Well, the last of the home tournaments for this season are over. They were different; it was the first time that we ran non-usfa sanctioned tournaments for an entire season. It was refreshing not having everyone chasing a rating and worrying more about the items that we gave them to work with. Or deal the politics that have with it down here. I really dislike the current USFA rating system but with the handicapped system for the first round it worked out well. I really don’t think that you would be able to run the system and be able to award ratings within the USFA framework, but I could be wrong.
Granted we had very few outsiders but with number of fencers that we have that really wasn’t a problem for us and based on the results from the southeast sections the systems paid off. There were many times in the bouts and in the DE’s that we talked with students that referred to times within the season that our format helped them overcome a problem in a bout that they believe they would have not been able to over come before, Eli and Nate were poster children for this.
Over the course of the season we refined the handicapped system and I believe that it helped the fencers and the coaches alike. Many people in our organization were skeptical at first but I think that when they saw the results at traveling tournaments and got the comment “you are only rated a …….” They enjoyed it. It showed where people were having issues and highlights areas that needed to be worked on both in tactics and mental preparation. The resulting lessons and adjustments to individual’s strengths and weaknesses proved to be a great asset. The turnout from our three schools has been awesome and has allowed us to experiment with different styles and ideas within our own framework that we just do not see with other operations. The younger kids loved the chance to fence the older kids also; a side benefit of not have USFA sanctioned events.
It is a shame that we could not expand the experiment further but it was too much of a leap for others. It has been a one way street for us this season we have supported other clubs but they have not supported us. Hell, we have probable added ratings and about 2K to Touché in Charlotte but they haven’t had one person come to our events. Keith expected him letting people know about our tournament would motivate them to come, if he won’t show up, what makes them think that they will. This weekend they even hosted a tournament that we had up on askfred for two months before them. Hope they didn’t miss our fencers and they had enough fencers to have a rated tournament outside of an E.
Now we have had some success with GA and SC clubs. Next season will be more interesting.
The kids that are coming up through the ranks are growing in skill and understanding at a great pace. I wonder if next season we will actually have a traveling y12 and y14 group to go to the NAC with. Each of them is starting to see each on of the national team members as leaders and heroes.
Now Matt will be doing the documentation for the instructor’s manuals so that should be a big help to the next set of fencing instructors that come through the ranks. The system will probably be in the advance instructor’s manual the basic manual has worked really well and has taken a burden off the senior instructors and proved to be a valuable asset to the up and coming instructors. I have noticed a faster learning curve with his manual.
Next season will be interesting with the unclassified and the women’s events. It will be interesting to see the turnout with the new economy after the election.
05-11-2008 01:13 PM