UFO has a good influx of new fencers and we always encourage them to fence tournaments. The main reason is for fun and experience. Many fencers don’t win during their first tournament. Winning isn’t the point of going to a tournament. The point is to try out what you have learned in practice. Making good actions and seeing different types of fencers is what you are trying to do.
Every fencer has their own unique quirks and habits. Fencers from different clubs fence have different techniques. Very often, by knowing the club or coach of a fencer you can get an idea of what they are going to fence like. Fencing these people will give you experience and may even show you areas of your fencing game that you need to work on.
Besides the different types of fencers, you have the different situations that you need to deal with. Being down by 5 touches with 30 sec left in the third period is difficult to simulate in practice. You can pretend that the next touch would be the one to win the “bout”. The only thing missing is the adrenaline and the pressure that you feel. Tournaments are the only place where you can meet challenges like these face to face.
Above all, tournaments are a good time. Michigan fencing is lucky to have as many tournaments as we do. Along with most of the fencers being very friendly people that are a joy to compete with. They are a great place to hang out and meet some of your fellow fencers.
This last weekend in Cleveland, Ohio, UFO was a supporting club of the Third Annual Fencers Attacking Diabetes Open. This event was held to benefit the American Diabetes Association. This event was also the Northern Ohio Division’s Sectional Circuit event for this year.
Saturday, September 14
On Saturday there was mixed Sabre and mixed Foil. Ben Schleis was the lone Michigan fencer in the mixed Sabre event which featured 19 fencers (if a few more Michigan Sabrists would have shown up could have been at least an “C” level event). Ben was able to epee his way through his pool with a 4-1 record and even forced the A rated Sabrist to have fence harder than she wanted to. In DE’s, Ben continued using his Epee bounce to good measure until he met a Sabrist that wasn’t shaken up with it and defeated him for a very solid 3rd place finish.
Mixed Foil saw Judi Isaacson, John Arkison, new UFO’er Matt Reesman, and (she does fence occasionally) Amy Webster amongst the 61 total fencers (three away from a possible A3). Judi and John used there epee skills during the pool round. In Judi’s DE, she had to the referee so well trained with her epee skills that they did not see her actual parry-ripostes! Amy drove all the way to Cleveland to fence Liberty Lakes fencer, Brett Spangler. Matt was the victor in his first DE and fenced very cleanly in his second but was not able to win the bout.
Sunday, September 13
Sunday featured the Open Epee event. This event had 72 registered fencers, unfortunately the event was 2 A’s or B’s away from an A3 rated event (with ratings being given out all the way down to 32)!!! UFO representatives were John Arkison, Andrew Aitken, Judi Isaacson, and Ben Schleis. In pools, John had a 3-3 record, Judi finished 4-2, Andrew was 2-3 and Ben was 4-1. Judi was able to channel the spirit of Julio Mazzolio (an example of finesse and clean, precise bladework) to win her first DE. Unfortunately, it wasn’t enough to help her through the next one. John Arkison defeat David Leighton and moved on to fence Daniel Rahl (who drove all the way from Leslie, MI to fence John). Andrew Aitken’s first DE was a very close match. The bout went back and forth with very close touches and neither Andrew nor his opponent were able to gain more than a 1 touch lead. After the first break, Andrew’s opponent started to crack under the pressure (even though she had a one touch lead at the time). As the bout went on, Andrew kept his cool and was finally able to string together 2 touches in a row which finally mentally destroyed his opponent and gave him the victory (and fit of crying for her after the bout). Ben defeated his first opponent and for his second DE ended up driving all the way to Cleveland to fence Brett Spangler! Brett had some very quality touches but at the end of the bout, Ben had the larger quantity and was victorious. His next opponent was GLSC’s Dan Rahl. Dan started the bout with a 7-4 lead in the first period. After the break, Ben came back to take the lead and win the bout. Ben was defeated in the next round by one of Hooked on Fencing’s fencers for a 7th place finish.
