unready

I am really trying to get excited about Nationals this year.

I am going to go. I qualified for Div III, dammit, and I'm not going to avoid the challenge.

I'm just frustrated going in as I don't feel ready.

Part of it is that what I've been working on in lessons with V. are parries and flicks that I've not perfected well enough to take effectively into competition. I'm further hindered by tiring out my shoulder doing assisted pull-ups that even practicing the 2-9 parry is painful, and while I need to practice it I don't want to fsck up my shoulder one week away from the biggest competition of the year.

This, and I think I was looking a little too forward to the possibility of fencing vet (and hence, more than one competition) this year. The rules say no, and while I know veteran fencers are crazy smart/experienced, it would be nice to go up against opponents who don't have a youth/speed/reflex advantage right out of the gate, which is what I'll be seeing in Div III.

So I'm going to try to aim for cool-headed instead of excited.