K&Q

So I had a pretty good day at K&Q.  I wish I could take back one fight. My only losses on the day were to Donovan and Thomas, who were both in the finals. Thomas hit me with a beautiful shot just inside the shoulder. I doubled with Donovan in the first pass. I had a great shot to his head but I let my defenses lapse and he wad cutting my belly. In the second pass he got me clean, and this I was out.

I finished top 6 or 8. Not really sure with double elimination brackets. The math is messy.

I was allowing some slop to get thru my defenses, and while it didn't kill me, it means I was not as clean in my defense as I would have liked. More things to work on. Need to also get in better shape, but that is a work in progress.

I was very glad to see some awesome people recognized for their hard work and their skill with a blade.

I am very tired and I have thoughts but I'm not awake enough at this point to write them coherently. We left Massachusetts at 6 this morning and just got finished with Bat Mitzvah.  Time for a nap.

Practice Report - 10/6

The weather was much better this week for practice.  I didn't feel sluggish due to heat or humidity.  This week I was working with a new blade.  I bought a blade from Castille Armory and wanted to break it in and see how it  moved, so I could make a determination if I would be using that blade or another one at K&Q this weekend.

My first fight was with Orlando, and we went out single.  I was not used to the change with the blade, so I was working on just figuring out the differences.  The balance point was a little further out than I was used to.  After the fight, I swapped out the pommel for one with a little more weight.

My next passes were with Garrick.  He is back to fencing with full contact.  I still want to be extra cautious with him though.  I had one shot that was aimed for his head.  I broke my wrist and changed the angle of the shot, going passe with the point, rather than hitting him in the mask.  It was one of those shots that I felt, had I landed it, the blade would not have bent, so I'd prefer not to hurt him (or anyone else) if I can prevent it.  That little bit of extra weight in the pommel helped out.  The balance point is about 1" in front of the guard now.

After Garrick, I picked a fight with Bethany.  I told her I wanted to work on my tournament game.  She was up for it and I brought my A game out with rapier and dagger.  After Bethany, I fought Ciaren.  Again, I was working my way up for this weekend.  Then is was some passes with Malcolm.  I wrapped it up a little early so we could get Evan home and in bed.

Overall, this is the least confident I have been in a long time heading into K&Q.  I'm not sure where my game is overall in comparison to years past.  The good thing is I 'm having fun, something I was not about a year ago.

Practice report - 9/29

So I think I needed to upgrade to gills last night.  I thought fall temperatures were supposed to be cooler.  It was actually warmer when we left practice last night than it was getting there.  Add to that very high humidity, and well, it felt like swimming.

Anyhow, practice was actually pretty good.  I warmed up fencing with Bethany.  I noticed her disengages were really large and I was not riposting with my parries at all, so I asked her if she'd mind doing some drills.  So we worked a simple drill where I would give her blade opposition, she would disengage and attack on the open line, I would parry and riposte.  We did this with both the inside and outside high line, both hands, and then we switched it up.  It felt good to do drills again.  If she or others are willing, I would like to do more of this.

Then I went out and fenced my squire brother Jonathan.  I went out with goofy case, my curved blade in my right and my 30" rapier in my left.  I had used this combo against Meryke at River Wars and I enjoyed it. It seems to work decently for me.  I recall about 10 years ago, I fought nothing but case, but since then its likely become one of my weaker forms.

After Jonathan, I fought +Raymond Edwards, who tagged me in the belly with his new blade.  It shows me I need to lose weight, as it caught my belly and pinched it.  Ouch!  We traded blades, and I really like his new setup.

The little man, and I, and Jennie were all getting over heated in the humid air, so I decided to pack it up early.  I didn't get as much fencing in as I would have liked, but I'm feeling a little better about where I am currently than I was last week.  Need to do more drills!

River Wars

River Wars was on Saturday.  Great fencing weather, overcast, cool but not cold, breezy, a little humid, looked like it would rain a few times, but splendid fencing weather overall.  There was very little traffic, and all the worry about the Pope being in Philly was for naught.

