Simultaneous (saber). Why?

[luv2fence]

Thanks to all.
I came to the conclusion that I was
not watching arm-extension closely
enough. Distance as "step-lunge"
was roughly what I was using;
but it is good to have it formalized.

I am going back to the USFA 2000
rule book for some serious study.
It is like reading a math text;
but I will try to connect its rules to
how refs are explaining and calling.

Thanks again.

luv2fence

[A Fencer]

I have been fencing with saber for about 1/2 year;
I am still a novice in skill level.

Occasionally, I think I see really bad officiating.
I have observed directors calling "simultaneous" when
it is obvouis to me that one fencer was attacking first
and should have ROW.
What am I missing?
Should a director say more than "simultaneous" in the
case described below?
(Asking later does not work, because nobody remembers.)

Immediately, after the director says "fence",
fencer Left advances continuosly toward fencer Right, who does
not move. As fencer Left is making his final arm extension
simulateously fencer Right reacts with his attack.
Both hit tagets, with simple straight cuts.

It seems to me that, when a fencer takes the fight to another,
the director should EXPLAIN; the director should say "Attack Left hesitation,
simultaneous attacks" or "No arm extension Left, then simultaneous attacks".
Other times, the same director would give the point to Left fencer.

I have noticed a correlation of certain directors and distance between fencers, and this is easy to see; these directors are consistent.

Any help would be appreciated.

cos sabre sucks donkey ****. Plain and simple.

Try fencing a real weapon...

[edew]

This is the background of the height advantage in RoW-weapons.
That doesn't mean it isn't still possible to make an attack in preparation or a simultaneous attack in that situation...

The height advantage is more prominent in foil than in saber. Even if you're 20ft tall, your saber blade is at most 35" long and if you can reach my arm, my 35" saber blade can also reach your arm. So if you can make an advance-lunge from 8 meters away, I will make the same advance-lunge (or so) and aim for that incoming arm. It's tough, as the arm is a much faster moving, tough to aim-for target than the body. But theoretically, it's possible for a short saber fencer to hit a tall saber fencer at the same time, due to the fact that the nearest target will be 35" away.

Foil, on the other hand, really favors the tall who can out reach the opponent to the chest. The weakness comes when the smaller fencer manages to get within the point. Once the opponent's point has passed the plane of the body, the opponent is at a severe disadvantage (provided the fencer himself hasn't also gotten his point past the opponent).

[carlos]

Edew, I've often wondered about weapons favoring height. I've heard it said that epeeists are generally tall, and that height favors epee fencing more than foil fencing, but I disagree, using an argument similar to yours for sabre. In epee and saber, there is always target area one blade's length away from your opponent's tip.

So does arm-as-target help short epeeists more or less than ROW helps short foilists?

It always helps to be tall!

[SJCFU#2]

I am going back to the USFA 2000
rule book for some serious study.
luv2fence

Might I suggest studying the current rule book (I don't recall any changes regaring saber ROW, but then I generally avoid saber).