posted
I just have to share. I posted this in my Epee thread on sakeriver, but I still can't get over this bruise.
I've been fencing epee for two weeks now (I've fenced foil for over a year and a half) and on Thursday I bouted a couple people. Near the end of my first bout (with a guy who weighs around 200lbs, mind you), my oppenent misjudges his distance and counterattacks into my attack, and his tip nails my upper bicep hard. One hell of a hit. (It was a double touch, in case you were wondering). Normally, you don't even feel the bruise until you find it later. Sometimes you feel it, but for just a few seconds. When I know pain is coming, I'm a bit weenie (I could never get a tattoo), but when it occurs in the context of sport (I don't know it's coming till it's happened), I'm usually fairly tough and am unphased. This hit made me swear fairly vehemently and I had to stop for a bit and shake my arm out.
I continued fencing and forgot about it. I got home and it looked like this.
Not awful. It was swollen and warm in the middle. I woke up the next morning (yesterday morning) to this.
o_O
In person, it looks even COOLER.
Posts: 14745 | Registered: Dec 1999
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posted
Dagonee, I was going to say that. It reminds me of a short-range paintball bruise I got on my arm a few years back.
Posts: 1960 | Registered: May 2005
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posted
I am, actually. I'm still going to fence foil as well, because I like it. But epee...I love epee.
My first lesson was my coach having me hit his thumb when he presented it over his bellguard. If I looked at it, I couldn't hit it. If I didn't look at it, but looked at my coach's mask or made my eyes go all trying-to-see-a-magic-eye-picture, I could hit it every time. I think epee uses the dark side of the force. Posts: 14745 | Registered: Dec 1999
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My coach was pretty strict about learning foil first - for good reason I think - and I didn't ever get to epee before I stopped.
I had one match (a club match, not a tournament) that was almost dark-side - for some reason, I was effectively parrying and attacking without thinking about it or focusing on anything. But before it was done, I tried to figure out what I was doing right and lost it.
My brain is the enemy of my body.
Posts: 26071 | Registered: Oct 2003
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quote:How long does it usually take for them to go away?
No idea, I've never really kept track. I guess I will for THIS one.
Tante, as long as it doesn't get poked or touched or anything, it doesn't hurt. Well, mostly. Arm aches sometimes.
Posts: 14745 | Registered: Dec 1999
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posted
It's very important that these things are documented. It's also a very round bruise. Sorta like a target.
I should mention that I wasn't wearing a plastron (under arm protector, extra bit of at least 350N material to protect your upper arm, shoulder, and chest on your sword arm side). Reason being that my current one constricts my shoulder joint enough to cause some significant pain. I decided that bruises were easier to deal with than the shoulder pain (the joint would hurt more and for longer). Of course, I didn't quite forsee a bruise like this.
Best of all, the new plastron came in the very next day. Posts: 14745 | Registered: Dec 1999
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quote:It's very important that these things are documented.
Um, why?
quote: 350N material
How can material be measured in newtons (I assume it doesn't simply weigh that, as it would be a fairly useless measure of anything significant)?
Posts: 32919 | Registered: Mar 2003
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It means in terms of newtons it can withstand. FIE standard is 800N for international competition. You need 350N for domestic competition. Jackets are 350N or 800N, plus the plastrons, as well as the knickers. Masks are given a punch test on the mesh, but I forget what N it has to withstand. I know that a bib on an FIE mask has to withstand 1600N.
Posts: 14745 | Registered: Dec 1999
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posted
Withstand without what? Tearing? Shredding? Surely it still transmits the momentum of the blow, albeit more spread out?
Posts: 32919 | Registered: Mar 2003
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posted
Definitely cool! And definitely something only mack would brag about! That's why we all love you! Posts: 4519 | Registered: Sep 2003
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posted
Those are certainly impressive! Rather makes fencing drop a place or two on my Future Hobby list. Will you post pics of when it turns all green and yellow?
Posts: 952 | Registered: Jun 2005
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