Let’s recap my first weekend of reffing, shall we? The good, the bad, and the ugly.
Friday night (with one day of advance notice that I would be making my refereeing debut at the Bay State Games)… scholastic women’s epee. Good – I get to start with epee. Give me something nice and uneventful for my first bloodletting. How hard can it be? C was on the strip next to me, and it was only her second time out, so at least I wasn’t in it alone. And DJ Apostrophe was the observer, and he was running the actual pool and the scoresheet. I could do this. Sure. No problem. Had my brand-spankin’-new penalty cards in my pocket, figuring I wouldn’t need to use them. Had my own weights and shim testers and idiot-proof stop watch in my bag, just in case. Had on a grey skirt and a blue shirt (OK, not exactly regulation attire… but with an evening’s notice, I hadn’t exactly had time to shop, and it was bloody hot out). Go!
I can’t remember how many yellow cards I had to throw. I’ve never seen so many non-functional and non-conforming weapons in my life. Screws missing – and girls oblivious to the fact that it was cardable. Body cords non-functional. Wires already broken. Loose barrels. No backup weapons (or extra weapons in the car… which is down 3 flights…) Jeez, girls – check this stuff before you get the the strip, would ya?
Now, there are certain penalties I never expected to have to card. Things that, when I read them, needed in-depth explanations from my coach about how they could possibly be offenses. Touches scored while falling? What are the chances I’m going to have to throw that one? Well, wouldn’t you know… I had to annul one of the double touches AND card the poor kid, because, yes, someone scored a touch while falling. And she had looked so proud of herself for having made the touch (which was a pretty nice one, I might add). I pitied her – but carded her. Tears ensued.
Another girl, getting run off the end of the strip, and getting a touch scored against her to lose the bout. She was in tears. I felt bad for her, but hey, rules is rules.
Then there was the girl whose weapon stopped registering touches midway through a bout. She asked me to check it, and the wires had come off at the guard. Alas for her, I couldn’t annul any of the touches – not even the last one – as it was the fencer’s responsibility. (Thanks, DJ A!) She was in tears. Did I mention there were some tears that night?
I finally had to learn to work the machine, everything from the match count (which for some dumb reason, had always confused me before) to Priority (because, wouldn’t you know, time ran out with a tied score).
One thing I screwed up briefly a few times: starting the damned clock. I hit the button after saying “Fence!” and didn’t hit it hard enough. Thankfully, I noticed pretty quickly each time, but possibly managed to add an extra couple of seconds to a few bouts.
Two things occurred during the gold medal bout that I wasn’t totally totally comfortable with, and I didn’t even see one of them (which apparently occurred twice) but was brought to my attention by Coach A afterwards (who, as a highly respected international ref, is not someone I’m willing to second-guess!). One was a judgment call between regular corp-a-corp and jostling, and damn it, if I’d felt more comfortable with my position, I would have gone for the card for jostling. I didn’t. I knew I should have, and she felt that what we saw was not just simple corp-a-corp. I was rattled by the actual action, and blew it. Carding wouldn’t have changed the outcome of the bout, but I would have felt better about it.
Second problem A saw was that the same fencer – who was hit twice in the off-hand – should have been carded for parrying with the off-hand. Now, I didn’t see it as a parry. I didn’t see her moving her hand in such a way as to approximate a parry. I saw her get hit there, but hey, it’s epee, and I’ve been hit there, though I tend to keep my hand back a lot further than she does, it’s true. I asked Coach D about the discrepancy yesterday, and he said that this particular fencer ALWAYS does it, and KNOWS she’d doing it, so I’ll need to watch for it. So, where is the line between treating everyone objectively, and subjecting that supposed impartiality to a fencer’s history? It’s hard thinking this through. At the same time, this particular fencer does some things that infuriate me (as a fencer, who has fenced her, as well as as a ref). Things like HURTING her opponents. On purpose. Now, there’s an inability to judge distance, which leads to some hard hits. And there’s plain and simple MEAN fencing. She knows her distance. She just hits HARD. Intentionally. Particularly when she knows she’s rattling her opponents, who then back way off and don’t go after her as much. The parent in me wants to take this girl aside and tell her she’s less than a pleasure to fence (not to mention ref) and is bordering on being a menace. But I assume that’s not my job. And since she’s now unattached, it’s not like I can even bring it up with her coach.
