In a High School tournament, I once lectured a student after she won a bout 5-0. Even though she won handily, she made mistakes that other better fencers could capitalize on later in the day (and did). To her credit, she took my stern lecture with grace and maturity before celebrating her dominating win with her proud mother and friends.
Yesterday, at the Dunwoody New Year's Day tournament, one of my clubmates was none too impressed with my 5-1 pool record. He wanted me to win them all (helping his place in the seeding), and he said my indicator was way too high, with my wins peppered with too many 5-3 results. I countered I had to spot my opponents 3 touches because I was completely nauseous and hungover from New Year's Eve. He wasn't convinced, nor should he have been.
Personally, I fully expected to get slaughtered by every fencer great and small, but having such a high seed after pools (6th of 27) and losing my first DE after the bye was horrible. I didn't expect to win the tournament or even renew my rating yesterday, but the landing hurts more from the higher you fall. I don't regret meeting the cute redhead from Columbia,SC just before midnight, but I wish I was more discriminating about what I drank.
The good news is that this is the third local tournament in a row where I have turned in a one loss record, and each DE loss has been to a Dunwoody fencer. Good pool results are essential at National tournaments and qualifiers, so this is very good. At some point I need to renew my rating this year, else I would drop to a C12 next year. At a local, this means I need to start winning DEs. So, either I start creaming my own on a regular basis, or hit the road and earn my rating out of the area.
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