Bukantz: Well, as if the changes to blockage and contact times weren't enough, these changes would have been the mother lode. I saw the testing in Leipzig and knew they were not ready.
The problem is that a precedent, a bad precedent, was set with the last changes. After substantial discussion at the last Congress, it was voted to try the new timings only as a test, and only at the junior level.
That morphed into a full-scale change at all levels, and there was no turning back.
These changes were made in order to make fencing more TV-friendly. I promise you that there won't be one extra person on the planet who tunes into fencing due to these changes.
And, that is the ironic and saddest aspect of the changes.
Jeff B. is a smart fella. Get a load of what he says in the current American Fencing about the travesty of the bent arm "attack", and his claim that it's now on the wane because the directors (led by sabre directors) no longer are allowing it. I sure hope he's right!
(I disagree with how my former clubmate describes his own fencing in the article: he did not use bent arm attacks: he had a 3-part game: 1-powerful parry riposte from 4; 2-fast stop thrust if you hesitated because of #1, and 3-booming lunge every now and again to keep you honest and not setting up the attack. His description of Jack Tichacek - that's priceless.)
"In theory, theory and practice are the same, but in practice, theory and practice are different."
