Woody Cavenaugh

Both my personal brain care specialist and my acupuncturist suggested I take my tubby butt for walkies once in a while. Oddly enough for the same reason to. If I'm expending energy on my muscles I won't spend it multitasking in my head. Both of these specialist believe that most of my personal boogums would be beaten by single threaded thinking.

So, on Monday I planned to take a walk from work to the fencing class I help teach. Difficulty level? It is a 40 minute walk that I only had 30 minutes to take because I was distracted by several different things at once. Were I a smart man I would have realized that the answer to this problem is that the trip takes 40 minutes therefore the right thing to do was to leave ten minutes earlier, or accept that I would be ten minutes late. I didn't think of that though. My first response to the problem was simply to GO FASTER.

Nice. Very freakin' mature huh? So a mile in I hurt from my big toe to my waist and I couldn't seem to make myself slow down either. Or perhaps I was slowing down but it sucked so bad I couldn't tell. At any rate, it was in that place of idiotic agony that I slipped into a place of meditation where I ignored the warning signs of a failing body and focused on what was on my mind at the moment. Fencing.

In the years that I have been involved in fencing I have always stayed near the Divisional helm. Never captain, but always first mate, or at the very least bos'n. I have no desire or qualifications to lead but I have the loyalty to follow the captain all the way to Davey Jones if thats where the wind takes us.

I had during all this time always wondered what was wrong with the good smart people and clubs that ran silent. By that I mean some very good leadership talent was avoiding serving the division and went as far as to actively run away from any division level responsibility.

Now I know. That was the wisdom I found in the burning and shortness of breath. It was so simple and so obvious and I think I may have picked up my pace a little as punishment for not having though of it earlier.

Fencers by our very nature are unique and precious snowflakes no two alike. Our sport is a western martial art. It evolved from two people getting a sword, and one leaving in a box. The simple wisdom that came so late to me is that trying to be organized at a divisional level is taking on the job of cat herder. If there are ten fencers there are ten certain ways to get a single thing done and no one's budging from their plan. All of the others gave it a go, and quickly realized that they couldn't get their way even though it was so obvious that they were right. So those people shifted their focus to their own clubs which had been languishing because of the amount of energy they were throwing away trying to make the other clubs in the division see things their way. Their clubs, their membership rosters, and their level of competitive skill climbed immediately.

Then I thought about my own club. We are down two leaders; one, our matriarch, retired, the other lost interest in the sport due to issues in her personal life. Since they left our membership list shrank, our competitive list dropped to just two, and the remaining leadership were all hands on deck helping set up, run and tear down division events.

So what we really need to do is focus on our own club first and be there for the division if they need equipment or space to hold an event. *facepalm* The epiphany hits like a two ton heavy thing.

And like a reward from the cosmos itself, right at that moment, Cameron pulled up offering me a ride for the final third of the way to class.

Posted by at 7:44 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Did you ever have one of those days where everything was absolutely perfect? I mean, the weather was perfect. The sun was rising in the most pleasing way, the grass was green, the trees were budding, the MP3 player is playing all my favorite songs. My coffee was extra delicious. It was like driving through heaven. That described my trip to Burlington where I was helping run the desk for the 2008 NC Division II/III national fencing qualifiers.

Then I arrived.

The arrival wasn't all that bad really, I carried my gear in and began to set up. Ten minutes later I realized that my computer...the one I use to run fencing tournaments...like the 2008 NC Division II/III national fencing qualifiers...was at home. I had brought the printer, I had brought all the accessories, but no computer. Opening my mind to all potential I called Mario to download the software on his computer while I told Cameron that I may have to make the hour and ten minute round trip back home to get my machine. Mario got the software but it took 24 hours to get the license key to run large tournaments. Damn. I made the drive home in just under 30 minutes, and yes, I may have played a little fast and loose with the posted speed limit. But to my credit, I was alone on the road so I wasn't endangering anyone but myself.

I may have mentioned in the past that I am Karma's bitch. Today was no different. I got the computer, turned around and watched the sun disappear behind dark clouds. A cold wind filled with the smell of rain hit me full in the face. I took off back in the direction of the venue and noted my low fuel light had come on. I had plenty of time to ponder this since I was the fifth car behind a loaded dump truck on a quiet country road. I couldn't pass for many reasons. The number of cars, the short and non-existent passing zones, the fact that my fuel level was low enough that if I went for full burn I'd probably slosh the gas to the back end of tank and stall. Don't forget the whole "do no harm" clause. And then I had to stop for gas. *sigh*

Close of registration for the first event was 9am. It wasn't until 9:05 that I got registration underway. I was not a merry man. All the joy of the first trip out was destroyed with interest and all I could do was try to be civil.

Fencing tournaments run like this. At the close of registration, a seeding chart is posted showing all registered fencers and their current rating. It is the fencer's responsibility to check the seeding chart to verify that their information is correct. If it is wrong, they come up to the registration table and make the correction. There is no penalty, a new chart is posted and we keep rocking on. This is extremely important with regard to the fencer's rating. This makes sure that all the pools are evenly weighted for fairness. Normal window of opportunity is ten minutes.

Someone in the saber event didn't know to check. I know this because his brother didn't check either. I know this because their coach noticed and brought it to our attention- after fencing began. Once the event begins, it isn't exactly easy to stop it. It requires assembling the bout committee discussing the situation and making the call. Since one of the kids who didn't check was entered as a unrated when he was actually rated a "D", stopping was the right decision to make. Where I took personal exception was were I felt that some forces were blame storming in my direction. We do check as best as we can when the fencers are checking in but it is the fencer's responsibility to (a). know what they are rated, and (b). check to make sure it is right. I think the fencer should be penalized for not checking. Other's think it is the check in desk staff's responsibility to check the registration against the latest USFA membership roster. This is cool when the turn out is low and everything is on time, but if there is a huge turnout or some other time crushing event occurs you have two choices, on time or late.

Sunday I took this tactic. The fencer checks in, I ask them to verify their rating. Once we are ready to start the event we will check the list against the national roster and quietly note where the fencer was mistaken. Then we will post the seeding and call them to check. If they don't fix it I will publicly humiliate them. A lot. Repeatedly.

Sunday started exactly the same way as Saturday did. Perfect day, perfect weather, perfect music, perfect cup of coffee. And the computer was in the car. This means that I can really savor and enjoy the humiliation, and not just do it out of spite. It will be a good day.

And it was a good day. All fencers checked, everything ran just the way it was expected and no one had a bad time. I'd call that a win. Even if our club did have two of our plastic expensive "Fencing Tournament" outdoor signs stolen. On the plus side, they are easy to spot and I am perfectly capable of stealing them back.

Posted by at 8:38 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

With the title alone, I am sure that a great number of sword wielding individuals are loosening up their flame fingers as you read this, so I'd better get to the point right away and capitalize on my second intention. For the last several years fencing clubs and the USFA as a whole has had a marvelous period of membership growth that lead to larger better competitions, better fencers, and a stronger international national program.

Recently clubs and the USFA have begun to notice a decline in the growth rate. In some clubs its turned into a run away shrink rate. I am going to tell you why. Some of you may have already figured it out. For some of you it will be a surprise, not because it is some deep dark secret, its simply because you have never thought of it from this angle.

