I return victorious from Long Beach, where I competed in another local open event! Rest assured, they're not actually weekly, unless I'm willing to drive up to San Bernardino on a regular basis to compete (Hint: I'm really not). After last week's disappointing start to the season, with five consecutive losses, my day this time around was significantly better. In the pools round, I won four and lost two. The two losses were probably avoidable, I think they are guys I can beat, but the first one was definitely a wake-up bout, and the second was as close as they come, I lost five to four. So, room for improvement, but a world better than last time.
In direct eliminations, I seeded seventeenth out of fifty five, which placed me in the top eighty percent, and thus advanced me into the next round. Normally everyone advances into direct eliminations, but this tourney had approximately fifty-five entrants, so the tournament organizers eliminated the bottom twenty percent right out of pools. I had my first bout against the sixteenth seed. It was pretty even for the first period, but afterwards I managed to take it by a margin of four touches. That brought me out of the round of thirty-two into the sixteen, in which I encountered the number one seed.
I observed his bout prior to mine, and tried to draw up a strategy. I saw he was really good, but I figured I could beat him on footwork. And I did! I was able to push him up and down the strip for much of the bout. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to land anything and was thoroughly beaten on bladework, and lost fifteen to five. A few friends of mine who were watching my bout commented that my problem was two-fold.
Firstly, my distance was off in that I was getting too close. As a result, my actions were correspondingly larger. The closer I get, the further I have to move my blade in order to effectively parry, beat or evade his blade. This isn't a new problem for me, my distance is perpetually off, always way too close. I get excited, my footwork gets too big, and I'm way too close to hit effectively. It's aggravating, because this has been a problem of mine for a long, long time and I can't seem to get it under control. But, it's good to have something to work on.
So last week I placed fifteenth out of seventeen, and today I placed at the very least sixteenth out of fifty-five. So I'm gonna call it progress, and I have something to focus on until then. And the next tournament is actually in mid or late October, so until then!
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