RIFAC

Rhode Island Fencing Academy, is where I went yesterday after conditioning with Coach Floyd and Kevin. It was a great experience I got to fence a legitimate A rank not the lucky D level fencer I fenced at the last tournament I attended. I got in 3 maybe 4 touches as apposed to this guy who scored at least 12 touches probably more I couldn't even keep track of the number of touches this guy was getting. Normally I would have tried but I was too preoccupied with dealing with his foil which was more like a bolt of lightning than a piece of steel.

When I fence I use a lot of target displacement. I get down low when I lunge and I twist my body to get out of the way of attacks. This guy figured that out pretty damn quick. He would offer me some bait (an opening) and I would take it, but instead of me getting the point he would parry my blade and do a flick attack making use of the fact that my back was wide open and down low making a perfect target for a flick attack.

This guy is exactly what my coach was talking about, the ability to think several moves ahead of your opponent. This A rank was all over that. It was more than just that though he was like greased lightning, fast, fast, fast, and precise too. that was awesome.

I also got the chance to try out something I had been meaning to. last year I fought defensively which worked out alright but now I think that was a mistake I have a great reach, longer than most high school fencers that is and I should start making use of it so yesterday I tryd going on the offencive against several fencers against the A rank I didn't do all that much offense (was to busy worrying about his offence) but against a different fencer closer to the average level for varsity fencers at other schools I did give the offensive approach a good try and it had fairly good results. I'm still most comfortable with defence but I think from now on I will get better and finding and exploiting openings instead of always waiting for the attack so that I can make a parry repost.

I also learned a new remise attack, which I feel will be a useful addition to my arsenal, by watching Kevin's lessons.