It has nothing to do with the price of membership.
It has nothing to do with rules changes.
It has nothing to do with rating systems, sportsmanship, or the price of gear.

It has to do with the movies.

Compare a list of the membership numbers for the past ten years with a list of the top grossing movies of the last ten years. You will find a spike that coincides with Olympic years and you will see increases that coincide with the release of each installment of The Lord of the Rings, Harry Potter, and Pirates of the Caribbean, Star Wars. The unwitting secret of our recent successes has been adventure movies. Now that we have no movies with swords, we've lost the wind in our free publicity sails.

Now we have two choices, we can go out and get some swashbuckling movies made, which is possible with our diverse talent pool, or we can bite the bullet and actually market our sport at the level where people will see it. Clearly one of these is cheaper and easier than the other, but if you are the gambling sort you can surely see the appeal of the other. Plus, hey if nothing else we have more movies with swords to go see with our club mates.

Posted by at 8:15 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

First some background. Downtown Fencing Club at the Downtown YWCA in Greensboro was created by Dr. Sally Robinson as an outreach program to bring the sport of fencing to what she referred to as "all zip codes". Since the start of the club in 1998 the club has grown by leaps and bounds in, number of students, number of instructors, quality of instruction, quality and quantity of equipment.

We have reached a critical mass, and to use a more geeky term, we are "ready to level up". We have reached a critical mass and are ready to grow and expand. The goal as I see it is to keep up the same quality of fencing instruction at the same low price as always, at our core we are and forever will be an outreach program at our heart as part of the YWCA's mission. It is now also time for us to expand our focus, by taking those students with the talent, and desire to the next level competitively. This of course will require two key ingredients, coaches with the talent and skill necessary to take the student to the next level competitively, and students willing and able to pay for that privilage.

Of course, because of our history and background, we would be able to help "sponsor" students with the desire and the talent, who may not have the bank account to pay for the very valuable instructors. What remains for us as our one year goal is two fold:
First - Make sure we have capital to pay for the elite level coaches.
Second - Make sure that we have a system in place to keep from leaving any less fortunate students behind.

My model? The Peter Westbrook Foundation

Of course, I am not the spokesperson for the YWCA or even the Downtown Fencing Club. I am just one coach among many, and I'd like to see the students we teach go farther and be better than we can make them now.

Posted by at 3:04 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

A ticker tape parade was held Friday night celebrating the welcome demise of a wicked despot who reveled in the tears of women and children. His three years of rule left behind it a wake of painful bruises, torture, and general, evil laughs.

The dashing masked hero who liberated us was unavailable for comment. The dark deed done he rode quickly and silently into the sunset. No doubt already seeking out the weak and oppressed in other far away lands, that he might liberate them as well.

Posted by at 9:43 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

To find the saber fencers in the room look for those who most resemble baked potatoes. They wear lamé's like foil fencers, but instead of just a vest, they wear a full long sleeved jacket, with a shiny conductive mask. Everything from the waist up of the saber fencer is target with the exception of the off weapon hand. All that shiny makes saber the most expensive of the weapons to compete in (and most hot). Yet for all of that extra non-breathing clothing, saber is by far the fastest of the three weapons. The first touch is usually scored in the first second of play and time almost never expires before the match ends. Often in fact, they don't even keep time.

The saber fencers creed is strike first, and strike fast. They do not however have to strike hard. Any portion of the blade can score a touch and any contact is all that is necessary to so so. There is no white off target light. It is either on target or not at all. With the speeds involved in saber actions seldom progress farther than the counter-riposte. There is also more theater in saber. With the speeds such as they are, saber fencers tend to use bravado in order to help sway the referee. So in saber, you might see two lights, and two fencers in simultaneous fist pumping action. Thus referees in saber have to be both good and unflappable. Saber fencers can smell weakness in a referee and they will exploit every weakness they can. These truths aside, saber can be the most difficult to watch as a spectator. Referee says fence, two fencers throw themselves bodily at one another and mug for the referee. Two lights, then the referee rewards a touch or not (they have the power to throw it out when they can't determine right-of-way), and the fencers do it all over again.

The rule makers have tried to slow it down as best they can. They have shortened the lockout on the scoring box to help eliminate the double touch, leading to continuations getting the light while the riposte is locked out. They have also changed it back and forth from shorter to longer trying to find that perfect timing. They also eliminated a piece of footwork that helps fencers cover a lot of ground in a hurry. The footwork called the "fléche" (French for "arrow") is performed by essentially throwing yourself at your opponent. The key is crossing your back foot over your front foot and running at the other guy. The rule makers have stated that it is now illegal to cross one foot in front of the other. The upside is it has slowed down saber into sub light speeds. The downside is that now fencers whose feet even come close together are often called "crossing over". While eliminating the crossover helped, fencers are quick adapters, and have found a way to hop on one foot at one another really fast. This innovative piece of footwork is called the "flunge" and means absolutely nothing in any language. Say that in front of a group of saber fencers and they will argue for hours over whether or not the word is what you get when you mate "fléche with lunge", or "flying with lunging". Either way, it is entertaining to watch them argue, try it sometime.

Posted by at 8:33 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Now that we have a passing understanding of the concept of right-of-way, lets put it in the context of foil. Foil was modeled after the court sword of ages past. It is practice for killing duels. The method of attack is point only, the valid target area is the torso of the body, crotch to neck, and shoulder to shoulder, front and back. Fencers dressed for foil will wear all of the usual protective equipment plus a metallic vest. The vest is wired into the circuit by the body cord.

One of the body cord's wires has an alligator clip which you will see often clipped at the bottom of the metallic vest (called a lamé), either in the back, or in the front under the weapon arm. One would think that you would want something like that in the back out of the way, however, fencers are historically really good cheaters. When there was no ruling on where the clip would be, most fencers put it the back out of the way. Clever fencers would during the lunge, use their off weapon hand (the one not in a glove) to unclip themselves, for the attack, then reclip themselves on the recovery. The reason was, that any hit the opponent made would appear off target.

Rule makers always trying to keep up with cheaters created the rule that the clip should be in the front, under the weapon arm. They will allow it in the back also so long as it is forward of the center line of the lame. I'll talk more about cheating in another chapter.

Foil, like epee is a point weapon. Foil, like Saber is a right-of-way weapon. Because of this, traditional schools start all students in foil first. Historically, everyone started with foil. Boys and men were split between the three weapons based on their size, and speed. Women stayed with foil because the other weapons were too heavy, or brutal for their frail feminine frames. (Ha!) Today male or female can fence anything they want. If a coach steers them in one direction or the other it will be for two reason. First because the coach specializes in one weapon (when all you have is a hammer, everything looks like a nail). Second the coach has figured out how the student thinks and steers them toward the weapon that is more fitting to their personality.

A foil fencer is balanced and tactically minded. They are chess players, even if they don't play chess. A good foil fencer is thinking three steps ahead of their opponent as well as their own actions. When they open with the attack, they are (or should be) thinking about their own counter-riposte.

