ok sweetie....we can play that way.

I really hate it when fencers decide that the way they are going to beat you is to swing as hard as they possible can. It happened to me twice this weekend. In the women's saber event (which I took the silver medal in, losing to a really awesome girl from Atlanta), I had to fence this girl who attempted repeatedly to lop off my body parts.

This was a bad idea for two reasons: 1) She was already down by several points, and swinging harder slowed her down that much more, and 2) no woman out there wants to go toe to toe with me. I'm incredibly strong, and somewhat thin (but not at all skinny), with a large frame. I may not look like much of anything except tall, but I'm definitely strong.

So, after she continued to swing harder and harder, and hit me after the halt several times, I look straight at her, and said, "If you want to play that way, we can play that way." She laughed at me, and I made her pay. I'm not violent or mean, and I NEVER try to hurt people unless they decide that they want to play like that. I locked my bell guard behind hers, and twisted, bringing my blade across her lame (for the point), and then brough the blade smartly into her inner thigh. She cried, but she got the point.

The second was in the open saber, against one of my own teammates. Everyone complains about how hard he hits, but he thinks it's hilarious. This time, I warned him twice. After the second warning, he attempted to lop off my wrist. (It's the same one I had some ligament damage to last season, and is still a little tender at times.) So I looked at him and said the same thing to him that I had said to the previous girl, "If you want to play that way, we can play that way." He had no idea what he had gotten into. I doubt he was really hurt, but he didn't begin to take me a little more seriously, and I flustered him enough to make a huge comeback, although I did eventually lose that bout.

Why do some people insist on learning the hard way?

Anyway, results for the weekend for me:

WE: 3rd place

mixed epee: 16th, but I was 3 points from getting my D! I figured out what I was doing wrong in my last bout, but it was too late at that point to win it. Final score: 15-12 (But I did have a huge upset in the first round of DE's, beating the #12 seed.)

WS: 2nd....lost to an incredibly worthy opponent, and very nice girl. I got my rematch in the open saber pool, and beat her 5-4 (yay!)

Open saber: 6th. I'm incredibly happy with that result, however if I had managed to beat He-man, I would have gotten my C. Oh well. I re-earned my D for the fourteenth time (no, seriously), and I fenced both weapons well going into the Miami NAC in a couple of weeks.