Other than that, just basic women’s epee reffing during the pool. Not a lot out of the ordinary in terms of actual reffing – just getting my feet wet. Not a lot of undue stress for me other than running things. Yet it was stressful.
In the middle of the night, I woke up and realized I’d forgotten to penalize someone a meter for leaving the strip. It wouldn’t have affected the outcome, but still – it was my job to know this without thinking about it, and I blew it. I made up for it Sunday with a couple of ground penalties. Anyway, Friday went alright. It was a earning experience.
Then Sunday came around, and I found myself running my own pool for Women’s Epee. I knew most of the fencers, and they’re all pleasant, professional, and know what they’re doing. I threw only a couple of cards all day (one non-functional weapon, some off-strip). I had to enforce the one-meter ground penalty during a DE that reduced the offender to tears, because it placed her behind the end line, and her opponent gained a point. It was such a close bout, and that one point may have made the difference between her winning and losing the bout. I had to remain as calm as possible in the face of her reaction, and explain why I was doing what I was doing. Afterwards, Coach D told me I’d made the right call, and then explained it to HER. It seems that she’d already seen this happen twice, both on the offender and defender side, (NOT on my strip!) and the call hadn’t been made or enforced. D explained that it SHOULD have been both times, and that I’d done the right thing.
Things I screwed up Sunday:
Initially put some 5s down on the scoresheet instead of Vs. Fixed them. Score sheet went fine, and I even learned some shortcuts thanks to one of the fencers.
Called a halt for passing, and didn’t stop the clock for 2-3 seconds. Not a bout-deciding mistake, but still, my bad. I felt silly.
May have missed an off-strip foot. I wasn’t positive I’d seen it, so I didn’t card for it. But it nagged me.
Stupid memory lapse – 4:4,double touch, plenty of time remaining, and I stupidly tried setting the machine for priority. Till one of the fencers reminded me that there was still time remaining, so I only had to establish priority when time ran out. Doh! I totally forgot. Which is worse because Friday, I did this fine, and earlier that day I did it fine.
One call I wasn’t positive on – I allowed 2 fencers to come together and one scored a touch, before the halt. Which is fine – except I wasn’t utterly comfortable with how long I allowed the infighting. I could hear certain people’s voices in my head telling me not to call halt too prematurely, and let the action play out. Not positive when/if the actual body contact occurred (they were both seasoned in-fighters). Should I have halted earlier than I did? I don’t know for sure, but it seemed OK at the time, and nobody was complaining. I’ve fenced the women myself, and know that the touch scored from prime from one of them is her signature move, and she always does it cleanly. I went with history here, I suppose.
Carded a woman for a non-functional weapon. Then she presented another one, which passed, but failed on the bell guard test. I was in the process of red-carding her then, when one of the other fencers told me it was likely a grounding problem. (And considering her family’s involvement in fencing for 3 generations, I was inclined to have it looked at asap!) Sure enough, the reel needed to be changed. I took away the bogus card, but kept the original, because the weapon wasn’t indeed working.
So the highlight of my punchiness came late in day yesterday - either the bronze medal bout, or the one just before it. I was fried by then, and my foot (in the air cast "boot" thing that was holding my penalty cards) was chafing something fierce. I placed the fencers back on their guard lines. “En garde. Fencers ready? Halt!” Yes, I actually said that. The clock was running. They both looked at me in confusion. Then I realized what I’d said. We all started laughing. I did the one-one-thousand thing when we finally got me to say “Fence!” Not one of my better moments, to be sure.
Oooh, and I got roped into reffing one of the men’s semi-finals. Which was a WHOLE different ball of wax than the women’s. Oh. My. God. What a different level of activity! It was a rush.
Apparently, I'm an 8 now. Next, I need to practice reffing some more sabre and foil then get observed there.
And, umm, I really enjoyed this experience. I know the rules well enough to succeed, and I see the actions. I just need seasoning. I truly believe I'll be a lot more comfortable next time out there.
07-21-2008 04:02 PM 