Wrist Straps

[BOliver]

I need to make a point of clarification.

There has been some discussion as to whether or not wrist straps, or martingales, are allowed. In responding to a post, I stated that wrist straps were permitted with all grips.

This is not the case. The wrist strap is not allowed with the french grip.

Sorry for any confusion.

Bill Oliver
Fencing Official's Commission

[DHCJr]

Bill's post got me to put out this question. I am saving up some rules questions for my 1,001 post, but I thought I would put this one out there. Sam, you can't answer.

First of all a martingale and a wrist strap were considered different things, when this rule was in the rule book. Martingale is no longer in the current rule book.

During the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics, both the FIE and the USFA rule book REQUIRED the use of a martingale for ALL fencers at certain competitions. What were those competitions?

[BOliver]

Donald,

Without stopping to look it up, if memory serves, martingales were required for all "dry" comptitions. That is, if there were no body cord to attach the weapon to the fencer, a martingale had to be used.

Bill

[Purple Fencer]

Must....control....self....

BTW, Bill...someone, the use of Girabaldi from Babylon 5 for your avatar fits!

The rulebook Donald used to show me this one was the last pre-Smirnov one. What got me immediately was...a martingale required at a dry comp...when all the FIE comps were electric for foil????

[DHCJr]

Bill, you are of course right. I should of asked you not to respond, I was trying to get others to think.

The rules were 209 for Foil and 309 for Epee. I just thought it funny as Sam said, an FIE rule about dry/steam competitions in the 80's.

That is not the only obsolete rule out there, but I will leave those to another time.

[MikeHarm]

So this means that both wrist straps and martingales are legal for Italian grip weapons correct?