The format was interesting, in that it was the MODs/OGRs each held a spot on the field and the non-OGRs came to us.  It was three passes, not best 2-3.  We were asked to give feedback after the bouts with our opponents.  I really enjoyed the format overall.  I think I fenced 14 people as part of the tournament.  I know exactly how many fights I lost, but to me, it wasn't about wins and losses, and that in many ways is unusual.  I had a blast fencing, and it allowed me to give some concrete feedback during my bouts.

I got to do some pickups after the tournament.  I really enjoyed fencing +Caitrin M even though we were both gassed and she was hurting a bit.  I don't get to fence her enough.  I did some pickups and authorizations with two handed swords in preparation for the Oct 1 rule changes.  I authorized +Patrick Panico and +Michael Fina, thus increasing the available pool of marshals who can authorize people.

During court, I was very pleased to help induct +ivan nosenchuk into the Order of the Silver Crescent by giving him the medallion I have worn for the past 2+ years.

Post event, it was dinner at The House of Brews with +Thomas Zadlo, +Cathy Griswold , +Timothy Walsh, and +Caitrin M.  This is now a tradition having gone there three years in a row.  The food was good, the company was better.  The beer selection this year was not as impressive.  The drive home was ok, but when we got home, I showered and crashed hard.

My favorite part of the day though was watching Evan playing with daggers and the joy he had on his face while doing so.

 

Practice Reports- Rose's Tourney

Its been almost a year since my last entry in this blog.  I'm not sure why I stopped writing. But reading +Whitney Sternberg's posts has made me think it might be a good to start this back up.

So with no Pennsic, and a lighter event schedule this year, I've tried to be consistent with going to the local practice.  We unfortunately lost our Thursday night site over the winter.  Thankfully, Orlando had developed an alternate site on Tuesday nights in Glen Gardener, NJ, so that has been the primary practice I am going to.  The usual people there are Orlando, Malcolm, Yehuda, Mike, and some new blood.

The first week of September, I fenced at practice.  Yehuda was hitting me left and right.  No matter what I was doing, something was off.  This had bugged me as I was trying to break down what was happening and coming up with no solutions.  Then it was two weeks without practice, as we were at Disney World.  We got back late on Wednesday, and I was not feeling great so I was not  sure if I would be attending the Roses Tourney.  I felt better on Friday so we made the trip.  It has been a while since I did such a long day trip and fenced at an event.

I had the honor and pleasure to fence for Duchess Aikaterine.   I was on a team with Caine, Yehuda, Theron, and Agapios.  I started the day out fencing well, but as the hours wore on, and more time passed, I was losing steam.  In a late bout against Sorcha, I tweaked my knee.  I tried to do a body void, but my upper body didn't move.  My lower leg shifted a bit.  I walked it off and was able to continue.  I only had a few bouts left in the day.  I had a great bout against +Whitney Sternberg, and I look forward to crossing blades with her sometime soon.  I also had great bouts with Jacob, Firebow, and Jean Xavier to name a few.  Overall, I was not satisfied with  my performance but was happy to spend time among my friends.  I do realize that winning isn't everything, but I prefer to fence to the best of my ability.  When I look back on the day, and I looked at my losses, I had no clue what I was doing wrong.

So Tuesday, I was not in the mood to go to practice, but I needed to get out of the house.  So to practice I went.  I faced Jonathon, my squire brother who took up fencing about a year ago.  I was seeing the openings, but something was off.  There were way too many double kills and just bad measure of my end.  In waiting for Orlando, I picked a fight with Bethany, who is a newer fencer.  Against her, I was still coming up short, and this was after changing my blade out from my 37 to the  43" blade.  I realized while fighting  against her that I was not moving my back foot.  Everything I was doing was like a short lunge, not an advance or passing step.  This was the same problem I had prior to the vacation, without realizing it.  So after fencing her, I went back to do a couple of passes with Jonathan just to test out the hypothesis.  Things were working better for me.  My next set of bouts was against Orlando, and I felt like I was myself again.  Things were flowing in my fencing as they should.  My last set of bouts was against Firebow, and they were a fun set of passes.

This weekend is River Wars, where I am looking forward to fencing some more and challenging myself.  Not sure if I am going to keep the 43 on my sword or drop back to my normal blade.  Most likely I'll be switching it up to see what is more comfortable with K&Q right around the corner.

