I fenced in the Norfolk Championships last weekend, which was a bit of challenge as I hadn't done any competition fencing for a couple of years. I wanted to see if I could apply some of the learning I've written here to the event, also I wanted to find out if I still had any gas left in my tank! (See later for the answer)!
I was reasonably keyed up before the start, which was quite surprising. I guess I must still take these things pretty seriously. Luckily (or unluckily) my first fight in the poules was against the chap who'd just won the sabre and who also fences at the Commonwealth. Things didn't look good. However I found myself fighting quite well and was able to make a few observations as the fight progressed. I noticed that he was inviting my attacks, using very aggressive body language and rapid movements which almost made me
have to attack. I am by nature a reasonably defensive fencer these days as I know my direct attacks aren't as fast as they used to be. This combination made for a very tactical fight and lead to a 4-4 showdown. Unfortunately, despite my brain telling my reflexes not to I was unable to prevent myself attacking at an invitation and lost to a parry riposte 5-4. However I was pleased with that as a first match and this carried me on into the next matches against slightly less experienced opposition. I was pretty pleased with my performances here, although I felt I conceded too many points. My most pleasing attack was a disengage deceiving a parry of octave, which I had noticed my opponent did every time I attacked him. Another opponent attempted to engage in sixte on every preparation and I was able to execute a couple of stop hits on this, disengaging and hitting as he moved forward. My final score in the poule was 2 wins, 2 losses as I lost 5-4 to one of my students! Although annoyed that I didn't finish 3-1 up I did take some consolation from the fact that it was one of my students that had beaten me!
I finished seeded 7th and proceeded to the D/E where I met another of my students who I suspected would give me problems. I knew I needed to get ahead as if I tried to match hit for hit I was likely to start running out of energy. (A two year lay off does take it's toll). Luckily my student is a very thoughtful fencer and I was able to get a quick lead and maintain it through the match. My next opponent was an old student of mine and a very competent competitor so I suspected that this would be my last hurrah of the competition! I wanted to make a good fist of things and was pleased to find that I was able to match my opponent point for point and for the first two periods I was never more than 2 points out of the running. My particular favourite hit was a ducking counter-attack into a fleche which I had pre-planned. My peer group on the sidelines thought it most amusing and predicted I wouldn't do it again because of my knees. Obviously they didn't realise that I would never do the same thing twice from a
tactical point of view!
At the start of the 3rd period it was 10 points apiece and was up for grabs. Unfortunately I made the wrong tactical choice and decided to change the rhythm of my fencing by attacking to try and gain a lead. This proved a failure as I was parried and hit by two quick ripostes to leave myself 12-10 down. I also realised that lack of match practice had totally caught up with me and I had run out of fuel at last! This left me with a dilemma; I had to attack as my opponent had the advantage of letting time run down. He had no reason to attack me but I didn't think I was going to be able to land many attacks succesfully. As I had got more tired my point control had started to suffer which was an extra factor in executing compound attacks as I was unlikely to get close enough to hit directly. All these factors took their toll and with a crisp series of parry ripostes and a final indirect fleche (a good example of rhythm change in itself) my opponent took the fight 15-10. I coudn't have lost to a nicer chap though!
I was overall quite pleased with my performance and after match appraisals suggest that with a bit of match practice and work on my stamina I could definitely do better, which is quite pleasing at my age!
I hope this entry has shown the sort of thing that should go through a fencers mind as they progress through a competition. It should never just be case of go out there and thrash around without a game plan!