As foil is a point weapon, attacks lead with the point, typically strait in. Even when they are disengaging, cutting over, or coming back on target, the point leads. One of the arguable exceptions to this is the flick attack. The flick attack changes things but only to a degree. In a normal attack the point leads the weapon in a relatively strait and forward line. In the flick, the point travels in an arch more like a whip than an arrow. However, at the point of impact, the point is still strait on target, even if its path was arcing to get there. Of course, if it is done wrong, the person getting hit by it doesn't get a point against them, they get a bruise. The flick is a more advanced attack that fails more often than it succeeds, and the rule makers are striving find ways to limit its use for the sake of the game. If you want to attack with an arc, you would have fenced saber to begin with.

Foil requires 500 grams of pressure to score a touch on valid target. Valid target is the shiny part. A hit anywhere else scores an off target hit, which is signified by a white light on the scoring box. A white light stops the action, but doesn't give the fencer a touch. Only foil offers the "off target hit". The referee calls right-of-way just like they always did, if fencer"A" has right-of-way and hits off target, the action stops there, no touch is awarded and the fencers begin again from wherever they were halted. The referee will signify "center is here", the fencers line up extension distance from that line wherever it might be.

Posted by at 8:32 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

The most difficult part of watching foil and saber is dealing with the concept of "right of way". In principal it is very simple. Foil and Saber are modeled after dueling to the death. The target area is limited to places where you could die if run through in that location. For instance, torso where we keep our vital organs, and in saber head where we keep our brain, and arms which are prone to being loped off. The idea is that if two armed combatants came at one another with sharpened steal for truth and justice, one would attack, the other, (that one not wanting to die) would defend themselves (parry), then strike out on an attack of their own (riposte). The overriding goal is I kill you, you die, I go home alive with a cute woman (or man) on my arm.

If combatant "A" attacked combatant "B", and "B" did nothing but attack right back, then when the dust settled, both would be dead, but one of them would have been a bigger fool for not defending himself. Right-of-way attempts to reward the smart (with a point), while punishing the not so smart (no touch).

But modern right-of-way weapons are not lethal, and we've gone out of our ways to protect the fencer from accidents with the hot white clothing and blades that bend. In a modern bout you might see fencer "A" "have at" fencer "B", while fencer "B" goes back at fencer "A". As the spectator you see both fencers get hit, and the box indicates a double touch, yet the referee only gives fencer "A" a point. You and everyone around you saw the other light go off too, and if you were looking closely, it might have even gone off first. The referee is applying the rules of right of way, "A" attacked first, "B" didn't defend. Both hit, "A" was the attacker, and hit on target, both got a light, but only the attacker "A" got a point.

Both the federation of international fencing, called the FIE (Federation International Escreme, the world fencing org's official language is French), and the USFA (The United States Fencing Association) are constantly trying to do things to make the right of way weapons more understandable to the at home audience. Most of these attempts deal with the timing between the hit fencer "A" landed and the hit fencer "B" landed. The problem is this. If "A" starts first, he/she has right of way, but if fencer "B" lands first, their light goes off first. If the lockout timing on the box is too short the box shows fencer "B" having the only hit. If the lockout timing is long enough to acknowledge the slower attack, you have a bunch of double touches. Most people who have been fencing for a long time bemoan the new rules as watering down the right of way weapons into epee. While they are right in a sense, they aren't offering up any solutions to how to make the right of way weapons easier to watch by the non-fencers at home or in the stands. What seems to work best (for TV anyway) is the slow instant replay where the announcer can break down the actions showing right of way as they go. This is nothing more than wishful thinking when you are watching it live. Live you have to first listen to the referee's replay of the last action, and second also most important take his word for it. That is really the hardest part. The referee is only human and what you see might not be what they saw, worse yet, they might actually be wrong. However they are the referee and cannot be "wrong". Therefore a smart fencer is paying attention to the referee's calls. If the referee isn't seeing what the fencer thinks they are doing, they are responsible for trying something else. After the bout, the fencers, fans, etc can cry moan and complain about the blind referee. If the referee's reputation gets bad enough in the right circles, they will find themselves doing less and less refereeing. Refereeing is as political a game as being a Supreme Court Judge, only without the pay or real authority.

Now, to try and spot the right of way yourself. Look for the fencer whose weapon is moving forward threatening valid target first. The difficulty level is this it is independent of the body's movement. You can be on the attack and still be moving backwards. It takes training of the eye to see what is the attack and what isn't. It might have been easier if the blades started from some place of stillness, but no, that would be too easy, the weapons are waving all through the air in every direction fencers are moving up and down the strip and through it all you have to be able to notice the moment one of the fencer's weapons moves forward threatening valid target. But wait! There's more, I didn't even mention how the other fencer is reacting! Did they counterattack? Did they defend themselves? To see it, and get it, you have to break it down like you used to break down sentences in school.
Fencer "A" attacks, fencer "B" counterattacks. Two lights go off. Fencer "A" has the attack, because they initiated the attack. Point "A".

Fencer "A" attacks, fencer "B" uses their blade to parry the attack, and they immediately reposted. Fencer "A" had the attack, fencer "B" took it away when they parried, their immediate riposte gave them right-of-way, one hit, one light for "B", point "B".

Fencer "A" attacks, fencer "B" uses their blade to parry the attack, and they immediately reposted, fencer "A" continues in and hits anyway. Fencer "A" had the attack, fencer "B" took it away when they parried, their immediate riposte gave them right-of-way. There are two lights, because both fencers hit, but we can pretty much ignore fencer "A" continuation because fencer "B" had right of way, and fencer "B" hit. Point "B".

Fencer "A" attacks, fencer "B" uses their blade to parry the attack, and they immediately reposted but misses, fencer "A" continues in and hits anyway. Fencer "A" had the attack, fencer "B" took it away when they parried, their immediate riposte gave them right-of-way. But there is only one light because "B" missed. Since only "A" hit, "A" gets the touch.

Does your head hurt yet? Just wait!

Fencer "A" attacks, fencer "B" uses their blade to parry the attack, they immediately reposted but, fencer "A" parries back and counter riposte. Fencer "A" had the attack, fencer "B" took it away when they parried, their immediate riposte gave them right-of-way, but fencer "A" parried them taking right-of-way back. Fencer "A"'counter riposte misses, fencer "B"s continuation misses, Fencer "A" pulls back and tries again with a remise. Fencer "B" pulls back and tries again with a remise. Both hit. Before you go get two aspirin, the breakdown isn't all that bad. "A" had it and lost it. "B" had it and lost it. "A" had it and missed. "B" had it and missed. "A" tried again and hit. "B" tried again and hit. "A" gets the touch.

Don't forget, to take a full eight ounces of water with your headache remedy. While you're away, think about the poor referee who has to keep up with all that all day long during a tournament.

In an oversimplified way then, right-of-way is like taking turns, the difference is that instead of giving someone their turn, you are taking it from them. So foil and saber fencing is a lot like pre-school, only you are encouraged not to share, and no one gets nap time.

Posted by at 11:28 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Saturday the 14th Salle New Bern hosted a Bastille Day fencing event in a beautiful park on the Neuse river. Those of you who remember me and heat related illness, remember that my heat management is awful. Or to put it in geekier terms, I have a single heat sink in my head, where I really need two double clan heat sinks in my legs. Should Woody 2.0 ever go into production, you can be sure this will be a design change for the better (so long as the engine, weapons, and armor budget holds out).

