Pretty good day at the Fencing Tournament

Got up at 5:30 yesterday morning to drive to Chicago.

360 participants with swords running around the University of Chicago yesterday.

120 of them fencing Saber.

It was Melen's birthday and she was in a good mood.

She only lost 1 bout in the pool rounds which had her ranked 9th in the tournament. Worked her way up to the quarter finals in the direct elimination rounds and was knocked out of the competition.

It would have been a little nicer if she took home a medal on her birthday, but instead we took a bunch of the kids to a pizza place after the tournament and celebrated with pizza and cake. One of her coaches and his wife joined us, as did another set of parents. The team coach ended up at the same pizza joint with her husband & daughter so they came over an joined us.

But damn it was a long day. Got home about 10pm . . . very long day . . . opened presents . . . I think I was asleep before my head hit the pillow last night.

Sounds like a great time and your daughter did great, I am sure the family togetherness was much more important then any medal though. Well done to both of you.

Melen had all the fun at the tournament.

I was just a babysitter for a bunch of kids. One of the kids who fences for another team, but lives in our town, didn't have all the equipment she needed so she came up to me asking to borrow some stuff. Then we had our spate of usual damaged and broken weapons. Melen fenced individually in this competition, her school team was short 2 coaches, so I filled in for the Epee coach and that was actually in a completely different area on the other side of the building quite a distance away from where Melen was fencing Saber.

I only got to see Melen fence a handful of her bouts, but I was there for the first one, and for all her DE bouts in the finals. At each update I called home to inform the lovely Mrs Bob of the results. She came up to meet us but as this tournament is notorious for being a disorganized nightmare with no (literally NONE) seating she skipped the fencing and met us to drive to the pizza joint.

Sounds like a fun but busy day.

Happy Birthday and congratulations to Melen.

Bob - If you want to get her in the trophy round, have her swap her saber for a 2-handed broad sword.

bczoom said:

Bob - If you want to get her in the trophy round, have her swap her saber for a 2-handed broad sword.

Click to expand...

Actually she just needs to take practices more seriously. The high school team is pretty much a social club with a few good fencers on it (she is the 2nd best). But the local fencing club is where she can get some real practice, however with school pressures she can't get to the club enough during the season.

I'd like to get her up to one of the Chicago clubs from time to time. Fencing the same people over and over tends to make things stale, but testing your skills against new people makes them sharper. Just not sure that the logistics of getting her to a Chicago club are realistic, 1 hour drive each way for a 2 hour fencing session.

You don't want her to get bored, that's for sure. She's gone too far and I'd like to sit here and get old hearing of her high school, college and beyond exploits in the sport.

Have you or the coaches tried to hinder your players to increase their playing level? I don't know what would work for fencing but things that come to mind are:
A patch over one eye.
Putting a cast or rubber-banding on the use of a needed finger.
Tie the feet together with a string of a certain length (let's say 3') as to limit their foot stances and mobility.
Ankle or wrist weights to slow them down.

Not sure that hindering them would work very well, honestly I think she just needs to hear some stuff from a different coach. She's been under one coach for 5 years and I think she pretty much ignores him (he is sort of a jerk in some ways). The high school coach is a really nice guy, but is the first to admit that he is not a 'real' coach, he's a dad who is a fencer who volunteers his time.

Fencing against a MUCH BETTER fencer and having them give pointers, advice, etc is while slowing down their actions would be ideal. I think another coach could do this, if only because it would be a NEW coach to her. The problem is really proximity to other clubs. We are the FAR FAR SOUTHEAST side of the Chicago region, EVERY other club is on the NORTH or NORTHWEST side of the city.

I don't know Bob.
If you took Mel to practices with an eye patch, wrist/ankle weights, feet tied together and a cast on one hand and let her do her workouts that way then cut her loose at a match without those things hindering her, she'll probably kick ass.

ANOTHER GOOD DAY TODAY.

Melen was competing in the Midwest High School Open Fencing Tournament. She came in 14th in woman's Saber. That doesn't sound so good until you consider that this was a 7 state event and there were competitors from Michigan, Indiana, Kentucky, Illinois, Missouri, Wisconsin and Minnesota at this event.

Of the 35 kids in her high school team, she was the highest placed kid from her school. During the pool bouts she beat a nationally ranked fencer, handing that fencer her only loss in the pools. My daughter fought her way up through the direct elimination bouts until she was knocked out just before the quarter finals.

Thats great Bob...........You must be proud of her. She needs to be proud of herself.

Well done Melen and belated birthday greetings. Hope to see you when you come over to this side of the 'pond'.

Ice Queen said:

Well done Melen and belated birthday greetings. Hope to see you when you come over to this side of the 'pond'.

Click to expand...

I've never see her end a tournament without a medal and still be thrilled with the results and have had such a fun day. She had a very good birthday a week ago but was disappointed she didn't get a medal at that tournament. Yesterday she was also out of the medals but the level of competition was much higher and she ended up 14th, but she walked away thrilled with her performance.

Its looking a lot more likely that we will be in the UK this summer. We have a meeting with the folks from Oxford in February to find out more about the summer study program. Marcia wants to see Venice so we may drop off Melen and then head south for a week in Italy?

Overall I was shocked at how poorly her teammates placed. Her friend, who usually places a few spots above her, came in tied for 21st, 7 full spots below Melen. The entire remainder of her varsity team ended up at 40th place or BELOW. Ditto the boys saber squad from her school. Our top place finisher on the boys squad was 41st.

NEXT WEEK she will NOT be fencing, but she is, instead, going to a JV tournament to help coach the newer kids. Melen took 2nd place in that event when she fenced her Freshman year, they wouldn't let her fence it during her Sophomore year. The JV tournament is up at the Wisconsin/Illinois border so I'm hoping for good weather because that is a long drive if we have snow. Even longer sitting on an uncomfortable school bus!

Best of luck, Melen, maybe you'll have to use the snowtrac to get there.

Ice Queen said:

Best of luck, Melen, maybe you'll have to use the snowtrac to get there.

Click to expand...

Still not enough snow. We have snow starting as I am typing this morning, its supposed to snow all day, but I don't think it will be very heavy.