Miles Chamley-Watson

2013 Individual Men’s Foil World Champion

     Dear Miles Chamley-Watson, you are my hero. I say this not only because of your extremely impressive fencing, but you are an amazing man in all fields. I admire you for your fencing and your ability to do many other things as well. When watching interviews with you, you always tell joke at the perfect time and you are arrogant, but who cares you are the world champion. Even this is amusing, my main reason for picking you is your ability to fence. Up until 2013, I hoped to one day be the first American male to win the word championships. But if it couldn’t be me, I am happy it was you to take home the gold. I, at the time, didn’t know much abut fencing other than you looked like Jedi’s, but I still appreciated your victory.

     You have an advantage over many others. This of course being your height. At six foot four inches you are one of tallest foil fencers in existence and I envy your ability to use this massive advantage. I am also a relatively tall fencer but I am awful with my distance and I cant quite get the under-the-leg shots you do. Believe me, I have tried. I have been fencing for about four years now and I hope to one day be as good as you. Although you being the world champion and all, that may be fairly difficult. I am working towards this goal by being in the fencing gym any time I can working on everything. If I am not at school, I am probably fencing.

     It is interesting how in the modern age, teenagers can go out and have fun so easily. My friends are often going out doing God knows what and I am always busy fencing. If I am not across the country competing, you better believe I will be soon and I am preparing. I will hopefully one day be an amazing fencer and be able to look back at these days and tell myself that sacrificing a fun night with friends every once and a while made me one of the greatest fencers ever. I wonder if that is how you feel now? Did you have to make sacrifices to spend time in the gym training to do what you love?

     As I said previously, I spend a lot of time traveling. This blog consists of my fencing experiences as I travel, as well as a few other little things about me. When I was little, I absolutely adored the Star Wars series. When I saw a fencer photoshopped with a lightsaber on my town’s paper, I knew I wanted to finally become a Jedi. I wonder if you think of yourself as a Jedi and I want to know what brought you into the sport. It would be amazing if you read my blog and also shared your crazy experiences for me to read. Well Miles if you are reading this, I hope to one day meet you and maybe even fence you. :)

This is Miles, for you who do not know. This picture is courtesy of NobleBarbarian.com.http://www.noblebarbarian.com/articles/miles-chamley-watson

Star Wars is Amazing

     I, Bryce James Murrin am a Jedi Knight. I am going to straight up say I am the biggest fan of Star Wars on the face of this earth. I have seen all the movies way too many times. I have read all through the extended universe, watched tv shows, collected action figures and even became a Jedi myself. As a little boy who looked identical to baby Anakin, I was taught how to be a Jedi and eventually defeated Darth Vader in a light saber duel. This all happened at Disneyland. They say it is where dreams come true and this is actually where my dream came true, I became a Jedi.

                                 Here is proof of my epic adventure. My dad took this picture.

     So 99% of Star Wars fans on this Earth hate the prequel trilogy. I am that 1% who find them brilliant and thinks they really add to the story as a whole. Unless you are in the mood for some hardcore nerding out I recommend you stop reading at this point. At first glance one would say it is the death of Anakin's secret wife Padme that causes him to turn to the dark side. This is the breaking point but it is not the reason he decided to turn on the Jedi. Being the chosen one, Anakin was expected to be the perfect Jedi and follow the Jedi Code. For you who do not know, the Jedi Code says a Jedi cannot feel love, feel anger, feel fear and a few other emotions. Anakin truly joins the Sith because he realizes how corrupt the Jedi actually are. I am not saying the Jedi are evil but they are all breaking their own code.
     The biggest example of this is Mace Window. No, I know that isn't how you spell his name and I don't care. Out of HATRED, when he finds out that Anakin thinks the chancellor is a Sith, he doesn't look for any more evidence before going to arrest him. He does this because he FEARS that Palpetine is getting too powerful. After Mace and the chancellor fight, Mace says he is going to kill Palpetine because he is too dangerous to be kept alive. Those are the exact words Palpetine said when Anakin killed Count Dooku. Anakin realizes the Jedi are corrupt and allows Palpetine to kill Mace Window.
     Later on the lava planet Musafar Obi Wan says that Anakin is corrupt and he is scared of what Anakin could do. This once again shows fear and further reassures Anakin's position. Later, much later, after the Jedi order has been destroyed, Luke developed a new code that Darth Vader can stand behind and he rejoins the light side, destroys the Sith and brings balance to the force. This fofills his prophecy and proves that he was the chosen one the entire time. But he is still not the perfect Jedi, he used hatred and anger to do what he did. This shows a really strong lesson for real life that even angels have evil within. Overall, I love the prequel movies and the entire series. I am so happy actually that they are making another trilogy and believe me I will be writing about it.
May the force be with you :)

