Actions of the BoD Meeting 10/2/04

[oiuyt]

Message (email) from the USFA re: the actions of the Board of Directors:

United States Fencing Association


FIE Rules changes for the 2004-2005 season

The FIE, the international organization that governs the Olympic sport of fencing, has made changes to the timing of actions in foil and sabre as registered on the scoring equipment. These changes are provisional for this season, though they are expected to become permanent next year. The USFA Board of Directors, at its October 2, 2004 meeting, has voted to adopt the same changes for all North American Circuit (NAC) events, National Championships, and national qualifying events. These changes will be implemented at the first NAC of the season in Atlanta.

All divisional, sectional, and collegiate competitions can be run using either the old or the new timing, but the timing must be the same on every strip at the competition. Information about the timing used at any competition should be published before the event. The exception to this is qualifying events for Junior Olympics and National Championships: these must be run with the new timing.

The timing changes are:
1. In foil, the lockout time decreases slightly (from 350 milliseconds to 300 milliseconds). This reduces the window of time after a fencer registers a touch that his or her opponent may also register a touch.
2. Also in foil, the amount of time the foil tip must remain depressed in order to register a touch has increased from 1-5 milliseconds to 15 milliseconds.
3. In sabre, the lockout time decreases from 350-400 milliseconds to 120 milliseconds.

It is important for our fencers to have experience with the timing that will be used at all international competitions this season. This is why the Board of Directors has voted to adopt these changes. Sections, divisions, and clubs are encouraged to use the new timing so that your fencers have the opportunity to compete with the new timing before traveling to a national tournament.

All new scoring equipment on the market is equipped with the new timing. Many existing scoring boxes may be converted by replacing the computer chip in the box. Ask your equipment vendor about their procedure for making this change. Information will also be posted at the USFA website as it becomes available.

Please note: These are the ONLY CHANGES to the equipment that the FIE has finalized this year. Changes to the foil point and weight were under discussion, but they are NOT in effect and will not be used this season.

Also, the Board of Directors did not make any changes to the Regional Youth Program. The RYC program remains a valuable component of the USFA youth development plans. Modifications to the RYC program will be presented for discussion at the next Board meeting. More information about the current Board action will be available shortly. In the meantime, Local Organizing Committees with upcoming RYCs should consult with the regional coordinator as well as refer to the 2003-04 guidelines to plan their events.

Thank you.

-B :)

[DHCJr]

My division has 8 St. George machines (2 bought this summer) and 4 '84 Uhlmann. I contacted Ted Li about upgrading and here is his reply.

About the upgrading of the SG machines. Sorry, but everything has to go
through Blue Gauntlet as they are the ones buying the chips. There will
be the opportunity to have the chips swapped at the Nationals in
Sacramento, but I suspect that people feel that will be too late. By
the way, what will happen if the FIE changes the spec on the timing next
year? Will you be happy to having invested in the experimental timing?

Ted Li
English Department
The Pingry School
Martinsville, NJ 08836

What is our division to do, send in our machines to BG and hope they will be back before the qualifiers, with every one else sending in theirs. What will we do in the meantime, we have tournaments every month. I especially love his last question.

[darius]

This whole timing-change issue has been messed up from the start.

I'd love to see more transparency from the FIE as to what happened during their supposed multiple years of testing new timings and such. But the introduction has been botched:

First, we hear that Cdt/Jr. world cups (which start next week, no?) will be run using the new timings.

Months later ... oops, it's Seniors too. This makes sense, but smacks of the FIE trying to force a specific agenda through.

Finally, less than a week before the first national competition of the year, NACs and qualifiers all necessitate new timings. My division is a small one -- if we have SG-12s, what are we going to do?

If the FIE decides to repeal them, it adds an additional hassle.

Why not spend more time on the testing phase, even running competitions in Europe with established fencers to get the bugs out? Then pass the timings down by fiat, but give a season's warning. That allows everybody to prepare for the change, acquire/upgrade boxes over the course of a year, and smoothly implement their use in competitions the following season.

darius

[oiuyt]

Months later ... oops, it's Seniors too. This makes sense, but smacks of the FIE trying to force a specific agenda through.

Mmmmm, ya think?

-B :)

[edew]

[...]Why not spend more time on the testing phase, even running competitions in Europe with established fencers to get the bugs out? Then pass the timings down by fiat, but give a season's warning. That allows everybody to prepare for the change, acquire/upgrade boxes over the course of a year, and smoothly implement their use in competitions the following season.

darius

Technically, there are no possible bugs. Unanticipated consequences (much like flicking after generations of fencers using electric foil) may eventually crop up. But it's impossible to predict such consequences even with a long testing period. It may take many generations before some wise coach figures out some cool move to use with respect to the new timings.

[JEC]

The whole affair has taught me that easy of upgradeability is a critical element of the selection of a scoring machine.

The two winners here are the scoring machines made by Eigertek (Eclipse) and Favero. The business of one vendor having to ship it and they upgrade it for you (LP, SG) should decrease your willingness to buy their machines. I personally prefer the Favero, but you can not beat the FREE upgrade for the Eigertek machines ( http://www.amfence.com/html/upgrade.html ). My problem with them is that they are too small in size and with small lights.

[DHCJr]

Also, if you prefer bigger lights and free upgrade, there is also Blue Sky.

http://www.blueskylabs.com/fencing.php

[sabreman]

JEC, I agree totally. I do not understand why BG doesn't just send out the chips like Favero and the others. There can't be anymore to it then changing the fw chip.