Fencing on the Roof Redux

It’s Friday so we must have fenced on the roof again this morning. And we did. Kim joined us so that we were four. We began at 7:30 which meant that the sun was only a glow behind the mountains and there was a steady canyon wind.

I’m continuing to work on my 3 parry (close in, last minute parry to the outside). I died every time I tried it, especially against Kim who was unstoppable today. Worse, I saw her doing very successful 2 and 3 parries and ripostes almost nonchalantly. However, I now have a sense of what I was doing wrong: I wasn’t stepping in close enough, and I was chicken-winging so that my arm was exposed which was where she and Robert were getting most of their hits. As Kenny, our coach, pointed out at class on Tuesday, I need to practice in front of the mirror to correct my form.

Lynn had some nice bouts even though she’s fighting off a cold at the moment. She did particularly well against Robert in the first bout (7-4). Robert’s form also looked much better today than it did at open fencing on Monday.

Eventually, the sun rose, the wind fell and you could see that some of the trees on the hillside had that paleness that presages a change of color. Fall is coming.

Over on the gray epee , Jim Kent has a very enjoyable post on his most recent tournament experience and his predilection for playing Sherlock Holmes as he watches other fencers. He mentions that a majority of his touches were from straight attacks. I had an experience something like that during open fencing a week ago. Nevertheless, it’s surprising how complicated you can make a straight attack using timing, distance and speed.

After fencing we had Lynn’s exceptional breakfast of perfectly fried eggs, toast from my homemade rye bread, chunked cantaloupe and blue berries and a glass of carrot juice mixed with orange juice. Not such a bad start to a Labor Day Weekend.