Overall, UFO fenced very well and represented Michigan very well at this Sectional Event. All of the UFO fencers had a good time and for the most part were pleased with there finishes.
The fencing season was kicked up to “11″ with the Ann Arbor Duelist Open.
For those that do not get what all this means here is an explanation:
The Ann Arbor Dueling Society hosts an open every August which effectively starts off the new season. Everyone’s USFA membership expires on July 31, so this is a typical event where people will re-register. This being the 11th year that the Duelists have hosted the event, the theme “this one goes to 11″ was shown on the t-shirts. Alluding to the movie, “This is Spinal Tap”, specifically the scene below:
The Mixed Foil event was an A2 event with 34 fencers participating. All of the UFO fencers fenced quite well in pools. Glenda Jeffords was able to defeat friend of UFO Tom Evangelisti in the pool round and was also able to score touches on most of her opponents. Erica King defeated the B fencer in her pool on her way to a number 9 seed. Ben Schleis did well and lost only to one of Michigan’s top fencers, Sam Nemechek. Grace Lisius showed excellent actions defeating the other U and having good touches on her opponents.
In the DE’s, Glenda Jeffords was defeated by Sam Nemechek. Though Glenda fenced very well, she was not able to defeat Sam. Erica King with her 9th seed had to fence fellow UFO’er Grace in the first round. This bout was a well fought bout by both fencers. Erica was defeated by an out-of-state B in the round of 16. Ben Schleis’ first bout was against FAS’ Tom Evangelisti. Tom showed Ben some good actions but ultimately Ben was the winner. In the round of 16, Ben Schleis faced Dan Bock. In a very close bout that had Ben wiping his brow over multiple hits that did not register (including one that resulted in a yellow card). Ben won the bout and advanced to the round of 8 where he ran into Sam Nemechek. Ben was not able to resist counter-attacking into Sam’s march (a typical epee response) and ended up defeated about 15-8. The top 8 finish for Ben resulted in his renewing of his “C” rating. Yves LeBlanc, UFO fencer in spirit, was equally succesful in his DE bouts. Yves defeated WMFA’s Haley Conover on his way to a third place finish earning himself a B08 rating in the process. Congratulations, Yves!! (C’est le vie)
Sabre was a very difficult E event with only 12 fencers (3 fencers away from a C rating!!). The only UFO fencer was Ben Schleis amongst the many RFC sabrists and a couple of Duelists. Ben started off slow in pools, losing his first two bouts but pulled off a 3-2 record placing him as the 5th seed. Ben was fencing quite well in the first two rounds defeating his opponents and in the semi-finals met RFC’s Justin Weiber resulting in a “Beer Bout”. Justin led at the break 8-6 and kept a 2-touch lead throughout the match. Ben was able to catch up and claimed the victory (and the beer) winning 15-14. In the gold medal bout, Ben was pitted against RFC’s Keith Bizek. In a well fought bout, Keith came out on top taking the gold and giving Ben 2nd place.
Like most years Epee showed many of the Duelists coming out of the woodwork to show that they still fence and with 41 fencers was an A2 event. Sally Lee became a UFO fencer in name as well as spirit and came out of pools with 2 victories (and a really sweet wrist pick on her “A” fencer). Avery Gase has not yet forgiven Ben for making last year’s Duelist 10 his first tournament. His claim is that he wasn’t ready!! This year having a better idea of what to expect (and having all of his weapons working from the start) Avery was able to get touches on all of his opponents. Judi Isaacson is still testing her new mobility but unfortunately is not yet 100%. Judi was able to land 3 touches on her “A” despite not having her full mobility. Ben Schleis had a very rocky pools going 3-2 with his weapons causing trouble throughout the pool. His last bout due to weapon problems gave him a 4 touch deficit that he made up (once his weapons all worked) winning 5-4. John Arkison fenced very well despite not winning all the bouts that he felt that he should have (sometimes that happens). Andrew Aitken had a awesome pool round going undefeated on his way to a #1 seed in the DE’s.