My Concussion

     The plan seemed so simple. I fence in Salt Lake, drive to Denver, fence in Denver, drive home and ski at Vail on the way back. Who knew a Trojan Horse could sneak into my trip and cause me to reach my maximum capacity of boredom for the next few weeks. The trip started off as planned. I fenced in Salt Lake City and did fairly well. We were done by three and needed to get on the road. I was told the drive to Denver is roughly six and a half hours. Eight and a half hours later I realized the truth as we parked at our hotel that we had booked on my father's smartphone just an hour before.
     Considering this trip was confirmed earlier the day before, if we wanted to book a nice hotel it would've costed us a fortune. Luckily, I have never stayed in a very nice hotel so my standards for a satisfactory space of living are relatively low. Our first room didn't work. Apparently the battery in the card scanner was low and we were moved across the hall. As my father has traveled all over the world and stayed in everything from a castle to a hut, I figured he wouldn't mind spending a few nights in a slightly run down room. This misbelief was straightened out as we walked in the second room to find the furniture chipped and the carpet destroyed. My father had what middle aged mothers call a "temper tantrum" and quickly sent me to go talk to the front desk and request a new room. This was the most awkward conversation of my life. The late-teen aged girl behind the desk and I both had a common look on our faces that signaled we absolutely did not want to be there. But, I did as my father requested and got us a new room. I had survived the first day, let's move on.
     The second day, the first day of fencing in Denver, was extremely fun. Those were some of the best fencers in Colorado. One of the biggest aspects of fencing that I love most is the community. The thing about fencing is the average fencer's skill level has raised so high that unless you are extremely committed,  you aren't a fencer. This may seem harsh, and in was it is. But, it results in everyone as these competitions being extremely passionate about the same thing, fencing. My friends at school often make fun of me because of how much I talk about fencing, but until you go to one of these competitions, you have no idea how much one single person can talk about fencing. Anyway, unlike other national sports, friends and family are sitting right next to the strip watching. They arent in stands fifty feet away. They are sitting right next to the strip, so close in fact that they are risking getting slashed in the face. Now imagine this energy amplified and condensed in a tiny gym in the most "ghetto" part of Denver. That and the level of diversity of the competitors in skill, age, and ethnicity, really combines to create the most fun and interesting environment on the planet.
     As I stated before, the first dat was filled with great fencing. Earlier on the second day my head wasn't connected to my blade. I messed up my pools completely which lead me to have an extremely difficult bracket. In the mean time, my best friend and teammate Sean Lydon was as many teenage boys including myself would say "slaying." Sean won all his matches which gave him the easiest bracket in the tournament After my awful morning, I got my head back into it and was ready to fence. My first few direct elimination matches went really well. It wasn't until I was hit in the back of the head that my game completely dropped. I was flicked in the unprotected portion of the back of my head and my vision went completely blank. I unfortunately lost that match and was given a major headache. I didn't think much of the hit to my head and figured I would just move forward on my trip and get ready to ski!
     Fencing is my favorite sport in the world and if you are one of my friends you would know of this great passion. What you may not know is I have lived in Park City, Utah my entire life and have become a relatively advanced skier. This lead me to be extremely excited for what was ahead, Vail. Vail is one of the biggest ski resorts in North America filled with massive bowls with few to no trees. Skiing through there felt like I was watching a nature documentary, it was that beautiful. It was an amazing day filled with lots of laughs and lots of falls. Weirdly, I still had a major head ache from the day before.

