Foilepee : for or against ?

[Alan]

A dispatch from ASP (Swiss Press Agency) :

The FIE would prepare in secret a new arm to increase the penetration
of fencing on TV screens.

The foil semi-final at the Olympics Games in Athens was a revelation for Mr STONEHEAD president of the FIE :
the popular and mediatic success which followed the fight between Brice GRANDART,
future Olympic Champion and the Italian CASSARATATA was never seen before :
brillant shots (and among them his famous and popular flicks) from the Italian
who leaded 12 to 7 before the French develops a magnificient offensive game
to come back and finally win by 15 to 14.


So, the Foil, this confidential sport reserved to an intellectual
aristocracy and dominated by the mysterious community of the "Maîtres d'Armes"
could please the masses as it was and even television could be interested
by it at another moment that the medal counting.


"This is not surprising", says Patrice LAUBERGISTE, former foil team Olympic Champion :
"Foil is an arm which is based on attacking and defensing with priority to attack,
full of creativity and subtle exchanges"


Reforms should be undertaken as soon as possible to take advantage of this good
event which would permit to the officials and maybe to the foilists to make good money.


At the same time, Mr STONEHEAD was afraid : the matches were so intense and full of suspense
that, due to increasing obesity and inactiveness of the mean tv watcher, could
provoke many heart diseases and suing against the FIE.


A commission of high level sport consultants was hired at once.

The conclusions of the commission came soon :


- foil matches do not last long enough and do not pause enough to allow
advertising breaks and give time to the tv watchers to get themselves
a good beer


- seeing two lamps light at the same time and waiting for the decision of the referee
is above the intellectual level of the median tv viewer not speaking of the colour-blind
people



- to train enough competent referees would not be realistic if the success of this
new arm was confirmed. Solutions must be found to simplify refereeing even
at the cost of perverting the spirit of Foil. However the end of subtlety in foil
will permit to athlets with more legs than head to join.


- the great physical intensity of Foil does not contribute to model the bodies
of the fencers to current beauty standards which have a great success as
confirmed by the avent of beach volley


- as proved by the success of beach volley, it is necessary that the fencers show
their bodies. In a first step, plexiglass masks will show the faces.


- the next step will be a transparent suit currently developed by Bailleur which
will allow fencers (male and female) to fight in bath suits (and preferably
strings).
However this new transparent textile do not resist to flicks, so flicks
will have to be made impossible by invoking other reasons.

The name of this new arm is not known yet. It coule be Flepee but more
probably Foilepee to be better accepted by the English and Chinese speaking
people.


Study realized by Ian Bomber

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
This is hoax. All similarity with reality is pure coincidence.
You can nevertheless transmit it as widely as possible otherwise
you will fall asleep the next time you assist to a Foil competition

[Katman]

I think this was already posted.

[JackSparrow]

You have to worry about anyone who describes foilists as being part of an "intellectual aristocracy".

[Safir]

Originally Posted by JackSparrow

You have to worry about anyone who describes foilists as being part of an "intellectual aristocracy".

I think it was ironic

[JackSparrow]

In that case, I just proved his point.

[telkanuru]

Because that poll isn't biased at all...

[Katman]

Is this thing bumped every time someone votes in it? Also, it seems that the pompom girls are winning.

[Alan]

Originally Posted by Katman

Is this thing bumped every time someone votes in it? Also, it seems that the pompom girls are winning.

Well if you read issue 50 of the FIE magazine you'll see that this "thing"
is alas almost what's happening. One thing is wrong tough
the new arm will probably called "Rochepee" : at least 20 photos of Mr Roch
in this magazine.

The magazine should also be renamed "Roch Magazine" : 61 occurrences
of his name in 48 pages !

[Pauli]

How about "Roach-Magazine"??
And, was this guy just trying to get even with the Swiss sence of humor??

[Illini5596]

Ok time for me to play a little advocate.

For top level televised events, whats wrong with at the very lest colored uniforms for the competitors to show where they are from? White is traditional, but who wouldn't get pumped up sporting the colors of their state, school, or nation?

Cheerleaders... why bother? Golf got popular without them.

The boxen, hide them from view of the camera so only the fencers and directors can see them, show the director clearly as he makes the calls then have a short pause while the viewers at home see a slow-mo of the action. Personally I think this would benefit young fencers too, I remember being young and unable to follow the action. Slowing down helps you learn.

Show a full bout, then as the fencers change up, cut to commercial, come back, and repeat. You don't change the sport, just what the camera sees.

[Katman]

I see people mentioning televisibilty (is that even a word?) in other threads, and I think I'll reiterate what I said a year ago.

To have a good viewing audience for fencing you need interested people watching. You would have to socialize it as a fun sport to watch -- starting with younger generations -- and that's it! Baseball is boring as hell to anyone who doesn't know what's going on, yet lots of U.S. folks watch it because people shove baseball gloves and bats into their childrens' hands before they can even walk.

That's the long answer though. Some would argue that it doesn't even really offer a solution.

[Alan]

http://ejmas.com/jnc/jncart_barton-wright_0200.htm

[SwordSoul]

LOL, yyaaaaay for savate.

[ElMariachi]

I don't see whats the big deal with changing the uniforms, as long as the functionality remains. To me it seems that fencers are just naturally resistant to changing anything, which probably due to the traditional nature of our sport.

[Alan]

Originally Posted by ElMariachi

To me it seems that fencers are just naturally resistant to changing anything, which probably due to the traditional nature of our sport.

Yes you are completly right. Foil has changed and become a modern sport.
Some Fencers and ex Fencers are reluctant to change and want to revert
to Romankov's time by inventing timings which just don't work.

[PalmFrond]

How about lames that light up when a fencer is hit? Now that would be really spectacular, if a bit camp...It would also tie in with Rene the Renard's campaign to further improve foil by removing the off-target lights.

[MikeHarm]

Origionally I was against removing the off target lights, but I think now that it would improve foil fencing by helping to further make the scoring in foil more objective. Another thing that helped sway me was a bout I saw where one of the fencers constantly hit off target for their defense instead of parrying. If the off target was stripped out of the game I think that sort of tactic going away would be a good thing.

[Alan]

Originally Posted by MikeHarm

Origionally I was against removing the off target lights, but I think now that it would improve foil fencing by helping to further make the scoring in foil more objective. Another thing that helped sway me was a bout I saw where one of the fencers constantly hit off target for their defense instead of parrying. If the off target was stripped out of the game I think that sort of tactic going away would be a good thing.

yes and then you could call it Epee ...

We have already Foilepee with these broken test timings.

[ThatReallyHurt]

Originally Posted by MikeHarm

Origionally I was against removing the off target lights, but I think now that it would improve foil fencing by helping to further make the scoring in foil more objective. Another thing that helped sway me was a bout I saw where one of the fencers constantly hit off target for their defense instead of parrying. If the off target was stripped out of the game I think that sort of tactic going away would be a good thing.

Blargh - that's exactly what someone did to me in a DE bout. I think it helped him stall for time and break whatever tiny amount of momentum I was able to build...

[mrbiggs]

Originally Posted by Alan

yes and then you could call it Epee ...

We have already Foilepee with these broken test timings.

Dude, you've said that at least 50 times in the last two weeks or so. We really understand what your stance is. It's fine to argue points, but if you're going to post, restating your opinion does nothing for it. You could say "yes, but doing that would make Right of Way even less important, and it would favor counterattackers, thus making foil even more like epee", for example.