Fencing for Dummies

Fencing Replay

made easy.

Currently the website is one of those "leave a message for more info" ones that leads me to think this tech isn't quite ready for widespread distribution, but it's certainly a step in the right direction.

Life Update

Let's see, it's been a few months since I last posted so there's lots to catch up on.

The condo is nearly done. My little studio/office space needs some shelves and cabinets to organize everything. There's still a couple of walls to paint, but they can wait until the weather gets a little warmer.

The fencing club is plodding along. Looking at the current schedule, I'm not sure when I'll be able to host an Intro class unless it's on a separate day from the rest of practice. Otherwise, I'm pretty proud of what I've got going. A couple of my youth fencers competed at their first tournament in January and another had his best performance while not having actually practiced in a month before the competition.

The demise of Skyline Fencing brought me 3 very dedicated fencers, and one potential youth. My strengthening & conditioning coach works with a couple of the New Trier girls and he will pass my info on to them. Those two things are nice, but not really sustainable growth. To that end, I've decided to take the semester off from classes to increase my availability to teach Intro classes and promote my club elsewhere.

I've been refereeing and will continue to do so for the next month on a pretty regular basis.  I'll be doing some sort of refereeing or traveling nearly every weekend until the end of March. It has shown me that if I REALLY want to grow my club, I'll need to slim down and be more picky about my weekends away refereeing. The exposure is great, but at this point, if I'm cutting into my lesson schedule and taking time away from my students, it may not be worth it.

Other than specific run-downs of events and trips, that's the general catch-up.

Thoughts Post-SYC

Last weekend's Louisville SYC was my first, either as a ref or coach. I have to say that while some of the fencing made me want to cry, I thoroughly enjoyed myself.

A bit more downtime in-between rounds/pools would have been nicer, but the work was pretty easy and considerably less tense than say... a Junior or Division 1 pool.

The venue was carpeted, a nice change from the concrete convention centers. There were a few grounded strips - copper and aluminum - but they were laid out in an odd fashion that didn't immediately make any sense to me. Very often, the "finals" strip was in the back of the room instead of the front.

But, despite a weird layout and a constant flow of bouts with few breaks, I have to say that it was a good time, because the number of people from around the country who came to Louisville a couple of weeks before Christmas to fence was pretty impressive, and what was good for those kids was having some strong national-level refs at the event to give them a taste of what to expect as they grow and fence more nationally. Also, there were a few new referees who attended a seminar and took the written test over the weekend (I'm not sure if a practical was given or not), two of whom are top level Junior women's foil fencers. It's always nice to see new referees coming up from the ranks of fencers.

And it was nice to see kids fencing for the joy of fencing. Too often at National events I go to parents and the kids get wrapped up in points and qualifying for higher level events and teams, etc. These were kids who came to a fencing tournament for the joy of fencing (and to qualify for Nationals...). 

Finally, I was impressed by the number of coaches and parents who thanked me for being there. A number of times through the course of the weekend, a parent would thank me for refereeing their child's bout(s). That's not something you see in either IL or at a national level very often.

Count me in for next year (unless I've got a bunch of kids fencing it)!

Y-12 Men's Epee

First day of competition in Louisville, and I started by floating between two pools in order that they finish faster. Lots of medium to small events today, so it should be a fun first day.

Nationals, part 2.

The last couple of days ended me doing Y-12 Boy's Saber and then a little of a couple of things.

The saber pool went pretty well, I got a compliment from a well-known and respected coach (and former ref who once mentored me). He said I "understand fencing".

However, in the DEs one of his assistants disagreed quite a bit and I know I should have carded him for his disagreement. The call was one of those where "it's only Y-12, you should keep it simple," is not much of a defense when your student makes a BIG mistake and loses a crucial touch because of it.

But other than a few memorable moments, I have no idea what else I did that day. Surely Y-12 Saber wasn't the only thing. I shared a pool of Junior Women's Saber and did 1 DE bout. After the bout, with the final score of 15-7, the coach of the losing fencer walked over and said "I'm sorry you don't understand Right-of-Way." My response was "Thanks, but that's not at all helpful." After that was over, I went to Junior Women's Team Foil to relieve a sick referee. That was interesting, as I'd done saber all day and now had to watch arms and heads twisting and moving. The first couple of calls were tough, but I settled in and found a grove. Once I finished that match, I was released for the day.

The next day (and final day for me), I observed a young lady from Portland, ME (Hi Adam! Her coach and a former teammate of mine) and had fun in Div 3 Men's Foil. I got to ref a few bouts and  then took notes on how she did. That was my second observation this competition. Something that I've only done once before in all my years as a ref. Pretty interesting there. Then I was sent to Girls' Y-12 Saber. Which is still pretty much foil. Although there was one girl in my pool who could actually fence saber. That was also interesting as I got a handshake from a coach from DCFC who just a couple of years ago asked a ref to take his fencer's bouts when we were sharing a pool. Guess I've improved some.

I was then given both a Quarter- and Semi-final bout and apparently didn't suck there either. During the DE rounds one coach was standing about 3 feet from me (so he could the same angle and criticize my calls while still speaking to his fencer), he was screaming at her to move her feet and you could see her fence worse the more he yelled. I looked at him and said "Coach, you're starting to disturb me."