Honestly, I probably wouldn't have even tried to fence in this tournament, but my parents live so close to the event, and they have never seen me fence before. I set mom and dad up under a canopy, gave dad my camera and tripod and let them have their own experience with my world.

In my pools I won two and lost two. My first bout was against the tournament's only "C" rated fencer. It was two bouts later, watching him fence I realize that he was left handed. Bummer.
If you are interested, here are all of my results in this tournament.

Heat management in the morning was well, I had been super hydrating over the previous week and I literally sloshed when I walked. I was sweating well, I had plenty to drink, and the breeze from the Neuse was very cooling. After pools, I stripped down and cooled in preparation for the results and direct elimination. I came out of pools 7th out of 20, which is right where I like to be, and I got a bye in the first round. My first direct elimination bout was against as our luck always has it a fencer from my own club. It never fails. I ended up against Jim who came out of pools 10th. Jim started with my club but has moved on to get extra instruction from one of the local Maestros. What this translates into is Jim can take my lunch money on the strip any time and any place he chooses. It is a good thing. I don't get better if I don't have to be better, know what I mean. Plus as he puts it, as one of his first coaches, even if I lose against him, I win as a coach. Nice. :)

The first thing I noticed in pools was he was holding back and playing it safe. Against a better fencer this is a good idea, against me, it is a strange decision. All of his hits were within a three inch circle on the right side of my chest next to my shoulder joint. All of my touches were on random places from his hand to his shoulder, except for two hail Mary's on center mass. The score stayed close, and once or twice I even managed to tie up the score. The end result was he ended the match with a double touch 13-15, and my day was done. At first I wondered why he was holding back so much letting the score stay so close. It was a dangerous ploy as accidents do happen, and I might have gotten some surprise touches using the Daffy Duck effect. I had hoped he was simply conserving energy for his next bout, which is very smart. It was only later it dawned on me that he was keeping it close on purpose so my parents would get a good show. That was mighty thoughtful of him. I think I might owe him a beer for that.

After fencing I went off to dress down in the restroom. While there, I suddenly went from heat condition nominal to heat condition high. I don't know why exactly for at that particular moment I was wearing only my undies and a moisture wicking shirt. Either way, I got my shorts and shoes on in a hurry and got back out in the breeze. I knew there was a heat problem because suddenly my head starts pounding, my face gets very flush, and all the heat tries to dissipate out of my head, but there simply isn't enough surface area to do it effectively.

On the way back to the shade of the camp and the care of my "personal health care specialist". I ran into a school mate from elementary school and her children. When I found out that there was a fencing event in New Bern, I invited her to bring her kids so they could see fencing. It isn't like they can exactly watch it on ESPN's sport center. As I was finished fencing I was able to stand with them and talk about what they were seeing. I think it was educational, I don't know that they are clamoring to sign up, but at least they won't ever have to say, "What the heck are they doing?" <-- Someone asked my mother that exact question earlier in the day.

Of course there are pictures...

Bastille Day

Posted by at 10:18 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

In Part One we discussed the generals of a fencing tournament. In part two we are going to talk about one style of fencing and the trials and tribulations of trying to watch it.

Swords for dummies. Or as we like to say in fencing "Epee". Yep, that word that keeps turning up in the crossword puzzles is the easiest of the three weapons to watch. We like to say that all you need to referee epee is thumbs (to use the timer). Then we spend the better part of a half hour likening which ever epee referee is closest to a certain simian president.

The epee while visually the largest and most imposing of the weapons, in reality it is analogous to the least deadly form of dueling. It is modeled after rapier dueling to first blood. The epee is about a meter long and weights about a pound. It takes 750 grams of pressure to push the button on the tip and score. While it does require the hardest hit of the three weapons, it still isn't all that much, yet bruising may occur, and will be about the size of a quarter. The width of the blade and the largeness of the bell guard makes it appear much larger and heavier than it actually is. The extra large bell guard is there to protect the weapons hand which is valid target in epee.

In epee, everything is valid target. From the top of the head, to the bottom of the foot, hit it first and you get a point. Hit it at the same time your opponent hits you, and you get a point. The only way not to get a point in epee is to hit last, or miss entirely. For this reason, a good epee fencer will attempt to hit what is closest to them and if they miss, they try to hit the next thing down the line, hand, wrist, elbow, bicep, shoulder, knee, chest, head, foot, back shoulder, back arm, back wrist, back hand and so on. All you have to do is hit them before they hit you.

In watching the bouts among epee fencers. You will notice that the fencers are generally patient and will more likely counter attack than attack. They want their opponent's closest target as close to them as possible without giving anything up. When a fencer attacks they are bringing their weapon arm closer to their opponent, and thus, bring their target closer. The referee is watching for rule breaking and stepping off of the strip. The modern scoring box stops the clock and advances the score with each hit, meaning the referee only needs to press "start" on the remote when they say "fence". With older scoring boxes, they would still prefer to use a timer and scoring person to keep up with the stop watch and clip board. The only lights seen are red and green, each signifies a point to one fencer or the other.

Epee bouts tend to last a while, and it is not unheard of in epee for time to run out before either fencer reaches the number of touches necessary to win the bout. In the case of a tie, the referee flips a coin. The winner of the coin toss has what is called "priority". They then fence for a minute, if no one scores in that minute, the one with priority wins the bout. During regulation time it is possible to get a double touch, where each fencer hits at the same time, and both get a point. The only exceptions to this are in the case of a tie, or during the priority minute. In those cases a single touch by one fencer is necessary to win.

The best hits in epee are those that you don't see. These hits are quick and precise hits to the bottom of the hand and wrist that don't appear at fencing speed to have hit anything, yet the light does not lie.

The truth is the light does lie. The bell guard of each weapon is wired into the system such that hits to the bell guard won't cause a touch to be scored unless, there is rust, tape, finger nail polish, etc to keep the tip from making electrical contact with the bell. Meanwhile, the floor can be a problem. The wiring of the epee allows for a touch to be scored anytime the tip is depressed unless it is pushed against something that is wired into the circuit. At high level tournaments the epee fencers fence on metallic surfaces that are wired to the score box. A hit to the floor in these circumstances would not cause the light to signal a touch. At most tournaments, the hosts cannot afford to buy the metallic fencing surfaces so the referees are counted on to throw out any touches that are accidentally scored against the floor. A smart fencer won't try to make toe touches in these circumstances. An unethical fencer will because it is possible they could bluff their way into a free touch. Often at lower level tournaments the you may hear the fencers call "floor" after a touch, either to say that they hit the floor or to say their opponent did. Fencers may request, and referees may assign "floor judges". These are usually two people who have agreed to stand at each end of the strip and watch for errant hits against the floor, tables, chairs, bystanders, etc.

To find the epee in a room, look for the fencers who are wearing their fencing whites with no extra equipment like shiny vest, jackets, or masks. They will be the ones who look the most comfortable and relaxed.

