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Mo · 07-16-2002, 11:06 AM

At Summer Nats after my daughter fenced this other sabrist, her coach who is also a ref came over and demanded to see her weapon.
He did not ask he DEMANDED. She gave it to him and he looked at the pommel, shook it, then gave it back.
His fencer was kind of creamed but I thought this hinted that my daughter was somehow cheating.
Was this appropriate??

sean · 07-16-2002, 01:50 PM

Most likely the coach thought some whipover hits were being scored, and was checking to see if the blade was an S2000. Rude, from the sound of it, but possibly understandable...

Sean

Inquartata · 07-16-2002, 04:54 PM

Unfortunately, not every coach with an overbearing manner and a Mussolini complex can manage to confine it to his own students. Getting away with reinforces the behavior, but I imagine your daughter was just too astonished at his temerity to ask him "Why?" first. Eventually he'll try it on the wrong person, or more likely the wrong fellow coach's student, and there'll be fireworks.

Sciurus Rex · 07-16-2002, 08:18 PM

You beat the snot out of him later, though, right? "Black card" the jerk yourself.

Mo · 07-16-2002, 09:41 PM

You beat the snot out of him later, though, right? "Black card" the jerk yourself.

Hey Scurius, at the next meet I will show him to you and you can follow him around. If he pulls any crap we can jump him!!
My hub gets really annoyed when I get in fights though...

Emfuser · 07-16-2002, 10:10 PM

I'd have to really suppress my sporadic violent tendencies.

My gut reaction would be to just say "sure" and proceed to deliver an uppercut with the bell guard when said coach got close enough.

I like fencing too much to get myself kicked out, though.

HilandDoug · 07-17-2002, 08:43 AM

I would have hoped the response to his demand would have been, "Bite me, @$$hole."

Inquartata · 07-17-2002, 08:08 PM

That would be the first sort of retort that would pop into my head, too. But given my luck, it'd turn out that the referee was a friend of his, he'd go to him, and the ref would ask to see the weapon, then hand to the smirking coach...

Peach · 07-18-2002, 03:56 AM

Take it as a compliment. When we gave another, much higher-seeded team far more trouble than they expected at Summer Nationals (they still won), their coach came over afterwards and congratulated us and then couldn't resist saying we should have gotten a couple of yellow cards. I waited until he left and then my team all had a good snicker. We really got him tangled up in his underwear in that match.

If they're acting like jerks, it's because they take it far too seriously and you've frightened them.

Gav · 07-18-2002, 04:16 AM

All I'll say is as this guy wasn't the ref he had no right to see the weapon (whether he demanded or not).

If he had a problem then I suppose he could complain to the Directiore and they could have the weapon inspected. Other than that it doesn't matter what he thinks. If he was being overly aggresive and/or abusive he is in the wrong and can be ejected from the tourney [or at least hauled before the Directiore). I would have refused and then complained to the powers that be. The ref of the bout should have maintained order and asked that he take his attitude elsewhere.

We all have bad days, his fencer was having a bad day therefore he was having a bad day. Your child was having a good day. He had no right to take it out on your daughter or you.

sallearmourer · 07-18-2002, 04:39 AM

if he wasn't a ref my kids would have told him to stuff it. And if he was wearing his jacket as a offical he was in the wrong. My wife black carded a coach in y 10 mens epee over the lenth of a blade The youth was using a #4 instead of a #2 blade and she caught it. She said you could see that he was used to that blade length which is a inch and half longer then a 2 blade and he kept coming up short.

Tim

swordsen · 07-18-2002, 08:25 AM

ok, of the kid has an illegal weapon why black card the coach?

135711 · 07-18-2002, 03:47 PM

he should have approached the director or the bout committee and asked them if they could check out a weapon. in shaking the weapon, he could have damaged it, thus making your daughters bout more difficult. fencers sometimes leave their stuff all over the floor, to show they don't really care about it, but that aside, it's not smart. people step on them, then the fencer cries sabatoge! you shouldn't hand a weapon over to someone unless you feel he really had you or your daughter's intersts at heart. again, i would go to the bout committee or a director standing around. Which brings up this: Fencing competitions seem to be over crowded and heavily trafficked, too many contestants, too many others just milling around. Directors and bout committee people should have everything well at hand to keep strange incidences from happening.