In DE’s Avery met one of the few Duelists that fence with UFO during the week, Scott Favre. Despite the bout being interrupted due to some issues with the tableau, Avery was able to upset the higher seeding Scott thus insuring that Avery finish much better than his previous Duelist experience!! Great fencing Avery! Sally and John were a second clash of UFO fencers. Unfortunately there can be only one! In this case, it was John Arkison who came out on top in a very good bout and Sally did avail herself excellently. Andrew Aitken feeling pretty good about his top seed from the pool round didn’t let it go to his head and maintained his composure in his first DE. Andrew brain-grenaded his opponent with his absence of blade and composed fencing. Way to go Andrew! Unfortunately in his next DE the opponent was quite fast and Andrew lost in the next round. Judi Isaacson was pitted against David Leighton from Escrime du Lac and defeated him soundly. Her next oppponent was HOF’s Liam Butterfield, sadly, Judi’s footwork has not completely returned and she was defeated. Ben Schleis seeded 14th and drew the Ann Arbor Sword Club’s David Hornstra for his first DE. Ben was victorious and his next opponent was HOF’s Liam Butterfield. The bout was very close with Butterfield leading for most of it, Ben was able to pull to 14-14 but a slight exposure of his pinky gave up the winning touch and Ben’s three weapon day was finished.
UFO availed itself quite well in this event. Great job, everyone that showed up and excellent fencing!
A couple of weeks ago, the members of UFO descended upon Pinckney and traded in their fencing blades for paintball guns. A group of us went to Hell’s Survivor for paintball. Julio, John, Amy, Ben, Erica and her husband, Andy all came to play.
Most of us practiced the idea of “caution is the better part of valor”. Most of us, that is, except Julio who decided that “if I run at them maybe they won’t hit me”. Unfortunately, that didn’t work so well. John showed his “true colors” as the JOKER!!!
Olympics!!
In case some of you didn’t know, UFO had US Pentathlete, Sheila Taormina, training at SdE for Beijing. You can catch footage of her practicing here. On Thursday, August 21, we will be streaming the coverage of the event and cheering Sheila on!
Also be sure to keep an eye on NBC, there have been a couple of sightings of Salle d’Etroit’s green floor on national tv!!
Yesterday, UFO hosted the Welding Class Open. So named because Amy has learned how to weld and made up some really cool awards. This event also marked the debut of UFO’s new grounded metal strips which arrived and were installed Friday evening.
These awards were cool enough that they enticed a large contingent of fencers to trek up from Ohio. The event’s preregistration page was quite impressive with potential A’s and B’s to be awarded (except in Sabre which went until Wednesday before having more than 2 preentries).
Mixed Sabre
Despite a calling out by Tom Evangelisti in his weekly email newsletter, 5 Sabre fencers took part in the event (2 of whom had bad knees). When all was said and done, Keith Bizek came out victorious and got the first welded fencer of the day. UFO’s John Arkison came in second. Tom Evangelisti and Nathan Goretski took the third place finishes in the event. The highest finishing U was Judi Isaacson who finished in 5th place.
Mixed Epee
Mixed Epee had a total of 21 fencers making the event a B1. Ben Schleis took first place renewing his B rating. Ben’s fencing apparently did not know the way to San Jose as he does wish that he fenced close to the same at Nationals. Dan Weckstein unfortunately much earlier than he would have liked and finished in 6th. Judi showed more mobility and finished 15th. John Arkison finished out in 16th place. The highest finishing D was Courtney Dumas. Highest E went to Shawn Barnes. And the highest U was awarded to Keith Bizek (fencing Epee because he didn’t want to wait out the time between Sabre and Foil).