                                          This is a picture I took while skiing and edited.

     A few days after returning home, my headache continued and my mom decided I was going to the doctor. After looking at my eyes for fifteen seconds my doctor told me I had a concussion. She continued to tell me the symptoms, and what I should do to heal. She emphasized that I be careful because a second hit to the head could be fatal. I probably shouldn't have skied....whoops.

    I am now sitting in my bed in pain wishing it never happened. Be careful kids. :)

Thanks Mother Nature

     What can be a better Christmas present than snow?  We have been so lucky this last week because we have gotten more snow than we have in years.  As I woke up on Tuesday morning, I looked out my bedroom window with a massive smile upon my face. I mean who wouldn't smile to this?

I took this gorgeous picture myself.

     I immediately knew I had to get onto that mountain as fast as humanly possible.  The women in my family were off to Salt Lake to shop for the holidays. This prevented any of them to join me on what was going to be one of the best adventures I will ever have. My father, the best skier of us, was restricted by his work and was forced to me teased by the view of the mountain from his office window.  I made a few quick calls to my best friends that skied, but none of them were able to go out that day.  At the time, I thought it would suck going out alone, but looking back, I am happy I went by myself. 

     Imagine this, you are in a ski lift line with a few of your friends. The line doesn't seem to be moving as you and the people around you that are equally anxious are bumping shoulders as you try to squeeze ahead. This long and uncomfortable experience can easily be avoided if you ditch said friends for the glorious single's line. This doesn't mean single relationship wise (well, it can I guess?), but it means people who are riding by themselves. This is the golden ticket to quickly breeze pass the funnel of people that Vail tricks into thinking they are each somehow going to get to the top within a good amount of time (as my sister would say, fucking Vail). I probably saved about forty five minutes at least by riding with the singles line.

     This process lead me to "flop" my ski to lift time ratio. I started my day by going to the Orange Bubble lift (btw I am at the Canyons). This part of the mountain contains some of the runs I know best. This allowed be to scout out my powder "stashes." I lapped that a few times, getting knee high snow. I thought I should explore more of the mountain so I headed towards the base. As skiing past Red Pine Lodge, I noticed how absurdly long Saddleback's line was. I decided to abandon this plan and head towards Tombstone. Anyone who has made that journey can sympathize with this next part. As I was skiing down the earlier skied out powder that is now what us locals call "mashed potatoes," I had to deal with all the tourists that make the extremely unpredictable turns. Sean Lydon and I have agreed that if we were ever to commit genocide (not that we will), we would first kill these tourists. 

     I finally reached Tombstone with a welcoming of a predicted twenty five minute line. As explained earlier, I hopped in the singles line and It took roughly three minutes. With the immense amount of people, I thought I should get out of there as quickly as possible. But as I rode up that first chair, I looked down into the aspens to see some of the best powder we have had in years. I figured the line only took a few minutes and started lapping Tombstone. I ended up lapping Tombstone for the rest of my day. 

     This was the first of the best three days of skiing I have ever had. More on that later.

     

More Fencing

     So today actually went okay. We fenced cadet and I was extremely nervous.  Usually men’s foil events are the first event and are super early. BUT NOT TODAY!!!! Our event started at noon and I am so happy. But, we didn’t sleep in because our teammate Alexander was fencing Y10 so we went to support him. I am actually extremely jealous of this child. He bought a blue blade. I have always wanted a blue blade but my teammates said they would make fun of me.

     Anyway, today we fenced cadet and it was pretty hard. My head wasn’t in pools at all and I went 3-3. Out of all the fencers in our event, our bracket end up working out that I was gonna fence Sean and whoever won fenced Cole. Sean hurt his leg in pools and took a medical withdrawal. This means I was forced to fence my teammate Cole. We have been back and forth for years and I hate fencing him.

