Tournament Report Vancouver World Cup December 2022
Below is my personal tournament report I wrote after fencing in the Vancouver World Cup last weekend.
This is completely unedited and exactly how I wrote it for myself.
I write a report like this after every major competition. I haven’t always done that, but I think it is wonderfully helpful and is now indispensable to me.
Read on to see my thoughts and takeaways from my first world cup in 10 years.
If you’d like to learn more strategies like this to maintain and improve your mental state during competitions, click here to get on my waiting list for 1-on-1 coaching.
Overall
Thoughts
Proud of myself. Prepared well, went in with intention, and focused on things I could control. Used resources I thought would help me, and even the mistakes I made were extensions of things I was doing on purpose that didn’t work out as I hoped, rather than fundamentally different from what I wanted to be doing. Overall, a win.
Positives
Warmed up well for pools and fenced hard from the beginning
Prepared mentally with clear goals – both outcome and process – and resources to support myself
Stayed with myself through the emotional ups and downs and high pressure of returning to the international circuit after a decade away
Used my time pretty well during breaks and was super ready to fence when I planned to be
Made an adjustment in-bout that was crucial to getting myself back into it, and stuck with it for several touches
Changes/adjustments for next time
Be more conservative about warming up before I know when I’ll be fencing
Practice and have mental warm up routine ready – short and long versions
Make spaghetti at the airbnb the night before instead of getting pizza (or going anywhere for dinner)
Things to repeat
Clear goals ahead of time
Focus on what I can control
Let go of details like what I have for dinner
Eat right after pools; have variety of foods available
Go to venue day/night before
Perform PERFECT checklist
Complete relaxation after pools if flighted
Leading in
Background
Coming off a half week of work and feeling behind/stressed around that, I didn’t feel like I had the time for the preparation I wanted to do, and certainly didn’t feel abundantly spacious and relaxed as I hoped to. Aside from that, training pretty consistently and taking lessons ~2x/week.
Had significant pain in my chest from unknown cause; interfered with breathing deeply and got irritated from fencing on Monday and Tuesday. Mostly inhibited taking a deep breath to relax between touches; otherwise annoying but apparently not an issue.
Very excited to get new jacket, mask, and bag from BG right before the competition.
Week before
Flew out on Thursday to fence on Friday.
Practice on Monday and Tuesday, lesson on Tuesday (stayed later than I wanted to for the lesson)
Tuesday fenced 4 or so hard bouts.
Stayed up a bit late packing on Wednesday but not super late. Slept poorly; about 5 ½ hours total that night.
Travel/day before
Travel went smoothly with low stress, but took allllll day and was very tiring. Didn’t arrive in time to register/do weapons check that night but went to the venue.
Wandered around a bit, agonized about dinner, and eventually stopped at a random pizza place; didn’t love that choice but it was fine.
Not much to do at the airbnb to get things ready for the morning but didn’t feel abundant time to do it. Meditated before bed, 20 min or so. According to my watch I got to bed around 9:40 local time and woke up around 5:30, with 7h22m of sleep total.
Day of
Morning/before venue
Woke at 5:30 (to my alarm) got up slowly, meditated, bathroom, shower, etc. — made decaf tea and left around 6:30-6:45.
Got a sandwich, pastry, and muffin and went to the venue.
Arrival/warm up
Arrived shortly after 7, registered, went through weapon check. Done by 7:30 I think?
Sat down, had some breakfast – pastry and some sandwich.
Got some work done on my chest and shoulder by the trainer. Seemed to help.
Relaxed warmup and lesson. Fenced a couple bouts, forget with whom. Called to strip a little early, did PERFECT checklist and part of worksheet at pool waiting to start.
Pools
Started from the beginning with a plan Alexey gave me — be patient and prepare short. Won first bout with Andrasfi that way, and then won the rest except for the bout with a Danish guy (Konigstad I think?) who rushed and fenced faster than I was ready for.
Overall excellent performance and good sticking to the plan, finished 4-1 with decent indicators.
Break
Immediately relaxed, undressed, and changed completely into dry clothes, ate, and relaxed.
Waited around for a while, eventually went outside and walked around. Had some nervousness/anxiety about getting warmed up again in time to be ready for DEs; was not focused on resting physically.
Timed my warm up to be ready to go around the time that second flight of pools ended, figured I’d have some time to chill waiting for the tableau. Went through the full warm up routine (8 strips etc.) fenced a few bouts and took a second lesson. Felt tired already during the lesson.
Had a bye, didn’t fence for another hour and a half after the end of pools, leading to 1. an awkward amount of time to wait 2. an overall 4 ½ hour wait between pools and DEs and 3. the need to warm up a third time before my DE. 1/2 warm up (4 strips etc.) and fenced a few touches with Tristan.
Same plan for fencing as in the pool – patience and short preparation.
DE
Bye first round.
Akira Kamata, JPN, to make the 64.
Lucky/lazy first touch, then got down by 4.
Tried to draw him out, unfortunately it worked and I wasn’t prepared – I felt frozen and like my reactions simply weren’t happening; that said for the most part I refrained from rushing the bout or overcommitting for no reason.
First period ended 12-8 against I think? Got it to 13-all at the end of the second period, then lost the next two touches.
Brought it back with the same idea as the plan I started with but I think preparing a little shorter and successfully responding when he committed. Pushing him back to the end did not seem to do me any good.
He committed fairly readily after enough preparation and I was able to take over easily when he did, provided I was preparing at a good distance. Seems like a bout I can win next time if I approach it correctly from the beginning.
Notes
Competition was flighted so had to wait for another round of pools to finish after mine before DEs
Did not return to 5-3-1 or other skills throughout
Successfully slowed down the bout a number of times – both pools and DE – though never pushed to the point of a yellow. I think that will be a tertiary goal for me at the NAC or next WC
[End report]
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