cyranoVR's Journal: Me vs. The 2004 US Olympic Team

Well, another North American Cup comes and goes. My result sucked, as I just missed earning national points.

Dang.

Everything was going ok...not great, but ok. I was 4-1 in the first round of pools, and 4-2 in the second round. 34th seed. Not bad, something I could work with.

But then I had to fence an 2004 Olympic Team member to qualify into the round of 32.

Oops.

The bout was pretty close at the beginning, but at the end I feel apart...I was pushing to hard, but then hesitating, giving him an opening to attack. I was't preparing properly, making it very obvious what I planned to do. I wasn't trying to "trick" him enough.

Also, he's a better fencer than I am.

Not to say I couldn't beat him if I had an outstanding day...but he did nothing but fence 5 days a week all last year. I'm not going to beat myself up, nor over-analyze, a loss to someone like that. Shit happens.

It occurs to me that in 3 of the last 4 NAC's I've competed in (including this one), I have been finally eliminated by a member of the 2004 Olympic Team [1]. I figure that at the next competition I'll have to fence Soren. I guess I better start planning my strategy now.

* * *

I really feel that at this tournament more than any previous, my results didn't refelct my fencing. I had some incredible touches, including this remise with a lightning fleche against an opponent who hesitated for an instant. Even though I lost that particular bout, I had been practicing that action in lessons for months, and it was cool to spontaneously do it in competition.

I had a greater variety of touches. At the last competition, even though I had a better (best, actually) result, I did it with one or two actions, repeated over-and-over. However, here I was able to score both on attack and defense, on the hand, foot, and body. Etc. etc. I probably got too focused on being "relaxed" and gave up too many touches doing "bullshit" as my coach called it.

My favorite touch of the day was a "no-look" riposte I scored to win my final bout in the first round. That was pretty sweet.

* * *

In other news, Kansas is cold as F * * K. New York is further north, and yet it is 40 degrees warmer there. Huh?

* * *

There's a 3 month break until the next circuit, and then 2.5 months until Nationals (June/July) in Sacramento. So now I have to figure out what I'm going to do during that time.

Probably the following:
1) More upper-body weight training.

2) Since there's no rush to free-fence, I will do 10 minutes of footwork before each practice.

3) Weight traing for my rear calf. This tendonitis thing in my rear achillies isn't helping matters.

Even though I underacheived, the bright spot of the tournament is that one of my clubmates won the whole thing. Big result for him, my coach and our club [2].

* * *

[1] Palm Springs '03 - Kelsey, Richmond '04 - Mattern, Overland Park (Yesterday) - Viviani. San Jose '04 I lost to a non-Olympic fencer and at Nationals I got first rounded.

Also, at Richmond last month, the loss that put me in Repecharge was against a '92 Olympic Team member. I'M SICK OF LOSING TO THE F***ING OLYMPIC TEAM.

[2] Technically, he represents his school, but he trains at our club. Long story, etc. For all intents and purposes, it's our club.

Practice, practice, practice.

[Talinom]

Even though I underacheived, the bright spot of the tournament is that one of my clubmates won the whole thing. Big result for him, my coach and our club.

So make it a point to kick this person's ass so hard so often that it demoralizes them. ;>

Um, think about this for a second. Were any person I know to compete against an Olympic athlete and NOT get their ass kicked I would wonder why my friend wasn't on the team, especially if they didn't train 1/5th as often or as much.

Take the biathlon (No, n

Sweet

[ryanr]

Congrats on going as far as you have.

So I know nothing really about fencing. What's the upper-body strength training for?

Re:Sweet

[cyranoVR]

So I know nothing really about fencing. What's the upper-body strength training for?

Speed / power / control / injury prevention.

Olympians

[Eluvias]

I fenced Jan once, and didn't expect him to be as good as he was. He's my height, but he's extremely fast and loves to attack the wrist. I was lucky to get a few double touches on him before he blasted me away, something like 15-6.

Gratz on getting senior points last time though. That is no small feat.

Re:Olympians

[cyranoVR]

He's my height, but he's extremely fast and loves to attack the wrist.

Yeah, I didn't let him get near my hand.

However he did have a lighting fast flick to my foot, followed up a few touches later by a feint-to-the-foot, fleche-to-the-body combination.

That sucked. :(

A friend of mine does Judo...

[arb]

She seems to have the same problem you have - every major tournament she enters, she ends up against current world champions and/or Olympians before she can get too far. (Usually just before the semi-finals.) It gets quite dis-spiriting at times, but what can you do? Keep plodding along, getting better and better 'til one day you are the champion others fear! ;-)

There is a significant psychological factor involved here - at least for my friend. She has actually beaten one of the Olympic finalists, before t

Re:A friend of mine does Judo...

[cyranoVR]

Yeah, that sounds about right, but believe me when I tell you that the problem hasn't been me "choking" (as your judo friend was), but rather that my opponent was just better in that particular bout.

MrsVR and I talked about this a lot about this topic. We agreed that even if I had been fencing my absolute best, I still might have lost. Yes, this guy is that good. So it's more productive to focus on tactical mistakes, rather than some irrelevant self-help angle.

Incidentally, a coach (not mine) gave me a

Re:A friend of mine does Judo...

[arb]

Needless to say, the people I knew that thought like that never seemed to improve at all.

I hate to say this, but my friend will never improve with her current attitude. She looks at rankings and tells herself that she can't beat those ranked higher than her, even if she has beaten them in the past.

Yes it's choking, but it can sometimes be deeper than that. She can't even see it for what it is. 8-/

Incidentally, a coach (not mine) gave me a pep talk - basically, that I'm "not that far below him" [the guy

Re:A friend of mine does Judo...

[cyranoVR]

Sadly for my friend, she doesn't see it as being "not that far below him/her", but that "they are that much better than me".

Fortunately, I've won tournaments with fencers that I consider "better" than me, so I know it's possible :^)

You just have to have to be aware of the other guy's capabilities.