More to come...

King and Queen's Rapier Championship - October 18, 2014

So this post is going to be highly critical and from a very internal perspective.  If you think I'm about to whine, I'd ask you to go look at something else.  This is me venting.  You have been forewarned....

So this past weekend was King's and Queen's Rapier Champions in the East.  While I fought my way undefeated to the semi-finals, I keep thinking back on the weekend, and I'm just not happy with my performance.  I've been feeling burnt out on fencing and the SCA for a bit.  Practice has felt like a chore.  Going to events has felt somewhat the same.  I wasn't even sure if I wanted to fence at the event.  If it wasn't for my friends, I think I'd be taking a long break from the SCA.

Last week, I had to travel to Austin for work.  I brought some of my fencing gear with me, so that I could hit their local practice and maybe change my perspective and outlook.  I had a pretty good time fencing some different people.  So I figured, hell, I'll go fence at K&Q and see how it feels. I didn't expect to make it out of m pool, so I only brought a sword and a dagger with me.

The first round was a round robin with 7 people in my list, so 6 fights.  I lost to Ogedai (theme for the day) and Yehuda.  Against Ogedai, my foot would just not foot.  I went for a lunge, and my foot never came off the ground.  It was odd and a little unsettling.  Against Yehuda, I approached the bout like it was at practice where we face each other regularly.  I went 4-2 in the pool, tied with Orlando for second place.  Since I beat him head-to-head, they gave me the tie breaker so I advanced to the Sweet 16.

In the first round of the 16, I faced Malcolm.  Again, someone I fence regularly.  Hell, I'm to be the best man at his wedding, and hope that this bout did not change that.  I beat him two straight, though both bouts were very different.  The first was like fencing in slow motion and the second was fought at hyper-speed.

In the second round, I faced Sorcha.  She tried to close with me in both bouts, getting in but without control of my blade.  I legged her in the first round and got my dagger on her in the second round.  Thus I advanced again.

In the third round, I faced Wyatt.  He hit me good in the face in the first round.  In the second, I popped him in the face.  In the third, I'm not sure what happened, but I took the bout.

Thus I made it to the semi-finals undefeated.  In the semis, I faced Ogedai.  He had to beat me in 2 bouts which were 2-3, while I had to just take one.  He got me twice in bout sets of matches, while I was only to get him once, thus I was eliminated, while he advanced to the finals.

Antonio was on fire, and I'm somewhat glad I didn't have to face him, since we fence so often.

So I finished high in the tournament and lots of people congratulated me and said I was fencing very well.  Problem is, I can only think about how sloppy I think my fencing was.  Internally, nothing seemed to be crisp, yet I was winning bouts.  It felt like my blade was all over the place.  So while I should be happy for a final four appearance, I feel like Eeyore.  Its possible I'm holding myself to a higher standard, but I don't think so.  I've finished lower in the tournament and felt better.  I think I'm so burnt out I can only see the bad and not the good.  I was moody after the tournament, not because I lost in the semi finals, but because I was just not really that happy.'

I'm just not sure how to overcome this burnt out feeling.

Time to get motivated

Wow, it's been quite a while since I posted on this blog.  I have not really fenced as much as I would have looked to since Pennsic.  I have been busy but that's no excuse.  Since Pennsic, I've gotten married,, went on or honeymoon to Disney World, we are expecting a baby in 2-1/2 months.  We are currently getting the budget together.  I autocratted Mudthaw this year, and since that event I've had a natty cough I just can't seem to shake.  I missed k&q rapier due to illness this year. 

Still no excuses.  I've gotten fat.  Maybe not fat but certainly out of s shape.  I have no endurance and my strength is not what it should be. I'm near my heaviest I've ever been at 198.  I need to lose weight and get back in shape.

I saw the results my friend, Scott Alex, has had with P90x3, the 30 minute work out version.  So I ordered it yesterday.  I wasn't this for me.  I want to be healthier.  I want to be able to run around and play with my son.  I know I sit to much, so as Yoda said "Do or do not, there is no try!"

My goal is to get back to 160 by Pennsic.  That's 38 pounds in a little under 100 days.