#Oung-Jo Yuh# is a junior on the NYU men's fencing team. Periodically throughout the season, he will share his thoughts in this space.
Written 2-13-10
A lot as happen since my last blog. The Saints won the Superbowl. We had a snow day. And the NYU men’s fencing team beat Columbia!
We started off the quad meet (Feb. 3) with a 17-10 victory over Vassar. I arrived late to the match since I had a class right before. I subbed in during the second round. I didn’t start the match because I wanted to give myself the opportunity to warm up and stretch. It also would not be fair to the team if I were put in at anything less than 100%.
My last bout against Vassar was bit of a thriller. I was fencing against a clubmate of mine at the Fencers Club. I fence him all the time and I know exactly how to fence him. However, this time I think I was overconfident and let the bout go to 4-1 in his favor.
After (freshman) Phil Jamesson called a time out, I got back on guard and was going to try something different. My first intention attack was getting closed out so I decided to go for a false attack parry riposte. This crucial decision proved to be the correct one. I brought the bout back to 4-4 with time expiring. The Vassar fencer won the coin toss, so he had priority. When a fencing bout is tied at the end of regulation the bout goes into a one-minute overtime. If at the end of overtime no point has been scored, then the fencer who won the coin toss wins the bout.
One minute is a lot of time to score one point, so I always go into overtime with an aggressive attitude. I try to make sure that I make my action and not lose because I hesitated. As soon as the referee said “fence” I started to set up my attack. On my fourth try, I made a clear parry riposte and won the bout.
We then beat Columbia 18-9. I even beat their best fencer, Kurt Getz, who is ranked #2 in the United States. Columbia is our uptown rivals. There is always a little more on the line when we fence them. For the longest time, Columbia had bragging rights as the best team in New York City. This year’s 19-8 victory along with last year’s 14-13 nail bitter clearly shows who the better team is now.
Overall we were 2-1 for the night (NYU lost 14-13 to Sacred Heart). Next year we will shoot for 3-0.
Our next competition will be NCAA Regionals (March 14) at Brown University. All three men’s foil fencers are going to regionals. I have never made it to the NCAA. Last year, I missed the final round of pools by one win.
The past is the past. We live in the present. I am going to practice hard and see how I do at Brown.
#Oung-Jo Yuh# is a junior on the NYU men's fencing team. Periodically throughout the season, he will share his thoughts in this space.
Written 2-2-10
Hey y’all what’s happening? I’ll tell you what’s happening. Your favorite NYU sports team just got back from Beantown. I would like to give a shout out to my main man Phil Jamesson, this week’s UAA Athlete of the Week for posting a 16-4 record in foil. Yes ladies and gentlemen Dr.Phil (his nickname on the team) swept Haverford, Air Force, Boston College, and Brandeis. Byron Neslund also deserves props for leading the men’s epee team by posting a 12-7 mark while el capitan, Jared Hammond, had a 12-4 record in men's sabre.
My mother comes to every fencing match. Home or away she still shows up and cheers me on. I will be the first one to say that having a parent still come to my college fencing matches is not weird or childish. It’s actually totally awesome. She usually prepares a care/competition package. This time the package included two power bars, one bottle of smart water, two towels, and my two favorite long sleeve plaid shirts, both of which make me look like a cool hipster/film student. This time she came alone. There was no one to keep her company on the train. How sad. Not only am I grateful for my mom showing up and watching me, but I am also grateful for being an upperclassman.
On the NYU fencing team we follow a code of hierarchy. Since there are only two beds and three people to a room, the more seniority you have on the team then better the chances you will get a bed to yourself. Roommates are also assigned according to weapon. The sabreists room together and the foilists room together, it’s as simple as that. Since the other two starters on the foil squad are freshmen, I am guaranteed a nice cozy four-pillowed bed all to myself.
After going 4-3 on Saturday we trekked to Tufts in order to support our women’s team while they fenced an official NCAA match. After our women’s team manhandled oh excuse me…womanhandled Tufts, we had a pizza party with them. What’s so special about a pizza party? Nothing really. It’s just that this time there was music. My personal favorites: Bad Romance by Lady Gaga and Tik Tok by Ke$ha were blasting throughout the little gymnasium. If you were paying attention you would have seen me bust a little dance move here and there. That’s right I like to dance. Tik Tok + Bad Romance+Pizza=Awesome!