His reponse was a quick "I understand, I'm sorry," and he moved down a bit and stopped yelling and she returned to the actions that were scoring touches.

All-in-all, Nationals was a fun time. Long, and stressful, but fun and I got to see some good fencing (even if I didn't referee much, but that's me not being very active last season).

That pesky U-16 WF bout

That I couldn't remember just now - Quarterfinal - Lee Keifer versus J. Dubrovich.

Another bout where I made a tight call of attack in preparation against the "better" fencer (well, Keifer is clearly the better fencer), and neither the coach nor the fencer liked it. But the fencer clearly knew better and from what I've seen of her fencing she never needed to be in that situation.

I suspect some sort of game ("you can only score X touches using Y action) was going on since she was not actually trying to beat her opponent, more work on something using a huge advantage in the score to pad the practice.

That makes two separate coaches who haven't liked me calling touches against their fencer when they start their lunge with a bent arm instead of using their tip.

Nationals

Since connecting to the wi-fi in the convention center is problematic, at best, it appears there will be no immediate updates to the bouts that I referee. So instead a few words about our sponsor and the competition that I've experienced so far.

First, the Gaylord Texan Resort: frickin' huge and expensive. There's a number of bars and restaurants and all of them are overpriced resort fare, even the Sports Bar. Plus, there's even some interesting decor.

There's a walkway that takes you over the "river" as it winds its way through the atrium, which is topped by the Lone Star of Texas.

A bad angle, I know.  I'll see what I can do about getting a better one.

However, once you've gotten into the convention center, it's a regular ole fencing competition.

There are 61-ish strips (not sure if that includes the platform for the Gold Medal bouts or not) set up.

Now for a moment about me -

On the first day, I referee U-19 Men's Foil first thing in the morning. It had been so long since I'd ref'd that I was a tad bit worried for my first two or three bouts. By the time I'd gotten warmed up and ready to go, half the pool could be over. However, the first two bouts went quite well. It was the second two bouts that didn't go quite so well... I did manage to recover and remember what the tempo was and how to referee foil. Which was good since after lunch, I was switched to Cadet Women's Foil. My pool was really calm and relaxed. I honestly don't' remember how far I went in the Direct Eliminations of either event. I know I did a whole bunch of de bouts (I think), but what, I couldn't tell you (according to my Facebook feed, I did a bout in the Quarterfinal of the Women's Foil.... That's all I know.)

Day 2, I started out in Junior Men's Foil Team and did one match, Northwest Fencing Center versus Mission Fencing. Northwest easily advanced, and then I was switched to Y-12 Men's (Boy's) Foil. I did a pool there and then took half a sheet of of the tableau. Two referees to each sheet and two strips and we cranked it out. I did manage to get a little assistance late in the bracket for a bout so I could refill my water bottle, but otherwise it was crazy.

I was then assigned a bout in the Quaterfinals, which was quite easy. When I went for my handshake (the traditional way to get released for the day, you get the handshake from the Head Referee), I was told I had the Gold Medal bout. That occurred on the raised platform strip and was quite interesting. One of the fencers from my Quarterfinal had advanced and won easily.

Thomas Dudey from Salle Mauro is the 2009 Y-12 Men's Foil champion!

During the bout, his coach thought I missed two calls. I only missed 1. I called one much tighter than he liked and he (as some coaches, I'm finding) disagreed with my version of the events.

Today, was an interesting day - I was an observer for a young gentleman from the club in Birmingham, AL. I suspect that he'll be a fine referee after more practice and work at the Y-14, Cadet level, as he's a Cadet fencer himself. Then, we moved into the DEs and I was assigned a Semi-final bout as well as Assisting with the Gold medal bout (as the refs from the Semis do).

Tomorrow will start with Y-12 Boy's Saber, which is still foil-ish, and then who knows what. My philosophy at these events is to just take whatever scoresheets I'm given and then turn them back in.

On a side note, if the last two days are any indication, I'm never going to get bingo.

Perhaps if I could combine the first couple of days, but the rule stipulate that there is a different bingo scorecard for each day.

Nationals?

already?

My biggest problem with going to Nationals and refereeing is that I almost always haven't ref'd in a couple of months (this year a few  more...). When I get there, I always feel just a little overwhelmed that first pool. This year looks especially exciting since that first pool will be Under-19 Men's Foil (or Y-14 Men's Epee, I'm betting that I'll be assigned to the foil).

Hopefully I survive that enough that I make it to the U-16 Women's Foil in the afternoon.

I hope to have daily (or more frequent) updates on my pools and events as I've been able to do at other tournaments this past season.

An example of how not to referee a bout

The referee in this bout loses total control of the bout by about touch...2. He's checking the replay on simple actions, the fencers are appealing to the video referee left and right. Perhaps because of the situation he's being extra careful about his calls, but it's evident that the fencers aren't buying it.

It's one thing for coaches and spectators to boo calls, another entirely for the fencers to look at each other after calls and shrug or whisper to each other as they pass to go back to their lines. These two are pretty close to that sort of lack of confidence.

Of course, not knowing the referee, he could be just having a bad day or what. He's obviously good enough to be at that bout, but I think the fencers disagree in this particular situation.

And every referee has been in that situation.

Women's Saber finish

UNH beats Chicago 5-2 for 5th place.

Michigan wins a 5-4, 5-4 National Championship. Stony Brook takes the Bronze.