Official Whine Thread

[veeco]

I thought I'd start this thread, it's been a regular feature at another, non-fencing related bulletin board that I frequent, and I expect would do well here.

This is the place to vent your frustrations, about referees, coaches, fencers, bout commitees, etc.

I'll start:

I freaking hate it when referees can't see the beautiful toe touch I've made. I feel like an under appreciated artist, whose most beautiful painting he's ever made just got criticized by a stupid art critic with an overinflated ego. Get a new pair of eyeballs please!!! :-)

[catwood1]

I hate parents of fencers that do not know the rules, but still find they must argue with the referee.

"Why isn't it my kid's touch? He obviously hit the other guy! It doesn't matter that his light wan't on, we all know he did"

[SFfencer]

I thought you won that bout, referees do make mistakes - even in epee.


I hate it when referees don't see the action, and give the double touch, when your opponent obviously hit the floor.

[Purple Fencer]

Foil fencers: You do not need an armorer to retape your blade.
Epeeists: Learn to do your own freakin' contact spring adjustments
Sabeurs: Uh....ferget it...

everone....when you bring a weapon or cord to the armorer, GIVE ME SOME IDEA OF WHAT THE PROBLEM IS! Simply telling me "it's broken" gives me NOTHING to work with...give me the action, the type of error you're seeing...ANYTHING!

[wahrman]

I really really hate it when the stupid wire from the reel comes loose
from the scoring box and I only notice after the fourth touch I lose.

And then losing said bout 12-15.

Is it still whining if I'm the dumbass and not the ref?

[El Chucko]

I hate it when people don't take care of their stuff.

Rusty, bent blades that break when you look at them or, at best, leave stripes on their opponents' jackets. . .

Intermittent problems with a weapon/body-cord that they don't think to address until the morning of a tournament. . .

Spoiled kids who don't buy their own gear and think nothing of leaving it all over the gym, with no name written on it. . .

[veeco]

Originally Posted by SFfencer

I thought you won that bout, referees do make mistakes - even in epee.


I hate it when referees don't see the action, and give the double touch, when your opponent obviously hit the floor.

Just because I won that bout doesn't mean I can't whine about it :-).

catwood1: great one, I didn't think about that one, but that's the spirit!

[Purple Fencer]

I hate it when someone asked to be a hand judge hangs back at YOUR end of the strip -- b the 2 meter line -- while you;re at the OTHER end of the stripm and thus misses a blatant covering that would've won you the bout.

('Course, i would've had to go against Edew next, but at least I would've made it to the next round)

If you;re not gonna to the job, don;t ACCEPT teh ^#$ job!!

[HDG]

People (usually spectators, but sometimes actually fencers) who walk in front of the ref.

[wheeringa]

Originally Posted by Purple Fencer

Foil fencers: You do not need an armorer to retape your blade.
Epeeists: Learn to do your own freakin' contact spring adjustments
Sabeurs: Uh....ferget it...

everone....when you bring a weapon or cord to the armorer, GIVE ME SOME IDEA OF WHAT THE PROBLEM IS! Simply telling me "it's broken" gives me NOTHING to work with...give me the action, the type of error you're seeing...ANYTHING!

Yes! Oh that frustrates me to no end. What I hate is, "my weapon is broken, can i use yours while you fix mine?". Grrrrrr.

[Monash_Armourer]

People who present their masks for inspection that are several years old and have quite clearly NEVER BEEN WASHED OR CLEANED. If an armourer can perceive this before the mask is even in their field of vision, why should it receive a pass? I've certainly "bared witness" to some masks that could quite possibly disturb order on other strips...

I'm an armourer, not a test subject for a Military biological warfare program. My health insurance does not potentially cover this.