     He got up like 9-3 and I thought I was screwed. But then I just got my shit together and brought it back 15-9 and won. After that I won another bout that wasn’t that bad. Last weekend i was in Kansas City and fenced cadet. I lost to this guy 5-0 in pools and today he beat me 12-11 in over time. I am very bitter. He was 17 so I think I did fairly well. So that was the round of 16 so I think I got 9th again…ugh.

     Us boys are so sore that we just came home ordered a pizza and all just laid down. We are now in the basement listening to music as Cole and Sean play Pokemon on Cole’s Gameboy color. I think they have homework too, but screw that right? We are all in so much pain, as I said before. We all have attempted to go back up stairs but failed. This shouldn’t be surprising. Sean can barely move his leg. To be honest, I am also completely half-assing this assignment. I probably need more sleep. But guess who does’t get to sleep in? ME1 This is due to the fact that I have to get a plane tomorrow in time to make it to fourth period.

     I don’t think I have mentioned Dima on my blog. Dina is a really good friend of mine who is a badass fencer. Just so you know, his name comes from his real name, Daniel Makogan. My sisters want to have kids and name them Dimu for Daniel Murrin. Whenever I fence, my sister tells me to release my inner Dimu..so thats interesting. Speaking of my sisters, Bree called me this week and gave me a two hour rant about terrorists. I am assuming this was triggered by the recent incident with Paris. I apologize, this blog post is literally all over the place, but I am half asleep so whatever.

Heres a photo from today :)

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.

First Part of the Trip

     I am currently in Kansas City, Missouri.  There are only a few things that draw me to the South. Those are barbecue, sweet tea, and of course, fencing. So as I said, I am in Kansas City at a national event. Fencing is very weird compared to other sports for many reasons. But one of the biggest reasons has to be the tournament structure. In football, track, or soccer, winning State may be a huge deal. In fencing, its like ehh, go when nationals and then you will be good.  This means that most people assume you are super good when you say you are going to nationals. But, this doesn't always have to be the case.

     Ir is currently 8:30 on Thursday night. Before tournaments, we have to have our gear checked. For those of you who are not aware, fencing gear consists of many wires and circuits that allow us to know when a person hits on target.  The unfortunate part about this system is that it breaks....often.  Before competition, you have to have your gear inspected to make sure everything is working properly. This process doesn't take very long but usually the lines are horrendous. Knowing that tomorrow morning my event starts at 8, I will get there at 7 as to allow time for warming up. If I was going to check gear I would have to go even earlier. So instead, Dean and I decided to try to go tonight before it closes (6:00). Our flight landed at about 4:10, and we left the airport in a Super Shuttle at about 4:45. Believe it or not, we did in fact make it to the venue at 5:55 and I successfully had everything pass. Thank god!

     It is kinda strange how this system works, coaches and students cannot sleep in the same room together if they are of the opposite sex. Being that my coach is a woman, I cannot share a hotel room with her. My teammate Cole has family in Kansas City who have offered to\ let people stay at their house.  Their house is about forty five minutes away from the venus and I do not wanna leave the house at six before I fence. This means I had to get a hotel room near the venue, but couldn’t share a room with Elaine. Conveniently, my friend Marissa and her coach Dean were also going to Kansas City. after a while we decided to have Marissa’ stay with Cole, his family, and Elaine at their friends house while Dean and I shared a room in the city.  This ended up working perfectly because the Marriot we picked was literally three minute walking distance from my hotel room. This, with trust from Dean, allowed me to pretty much go to the venue whenever I wanted.  An come back and shower whenever I wanted also.

          Anyway I am really nervous for tomorrow because I am fencing Cadet. some fencing events are based on age and Cadet is the same as 16 year olds and younger. This is one age group above mine, 14 year olds and younger. These guys will be extremely good and I am proud to be killed by them.

Heres a picture I took on the plane :)