Posted by at 12:55 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Walking into a fencing tournament for the first time can be very daunting, especially for spectators. With ball sports you have certain expectations. You sit here, that team all wears the same color and are over there, the other team wears a completely different color and they are opposite the first team. All you really have to do is watch the ball, glance at the scoreboard, and listen to the announcer. Fencing is almost exactly like that, except for the fact that it isn’t. You won’t know for sure where to sit, everyone is wearing white, some are wearing iridescent vest while others are wearing iridescent jackets. There is no announcer, and if there is a scoreboard at all, the whole thing is about eight inches tall by twenty inches wide, and they are scattered all over the place. This document will hopefully explain enough to allow you to follow along without burying you in the history, trivia, and vocabulary that you are probably constantly surrounded by already by knowing a fencer to begin with.

Part One: The Basics
Seating for ball sports is easy, you sit up in the stands to the left and the right of the action looking down on the playing field. The best seats are in the middle, and they cost the most. The good news is that in America, watching a fencing tournament is completely free. The bad news is that you will most likely need to bring your own chair, and figure out for yourself where to sit where you can watch a strip without being in the way. You cannot sit between strips. Strips are typically setup with two close together, with a largish space on either side. The scoring boxes will go in the narrow space and the referees get the big open spaces. You may not walk between the referee and their strip. With the larger space often so small that the referees have to stand back to back to work there is no way to get a “good seat” at most tournaments. To make matters worse, what space is left over will likely be taken up by the fencers themselves, and their long bags, coolers, other bags, and personal chairs (assuming the fencer isn’t laying out flat on the floor between bouts). Apart from that there are no hard and fast rules about finding a place to sit. Fencing tournaments held in basketball gyms have bleachers, however if the bleachers are the kind that can be pushed against the wall, tournament organizers will often do it to increase the space available for fencing strips themselves.

The fencing strip (also known as a piste) is 14 meters long and around 2 meters wide. It is divided with a minimum of four lines. The “en guard” lines are each 2 meters from the center of the strip and fencing starts here at the beginning of each bout and after each point scored. 1.5 meters from the end of each strip is a line defining a box (often with an “X” in it). This is called the warning box. The warning is that you are about to back off the end of the strip. If you see a fencer step off of the end of the strip, it is handled much like a safety in football. The person is penalized by leaving the rear edge of the playing area by a point being awarded to the other. Both feet must leave the end of the strip before they are out of bounds. There is also a penalty for leaving the side of the strip. This penalty is the loss of one meter by the offending fencer. If you step off of the side of the strip in the warning box, you are very likely going to find yourself losing a meter right off of the back of the strip. This is the same penalty as walking off of it on your own power.

Each strip has a scoring box which at the most basic has four large lights and a couple of small lights. The major lights will be red, green, and two clear ones. The minor ones will be yellow. Each side of the box will have a colored light, a clear light, and a little yellow light. At the most fancy, the box will have those lights, plus a score board, a timer, and a few small red lights that keep up with penalties, priority, and other like things that won’t be nearly as important to you as it is to the fencer.
Each strip will also have a referee and if he or she is very lucky a scorekeeper as well. At a low level event the fencers may have to take turns refereeing. At good low level events the referee is wearing street cloths because they aren’t also fencing. At a good event, the referees will be wearing navy blue blazers. The referee determines who is awarded the touch and administers penalties as needed.

The fencers when called to the strip will first hook themselves into the scoring system, this is the long spring loaded cord that connects them to the scoring box. As they move the spring in the reel takes up the slack so they don’t trip over the cord should they suddenly run backwards. The next thing the fencers will do is wait to have their weapon inspected by the referee. If it is their first bout the referee may check to make sure that their equipment has all the proper inspection marks and that they are wearing it. They make sure that there is a clip to keep the body cord plugged into the socket. In epee and foil they check to make sure the weapon’s tip can support the required weight, in epee they make sure that the tip passes a “shim test”. If the weapon fails any of these various test, it is confiscated for the duration of the bout, and the fencer has to get their backup weapon. The USFA rule book requires that each fencer bring to strip two body cords, and two weapons. In practicality, you will see fencers bring several body cords and as many weapons as they can afford/carry.

In a tournament only two fencers can fence on a strip at one time, so event organizers have as many strips set up as they have room for. In a small space this may be only three strips. They might only have one event going on at once and if they have a good turn out there may be upwards of 40 fencers all waiting to fence. That is a lot of people milling around in a small space with three scoring boxes beeping and lighting up all at once. At Division II/III summer nationals in Miami in 2007, there were 96 strips and 4500 fencers. If only two fencer can fence on a strip at any given time and there are 96 strips than there are only 192 fencers fencing at any given time. For this reason Summer Nationals is a ten day event. The noise of 96 beeping boxes, the flashing of cameras, 96 boxes, and the milling around of that many people make large events almost overwhelming for the most seasoned veterans. For this reason and several others a system of hand signals is used by the referees to make calls and award points.

Most tournaments follow a similar format with one set of “pools” followed by direct elimination. Other sports have pools too, but they have another name for it. They call it “a season”, and it usually takes months. As fencers sign up they declare their rankings which determine an estimate of their skill level. Most fencers are unrated. The next highest rating is “E”, then “D”, then “C”, then “B” and finally “A”. Event organizers will look at the number of fencers they have, the number of available strips they have and create a number of pools where the size and strength of skill level are roughly equal. Each fencer has to fence every other fencer in their pool in five touch bouts (or three minutes which ever comes first). Once finished, the organizers will count up for each fencer, how many wins, how many losses, how many touches scored, how many touches received and finally indicator. The indicator is the number of touches scored, minus the number of touches received. This number could be positive or negative, positive being better. Once done with this for each pool they will go to each pool and compare the fencers with the most wins. The person with the most wins is first, when there are pools where the winner in each had the same number of wins, they look next to indicators. The fencer with the most wins and the highest indicator is in first place. They then go down the list, first by wins, and second by indicators until everyone has a place from first to last. Sometimes two fencers will have the same number of wins, same indicator, same number of touches scored, and finally same number of touches received. When this happens, there is nothing else to do but make them tied. That place will have a “T” beside it to show that it is tied, and they will skip the next lowest place number. For instance. 1st, 2nd, 3rdT, 3rdT, 5th etc.

Once this grand total of the results is figured out, they can then place the fencers on a direct elimination tableau just like you see in all of the other sports out there. The tableau comes in different sizes to fit your needs. Organizers use the tableau that holds everyone. If there are 8 a tableau of 8 is used. If there are 9, a tableau of 12 has to be used. Everyone has their place on the tableau, and the first place will fence against the last place on the tableau. In the example of 8, the number 1 fencer would fence the number 8 fencer. If there are nine fencers they have to use the 12 tableau, so the first three places get a “bye” and don’t have to fence the first round at all. The reward of placing high is fencing easy bouts. The penalty for placing low is having to fence someone much better than you. The bouts to watch in the first rounds are those in the middle because the fencers there are evenly matched and thus the fencing is exciting to watch and there is no clear winner going in. All direct elimination bouts are to 15 touches. The format is three - three minute periods of fencing, with a one minute break between each. If the bout is going very quickly and one fencer reaches 8 before the end of the first period, the referee will often allow a one minute break. (Usually as an opportunity for the losing fencer’s coach to impart some much needed wisdom.) Note, a single person may approach the fencer to bring them water and a pep talk, but no more than one may come to visit.

