening a lot less often, and it's against folks with insider knowledge.

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