Woody Cavenaugh

Before I happily go into detail about my own epee exploits, I need to take some time out to brag on my teammates. All but me used the morning's open event as a warm up. If you are an "E" or "unrated" you really can't expect to do more with most opens sporting fencers with ratings of "C" and above. All but one made the 80% cutoff and got to fence at least a single Direct Elimination bout. Perfect Tommy, of course, had to go on to take third. He learned last year from earning his "D" rating time and time again only to lose it because the tournament wasn't run properly that even if the tournament is run well, it helps to be redundant. In this case, he earned his "D" last week at a well run sanctioned event, and just to make sure, he earned his "D" again this weekend at another well run sanctioned event. I think this "D" will finally stick.

In the "E" and under we fielded three "E" fencers and three unrated fencers. Everyone made the 80% cutoff and everyone had a good time. Even Henri "The Great", who even though she felt she had the upper hand over us and her own body, found that she didn't have a leg to stand on. There is a lesson here for everyone. If you are having ankle problems and you practice three nights a week, and compete every weekend, and choose not to wear an ankle brace or even supportive shoes, you can expect your ankle to fail you just when you need it the most. That goes double if you are a nurse. I think an intervention is in order. Infact, I am pretty sure a coach can withdraw a fencer on their behalf, and don't think we won't do it either! Ankle brace now, invest in high top fencing shoes as soon as you can. This is non-negotiable.

Ok, now that I have made myself perfectly clear to our resident "belle", I can brag on everyone else. Everyone else rocked! Granted those in the club with "E" ratings always think they should do better than they do. The error is in the system not the fencer. Let me explain:

The fencing rating system is based on the number of fencers and the number of ratings and the placement of the ratings at the end of the tournament. An event can be rated one thing at the start and end with a lower rating if the higher rated ones do not place well. The minimum number of fencers necessary to have a rated event is six. Six unrated fencers at a sanctioned event can gain an "E" rating. You can also earn an E rating in much larger events with higher rated fencers if those higher rated fencers place at the top and you also place well. Looking at the USFA classification chart, a group B3 tournament is one that has 64 or more fencers. 24 of them have to be at minimum "C" rating, and another 12 minimum "D" (or higher). So if of the 64 fencers at least 36 of them are D or higher AND four "C"s finish in the top 8 and 4 "D"s (or higher) place in the top 12, THEN places 1-4 earn a "B", places 5-8 earn a "C", places 9-16 earn a "D" and places 17-32 earn an "E". So to get an "E" rating from unrated you can take first in an event with an minimum of 6 fencers, or you can earn 32 out of 64 with the stipulations above. It doesn't take a fencer or a mathamatician to realize that one of those is much easier than the other.

Most of our "E" rated crowd, earned "E" ratings in small events. They are an "E" but they are not equal to the "E" that one would have earned at a higher level tournament. Therefore, they should expect to go out and earn their "D" ratings, or even repeat their "E" results when they go to an event with a whole bunch of fencers. Life just doesn't work that way. But what can one coach do to manage expectations. They're like children. Except for the kids, they are more grown up about these things. But I have degressed a bunch.

This blog is about ME!
(Half of the people reading this just clicked their "back" buttons.)

My philosophy of fencing is that I want to make friends, hang out, and and have a good time. I know what my fitness level is like. I know I am going to have to actually work at heat management. At the E and under epee event I had the best day ever. I won two of my bouts and lost two of my bouts and came in at positive 2 for my indicator. This put me in 3rd place in the pool out of 5, and should land me in the middle of the pack going into direct elimination.
As I see it, the people who came out to "win" will shake out near the top, the newbies will fall out at the bottom and the people having a good time are in the middle.

In direct elimination I landed 11th out of 25. This is a nice spot for me. No pressure. All I have to do is have fun and see how far it takes me. As it happens, when you dump the bottom 20% and throw it up on a bracket I ended up with a bye. Had there been a fencer there, it would have been an easy win for me the way the bracket works. So my reward is I don't have to beat up on someone at the bottom. Their reward is they don't have to get embarassed by a fencer who clearly outclasses them. It doesn't do any good because the higher fencer is so much better they can't even learn from their bout. They won't know what hit them. For me, practically speaking, it meant I had more time to work on carbing up and cooling down.

The downside was that my next bout would be a tough one, going by the numbers. I am 11th, facing the guy who placed 6th. The odds are against me, but winning was never my goal anyway, so the onus is really on the other guy. I just have to have fun, he actually has to win. That doesn't mean I am going to roll over. I am going to fence him well. Chances are it will be close enough that I will be able to gain experience from the bout. In this case I did. Perfect Tommy had my back coaching me, and I have to admit, his coaching made me smile. We have very different goals and my goals are so alien to him that he cannot comprehend. It is always good however to have a fresh set of eyes on the situation. I want to have fun first, but I want to improve too.

It is here I should describe "Woody's rule of direct elimination". Woody's rule of direct elimination states that if this bout is close, the winner of this one is going to lose the next one. The closer the final score the worse the next defeat is going to be. So when the score ended up 15-12, (me losing) I could smile shake his hand, and think "goodbye" to myself. If you are 6th and the 11th place guy scores 12 touches on you, you're not long for this tournament. Such was the case in his very next bout when he lost 13-15. Had I lost to him 14-15 his next bout would have been a lose by five or more touches. I dread the day I win a DE bout 14-15. That means my next bout is going to be more about damage control of my pride than having fun. A 15-12 loss is hellova fun, a 15-9 loss is me getting my pudgy butt handed to me on a silver platter with a side of fois gras. Not a lot of laughs.

So to recap. I had a hellova good time, and was able to manage my heat issues pretty well, though it was a lot to keep up with to do so. The results looked great too! Jim Kent our winner at 11th, Henri Gales at 14th (ankle and all), myself 15th, Jordan Preuss at 16th, Sean Wiedbusch at 18th, and Nicole Agresto at 20th. Out of 25 fencers, that isn't a half bad bellcurve. I could not be more pleased for my people. Even those that thought they should have done better.