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.

Coletrain, What Do All These Letters F'ing Mean?

Some of my friends who enjoy my writing, but are not fencing aficionados asked for a primer on how ratings and classifications work. Rather than show a event classification chart and have my friends learn not to ask questions and bore the folks who know - I am going to explain in my own superior way how this actually works.






Ratings or classifications officially are used to help seed fencers into pool a in tournaments around the United States. You earn a rating by ended up in a certain place at a tournament with a given strength (measured by the number and variety of fencers with these given ratings). Since fencing is most often done in a tournament format with one winner - many fencers consider renewing or earning ratings as an acceptable consolation for a medal.

Earning a rating in fencing therefore depends on three factors: 2)how well you did, 3) how good is everyone else, 4) how well THEY did. For example, if you are in small event and you kicked ass, great! If the three best guys you didn't fence in direct elimination had an awful day - you might not get a rating. And you will be very angry. If you ever see a picture from a local tournament with an angry teenager with a gold medal around his neck - well, you know why.





In fact, more than any other sport - fencing rewards the people who on paper are supposed to win. Top seeds get the easiest pools, bottom seeds are fed to the lions. Therefore the top seed theoretically should be the top seed at the start of the direct elimination round AND have the easiest path to the final. If you are the top seed and you lose to the young upstart in the round of 16, you could bring down the whole tournament rating - and everyone will hate you. Seriously. Bad things will be said about you. You might get a reputation as the "pretty" one instead of the "good" one.






So, let's say you come into some money and you decide to outfit yourself and your five best college buddies in fencing kit and want to have a tournament. If the local USA Fencing Division board allows it, you can have an event! If you win, CONGRATS you are a brand new E rated fencer! So an E is a guy who can beat a roomful of rank beginners. Don't laugh, that is a tougher accomplishment than you might think. Even so, I wouldn't brag about earning it if you have been in the sport for more than six years.

Every E wants to be a D. Desperately. if you are a D, you theoretically become the top rated fencer in every National Division III (aka D and Under) tournament you enter. There are two common ways to earn a D: win a D rated event, or place highly in a much stronger A or B rated event.

The first option means beating everyone who is around your ability level in your DE path and getting the gold. And if these events didn't last all day, it might be the easier option. Plus, when new ratings are on the line, fencers tend to do a LOT better.

The second option basically means you beat most of the people in your pool, but got knocked out of DEs early. Now this is supposed to be the harder option; if your opponents got a good night's rest, didn't go out drinking, aren't sick, etc. If you are patient and focused, you might pick up touches at 9am that you'd never get at noon.

D, as you might have guessed, is for Desperate. Every D is dying to be a C. A C rated fencer is (or supposed to be) the top seeded fencer in National Division II (C and Under) competition. Cs, for now anyway, are also eligible for National Division I (C and above) competition. Div I is where the big boys play - current and former Olympians and National Champions, folks who take the sport extremely seriously. The C rating is the sweet spot. You can still beat up on Unrated fencers, and you can play with the big boys. Plus it is a rating where many fencers begin to acknowledge you as "good." You earn a C by entering a C rated competition and winning, or by losing in the quarterfinals of a large A rated tournament.

All Cs want to be As. Those who try and fail become Bs. The B is the middle child of fencing ratings. You aren't considered as good as an A, but you are barred from Div II competition. Many fencers that I have known dropped the sport after earning a B. In Georgia foil competition, many folks win a B rated tournament to become a B fencer. In Epee, one earns a B by losing either in the semifinal or final round of a large A rated event.

Everyone wants an A. On their term paper in college, on their performance evaluation (Acceptable) at work, and on the window of the restaurant they are dining. Fencing is no different. If you are an A fencer than you have won a large competition filled with strong fencers who also fenced well, or you did really well at a gigantic competition filled with badasses. In the Southeast, A fencers often get to fence for free in local tournaments, and are often courted into competing. Again, they get the easiest pools and the best path to allow them to renew their A rating. Plus they can brag to friends about being an A fencer - and those friends have a vague clue what that means.





Now these ratings only last four years or so. I for example am a B2007, so unless I find and win a tournament before July 31,2011 - I will become a C2011. Which isn't too bad, since in large tournaments the seeding is about the same. When I get my A this year, I will be an A2011 which would put mr at the top seed of local competition.

100 Tournaments Later...

Last Saturday was a heartbreaker: the Atlanta Falcons were knocked out of the playoffs and I was only a few touches shy of renewing my B or even getting my A.

