Alexander Adranghi

From the Blog

Feb

Slough Open

Posted by Alexander Adranghi at 3:00 pm

Just got back from Slough today. Didn’t go too well, certainly worse performance since the Miller-Hallet. Knocked out in 128′s by a fencer I had in my poules too. Poules were under par, I think my technique is getting a little shady lately being out of training, especially in recoveries. Lee Spiers and Gareth Rouse were the two obviously strong fencers in my poule, although I ended up losing four, and winning two. Enough to make the cut however! Faced Roger Barnes, who managed to beat me due to my cockiness in Sussex. Eliminated another tricky fencers, after we I clawed back to 3-3 after initially going down. He got worried and changed his tempo, which upset his distance placing him on the end of one of my extra long lunges. Twice.

Had a mini-drama against Lee, on the first point there was a little scrap, with a single light. For some reason there was some confusion and being semi-conscious I read it as Lee’s light going on. I thought it was off the floor as I didn’t feel anything, and was set myself up for a restart, with some confusion when I was asked to go back to the start line. At this point I queried if that was a point, which I got confirmation on, but said that I was pretty sure that didn’t hit. The point was canceled. Then realisation hit home that was was called was actually my point and so I canceled my own 1-0 lead! Threw for the rest of the poule fight, and lost that 5-2 in the end.

In the DE, I faced another fencer from my poule, and made mistakes in losing this one. After the first period I was 10-5 up. Second period he kept his arm extended more, and somehow managed to pull back to 13-11. At this point I switched for the first time to my new pistol grip, and landed a double, and two hits in a row. At 13-14, I was hoping for one more hit to level the score, but unfortunately it went the other way. I am very disappointed at losing such as big lead, and from discussions in the intervals with by-standers, it was my shoddy recoveries which I was exposed on.

No points for this competition, rank will certainly drop after as I will not be competing until Invicta.

Jan

Essex Open

Posted by Alexander Adranghi at 8:03 am

After five weeks out of training, and seven since the last competition, I begin the new year with the Essex Open. Traveled down with Rob to Colchester on the Sunday morning, at the early check in deadline of 8.30am. The competition was run very smoothly.

Essex is one of the the hardest competitions on the calendar, and I have since calculated the NIF count was 67. This is not too far off the Miller Hallet this year. The big difference with Essex is that it is a single wave competition, in which the top fencers are unleashed from the very start. In my poule of seven, three were in the top 50, and another in the top 100.

I was far more relaxed than at the previous competitions which I think is showing now I am gaining more competitive experience. The poules went quite well, 3 wins, 3 loss, with the surprise of dispatching the UK number 16. Unfortunately I ended up against the UK number 28 again in the Direct Eliminations (after getting a bye into the L64 and points), and went out 52nd overall. I felt I fenced well, and did not feel intimidated by the top fencers I had to face. I was still too aggressive and noticeably I lost most of my points on overreaching lunges. However I was able to pick up at a point in three of the poule matches with an initial long range lunge due to people underestimating my reach.

The point haul should send me into the 170s in the national rankings. Slough is next on the calendar at the start of next month. Looking for at least a L32!

Jan

Fencing Map Update

Posted by Alexander Adranghi at 12:42 pm

I have updated the fencing map with more details of some of the immediate Opens. If anything is incorrect, you have more information than I have, or you have any comments at all, then please get in contact with me.

I have also dropped the student fencing section as I’m not really doing that thing anymore. If anyone wants to maintain it, then please let me know. I have replaced it with information about fencing camps. Again, as with opens, please get in contact me if you need to.

Dec

The Miller-Hallet and National Rank Update: 218th

Posted by Alexander Adranghi at 12:37 pm

Miller-Hallet happened a couple of weeks ago. Not too much to say other than I felt far more confortable in the poules, even though I thought my two-up, three-down was dissapointing. The biggest mistake I made was getting too cocky again and lost my focus in my first DE, losing quite a bit to someone seeded 40 places below me. I shall not let this happen again.

My national ranking did however increase this month and I now sit 218th in the country.

I have been busy the last few weeks, and as a result fencing has dropped off – and until the last week so has my diet. I did not put on any more weight, but I did not lose any either. I plan to lose quite a bit over the Christmas period and look foward to fencing in the new year.

Oct

Bedford

Posted by Alexander Adranghi at 10:00 pm

Rise and shine, 6am. Shower and clothe, 7am. St Pancreas, 8am. Bedford, Checkin and begin the poules, 9am.

I was sceptical whether I was putting myself in stressful situation by coming up in the morning rather than the previous day as previous opens. It turned out to be very manageable if a bit cold.