Last weekend was fun and successful. I love competing and being a member of the NYU fencing team. Wednesday night we are back in action against Vassar, Sacred Heart, and our uptown rivals, Columbia. First match is at 5pm at the Dodge Fitness Center at Columbia University for any of you that want to cheer your team on!
#Oung-Jo Yuh# is a junior on the NYU men's fencing team. Periodically throughout the season, he will share his thoughts in this space.
Written 1-20-10
Feel the rhythm! Feel the rhyme! Get on up, its fencing time! Cool Runnings! What’s up people? My name is Oung-Jo Yuh. I am a foilist and this is my third year on the NYU men’s fencing team.
For those of you who don’t know what a foilist is, it’s someone who fences foil. For those of you who don’t know what a foil is…Google it. If you don’t know what Google is, then I can’t help you.
First week of class, NOOOOOOOOOO. Fencing season picks up again, YESSSSSSSS. No competition on Super Bowl Sunday, REALLY GOOD! Every year we have a multi- school meet at MIT the weekend of the Super Bowl and usually catch the last half or miss the entire game. Luckily for us, that match is one week earlier this year and we can get to watch the Super Bowl. Hopefully, the Jets will make it that far so that the game will be more meaningful to watch, for me at least.
Anyway, let’s get back to fencing news. Two thumbs up for the person responsible for scheduling the MIT match this year. Seriously, I’m going to buy that person a cookie.
The X-Factor:
Every blog before a match I will identify the x-factor that can determine how well we perform at meets. Unfortunately, our first match back from winter break is on the first Saturday we get back to school. Foil and sabre squads will have had only two official team practices and epee will only have had one since getting back. Not sure this is enough practice time for our team, especially after a looooooooooong break. We may need more time to re-awaken our muscles. At the NYU Invitational (January 23) we fence against four fencing powers: Ohio State, Notre Dame, St. John’s, and Yale. Guess we’ll find out where we’re out pretty quickly.
Key Players:
Look for #Ken Sin# and #Phil Jameson#, new additions to our foil squad this season, to make a big impact on the second half of the season. These freshmen have settled into their starting positions and I believe we will see a lot of good things from them starting this Saturday.
#Andrew Stanco# is a co-captain of the NYU men's fencing team. Periodically throughout the season, he will share his thoughts in this space.
Written 11-30-09
This past Sunday, NYU trekked up to Boston to fence in the Harvard Invitational. It was our last competition of the semester.
One of the hardest challenges we faced that day was trying to pull through in tough situations as a team. Everyone was anxious about having to travel back home on one of the busiest days of the year, and plenty more were nervous about their upcoming final exams and papers. For most of us, this is a very stressful time of the year. Excuses aside, this was our first real team competition away from NYU, and staying focused would be a challenge.
Fencing can be so psychologically demanding at times that once you start to fence badly, it can be hard to stop. It’s not a factor of practice time; it’s one of experience in dealing with these types of situations. It’s funny because when you look back on how you were thinking the day before, your mental outlook seems totally foreign. Bouts that seemed unwinnable the day before now look simple. Actions that could not be done correctly yesterday become miraculously easy today.
The best antidote for this can sometimes come from your teammates and not from within. When you see your teammates fighting for every touch and you hear the cheers of your teammates behind you, things can turn around. The gym at Harvard was freezing, and it was tough to really stay warm and ready. But, a lot of NYU fencers really did rise to the occasion. #Kyle Wilson# on the sabre squad was undefeated, going 6-0 throughout the day.
Perhaps the most amazing part of the day was that despite our early losses (NYU lost its first two matches, but won two of the next three) we always remembered that the next bout was winnable.
It was a grueling day for a lot of us, but there were times when you could see what makes our team so dynamic and powerful. It may have only come in spurts and glimmers, but it definitely was there. Learning how to stay positive and communicate with one another is one of the challenges we will face next semester. But, it is a challenge I feel confident we can accomplish by the end of the season.
I also have to give a very special thank you to the (Victoria) Sheng and (John) Masters families for feeding our entire team throughout the competition. It was a long day and we all had huge appetites.
#Andrew Stanco# is a co-captain of the NYU men's fencing team. Periodically throughout the season, he will share his thoughts in this space.
Written 11-3-09
I spent my Halloween in Philadelphia. World Series tickets? Nope. In town for the Giants-Eagles game? Thankfully not. Thanks to our assistant coach Lauren Willock, I was decked out as a kitten this October 31 with pointy black ears and a little tail to cheer on the NYU team as they fenced in the Temple Open.
