Summer Nationals, Day Two: Y14 Women's Foil

Today was.... interesting. Nothing was hugely wrong, but I was having a terrible day. I warmed up as usual, had a lesson, but it didn't feel right. I fenced a little, but still, nothing felt right. I could do the actions, but like a robot- not well, not when I wanted, and I wasn't thinking. When pools started I felt a bit better, but after I started fencing, things got worse again. I couldn't make anything work, and if I did, I couldn't get the calls. I was loosing my bouts 5-1. Not fun.

After a couple of bouts, a woman came over and asked me how I used my wrist strap. Even though I had been really upset, I didn't know who she was and therefore took interest in explaining to her. At the beginning of my next bout, as I got up to hook up, she came over to me and gave me the same speech about it being dangerous. This made me more upset, as it was contributing to my bad day. She gave me three options: wear it under my glove (which ended up making the safety thing worse as my glove couldn't close so there was a large hole leading up to my arm- but she said it was fine), put tape over it( I wanted to go for this option, but of course she expected me to have the tape, and I was about to fence, so that didn't work), or just not use it. They never said anything about my grip.

Of course, one cannot exactly use an Italian without a wrist strap, so I went to switch to my French. The wire wasn't attached to the socket, of course. Fortunately, as I never presented to the ref, I wasn't carded. I fenced that bout with an Italian, no wrist strap. (And lost, though I probably should have beaten that fencer) With many comforting words from my coach in between bouts (and using his foil [with a grip that is actually illegal for me because of my hand's size]) I actually fenced the next time (instead of flailing around like someone who hadn't yet finished Intro 1) and won my last bout 5-3! At the end of pools, my fencing had gone from beyond terrible to an average bad day.

After eating some lunch, chatting with friends, and just generally cooling off, I went to fence my DE bout. Convinced that my opponent was seeded far higher than I was, I was determined to give her a run for her money. With an uber-fast, action-packed first period, we traded points until the score was 11-9, her lead.In the second period, I got the first touch, but than made a fleche with a distance error so she was able to get the parry-riposte, and then I proceeded to counterattack (without time) for the rest of the bout, finishing 10-15. I later found out that it had been the table of 256, and I was seeded 128 and she 127.

I finished 132 out of 152.