En Garde. Ready? Fence!

I fenced in my first fencing tournament yesterday. I can’t say I was entirely excited by the prospect at first because not only did we have to leave Vassar at 4:45am, but we were fencing against some really incredibly hard schools: Princeton, Penn State (the National Champs), NYU, UNC, and Harvard (last year’s National Champs), and I had to be ready to sub in for any of the three weapons, foil, saber, or epee, but predominantly epee. I’ve fenced foil for about three months in a class setting, saber for about two months training to compete, and epee for three days. Eek.
For the majority of the tournament Danielle (the other female sub) and I just watched. We very much enjoyed watching people on other teams do odd/stupid things and came up with a list of “Very Important Fencing Questions,” almost none of which actually have anything to do with fencing and have a lot to do with the strange mannerisms/ridiculous arguments of other fencers.
While we were facing UNC, I think, Jacinthe, one of the starting epeeists got a metal splinter in her hand from her blade. She had to go to the trainer and I had to fence her last bout. I had already decided that my goals for the day were to have fun and to score one touch (you need five to win the bout) against one opponent. I thought that was fairly realistic. And honestly, that would have made me perfectly happy. In my first ever epee bout, however, I scored two touches! Yay!
Jacinthe came back after my bout and fenced again, so I went back to observing. But Emmy, another starting epeeist, had a concert to be in at 8pm back at Vassar, so she left at 3pm, meaning I had to fence six bouts, three against Harvard and three against Princeton.
I won two of my three bouts versus Harvard! I lost to the Swedish National Champ (I think that’s who Sophie said she was…), but I was fine with that, especially since I scored two touches on her, and one of the girls I beat has been fencing for at least seven years!!! Olé! My favorite conversation of the day took place right after my second bout (where I beat the girl who’s fenced for 7 years)/right before my third (where I lost to the Swedish Champ) with the man directing the bouts,
Director: How long have you been fencing?
Me: Well, I’ve been doing epee for three days…
Dir: Really?! So you normally fence foil? (foil is much more similar to epee than saber is)
Me: No, I’m usually a saber fencer.
Dir: Oh! Well how many years have you been fencing saber?
Me: Um, two months…
Dir: What?! Wow, so I guess you’re just naturally athletic!
It’s okay, you can laugh. I certainly did.
The epee squad ended up beating Harvard! Sophie won two of her bouts as well, and Jacinthe won one. It was so much fun!
Then we fenced Princeton, and I got decimated. I scored two touches each in two of my bouts, and none at all in the third. Ah well.
It was a really great day/experience! I can’t wait for more tournaments! But I almost think I want to switch from saber to epee, because I love that there’s no right-of-way, and I really enjoyed fencing with it. I think I’m going to stick with saber until I’ve fenced with it in a competition, and then decide which I really like better.
I’ll leave you with number seven on the “Very Important Fencing Questions” list:
7. Is there an easier way to go to the bathroom in all of your equipment?