Even though I actually got a good nights sleep, it was a chancy morning. I lost my first pool bout to an unrated fencer who kept swiping at my legs out of range of my counterattack. I didn't know his rating at the time, but he looked like easy pickings so I didn't proceed as carefully as I should have. This development killed me because I still had an A to face in the pool, and I knew he would want to avenge his loss to me from two months ago. While it was a close bout, I couldn't control the distance and got doubles when only singles would do. Thanks to the tiny pool, I only had a 2-2 record. For those following at home, this result breaks my streak of only losing one bout in the pools the last few events.

DEs were better, but disappointing. I faced a new fellow Dunwoody FC fencer in the first round (had I won the U bout I would have had a bye), and while he tried his best, it was over pretty quickly. When the ref starts calling epee bouts like foil with all the phrase d'armes terms to keep busy, you know it's gotten ugly. The next round was against the 6th seed, who at first fenced my seeding, not me. Once I got untangled from his multiple circle parries, it was just a matter of controlling the distance and keeping the score gap uncomfortably large. The next round didn't go so well. I got down by 4 touches right away, which forced me to attack to make a game of it. I caught up, but I never controlled the distance, so any miscues and miscalculations were costly.

I am upset, but I am anxious to get out there and try again. Even though my pool record suffered (so drinking... helps?), I still made another trip to the round of eight, which is happening with more regularity. The key is focusing on the pools, and mastering the distance at all costs.

As I was researching my bouts on AskFred.net, I noticed a cool thing - I have reached 100 events in the database. Of course, AskFred doesn't record NAC or National Championship results, and I have at least 10 or so competitions that are pre-Fred acceptance - so I hit the magic number sometime in 2010. Still, I am hit by the significance.

The records start in May 2005, soon after I moved to Atlanta. Right away I went from an unrated fencer to an E in epee. I also largely gave up my interest in being a three weapon fencer, especially since the major three weapon clubs in town discouraged the practice. The trend from that point was strong results in D and under events, and respectable but not good results in the Open events.

Unfortunately, after I got my B, my Open results didn't improve all that much. In fact, in the first 10 events rated A2 or better after I got my B, I only broke into the top 10 once. And that event was on New Years Day and I was completely hungover. The scary thing is that I could guess if less or more drinking would have improved that particular result. The worst bit is that of the three or four folks in GA who have improved their rating to a B or better in the last six months, most have renewed in just a few tries.

In the last couple years I was more committed to work, and seeing friends, and fencing mostly in the Div I NACs - but my results there are in need of examination as well. Right now I have more flexibility to train, coach, and compete - which is showing up in my Open results. It just sucks that it's taken almost six years for me to get to a consistently good level.

My fencing goals now are to be a constant fixture in the top 4 in Open A2 events, and in the top 32 at Div I NACs. Right now, looking at my last five results I am averaging in the bottom half of the 8 - which means I need to win one more DE per event. Given I haven't been blown out yet, it is a reachable goal. My NAC results have not been so kind.

To reach both goals I need to focus and fight for every touch in the pool like it is the Olympic final, and to jealously guard the distance like a drunken princess.

Eight Long Months...

High school kids in Georgia have it easy. My only exposure to fencing in rural Missouri was through the local public library and luxury car commercials. For a high school freshman interested in competitive fencing and the potential to be good, there are these options.

1. Georgia HS League Monthly tournaments
2. Under 14 Events
3. Under 16 Events
4. Under 20 Events
5. Local Open tournaments

And these are just the Open competitions. From there...
5. Div III D and Under
6. Div II C and Under

And if the kid gets good (after all that tournament exposure)...
7. Div I C and above events
8. World Cups (if invited)

That is a ton of fencing,which is why you see so many fencers go from U to A in epee in only a few short years. It look me much longer to get my B.

In any case, after a long eight month drought, I finally returned to the medal round and left with a bronze in Augusta. I fenced well, but ran into some minor stamina issues. Not that I was too tired to fence, I just was losing the ability to think critically while fencing. And that ability is my singular unique strength.

When a 5-1 Result Sucks

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.

Cody Mattern is Cool - 2010 Atlanta NAC

Finally, another NAC on home turf, less than 20min from my house. Plus I know where the good parking is, and I have brand new weapons. Unfortunately, even with plenty of sleep I still turned in the same result as the Cincinnati NAC, a 1-5 result but with a better indicator.

Again, I didn't feel outclassed, but at least this time my coach hit upon the main issue. As my footwork gets faster, I am tending to miss. Not by much, but I am missing enough to turn possible singles to doubles or worse. Back to the target speed I go!

However, I did get a chance to meet Cody Mattern, one of the top fencers in the US, and pretty cool too. He is fun to watch because he doesn't have many actions that a good epee coach anywhere can't teach you. He just happens to do them very very well.

Oh, and I did find one picture of me fencing. Too bad you only see my arm and epee, but I got the touch!

