AFM Summer Nationals Prep Camp: A Student's Perspective (Day 5)

Welcome back to my fifth and final post about the incredible AFM Summer Nationals Camp. Today was the day of the big competition, where all the fencers competed in a tournament-like event. I will recount my experience throughout this tournament, as well as my overall thoughts on the camp itself. 

The day started with an individual warmup and stretching routine similar to the past day. For me, I like to do about 5 minutes of running exercises, 8 minutes of stretching, and 5 minutes of footwork/targets. I do a similar warmup for all tournaments I attend, and it's served me well. After warmup, we suited up and started the pool rounds. My pool had 7 people in it, counting me, so I only had 6 bouts to fence, which was preferable because it meant I had enough bouts to get a high seed but not too many that I would be fencing for a while. My pool was a breeze, though; my closest bout was with my teammate from yesterday, Tom Soulaire whom I bested 5-2. After that, it was smooth sailing for me, winning the rest of my bouts and taking the number two seed after pools. 

After the pools, I had a long break before DEs (direct elimination round) because I had a bye for the first round, and that was the only round we were doing in the morning. After lunch, we started with another warmup and then with DEs. I was able to get all the way to the semi-final round, where I faced Simone and lost. It was a fun bout, however, and he helped me learn what I did wrong and how to improve in the future. 

Overall, the camp was an incredibly enjoyable experience that I would highly recommend to all fencers. There's a perfect mix of strategy, fencing, and fun that is enjoyable for all ages. While I was only able to attend the first week of the two, I encourage all to attend the second week of camp. It is an experience that you will not find at any other club. Thanks for reading, as always, and I will see you all in 2 weeks for the Summer Nationals coverage.