Denver!

     “I hate the tags on clothes, they should just stamp their products,” -Elaine.  I am currently in Denver for an SYC event for fencing. Shocker right? Anyways,I am writing this on Saturday night and today we had Y14.  I think I may have briefly explain this before, but I am going to do it again. Fencing is based on age and skill. So there are Y08, Y10, Y12, Y14, Cadet and junior. Cadet is 17 year olds and younger. Junior is 19 year olds and younger. Then there are Div 1, Div 2, and Div 3. These events are based on rating. In the world of fencing you are ranked with a letter. So A-E and then unrated. It is very difficult to get rated, especially in Utah. To put things in perspective, only ten percent of fencers are rated and only one percent are A’s.

     Being this as it may, I am an E. To most people that is pretty good, but I have been so close to my D so many times that it has become frustrating. (insert Sean’s bitch face here) So ANYWAYS, today i fenced Y14, It went actually really well. I was 5-1 after pools and then ended up getting 9th over all. I just remembered as I typed that that most people don’t know how these tournaments work.

     The first part of the event is pools. Basically, you are put in a group of people. This group is usually anywhere from 4-9 people depending on how ny people are in the event. This group is called your pool. You fence everyone in your pool, each to 5 points. Each match, or bout, has a 3 minute limit. So today in Y14 I went 5-1. This means I got 5 wins and 1 loss. This section of the tournament helps set up an elimination bracket. This is your standard single elimination bracket. These bouts go to 15 points.These matches have three three minute sections. In between each section is a minute break where coaches can talk with the fencer, and the fencer can get water, eat, wipe sweat, etc. We call these matches Direct Eliminations or DE’s. It may not seem so, but a lot can change within 15 touches. The match evolves so much in that amount of time.

     Tomorrow I am fencing Cadet and to be honest, I am extremely nervous. Thes guys will be smarter, and faster. Besides that, they stop pulling bullshit that younger kids pull. For example, today, I hit a kid and ran into hi and he pulled what I call a soccer player. This means he acts like he’s in  lot of pain. when in all reality he can fence fine. They do this in order to make their opponent feel bad and make them unfocused. My coach told me to kept fencing. “No mercy, he’s faking it,” as she said. Anyway, I am super tired and super nervous for tomorrows fencing. I will upload a post tomorrow to let you know what happens in cadet.

I will update soon.

And btw, heres a picture of us today waiting for DE’s to start.