I think I had tough poule from the looks of the ones around me, and I wasn’t fencing well at all. Just as Leicester, I couldn’t quite work out what I was doing wrong. Thankfully I managed to get two of these bad poules that I lost in videoed, so I have something to go on to improve.

By fight four I had enough. I had lost each one by a reasonable margin at the very least. A repeat of last week. Rob similarly wasn’t doing well and we ended up both stomping off round the carpark. Upon our return Rob recovered his poules, and I again lost the next bout.

The truth is, I had given up at this point, and decided to give anything a go and go out in a blaze of fire. Rob who was done by this point advised me to switch to absence of blade, strategy that I employed far more at ULU before switching to a more direct line with my training at LTFC. With the technical improvements I have made over the course of the last five months at LTFC, I found this tactic worked. 5-1, and only because of a double at the end.

This set me up seeded 96th out of the 116 fencers. Thankfully, there was no cut, just an incomplete 128. I wasn’t looking forward to this, as I was up again 32nd seed. With Rob’s encouragement I continued with absence of blade and won by a reasonable margin. The guy was a Veteran so I did take some confidence in that he was less likely to be quicker and stronger than me.

For the last 64, I found myself against the fencer that beat me 15-2 and send me packing last week. I know I had finally found some sort of form, certainly best since I was at Sussex, and followed absence again. It was working. I kept a point or two clear as with both crept up, and around the halfway mark I started making attacks on the feints and dropped a few points. It was starting to get tense. I heard Rob and a few others cheering me on for support, and this match seemed to have gathered quite a large crowd. at 11-10, a refereeing decision went my way. There was a little protest – a parry made by the forearm just before a riposte and hit. I didn’t really notice in the heat of the action and had no opinion, but it seemed the correct decision from what others said after the match. The match edged forward and I dropped a couple more points after pulling a way a bit, setting the scoreline 14-14. Tension like no other match. This was not my hardest match, but certainly the most closely fought. Double hit followed. ‘Oooo‘ and ‘aahhs‘ from the crowd assembled. I knew I lost any advantage I had in the early stages of the bout and had to be careful of the ex-foilists parry, ripostes. I had to be cautious due to my weakness of overextending on attacks. Feint to sixte, disengage, lunge to the chest on quarte. 15.

Last 32. Already the best result I’ve had. I have to admit it was hard concentrating at this point, I was just happy to get this far. I lost the killer instinct. Next up, was first seed. I knew the fencer from training camp in August and I knew he was very good. And 11th in the country. Score was going ok, I think if pushed a little more and the small part of me that gave up didn’t I may have had a chance to win. Roughly 9-7 after period one. Period two didn’t go so well, he increase tempo, and I thought I dealt OK with it. However that part of me that gave up – especially being exhausted after the last round cost me at least a few hits. Final score 15-10.

So from storming around the carpark with the prospect of my worst result ever in the poules, to achieving my best finish at a competition with a NIF of at least 29 (145 points for 32nd), this day was certainly one of the most memorable. Predicted national rank after this competition roughly 220th.

Oct

Leicester? What? When?

Posted by Alexander Adranghi at 12:19 pm

Leicester, just didn’t happen. I traveled up to Stratford on the crawling Chiltern Railways from Marylebone on Saturday evening. The YHA wasn’t the best, bedroom and bathroom less to be desired. The breakfast in the morning was however very good and considering it cost mere £18 not a lot to complain about.

As far as the competition went, I think the two-wave formats are messing with me, I felt like everything was being rushed and never got into a rhythm. The facilities were very poorly lit – stark comparison to Sussex. I ended up 1 up, 4 down. I think I should have won three bouts, but I wasn’t fencing well.

The most frustrating aspect of this was I wasn’t able to pin down what was going wrong – I really needed to be filmed. No I don’t think any lessons have been learnt. I do know my confidence was hit after the first two loses.

I have now only made training once in two weeks due to work commitments which isn’t helping. Tomorrow morning I head for Bedford. At least this should be an easier open.

Since last weekend I have been doing weights, after purchasing York 50kg Cast Iron Barbell/DumBell Set (which cost me not even half that price). I also got the November edition of Mens Fitness which actually has a suprising amount of useful exercise material in it.

Oct

Sussex

Posted by Alexander Adranghi at 7:56 pm

Next up. Sussex. An enigma on the calendar for having the epee on the Saturday. Travelled down to meet Rob at the local Travelodge for usual battle preparations. My thoughts are this was quite a well organised competition, especially when you consider the womens’ epee was mixed in with the mens’ with very limited space available.