To be fair, I wanted to be a penguin with some of my teammates. But, they bailed on me because they are afraid of embarrassing themselves. I just love being the center of attention, especially when it involves people doing a double take at the 6-2 manchild who just went “meow” when his teammate scored a touch. We may have not been on campus to enjoy Greenwich Village Halloween, but that didn’t stop us from having fun over the weekend.
The Temple Open is a fantastic way to open up the season. Even though fencers show up with their schools it is an individual event, so it is technically every fencer for himself. I can’t really stress enough how much the team component factors into a fencer’s individual performance. We have been practicing for some time now, and the first event of the season is our first chance to compete and cheer in one place. Practically every member of the team has his own unique practice schedule, and the first meet can sometimes be an extended introduction to your teammates.
Nearly every bout at Temple that had an NYU fencer also had a large number of team members cheering and hollering in support. So much of fencing is about your mental endurance. Confidence, momentum and determination play a huge role in every sport. But, in fencing you need to have a mastery of all three to consistently do well. Whenever you are involved in a close bout, there is no feeling like hearing your teammates erupt into cheers when you score a touch. You may be the only one fencing, but you are not alone on the strip. Your teammates believe in you. They want you to succeed, and they are letting you and the other fencer know it as loudly as they can. Personally, cheering like this has helped me win bouts. It’s what makes NYU fencing unique, but it is something not often mentioned after a match is over.
What’s great is that our support off the strip mirrored our own strong fencing results on the strip. Phil Jameson, a freshman foil fencer tied for third while Justin Powell, a freshman in epee, placed eighth. Veterans Byron Neslund and Hugo Rodrigues (the co-author of this blog) also finished in the top eight, placing seventh and sixth, respectively.
Seeing our team in action for the first time this season made me all the more excited for our next meet on November 12, and for the rest of the season as well. We have a lot to offer this year and I can’t wait to see us finally compete as a team.
#Andrew Stanco# is a co-captain of the NYU men's fencing team. Periodically throughout the season, he will share his thoughts in this space.
Written 10-23-09
Lying on the ground of the fencing salle at Coles, I began to wonder what I was going to write about for my opening post. How was I going to both introduce the 2009-10 NYU fencing team and explain what we do in practice and at our meets? Luckily, two words serve as an excellent example, and they might not be what you expect: Hungarian dodgeball.
No two words have come to describe my fencing experience more at NYU than playing this game at Coles. Hungarian dodgeball does not require any special clothing or equipment, only some decent aim and a ruthless ability to hit your teammates in the face with a squishy ball.
The rules of the game are really simple. Get hit with the ball and you are out (like all dodgeball games). But, there are two Hungarian twists that make the game brilliant in my opinion. The first is that if you catch the ball, neither player is out. This makes the tempo and speed of the game so much similar to fencing. Sometimes no matter how perfect your lunge, parry, or throw is, your opponent is ready for you and your fortune changes instantly. In that moment, if you want to avoid total humiliation at the hands of the purple squishy ball, or in my case at the hands of your Hungarian fencing coach (Kornel Udvarhelyi) wielding that very same purple squishy ball, you have to react and not be frightened.
Just having that rule would be fine, but this other twist really makes Hungarian dodgeball into a great game to play at any fencing practice. At some point playing this game, you will get hit and have to sit down. But, thankfully, all is not lost for you. If you happen to pick up a stray ball (or have a ball passed to you by a willing player) you can hit a player not sitting down and get back in the game. The amount of bargaining, and even compassion I see when we play this game continually amazes me. Often, the person you saved will stab you in the back while you aren’t looking. Other times half the team will pass the ball to one another just to try and get one person out. Sometimes you need to work together, other times it is every fencer for himself. But, like in fencing, Hungarian dodgeball constantly rewards spatial awareness and a clever strategy.
I wonder if I am really doing the game justice, or if I am just simply underselling it because you really have to be there to see all of the game’s wonderful mechanics in action. Maybe I am just overanalyzing something that is designed to get us all competing and laughing as a team together. Either way, I still believe that Hungarian dodgeball is a great metaphor for what we try to accomplish when we practice. If those skills we use trying to hit one another with a little purple ball can translate onto the fencing strip, then the game has done its job.
