FIE change to foil target for 2009

[SJCFU#2]

Is there any reason for such behaviour?

A combination of desire to please certain constituents (primarily the IOC and the television networks who are paying the IOC significant amounts of money for the right to cover the Olympics), inability or unwillingness to consider all possible consequences of their actions (especially adverse ones), and a good bit of ego.

Is FIE conciouss of the thousands of fencers around the globe?

They may be aware of them, but do they care?

First off, the FIE isn't made up of individual fencers - it is made up of National Governing Bodies (NGB's). It is the NGB's who are supposed to represent all those thousands of fencers around the globe.

Second, changes to the FIE rules really only apply to FIE events, and therefore are only expected to impact a small number of fencers. It's only when NGB's incorporate the FIE's changes into their own rules that it begins to affect everyone else.

The recent timing change fiasco is a perfect example of how this can snowball out of control. Originally the new timings were supposed to undergo a one year trial at FIE Junior events. After some NGB's complained about the expense of requiring different machines for training Junior and Senior fencers the trial was expanded to include FIE senior events as well. At this point most people still might not have noticed, except a number of NGB's decided that they should require updated timing for their major competitions and from there it quickly spread down through the ranks. By the time the trial period ended so much time, money and effort had been invested into updating machines to the new timings that any thought of reverting back to the old timing, or even significantly altering the timing to correct some of its problems, was pretty much out of the question.

i really dont understand

Join the club. Or better yet, let your NGB know how you feel, since they are the ones with a voice at the FIE.

[SJCFU#2]

Couldn't one just clip the pigtail to the back of the collar of their lame? not perfect, but workable until you have to buy a new lame when you could get one with a tag on the back.

Two potential problems with this.

First, the top cm or so of the collar is often insulated, as is the inside. The clip would have to reach down past the insulation to the conductive portion of the collar in order to be effective.

Second, once properly positioned the metal clip would also be in a perfectly location to come into contact with the fencer's sweaty neck. Think of all the problems we have now with sweat soaked jackets, glove and masks, then imagine how much worse it would be if you were to add a short which bypassed the insulation layer on the inside of the lame.

[fencerbill]

Really trivial to add a tab to an existing Foil Lame. Someone could make up a bunch, bring a $50 sewing machine to an event and sew them on at the rate of two minutes per Lame.

[rudd]

So i guess,with the new lame material on the mask, it will increase the foil mask's price quite a bit...

Very little actually. Just checked the Leon Paul site. An FIE sabre mask is only £6 more than a FIE foil mask. Additional cost for a new mask should be minimal.

[erik_blank]

Very little actually. Just checked the Leon Paul site. An FIE sabre mask is only £6 more than a FIE foil mask. Additional cost for a new mask should be minimal.

Of course that's assuming that a person is wanting to get a new mask NOW (or when the rule goes into effect) instead of 3-5 years down the line when their current mask finally fails inspection. *sigh*