Stay tuned for part two in the series "How to Watch Fencing: The Weapons"

Posted by at 4:10 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Yesterday we held our first ever, "No Reason" club social and tournament. It is an opportunity for fencers of all classes to get together, meet, mingle, and fence one another. The way "no reason" works is this. You roll dice, in this case, a giant wooden D4 created by our own talented Jim, and to his credit, he did not weight them in his favor. On the face of the dice are written either "foil" , "epee", or "saber". What you roll is what you fence.

The amazing social aspect of all this is that often times a student might roll something they have never fenced before. When that happens we dress them up, show them how to hold the weapon, give them a brief rundown of the rules and just let them go for it. They have fun trying something new, and it is just as likely their opponent is at a disadvantage as well.

We ran repercharge, which is a fancy fencing word for double elimination. The top finishers won a little pirate or ninja rubber ducky. Afterwards we all went to the park and had a really nice covered dish dinner.

The only little issue the whole day was that going into the event I knew that our club didn't have a saber lame in my size. There are several good reasons for it. For instance, I have no business competing in saber with my heat management issues. I should instead of expecting the club to buy me a lame, choose to lose enough weight to fit into the size 48 lame we have. So, knowing about the lame thing I made a fair proclamation, anyone who rolled saber and was fencing me got an automatic win. A few stated that if that happened they would just re-roll, they wanted to fence. Most of them were excited about the 33% chance of winning a bout without fencing it.

Lots of saber was fenced yesterday, but no one rolled saber against me. I came out second in pools, and won the tournament defeating Trevor in epee. The truth is, I needed that win. It was for fun, it was with friends, but I had never actually won before and it was a good safe place to see what that felt like.

What does it feel like? It feels like sore muscles, tiredness, and bruising, (even on my back). But the little pirate ducky is cute. I also learned something very important about myself. Yes infact the uniform does make me look fat...damn it. (even though I got the touch)

Posted by at 9:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

This may take some explaining.
There is this guy called Zefrank, who did this thing called The Show with ZeFrank which was a year long vlog project that was so amazing that he got a huge following of people who loved him and his work.

He started many projects of which the world could join and contribute and one of his projects is called "the ORG". The ORG is a place where people can get together and work collaboratively on stuff, share stuff they have made, and generally connect with humanity. The ORG has what are called "Packs", which are groups of people with a similar interest. We have created the pack Magnum Duckie Escrime which is open to all fencers or those interested in the sport of fencing.

Why not? It doesn't cost anything.

Posted by at 10:19 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

After fencing on Sunday, and again I wasn't going for the gold or anything, I went out to have some fun, get some exercise and hang out with friends. I was completely successful on all counts. However, Monday all day I felt like I had fenced and then walked home from Raleigh. I was exhausted, my muscles were exhausted and recovery wasn't on anyone's radar.

By the end of the day I was more than a little worried about being able to do anything at all in my foil class. Mario was back but he had been out a week sick and I didn't know what condition I would find him in. It seems to me in situations there is only ever one thing that will do. Protein!!! And as much as I can hold.

So just before leaving for foil, I ate an order of chicken wings, and an order of General Tso's chicken (no rice please, I'm trying to quit). I scarfed the food down before I was really aware I was eating, it was disappointing to see it gone. The effect however was almost as good as the effect spinach has on Popeye. I got to class, dealt with the biological issues associated with suddenly having battered deep fried chicken in a fat and sodium laden sauce, and commenced to fence some pretty decent foil. It was a good night.

Now today, I feel like the Monday after should have felt. The lesson I have learned is this. The meal I eat after a fencing tournament should be meat. Not a sprinkle of meat on a salad. Salad? I must have lost my freakin' mind. Clearly I had forgotten the Omnivore's Creed, and it won't happen again. Balance in all things, measured by weight, not by volume.

Posted by at 8:55 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Man I'm tired.

I have no idea why, sure I competed yesterday, but I didn't fence all that hard. I went to a tournament that was rated "A2". Of the 29 people fencing all were rated but 10. I was of that 10. Therefore, I had no expectations to kick butt and take names, so I could relax, focus on the fun part of fencing, get a little exercise, and hang out with my friends.

I ended up winning a bout that I had no reason winning. Of course I lost a bout or two I didn't have much business losing, but those aren't mysteries. The guy I won against is a rated fencer, who I have inexplicably beaten before. I don't know if he always seriously understates the fat man, or if I do something that completely unravels him. Either way, I always feel dumbfounded beating him.

Today I feel like I walked to Raleigh, fenced the day, and ran back home chased the whole way by demons. My dreams were messed up too. I dreamed that someone mistook me for an actor that even as I type this I have no idea what he even looks like. She had a newspaper and his face was on the cover, and it did look like me. I decided to play along with her, be real nice, and leave a good impression. I have no idea if the actor is a nice guy or not, but it was important to me that the woman believed she met a nice guy. I don't even remember the other dream, but I do remember it didn't have cars or women in it, so at least I know it couldn't have been a nightmare.

Fencing hangovers we call it. And its been months since I have even had a beer. I must be wearing out or something.

Posted by at 11:15 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Over the weekend we had 50 fencers competing between the ages of 9 and 14 in 18 events, that puts us at about 200 people with coaches, parents, grandparents, siblings, and the competitors themselves. We received no complaints, and everyone seemed to have a good time.

The Downtown Fencing Club fielded 11 fencers with 16 entries total on our roster. We brought home a total of 9 medals, 1 first, 4 seconds, and 4 thirds. It was a good two days for our club.

On the running side, we had few obvious goofs, and a couple of quite goofs. Our biggest unforseen goof was that thanks to new technologies fencers can now preregister and prepay for tournaments through a website called askFRED. This is a very good thing. As now when we hold a tournament we know in advance how many to expect and can plan referees, and strips accordingly. It also allows word of our events to reach a wider audience. For instance this RYC attracted youth from as far south as Florida and as far north as Maryland. For the fencers it is a good thing because they are able to pay for the event with a credit card. The site takes a modest cut and mails us a check after the results are posted. Everyone wins. The drawback we stumbled onto at the last moment was this. We wanted the fencers to have a great experience so we hired five referees and two armorers. It took half of our gross to do this, but we felt it was worth it for the quality of the event.

Then suddenly Sunday afternoon, someone said, "If almost everyone paid with a credit card online how are we going to pay the referees today?" Panic!!! Through selling bottled water, and a few last minute entries at the door, we had about a forth of what we needed. We ended up having to pass the hat amoung the leadership of the club and write IOU's. At the final hour we had managed to scrape up enough to pay the referees and armorers.

Lesson Learned: Have the YWCA write checks for the referees time in advance. We don't have to give them their checks until the end, but we need to have to them.

Other lesson learned: Booser clubs rock! Thanks to the generous donations of food from the parents and local businesses we were able to feed our referees, armorers, and volunteer staff. This meant that for once we were able to host a quality event with a good turnout that didn't end up being a loss or a break even financial situation. All clubs hold tournaments as fund raisers, because we focus on youth events, we can never hope to get the draw and the money that opens bring in. At least now we can be sure that our program doesn't cost the YWCA anything.

Posted by at 9:24 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Yesterday was a good day. As a tournament organizer, everything was smooth and on time. No one needed medical help. No one cried, and no parents behaved badly.