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.

So far, so good

Today I competed at the North Georgia Fencing Club November tournament. Last night, I was watching UFC 123 @ Hudson Grile with my closest friends that I just met. I wasn't sure how well I was going to do, but I resolved to be aggressive. My first bout didn't end up that way, until I woke up, but I ended the pool 3-1. When I saw how low I was vs. the other one loss fencers (4-1), it makes me wish I asked for a reseeding when I had the pretext.

In any case the aggressive fencing worked great against folks not from my club. Unfortunately I had to go through two strong club mates to make the round of 4 and renew my rating. I only won one of those bouts.

First Tournament of New Season... Eh..

I almost didn't make it to this one - even though it was in town and my club was the host. The night before I lost my keys and faced the prospect of having my car towed and rekeyed right before the event. Instead of hoping for the best and going to sleep, I had a few and passed out around 11pm. Turns out that I locked my car keys in the dash, and made it to the tournament in time for check in - but not in time to warm up.

My pool should have been easy - there were only 2As in a 40 person event, which means I should only have one tough bout to worry about. I ended up 2-3, and dropped two losses on a slow kid from Wintrop and another kid who earned his C that afternoon. I didn't even feel like myself until the final bout - which I lost 4-5 (including a touch where the guy managed to try three times to touch me after I left the strip AND fell over in the process when the ref was staring at the scoring box). It was embarrassing, but my DE tree wasn't daunting. Unfortunately, I lost my first DE (second round) to the same guy as in my final pool bout, even though at one point I had a 14-12 lead with 1:00 left in the 2nd period.

Lack of competing and practice probably contributed to my decision to force a swift conclusion to the bout, instead of resting on the 14-12 lead, and sticking to my strong defense. Fencing can be like riding a bike, you don't really forget, but the gamesmanship is what helps you win when faced with even or ususual odds.

Expect to See a Lot of Me in 2010-2011

Ugh, what an awful year. I didn't qualify for anything except Senior Team Men's Epee for Nationals - not even Div III Foil. Although I felt I was improving towards the end of the season - most of it was just mediocre with flashes of horrendousness.

After spending some quality time with my previous years records at AskFred.net, I realized that I only did well when I competed all the damn time. I mean at least two competitions a month, sometimes two seperate competitions a weekend. At that point my results were consistent (top 4 in local Div II/III, top 8/16 in Local Opens), and getting better. I really want my A this season, more than I want to spend Friday nights looking at bar girls who couldn't compete with the women who shop my neighborhood Publix.

When asked by a prominent coach what my long term goal was for fencing, I said I wanted to be a fixture in the top 32 of Div I Men's Epee. Winning a few NACs would be fantastic, but I at least want my name to be mentioned (in a good way). His response was that I should practice more, and maybe quit my job. While it's true I don't practice or compete as much as I did when I had an easier strict 8-5p job; the ability to travel to any club or tournament I please using either cash or points or miles is a great consolation. He compromised on that suggestion if I made the effort to compete more, and travel to see other clubs when I was away with work. That made me feel better.

It's gonna be a long road - but it will be fun, after all fencing is my favorite thing to do. (Seriously, bar none.) I will post more too. ;)

Walking the Dog and Tunnel Vision

One of the interesting things about fencing is that not only does it combine fine and gross motor skills like many sports, but each is also asked to draw on a huge library of skills in the middle of the bout. To mitigate this, coaches will teach the fencers to focus on 2-3 key actions, actions with over 80% accuracy that will ensure victory... but what if they don't work? If they don't work, the fencer must go back to that library, which is only possible if he has the presence of mind to analyze the situation on the fly, and either replicate a solution from previous experience - or create one.

The problem with this is that there is a person on the other end of the strip with a metal weapon in his hand, and he's coming for you. Only the quarterback in tackle football, and maybe the defensive secondary unit faces a similar dilemma - how to match solutions from a wide body of knowledge to a specific high pressure situation instantaeously. Most folks in such a situation freeze up because they can only see what is directly in front of them - hence "tunnel vision."

Tunnel vision is a phenomenon of the mind and body working in concert against an athlete's, or anyone's welfare. It's overfocusing on the most immediate issue, instead of taking in as much information as possible and making an informed decision. If you are running for your life in an open field - tunnel vision is ok. If you are running for your life in a jungle, the jaguar on the tree above you can get you just as good as the one on your tail. But if your field of vision is clear, and your mind is open - you can avoid them both.

When coaching from the sidelines, especially in fencing, sometimes it's not as important to convince a competent fencer to try a certain action as to get him to see the whole picture. If a 4-8 parry riposte will be more effective than a simple 4 parry-riposte - telling him might help, if he can see when to set it up. But if he has tunnel vision, that may not be possible.

