Unfortunately with so much going on and adding in the Olympics this will be another long one.
First, we had a pair of the most polite fencers I have ever had in the half day camp last week. I have never heard the words, “Sorry, are you okay?” so much from two fencers. Plus the first camp where I have been able to trade inside asides about Henry V with a fencer. Hopefully they will come back and civilize the rest of you.
The North Carolina High School Fencing League had its organizational meeting yesterday and there will be many changes this year. First, this year’s schedule will be three regular season team meets, then an individually fought conference meet for seeding into the state individual championship, then the state team championship, and then the state individual championship. Everyone who participates in the seeding event will be allowed to go to the individuals and even those who cannot make it will be allowed to fence, but seeded at the bottom. However, they will be separating those in high school from those in middle school and there will be both a high school and middle school championship. There will also be epee, but only as an A division, meaning everyone is from the same high school, (So Isaac Bear, Felix, Weston, Yasemin, and Lena?) AND you must be recognized by your high school as a team or club. With, hopefully, a successful Olympics this might the time to push for fencing clubs in the area as Hoggard is the only school with one right now. In foil, if you are in high school or middle school, but your high school has no team or club, you can still compete on a composite CFFA B division team. The NCFL is close to signing a long term agreement with the city of Greensboro for one of its athletic facilities as the host of the individual championships. There may be a small entry fee, ($10), but the size and amenities of the venue should make it worth the expense. As dates and locations get nailed down I will keep you informed. If you have any questions, please ask.
Best Reasons to take up fencing, #1. On the return trip from the meeting, I was a couple of miles from the marker 301 split on 40, right where all the construction is going on, when another vehicle attempted to disprove the modern physics postulate that two objects cannot simultaneously occupy the same point in the space time continuum of our universe. I have no idea if the other driver was falling asleep, didn’t see me, etc. I slammed on the brakes, which with a front drive Jetta, broke the back end loose. After the resulting fishtail, and a couple of corrections and counter corrections, everything was fine. The car and I are both okay. Given the speed with which it happened, I had no time to get scared or even angry at the other driver. Given the volume and speed of traffic, if not for all the experience of dealing with swords coming at me at high speed, being able to remain calm while that was happening, and training small reactions to such events; I probably would have started what would be called in NASCAR parlance, “The big one.” So the next time you hear me tell you “React faster,” or “Smaller moves,” remember I am not teaching you fencing, I am attempting to keep you safe in your jet car 50 years from now.
Since you, apparently, have not worked off your collective bad Karma and are still stuck with me, the advanced epee camp will be held next week, 9 am -5 pm. I have been getting requests, so I am throwing
this open to adults as well. The youngest person saying he/she is
coming right now is Nicole Milewski and she needs to be fencing adults
anyway. Given who is coming I will try to make this a pretty high level camp.
Regular
week of practice this week. I will be in about 6:30 pm for those
youngsters who want to practice early on Tuesday and Thursday with adult
practice to follow. Practice on board Camp Lejeune on Friday night. Right now I hope to have a Saturday practice with a time declared later this week.
Epeeists, please remember that we have a club mate who is working toward a world championship appearance in about 6 weeks. The last couple of weeks she has had to become proficient at defeating the arm, which is probably a bit less mobile than her opponents will be. This is one of those times at which we need to think of ourselves as club. Putting Erica on one end of a strip and continually throwing new fencers at her is something we can do to be good club mates, since most of us probably won’t be going to Germany with her.
August
1 was the start of a new season, so you will need to be updating your
USA fencing membership to be on the club’s insurance. If you just
joined in the last couple of months, you should be good until July 31 of
next year. You can check to see if you are on the current membership
list at usfencing.org by clicking on membership at the bottom, and under
current section click on current membership list. Updating can also be done
at usfencing.org. Again click on membership at the bottom. Under the
list of various memberships there is a section titled already a member
with a link to click on to start the renewal process. If you already
have a railstation account (you have previously done your membership
electronically or have entered a national event), then log in and follow
the instructions. If you are new, enter your e-mail and hit forgot
password. It will start the process to have you log back in and create a
password. You can then update your profile, select the membership you
want, approve the waiver, and pay via credit card. Please print the
receipt or membership card and bring us a copy. Unfortunately, there are thousands of other fencers doing the same thing right now and some of our people have reported that the site is moving slowly. It is important for
our insurance that everyone is a US Fencing member at the
non-competitive level ($10) or above. US Fencing has put out a paper
application, but they are charging an extra $10 to do the membership via
paper. I have some of these memberships applications
just in case there is no way for you to avoid this option.
August
1 also means that it is be time for those of you who pay the yearly
or 6 month CFFA club dues to get those in. Regular dues are $35 month for
unlimited evening and Saturday fencing. 6 month memberships give you
those 6 months for price of 5 ($175) and the year long membership gives
you 12 months for the price of 10 ($350). Checks should be made out to CFFA, or talk to Brendan about paying by credit card. We are hoping to eliminate the PayPal option, so please don’t use it on the website.
Mid-South
has their Big Blue event on August 13-14. Open sabre, open foil, and
Y-12 saber events on Saturday. Open epee on Sunday is now an A event and needs a few more bodies to be an A2. The foil is still an E. The sabre needs bodies to be a C event and given all the sabre fencers at Mid-South, I have to believe it will end up as a C or B event. See askfred for
more details.
The August evening beginner class will start on Tuesday evening, August 23rd, at 6:30 pm. Standard $50 + $10 US Fencing membership fee. Already showing some interest and this will hopefully be a large class.
The division schedule is official and up on ncfencing.org under schedule, then tournaments. Our first event is September 17th. It will have open foil and epee, and an E and under sabre. This is another reason for all of our sabre fencers to get up to Mid-South. We want to make that event is big enough that Captain Phillips ups his rating and you won’t have to deal with him at our meet.
The Olympics are underway. Yesterday, USA’s women epeeists were all seeded in the middle of the pack, fencing other middle of the pack fencers. They all lost close matches in that first round. The gold went to a Hungarian woman, with an Italian woman second, and a Chinese woman taking the bronze. Today is men’s foil and tomorrow women’s sabre. These are two of the US’s strongest events. Unfortunately with the way the seeding went, Miles Chamley-Watson and Alexander Massialas will meet in the 16 if they both win first round matches. Coverage begins at noon on MSNBC. That is tape delayed, so for those of you wanting to watch live, try
NBCOlympics.com for live streaming. I will update results for you throughout the week.
Finally, I have been contacted by someone with some equipment to sell. Large jacket, I don’t know whether it is RH or back zip, mask (size unknown), 7 1/2 RH glove, electric(?) epee (I assume RH, grip unknown), and body cord. He said they have not been used much. I will put you in contact if you are interested.
pax vobiscum,
Greg Spahr
Head Coach
Cape Fear Fencing Association
“The race is not always to the swift, nor the battle to the strong, but that’s the way to bet.” Damon Runyon
