madrobins. Beat, feint, attack (Reply)

For a moment, during footwork drill at fencing tonight, I thought I was going to be the only one in class (all the other people who were working with me were there only for the footwork, then went upstairs to bout--being in the downstairs studio when there are three strips of fencers overhead is like sitting in the basement when there's a heffalump cotillion overhead). Just in time Mo--one of the women in class with whom I'm pretty well matched--showed up. our instructor decided we'd work on a few specific things: feints, disengages, beats, and direct attacks. We managed three bouts to five points each--that's potentially nine points per bout, and that's a lot of work. The thing I like about working with on specific tactics during bouting is that I start to feel really solid with them. By the time we finished I was in a muck sweat; one of the hardest things for me to remember is to attack, but tonight I was (for me, anyway) fierce.

I won all three bouts: 5-4; 5-3; and 5-2. See me do the Happy Dance of Fencing!