[CvilleFencer]

Originally Posted by Monash_Armourer

People who present their masks for inspection that are several years old and have quite clearly NEVER BEEN WASHED OR CLEANED. If an armourer can perceive this before the mask is even in their field of vision, why should it receive a pass? I've certainly "bared witness" to some masks that could quite possibly disturb order on other strips...[/i]

Remember, the fencing equipment must be free of defects, conform to all rules and be clean and in good repair. I have never failed anything for being dirty, but god knows I could have a few times. It would be interesting to see how that played out, especially with some of the ultra elites who's almost supernatural fencing skills may very well be the result of a beneficial symbiotic relationship with the organisms living in their uniform...

[Monash_Armourer]

Finding exotic and previously undocumented examples of microfauna is a noble thing and all, but it's not a requirement of any tournament I'm aware of to bring a potential source of your own.

While the use of said petrii dish may eventually result in a horrible, painful, drawn out death worse than you’d could ever wish on the most vilest and despicable of persons, it won't have any direct link to fencing as it may certainly provide you with enough protection physically that you might need in the event of a blade breakage. You might be added into the medical books, but not under sports related injuries.

That’s the problem with failing such an "item", if somebody has entered and paid for a tournament and only has said "item" available for them to use, I find it hard to believe that any appeal to the DT to override your fail based upon "not being able to pass the mask, due to at that very moment needing to rush to the nearest watery receptacle" would not be override.

If somebody manages to present 2 masks, one which does not require a meeting by heads of government to assess it's "threat level", and one which is "relatively" clean, there is no dilemma. One is passed, and the other is requested to be put away in the car boot of the competitor before first role call, while you ponder if anybody will call police to investigate a suspicious smell coming from their car over the course of the day.

Perhaps this is something that needs to be defined definitively in the rulebooks, or perhaps it will not ever even be considered as due to thh French being more alarmingly liberal than we have all at first thought.

[Chafunkta]

I can't stand hearing, "man, that was a great bout. It was really fun to watch," when it's me doing the losing.

Yea, gee thanks, jack***, glad I could be your entertainment.

(nah, actually I do kind of enjoy that)

- C

[RITFencing]

Originally Posted by veeco

I freaking hate it when referees can't see the beautiful toe touch I've made. I feel like an under appreciated artist, whose most beautiful painting he's ever made just got criticized by a stupid art critic with an overinflated ego. Get a new pair of eyeballs please!!! :-)

I hate it when I beat some foreign bastard in my pool, run into him in the DE and get creamed. It really kills me inside.

[RITFencing]

Originally Posted by SFfencer

I thought you won that bout, referees do make mistakes - even in epee.


I hate it when referees don't see the action, and give the double touch, when your opponent obviously hit the floor.

That ref had some serious problems, though... I had him in my pool, I watched him do a friend's pool earlier that day, and I watched him in DEs.

I don't get bothered so much when someone is new and making mistakes (we all start somewhere), but when they're looking at other bouts, or just staring at the box, then it angers me. That's not lack of skill, that's just laziness.

[veeco]

Originally Posted by RITFencing

I hate it when I beat some foreign bastard in my pool, run into him in the DE and get creamed. It really kills me inside.

Hey, at least you didn't run into a non-foreign bastard, otherwise, you'd have no story to tell :-)

Here's another one:

I really hate it when I see people who just don't know how to touch fencing with a brand new BF blade. Those are hard to come by, just like Ferraris. You have to deserve to have one, before you can have one. And in my book, if you can't control yourself enough that you risk breaking it on accident, you shouldn't have one!

[Inquartata]

Meh. Virtually ALL of the threads to which I post are whine threads!

Lexan masks, colored uniforms, epee bouncing, "referee consensii" which are not founded in the rules, bad grammar, ignoring the use of the shift key, logical fallacies---stop me if any of these sound familiar...

[El Chucko]

The most enlightening thing I got out of Bill Oliver's referee clinic was to watch the feet when directing epee. There's not much value in watching the action, since there's no right of way. The biggest issues are always questions about toe-touches and staying within boundaries.

[VorpalCat]

Originally Posted by Purple Fencer

everone....whe