Clarification of whipover timing

[ALFREDII]

I have been trying to understand the USFA rules regarding whipover timing in sabre. The whipover timing rule appears in the 2006 USFA rule book as follows:

5. If the contact between the blade and the opponent’s target
takes place ‘through the blade’, the apparatus:
— will register the touch between 0 and 4 ms (+ 1 ms);
— will prevent the touch being registered between 4 and 15 ms (+ 5
ms), on condition that the contact between the two blades is not
interrupted more than a maximum of 10 times in the interval.

6. Should there be a touch made by the whipping over of the
blade which has not been signalled, whatever method has been
used to prevent the signalling, after 15 ms (± 5 ms) from the
contact of the blade with the valid target (the time for the
registering of the whip) and unless there has been another
touch, the apparatus should allow the normal registering of
any subsequent touches.

From this information it seems that a touch will register if contact with the gaurd and lame is almost simultanious (0-4ms) but will be locked out after the 4ms period until 15ms has passed. What I don't understand is the statement in point 6 that says "after 15 ms (± 5 ms) from the
contact of the blade with the valid target (the time for the
registering of the whip) and unless there has been another
touch, the apparatus should allow the normal registering of
any subsequent touches." At first glance this makes sense but what if contact between the blade and the lame is made during the later part of the whipover lockout window (many ms after contact between the two blades). Would the registration time for a valid touch still be 15ms even though the lockout window has expired? In other words, do all touches made during the 15ms lockout window have to have to have a durration of 15ms in order to register or will all touches register after the lockout window expires? Thanks for any info on this.

[SJCFU#2]

You might try thinking of it this way:

Touch arrives before contact between the blade and the opponent's guard or blade (the machine doesn't care where the contact occurs) - if there was a parry then obviously it was too late because the blade had already arrived on target - touch registers as valid;

Touch arrives within 4 ms of contact - there may have been a parry but it was too late to prevent the blade from arriving on target - touch registers as valid;

Touch does not arrive until at least 4 ms after contact but ends within 15 ms of contact - the parry was in time to stop the blade from arriving on target however the blade continued to bend enough to reach around the parry and was able to briefly make contact with the target before springing back, which broke contact with the target (this is a whip over) - no touch;

Touch does not arrive until at least 4 ms after contact however it it still in contact with the target after 15 ms have passed - the parry may have been in time but it was not effective at keeping the blade from arriving on target -touch registers as valid;

Touch does not arrive until at least 15 ms after contact - there may have been a parry or there may simply have been a meeting of the blades. In any event, by the time the blade arrived on target it was probably not the result of a whoever - touch registers as valid.

Of course that's only the theory of how it is supposed to work. How well it works in the real world is another matter entirely (some saber fencers would probably argue that it doesn't work at all, except perhaps when it is their opponent's favor).

Also bear in mind that the machine only indicates whether or not a valid touch arrived. When both lights come on it's still up to the referee to determine which of the two valid touches has right of way.

Note: For future reference, a question like this probably belongs in the armory section