As a coach it was a good day too. We fielded seven fencers and we brought home five medals. All in all a good day.

Today we have four fencers and I predict we'll be taking home four medals. We have good kids. No we are not one of those feel good sports were everyone wins and everyone gets a prize. This is fencing, not happy feel good Barney day. If the blades were sharp there would be just one winner and a room full of dead kids. As we are a sport, there is a first, a second, and two thirds (that way we don't have to fence off for third).

As I wrote this one of our fencers just took third in Epee. That means the other will take first or second. The other two medals are still up in the air, but I am confident in my fencers.

If you are interested in coming out and seeing what all of the fuss is about, we are on the UNCG campus, in the Health and Human Performance Building (HHP) in the UNCG ancestral home of fencing the Coleman Research Gym (room 248).

I suspect the fencing will wind up today by about 4pm.

Ya'll come!

Posted by at 9:24 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

The Downtown Fencing Club is hosting this years Mid Atlantic Regional Youth Circuit fencing tournament. As I am the one behind the desk at the computer running the event, you get first hand play by play fencing blogging action.

Our first event was Y10 saber "Y10" means that the fencers are ten years old or less. Our fencer, took second, and as I am the solo saber coach for our club right now, that makes me pretty happy.

The second event (In progress), is the Y14 Saber. We have no fencers in this age group. However over all this is a touch competition. In this state, we have some very strong young saberist. The finals was fenced between a "C" and a "D" rated fencer. Ratings are no easy thing and it starts with "E" and goes up to "A".

The other event going on right this second is Y10 epee. All of the fencers in this event are from our club! Needless to say, no matter how it turns out, our club rocks. :)

After lunch we will have Y12 Foil and Y14 Epee. Both will be strong events with great fencers. In case you are interested, we are on the UNCG Campus in the Health and Human Performance building (HHP) in Room 247 known as The Coleman Research Gym. Things are on schedule, so we should be finished by 5pm.

Tomorrow things pick up again at 8am and again I suspect baring great chaos and anarchy, we'll be finished by 5pm.

Y'all come!

Posted by at 11:18 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I don't know whose idea it was to organize the parents of youth athletes into a volunteer force of nature, but my hats off to them. Wow! We got ourselves some of that booster club and I can't say enough good about them.

What normally takes the coaches hours to do getting ready for a tournament, cost our club hundreds of dollars in the process, is taking very few hours to do now, and almost no expense to the club at all.

It went so well for the tournament setup that we had time to give the children competing in the tournament a group lesson. We have never had that kind of extra time before. We have never had that kind of volunteer force before!

If your youth activity doesn't have a booster club yet, you really need to get one. They rock!

Posted by at 2:46 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

If you click on this link you will see all of the results of all of the tournaments I have been in since my triumphant return to fencing back in the summer. My goal has always been to land in the middle. If you notice the trend you will see that I have met my goal more times than I have missed it. The two times I missed the most was my first tournament, I suffered badly from the heat and was pretty bad off. The other worst result was yesterday.

You must be wondering what I did wrong to do so poorly and why am I so deluded as to call it my best fencing day ever? Surely he's suffered from heat exhasution and is hallucinating. Nope. I fenced the best I ever fenced against the toughest crowd I have faced yet. In the "E" and under I fenced a "D", twice! That's how tough it was.

Of course this brings up a problem, I fenced the best I ever fenced, and my results show me at nearly the worst I have ever done. What's up with that? Honestly, the tournament proved to me that my initial premise of "success" was faulty. My goal of landing in the middle of the pack assumes that the "pack" is a constant.

My whole line of thought comming back into competition was that I would strive to be in the middle of the pack, behind the fit and well trained top half and ahead of the less trained and less experienced newbies. When I constantly landed in the middle, as time went on I would slowly find myself closer to the top as I gain fitness and competition experience. I still have no burning desire to win. The guys who have to "win" never look like they are having fun when they fence, and I fence because it is fun. If it isn't why do it?

However, as neat and tidy as my premise was it fails to take into account that at some tournaments the competitors will be better overall and everyone who fences gets just a little bit better after each competition. In order to stay in the middle those below me are going to pass me as the ones above me become rated high enough they can't fence in the competitions I fence in.

I'm not losing any sleep over it, infact as I write this I can hardly keep my eyes open. I now know my whole premise is wrong and at this time I don't even know if I am going to craft a new goal set. Why bother, when I'm still having fun right?

Posted by at 7:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Yesterday I fenced in a tournament at Brevard college. I was able to go because Cameron was willing to give me a ride, and she had to be there as the division's tournament observer. My intent was the same as it ever was. Go, meet new people, fence a little, and try not to embarrass myself or my clubmates. It sounds really simple when you write it out like that, but in practice I find it all really complicated to accomplish.

Brevard is a college club, and not a team, so it all reminded me of the early days back in UNCG's fencing club. They were all winging it as best as they could and counting on the kindness of strangers to make it all come together. We brought a box and a set of reels which was a kindness and I got to fence for free in return. That was good. In the bad list, they had lined up a dedicated referee who never showed up. Dedicated referees are really necessary for foil, where the referee has to be concise, knowledgable, focused, and able to withstand the constant questioning and antics of the fencers who will use every trick they can think of to bully you into calling something their way. Most of the rated referees in the state were all at JO's and unavailable.

Foil took a long time. I started helping ref, but I was pretty quickly 0wnz3d by fencers who figured out how to push my buttons. I found myself feeling more like a rodeo clown than an official of any kind. I gave up and sat down, fortunately Cameron stepped up. She didn't want to do it, but she was amazing. Hand signels, calmness, and that eye thing that makes the bad boys sit down and shut up. I'm talking about the total referee package. She finished the pool I started, and went on to referee all the way up to the semi-finals.

Epee, which I was going to fence for free was supposed to start at one PM. Because of a lack of foil referees we didn't get epee on the road until 3pm. About half of the fencers were complaining about it starting late and the other half were thrilled that they had gotten 15 people to show up with enough ratings to make it a D1 tournament. I didn't care either way. I have no ratings aspirations, and I knew that I was there for the duration with Cameron anyway.

My first bout I lost 5-0. I'm not complaining. I always tank my first bout. There is a well known and well documented way to not tank your first bout. It is called "warming up", and usually involves some mild exercise, and something that looks a little like fencing. I made my decision early in my come back career no never to "warm up", because that takes valuable energy and creates heat. I never have enough energy to get me through the day and I always generate way too much heat. The fencer in question was quick and offered no target. To defeat him you have to take the target from him. So in the end I won two, lost two and came out at a negative two. Remember my personal target goal is zero. I believe that the newbie's place is a low negative number and the highly competitive skilled fencers should be a high positive number. That saves the middle for the guys like myself who just want to fence because fencing is fun.

With my 2-2 win loss ratio and my indicator of -2 I came out 8th out of 15 going into direct elimination. So that was just about where I wanted to be. My first DE bout is against the 9th place guy. This is good as I know that my first DE is against a person who is as skilled as I am. If I lose here, it will be a good close bout against an equal, and that is nothing to be ashamed of. As it worked out, the winner of that bout had to fence his next bout against the guy who came in 1st.

Unfortunately that winner was me.

