Practical frivolities

Some of you I have told and others I have received messages from which I have not had the chance to reply to. Here is the whole story.

The day began with finding out that the jury members on my panel were Maestro Alex Beguinet and Jerry Dunaway. I was fairly certain that this would spell a fair, but likely difficult practical. Maestro knows my capabilities, having taught me in Foil 1 last year, and several clinics in our club, and Jerry was on my panel last year for Foil 1 as well as an assistant instructor in the class.

I had, a few days before, chosen Haley Ward from the Denver Fencing Center as my student. She was in Foil 1 last year and is quite the prodigy. At fifteen and a half (that’s how old she’ll tell you she is), Haley is a rated Foil coach, a rated Foil referee, and now a rated Epee coach. She had asked me to be her student for her practical and it only made sense to choose her as well, so that we could concentrate on working together. Needless to say she also made me look very good.

The practical began with choosing my cards: I drew Advance, Half Retreat, and Lunge for footwork, and Ripostes and Counter Ripostes for bladework. I set the footwork card aside, having felt pretty confident in my knowledge of them, and concentrated on using my fifteen minutes to develop a bladework lesson around the card I’d drawn. After about ten minutes both Haley and I felt pretty confident, so we took the last five minutes to rest.

When I was called, I entered, introduced myself, and explained the footwork I’d be demonstrating. Maestro asked me to start with the Advance. He then asked to see the Lunge and promptly stopped me, “Do you know how many lunges there are?” “Yes,” I replied, “Four.” “And how many recoveries?” he added. “Three,” I said. “And you know what they are?” he questioned further. “Yes“, I nodded. “Good, call your student.”

I motioned Haley over, introduced her, and we saluted the jury and each other before I announced what bladework we’d be working on. At this point Maestro looked confused and Jerry frowned. Jerry picked up my card and looked at it, frowned further, and handed it to Maestro. “This card says Compound Attacks.” They both smiled impishly as my entire lesson was tossed out the window, leaving me to develop a new lesson on the fly for this new action. I looked to Haley and her eyes were as big as saucers.

After a millisecond of panic I nodded, looked to Haley and announced we’d begin in motion with a Feint of Straight, Disengage to the arm. We completed two of these, the second with a change in tempo and a Redoublement, when the jury stopped me again. They asked to see a Feint High-Low. Again, we did two, with changes in tempo and again were stopped where I was asked for a Diagonal Transfer. Over the next fifteen minutes or so the Maestro and Jerry basically made me work through the entire Epee 1 manual.

At that point Maestro announced, with a smile, that I had not shown them a Riposte, my original action card, or a Counter Riposte. We demonstrated these and I was asked to cue Haley for a Low Line Parry, with a Transfer to a High Line and a Fleche. She executed it beautifully, all three times we were asked to show it, and that was finally enough. We saluted and retreated to allow the jury to confer.

Within thirty seconds I was called back. I really, at this point, wasn’t sure what all of this meant; such a short conference could have been good or bad. I felt pretty good about the practical over all, but there had been mistakes which, thought I ended up correcting, were still mistakes.

The first thing I was told was that I was the only one that jury had seen all morning who cued tempo changes in the actions. For this I received high praise. What I received the most praise for was the movement, though. Both the Maestro and Jerry were very impressed that at no point did I stop to speak to my student; I talked while we were in motion, with both my voice and my blade, and even continued to keep my student in motion as the jury made corrections, added actions, and commented. I admitted that some of that was nervous energy. Maestro’s reply was, “Then be nervous all the time.” I was, in the end, awarded a 96 out of a possible 100 … the highest score given by that jury (though not the highest for the class, that was AC with a 98).

Needless to say I was incredibly pleased. We all packed up and went to lunch, then Chuck, Jason, and I went downtown to an Irish pub for lunch before returning to the OTC for the farewell ceremony. After that we went to Finish Line, a bar right outside the gates, and I only got back about an hour ago.

I’ve showered and packed and am ready to go home. Tomorrow I’ll be traveling all day. I’m very happy it’s over and done, but a little sad to be leaving. I’ll definitely be back in 2009.