Mixed Foil
Due to some last minute arm twisting to get 25 (thank you John Arkison) and getting one of the directors to fence with his off hand (tip of the hat to Andy Tulleners), Mixed Foil had the potential to be an A2 event. The two lone UFO fencers in Mixed Foil were Grace Lisius and John Arkison (who finished 25th and 22nd, respectively). Cody Murphy played the part of spoiler by defeating Andy Tulleners (one of the B’s that needed to make the round of 8) to knock the event done to a B2. When all was said and done, Anatolie Senic defeated Mike Cho in the gold medal bout. 3rd place was taken by Mike Purdy-Sachs and Yves LeBlanc. Highest D was Keith Bizek (who walked away with a complete team of welded fencers). Highest E was Alinah Purdy-Sachs (earning her D in the process). And highest U was Michelle Zehe.
In Women’s Veteran Epee, Tina won two of her pool bouts but unfortunately missed the cut for DE’s by 1 touch (again). Sally fenced valiantly but did not make DE’s.
In Division 2 Men’s Epee, Alex was 3-3 in pools earning a promotion into the next round. Alex jumped on his opponent in his first DE and came out victorious. In the next round, Alex was not able to repeat the crushing and lost the bout. His performance earned him a 62nd place finish.
Division 2 Men’s Foil had Julio going 4-2 in pools and seeding 22 out of about 102. Earning himself a first round bye but he lost his first DE in what he called a “fun war of attrition/chess match” which resulting in the “better fencer” winning. Yves was 3-3 in pools but was knocked out in the round of 16.
In Division 3 Men’s Sabre, Ben bounced his way to a 4-1 finish out of pools earning a 18th seed. In his DE bout, the coach of his opponent was screaming “HE IS FENCING EPEE!! USE RIGHT OF WAY!!” and during the minute break was seen to be demonstrating the “Epee bounce”. This apparently was enough information for as opponent as Ben lost the bout 15-14.
In Division 3 Men’s Epee, Alex came out of pools with 3-3 record again making the promotion to DE’s. What happened in Alex’s DE is unclear, according to Amy Yu it “happened too fast”.
Division 2 Women’s Epee arrived with Tina sick and not able to participate. Sally had an educational experience in pools while fencing many well adjectived opponents (bouncy, pokey and twirley) but did make the cut for DE’s. Judi did her best to behave but was picto-stupid in her fencing (read: moving a little more than she should have) and was 3-2. However, she lost her first DE despite Ben’s coaching with an accent (“Go for da toe, eh!”) and his own demonstration of the “epee bounce”
In Veteran’s Men’s Foil, Julio was 4-2 in pools earning a 15th seed. His first DE bout was a nail biting bout resulting in him making a massive come back to win 3-2 in the second period. Unfortunately, he was not able to repeat this feat in his next DE and was knocked out. Jon counter-blustered his way through his first DE. Jon skillfully recognized the parameters under which the referee’s would throw cards and used them to his advantage (read: He realized that the refs were allowing “bumper fencing” and used it to win). In his next DE, Jon’s opponent was able to bend space-time in such a manner as to not allow Jon’s point to land. Jon’s fencing did result in his earning of a medal as he finished in 6th place. Great job, Jon!!
Yesterday we had some great performances by UFO fencers starting with the Men’s Epee Team. Julio, Ben and Alex started with an initial seeding of 33 out of 45 teams. The team was matched up against the Chico Creek Fencing Club. The UFO Team fought hard, but was not able to pull out the win and ended up losing the match 45-39.
In Division 3 Women’s Epee, Sally Lee showed great tenaciousness and fenced very well in the pools going 1-5. Unfortunately her efforts did not result in her moving on to the DE Round. Tina O’Brien came out of pools 2-4 with some very good fencing. Tina missed the 80% promotion into the DE round by 1 touch. Judi Issacson stood tall (pun intended) and finished 3-3 for a seed of 47 and promotion into the next round. In her first DE, Judi came out with a victory and a crying opponent. However, Judi’s lack of mobility was not able to carry her through her next DE giving her a 29th place finish out of 90 fencers.
In Division 2 Men’s Foil, Yves LeBlanc made it out of pools and earned a DE bout. He was victorious in his first DE but was taken out in the next round.