I had been watching the guy fence through the day with a sense of wonder. I wondered why he spent the money on the most expensive FIE rated clear mask he could find. I wondered why he fenced like Daffy Duck. Or, if you would rather give him credit, I wondered why he fenced "Monkey Style". I wondered why he did those silly low bows, faked civility, and kissed women's hands and stuff. I wondered why he was D rated, and I wondered most of all how could he have possibly come out of pools in first place. There were one or two fencers in the room who were better than he was, and they were placed out of pools in second and fourth.

Still those were the cards I was delt, and I knew I could fence my own game and score some touches on him, maybe even enough to make it a sporting bout for him. The first touch was his. Huh? I must have gotten locked out. The second touch was his. Huh? I could have sworn I hit him first. The third touch was his. Huh? Well, he is a D fencer, maybe he's better than I realized. I decided right about here that I wasn't going to blog about this tournament...ever. After two minutes the score was 9-0 and my "Statistical Annomily" light was flashing in the back of my mind. I asked to have my weapon tested. It did not work. One point was annulled. The score is 8-0 now. I wondered just how many touches I lost due to a dead weapon. I scored my first touch of the day and we went into our first one minute break.

Fencing is geometry. It doesn't matter at any given moment where your opponent's tip is. Their shoulder is always in the same place, the length of their shoulder to their elbow is always the same, the length of their elbow to their wrist is always the same, and the epee blade is always the same length. Therefore there are certain divine truths that cannot be undone. The shortest distance between two points is a strait line, and if the other fencer extends his weapon to hit you his closest target (the wrist) will always be the same distance from the end of his weapon. To win, all you have to do is make sure that the tip of your weapon is there waiting for his wrist to arrive at that finite point in space.

At the break, Cameron gave me the great advice I have come to count on from her, best of all it was exactly what I was thinking myself. In the next period he scored four more touches on me. I on the other hand, had scored eight touches on him. All was now right with the world. I knew I had been hitting him before, my kung fu WAS strong. Win or lose, the math comes out right, and for me that is the most important thing.

So in the end I lost a bout I could have done much better in had I questioned my equipment and not myself in the beginning. I guess that is a personal fault of mine. I tend to love and trust my hardware more than I trust my wetware. To be fair though, the problem with my weapon was something I have never before seen in my entire life. Wires break, wires get pulled out of the socket, tip screws fall out, tips fall out of barrels, they do not as a rule fall appart in the barrel.

Posted by at 10:24 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

For a long time I have heard over and over again that fencing would never be successful because you can't make it look good on TV. As someone who dabbles in local independant film, I knew that just because it hadn't been done yet didn't mean that it couldn't be done. The only real reason you don't see fencing on TV in America yet is because no one has really put forth any effort to try to shoot it for TV. There have been some various local efforts here and there, but the reason there isn't more on ESPN is becuse there isn't a well established fencing TV production company going out and getting the footage. Golf, Tennis, Football, Baseball, Fishing, all of these sports in their various degrees of "interesting" have overcome the technical issues necessary to make it work on the tube. Thus proving that they can make their sport at least watchable. Some even entertaining. You find yourself in a restaurant with a TV, and suddenly you have to ask yourself why you are watching poker? You know you've done it, don't deny it.

It isn't the sport/activity that draws you, it is the production, that makes you watch.

So let it be with fencing. The've been doing this in Europe for years, while in America we only whine about why it can't be done.

Click around and watch some things, you might find it interesting.

Posted by at 10:47 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

There is this scene early in The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai: Across the 8th Dimension, where Buckaroo running behind from performing emergency brain surgery, arrives at the desert jet car testing grounds hops strait in the driver's seat and immediately changes the way the world thinks about matter just before doing a couple of TV appearances and winding the day up at Artie's Artery performing with the Hong Kong Cavaliers to a packed house. Everywhere he went he was surrounded by friends he could trust, so he didn't have to worry about small details. Come in, be great, and move on.

That was sort of like my morning, but instead of brain surgery I was trying to get Sara up and ready to go before time for me to arrive on site. However when I arrived, it was exactly like the movie. I roll in late, to find that the team knew what to do and did it exactly. The fencers were dressed out and ready to go, they were setting up a strip and Henri hands me a sausage biscuit before heading off to work. By the time I was dressed and ready, everything was set up and perfect. Cameron came in at exactly the right moment, glowing like the sun, and ready to be brilliant. We did our two TV live spots; my fencers were awake, alert, and smiling. They made fencing look as good as it feels, and they made me proud in the process.

Once the live shots were done, the fencers dressed down and headed off to school, while parents put away the strip, and Cameron prepared for her interview. By 8:30 Cameron and I were the last out of the gym and it looked for all the world like we had never been there.

All in all I'd call that a good day.

Now I am at work, and we'll see how the day ends from here.

A huge thank you to, Margaret, Summer, Phillip, Henri, Cameron, and the parents for a flawless operation. No matter where you go...

Posted by at 8:48 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I could not have been more happy with the group of people who opted to travel down to Wilmington for the Iron Maiden. Our fencers were upbeat, happy, and ready to have fun. Our male supporters all had different reasons for going besides the fencing, and the trip seemed to be just the balm they needed.

The trip down Friday night was swift and smooth, and we were in location and bedding down at a good hour with three fencers each getting a bed to themselves, the host in the master bedroom, and my humble self opting for the living room couch. I'm not fencing, I don't need a thing other than a place to put my bedroll. Many thanks to our gracious host for making his family retreat available to his fencing family.

Saturday morning we woke up in good time, had coffee overlooking a cove just off the intercostal waterway, and arrived at the meat locker just when we meant to be. The tournament wasn't really in a meat locker, it was in an unheated ground level salle just below a Catholic school gym, in February. The room was good for fencing, it was just cold. Our foilest needed gloves on both hands and probaby could have used ear muffs under her mask, as she could see her own breath kicking off our day at 9:30am. I myself wished for longjohns from the moment I arrived til the moment we left. Who can predict the weather right?

Our foilest did well in pools, even if she was frozen solid, and went into direct elimination sitting pretty. There is just one thing that none of us considered. In most sports with referees there are multiple referees. Even in sports that are "judged" more than reffed, there is always a pool of judges each with their own opinions of what they saw. Fencing only has one, and one is all you get. Good, bad, horrible, biased, incompetient, you play with the hand you are delt. Our foilest was blessed by never having a bad referee, until this tournament. She had only ever known technique, tactics, truth and justice. She had never had to fence the referee before and it was an experience you just can't prepare someone for. She knew what she was doing, she knew what the other fencer was doing, she did the exact right thing, and the referee called it the other way. Had the direct elimination bout made it to the first break I could have given her a 60 second introduction into how to fence the referee and not the fencer, but alas it wasn't to be. At that point our group broke into tactical teams each with its own game plan. Some worked on the offensive referee, some worked on the bout committee, some went to console a very angry and confused foilest. We couldn't go back into time and right the wrong, but we could make sure that the wrong didn't get repeated. In that I feel we were at least successful.

Foil for us suddenly and unexpectedly over, we turned our focus to the future and to epee. As our fencers, five in all, were spread over three strips, I am not even going to try to give a play by play. Let me do something better by summing it all up in a single