This was the first poules where I started to get into rhythm; yet another poule where a mistake has cost me many points. I ended up losing one poule fight that I was 3-1 up and should have not lost under any circumstances I feel. I got too cocky and thought this would be easy and as a result I kept on getting hit from direct attacks no less with a pitiful final score of 4-5. Entirely my fault, and as a result I won two, and lost three of the poules. I still managed to keep third in the poules due to my indicator being significantly better, but there was no real excuse – and this cost me at the very very least 15 places in the seeding for direct eliminations.

First DE was fairly straight forward, big plus was that after the first period and being 9-5 up, I noticed the opponent getting some detailed advise from someone with GB stripes (and I know I shouldn’t automatically start reading into things), so I made the mental note to see what was going to happen rather than continue straight into my tactics of the previous period.

The second period my opponent was more aggressive but must have been trying to set me up into a trap by leaving the point inline after I withdrew from his lunge. I’m not quite sure what the plan was but I decided not to walk onto it in case of a forward recovery-(disengage)-lunge or something. I ended up sitting outside of distance and just attacking less frequently while maintaining my own point in line (crudely emulating Grumier) and going only for low-risk action. The result was picking up the rest of the 15 to finish roughly 15-9.

The second DE. I was simply outclassed. I’m don’t think I fenced particularly well but I simply had no answer to 26th nationally ranked Dudley Tredger. I knew he was quick, agile and relentlessly aggressive. Although until recently I have been relying as a counter-attacking fencer, I (rightly it turned out) wasn’t confident that I could hold off attacks, so I decided to push and attack myself.

Unfortunately Dudley was just too quick. By far one of the quickest and relentless fencers I’ve ever faced and the bout ended up being a very one-sided 2-15. I had less tactical and technical options in my repertoire than Poland in 1939. I’m not too bothered about this, I found another thing I need to work on so these are positives.

If I didn’t screw that poule match up I would have had a far easier run in the DE’s.

Perhaps the hardest thing this weekend was refereeing a DE. I’m not particularly experienced and with epee being so open as a weapon, the judgments in the gray areas are even more important. The lack of metal pistes did make recognising floor hits difficult, and this bout was particularly difficult due to the aggression and mingling of the two fencers. After the first period one fencer asked for a change of referee (fine by me, I didn’t really want to do it), but the other was happy and didnt want a change. After giving the original fencer the opportunity to go to the DT to ask for a change, he didn’t take this up and the fight continued. The rest of the bout had less ambiguity thankfully.

New blade too, FIE LP v-blade because I was offered it reduced. I was told they would give it to me the same price as the standard v-blades that I have, although I now noticed this wasn’t the case and feel a little peeved that they said this. I may have still bought it anyway, as it was still discounted by quite a margin but unless I’m mistaken and the online shop prices are different I still feel cheated because I was told otherwise. I don’t think this is good image for LP to put across to regular customers.

I also lost my new gauge in about two minutes after buying it, I walked over to my bag and started packing. Nothing was left around the area – so bizarre If anyone found a gauge please do get in contact.

Sep

Shropshire

Posted by Alexander Adranghi at 2:04 pm

This weekend was the Shropshire Open in Telford. A competition far easier than Bristol I had high hopes to score some points and try and make it as far as possible. I was feeling pretty fresh having not have fencing since training on Monday, and Rob and I have a new thing of supporting one another through the tournaments.

On Saturday Rob and I developed a fencing mantra to recite before each bout. Fence your best. Do not get distracted by winning the competition, getting through to X stage, or even winning the current bout. Focus on fencing your best and results will follow.

The format is two rounds of poules, first seeded from national rankings, the second from the first, and then without a cut.

The first round of poules went better than Bristol. I found I had time, was calm and fenced well. I am finding myself turning to be a more aggressive fencing, and found myself 3-0 up in the first poule fight. Much to my own disgust I somehow lost this 4-5 after not reacting to change of tempo. In the end of the first round of poules I had won two, lost two, with one of the wins coming from a 2-2, and winning in extra time without holding priority. This was a little nerve-racking.

I found myself 40/75 after first poules, only to find both my weapons fail travel at the start of the first bout of the second poule. This is a red card, and I found myself a point down and having to borrow Rob’s very small gripped Pistol grip. Psychologically I threw it away, I found myself shaken with the double weapon failure, and I think I used the excuse of not having my weapon to justify having to lose this bout. I lost this 3-5, although I couldn’t help but notice insane increase in power with the pistol grip allowing me to send direct attacks right through without too much worry of parrying.

I managed to get one of the weapons sorted for the next poule fight, but I wasn’t settled and rushed it. Third, I won, and then then lost the final two, first of which I’m not sure what happened and the last one I was satisfied I fenced well.