In Women’s Team Foil Amy, Tina and Judi started with an intial seed of 17 and fenced the Chicago Lakeshore Fencers Club. The ladies were able to hang in until the end but the they were not able pull out the win losing the match 45-39. Good fencing ladies.
In Veteran’s Men’s Epee, Julio was able to come out of pools seeded 11th out of 55 fencers. Earning himself not only a DE but a bye out of the first round. In his DE, Julio had a 7-3 lead after 1 period but unfortunately was not able to turn on his light for the remaining period (Veterans events go for 2 periods or 10 points) and allowed his opponent a 7 point run to lose the bout. This resulted in Julio finishing out the event in 20th place. Upon further review in Julio’s mind, Julio not only managed to turn on his light the 3 times necessary to win the bout but went on to win the entire event. Unfortunately, the rest of the world is not changing the results because of this.
In Division 1-A Foil, Yves LeBlanc won 1 pool bout and did not make the cut for DE’s. Jon Zelkowski went 2-3 in his pool which earned him promotion into the next round. Jon’s DE was well fenced. Unfortunately, the director missed multiple covering targets (Jon did ask for hand judges but most of the damage was already done) and Jon was not able to pull out the victory.
In Division 1-A Women’s Epee, Judi Isaacson won 3 of her pool bouts earning a 40th seed going into the pools rounds. Unfortunately, Judi is still back to full mobility and was not able to defeat her opponent in the DE round. Judi did have some good hand and wrist picks and kept her opponent from getting the toe touch that she wanted so much.
Overall, UFO fencers performed quite well the last two days though everyone was finished fencing before they wanted the day to end.
Friends of UFO, Olivia Dobbs and Haley Conover did quite well today in Division 2 Women’s Foil. Olivia came out of pools seeded 2nd but was not able to keep her seed as she was knocked out for the round of 8 for a 9th place finish. Haley Conover did make the round of 8 and earned her C08 in the process. Great Fencing ladies!!!
One of the cool things about Summer Nationals is being able to peruse multiple vendors and checking the different deals. American Fencing Supply had a really cool special on lames. Allowing UFO to acquire TEN NEW LAMES for a really good deal!!!
Today was Women’s Team Epee consisting of Judi, Tina and Amy. The UFO Women seeded 17 out of 24 teams. Drawing the 16th seed, Salle Santa Cruz, in the first round. The match started out with UFO taking the lead but unfortunately they were not able to hold on and lost the match 29-45. The ladies exceeded their expectations with Amy scoring the most touches much to everyone’s (including her’s) amazement.
In Div 1-A Men’s Epee, Ben was initially seeded 96 out of 114 going into pools. Coming out of pools, Ben finished with a 1-5 record and seeded 110 (below the 80% cut to get to DE’s). Ben does not want to speak anymore about his fencing in this event.
[Non Michigan UFO Fencer Mikol Ryon seeded 40th out of pools and unfortunately lost his first DE for a 65th place finish. Former Michigan Fencer Adam Maczik finished 62nd.]
After losing sooner than most of us were hoping for. Comfort Crepes were procured at a local eatery, Flour Sugar Butter.
Ben aimed for Sympathy Wings and Hoppy Beverage to lift his spirits.
Along the lines of things “happy”, Julio arrived bearing items from the California Dairy Association.
Julio found a “California Happy Cow” puppet. This puppet also speaks multiple phrases, one of which disparaging the state of Wisconsin.
The lead party of UFO has landed in San Jose, California for the USFA Summer National Championships. The Rabid Hamster will be posting updates the rest of this week letting everyone know how UFO is doing.
Ben, Amy and Judi arrived in San Jose and after deciphering San Jose Light Rail system made it to the hotel. Wherein it was determined that Ben needed a beer (as he was the one carrying the most stuff). Close to the hotel is the Rock Bottom Brewery.
In honor of Tom Evangelisti an Artichoke was ordered.
Because of being in the Pacific Timezone and everyone’s internal clock 3 hours ahead of the local time. We crashed early.