Some of my coaching, like "Walk the dog" is less a suggestion on what to do, but a way of mentally pulling the fencer out of the chase. His body is still on guard with weapon at the ready, his drilling and training have made immediate parries automatic - but instead of being consumed by the madness of the moment, his conscious mind has now regained control and his eyes are able to see the entire field instead of the fencer that has confounded him. Much like the Pro Bowl level quarterbacks able to pick the perfect spot and receiver to pass the ball to as men the size and speed of rocketpowered refridgerators try to smash him - so can a fencer with a completely clear mind execute common and uncommon actions with ease. After all if the fencer has done his job in practice, somewhere in his mind he has the solution to victory - a coach need only help him clear his mind so he can find it on his own.

Georgia Southern - Fencing Fools Tournament

Again, I lament the day that 4-4 out of the pools was not a good record. Based on the field, I really should have been 7-1, maybe 6-2 if I was still tired from the road trip. I got beat by a D who fenced like he was gonna rob me, and another guy (who eventually won) who I beat in a gold medal the last time I fenced him. The good news is that I didn't cough up any ratings, and I got a chance to fence some different styles than the ones I encounter all the time in Metro ATL.

I ended up in third place - and the trophy was a frameable picture of your best touch in the semi-final with my name on it. My touch was a quick hand touch in the middle of my opponents ill advised flick preparation. I won't post it here, because my opponent's "trophy" is a picture of him stabbing me in the throat and I am just taking it like a rank beginner. You can find my "trophy" on Twitter if you know how to find me.

Either way, April is gonna be busy:
- Georgia Divisonal Qualifiers - Div III Men's Foil
- Div I NAC in VA Beach - Men's Epee
- Southeast Sectional Qualifiers and Championship - Men's Epee

Wish me luck!!

Pittsburgh NAC - Well, the Bars Were Cool

Umm, here is a good fencer...

This is Cody Mattern abusing his last opponent in his morning pool bouts 5-0.

In contrast, my best bout was 4-5, when my last opponent tried to run at me and got hit instead.

Getting my ass kicked sucks, but hey, it happens - the fencing level is very high. Losing because actions I normally make aren't landing or because I didn't remise after the counterparry-counterriposte sucks HARD. Even when fencing someone like Ben Bratton, I had the timing and the distance and the blade, but couldn't stick the riposte. I am so used to getting it, I don't fight it out.

Next are a few locals in Georgia, but the big events are the Arnold Classic (if it is an FIE World Cup again) and the NAC F in Virginia Beach. Between now and then, I need to somehow replicate the level of intensity needed to compete nationally at my own club.

Say Hello To Atlanta's Newest Fencing Coach

After seven or so years, some bruises, many victories, piles of defeats, great memories, and lots and lots of money, my coach and the United States Fencing Coaches Association saw fit to award me the title of Assistant Moniteur - making me an official certified fencing coach.

This is something I have always wanted, even before I realized there is no money in it. The fact I make way more money drawing graphs and diagrams in Powerpoint than doing anything really cool is a crying shame.

One thing that will help in this new endeavor is actually finishing Dr. Kogler's book, "One Touch At A Time." After a disappointing 3-2 pool record paired with a 12th finish last Saturday (nevermind I missed practice for a week), I read a few pages of his book on the plane today. Every mental battle I had that day had an answer in that book. Dr. Kogler specifically argues that fencing is one of those sports one does not get fired up for. Any sport that requires fine motor skills and precise decision making requires cold blood, not hot excitement. In other words, watching Varsity Blues, Braveheart, and channeling Joey Porter is only gonna lead to disaster. FIX YO PREP!!!

Still training for the Div I NAC and Regional Open Circuit events this season. Since damn near half of the active members in the club are now Cs and up, going to practice will be very productive.

On To Nationals

The GA Division Championships were last weekend, and well - yeah. I decided to not compete in any individual events this time around. The nice reason is that I haven't been to practice because of work, and wasn't sure I'd do well. The not nice and other reason was that I had friends in town all week and I knew I would be hungover if not passed out by close of check-in at 8:30am. These two reasons are also why I haven't competed as much inside Georgia as in the past. National and out of region events get on my calendar well in advance of any planned shenanigans.

And I sucked royally in the team events. I gained some weight because I haven't been to the gym in two months, and work stress has made it worse. Plus I haven't been to two practices in a row in the same period - so my distance perception was in the trash. I have less than three weeks to turn both those problems around.

The first step will be eliminating the shenanigans until after Nationals. That won't be easy. The good news is after I return from Austin, you will be able to find me at Mr C's. It's convenient to many of the fencing clubs in ATL - see you there.