With the poor poules I found myself in 54th going into the DE’s. I hadn’t realised the consequences of this being a incomplete 128, and assumed I would be fencing someone in the twenties less any byes. I began the first DE cautious of my opponent who seemed quite static. When I found myself 13-3 up after first period I was pleased. Achieved without having to move at all, catching them on the outside of the wrist or a beat attack every time. I swiftly delivered the final two at the start of second interval to win 15-3, only to then find out that I was fencing last position and it wasn’t until in the car home did I realise what exactly happened and that I was in fact the first seed in the incomplete 128 as the 53 places above me all held byes.

Despite the quality of the fencer I did feel far more comfortable fencing to 15, and poules is a major area I need to sort out as I’ve don’t fence anywhere near as comfortably.

In the last 64, I had John Chalmers, ex-Scottish international, ranked 31st nationally, 3rd highest ranked fencer at the competition and defending champion. I had heard from speaking to others that he is both aggressive and a tactician so I decided that my best hope was to take the fight to him, keep him on the back foot and control the pace of the bout.

I was very satisfied with my performance in the first period, finding myself mostly two points ahead and never behind, with the first interval ended 9-9. During the interval my mind raced with the thoughts that I should not be level with a fencer of this quality and experience and in the second period I again failed to adapt to a change of tempo and lost the remaining six points in the row. John started fencing tighter and seemed to catch me on counter attacks and did take control of the pace.

With my competition over (and I believe I finished just in the points) I continued to support Rob, who impressively vanquished opponents quite decisively to add Shopshire to Nottingham as his current titles. Well done.

I have a lot of work to do to sort out my fencing and I am taking away with me the following:

Find confidence in poules and get more fencing in during warm up with competition mentality during warm up.
Test weapons at the end of each fight so there is time to correct anything and avoid cards.
Focus on changes of tempo and strategy during a bout, especially between periods.

Sep

The start of a competitive career

Posted by Alexander Adranghi at 12:25 pm

The 34th Bristol Open happened yesterday. As one of the largest epee competitions in the domestic calendar this was not the easiest choice for a first competition on the circuit. As the first competition of the season there was no real choice whether or not to go. Plus the experience would at least prepare me with plans to attend the Nationals next year.

Traveled across to Bristol on Saturday and spent the day exploring the city, from the waterfronts to St Nicholas. Spent most the day in Starbucks working on Linear Algebra exercises. Checked in the evening to the Rock and Bowl Motel, a dubious accommodation in central Bristol. The hostel did turn out OK, friendly staff and a great atmosphere if I were backpacking. The facilities were quite neglected and I almost threw up after discovering some solid organic mass located in a sink on Sunday morning. I’ve stayed in much worse places.

They did place me just above what turned out to be a night club which I wasn’t best pleased with, but after a little negotiating they moved me to a very empty dormitory and refunded my entire stay. Which to be honest, isn’t too bad at all.

The City Academy Sports Centre was a spacious and pleasant venue, with outdoor space for a breather and catering available all day. Unfortunately the fencing went terribly, a combination of underestimation, lack of sinking into a rhythm, confidence and too many doubles. A blur it was, I soon found myself out, losing all poule matches and only ten or so from bottom. Two of my biggest weakness were exploited quite a fair bit, and I was surprised how quickly they were seized upon. I didn’t pay too much attention to the other matches in my poule – a mistake as I could have learned a lot from these bouts about the fencers and define a strategy.

Furthermore while I had the general goal of winning every single match and taking them one at a time, I don’t think I had a clear enough focus on strategy within the bout or concentrating too much on what my next action would be.

My good friend Rob who supported me during my short lived competition did impress me with his new training aids, two Taekwondo training pads, and using them to practice lunges, flicks and fleches; reacting the the movements of pad wielder. Fifteen pound from Argos, modded with Velcro to turn it into a wall mounted lunge pad as well.

At the end of the day I made some rookie mistakes and the important thing is not to make the mistakes again for the next competition – which will be Sussex if not Shropshire. My plan moving forwards is:

Create an action plan sheet to follow my progress through future tournaments
Observe all poule fights and DE’s if they’re on the same piste for future opponents and analyse their play.
Make notes after each match on what went right and what went wrong and why.
Focus on training in situations outside my current comfort zones.
Think more strategically, focus on every action and second intention. Don’t preempt.

Another positive was being knocked out early meant I was one of the lucky few epeeist not effected by the delays in the organisation this year which saw a three hour wait at least for the womens’ second wave. And congratulations to Mary for winning the Women’s epee.