Things that make you scratch your head

[darius]

I don't understand how mad some people get when beaten...

Some people take it personally. Some people don't like losing.

I guess it's my E rating, but I beat two A's this weekend

Congrats! At PNW Sectionals? In which event?

darius

[Rick Shellhouse]

Originally Posted by DJ Apostrophe

Actually, telk and I have had this conversation before... I'm 6'4" and he's 6'1" or 6'2".

Invariably, it seems that Y-14 Women's epee is the most common event for people to kneel in... at that point I have to bend DOWN to test weights and shims.

And honestly, do what I do for shorter referees, pull some body cord out of your sleeve and present the weapon by holding it on the blade in front of the guard... you don't have to hold it by the grip for it to work.

-w

That is fine...wanna tell the fencer to stand after you approach and they are too short....allthough Im 6'4" too and trying to imagine what height they would have to be to be holding a 35" blade and make me bend over to test...lol...

This is one of those hotspot arguments that everybody is never going to agree with....

My fencers are taught to take a knee place their guard on their knee and hold the blade perpendicular about halfway up the blade....

No insult to refs but Ive seen too many who have no clue how to properly test a weapon....this posistion helps cut down on possible ways for it to be messed up....and I've never seen a ref drop a weight on someones head...



R

[tbryan]

Originally Posted by Rick Shellhouse

Ok....Ill turn it around...are you so clumsy and inept you WOULD drop it on my head? Especially considering if my weapon is on my knee....you would have to move over about a foot to drop it on my head and not my weapon...

I don't think that kneeling for a weight test falls under the category of things that really make me scratch my head, but to answer your question...

Long day refereeing. Start to fumble the weight, try to catch the weight, and end up sending it a few feet in one direction or another. It doesn't happen often, but it only has to happen once for someone to get a bump or cut on the head/face. I think that the point is that it's unnecessary to have the fencer kneeling down several times a day just to bring the tip that low. It carries a (small) risk of having a weight dropped on your head, and it seems to take me longer to check behind the guard when you're kneeling versus when you're standing.

As long as the fencer stands with the tip pointed up and held still as I approach, I will grab the tip end of the weapon and put it where I need it, including asking the fencer to lean down or something if needed.

I used to kneel for weight test, but I stopped doing it after a referee narrowly missed my head with the weight many years ago at Nationals.

[MyrddinsPrecint]

Originally Posted by KShan5[PrFC]

How about someone spiking a foil and having it come back and hit them in the eye sending them to the ER?

That was hilarious.

Originally Posted by epeemike81

it was an epee, IIRC.

-m

It was an epee. And it wouldn't have been a huge problem, except for the part where she had already spiked her mask.......

[epeemike81]

Originally Posted by MyrddinsPrecint

It was an epee. And it wouldn't have been a huge problem, except for the part where she had already spiked her mask.......

And the rubber floor...

-m

[Wafath]

Originally Posted by dramamine

- People in foil/sabre acknowledging extremely obvious or one light hits. Usually the person doing this is a jerk. Thanks, rocket scientist, I think the judge can see the box.

I've done that. Usually before thinking about it, and before I looked at the box. *shrug* It's sabre. We're supposed to do silly things.

Other odd things:

- Ref in sabre calling an off target w/ a white light & annulling the touch. (In his defense, he was just moved from foil.)

- Rated ref whining about a team-mate getting carded for showing up to strip w/o an underarm protector.

- Rated ref hired for a collegiate meet, showing up wearing a sweatshirt for one of the attending institutions.

- A ref with a 1 bungling an epee pool.

W

[PeterGustafsson]

Hi!

Originally Posted by Zilverzmurfen

I've a funny comment, told by one of the parents who were reffing at Nationals this weekend.

Speaking of which, why did you not compete, since it was close to you? Did you volunteer for the event instead? Was that BL telling that story? Any more fun/strange stuff from Nationals? Anyway, your club got quite the medal haul. Congratulations!


Have a nice time!

Peter Gustafsson

[oiuyt]

Originally Posted by PeterGustafsson

Speaking of which, why did you not compete, since it was close to you?

She mentions competing (and doing well!) in her blog....

Unless I'm misinterpreting multiple different Nationals as the same thing.

-B

[Mr.MightyMouse]

This year - a kid shows up to an SYC saber Y14 without a single check mark with his Father and Coach in tow.

Y14 WS SYC DE - a girl changes her cord prior to the bout to an unchecked one - gets a red, loses 15-13

Qualifiers DE, epee - coach's relative hooks up - no check marks - how did he make it through the pool?

This one took the cake for me.

WF DII Qualifiers DE - in the 3rd encounter fencer A is losing to fencer B - 8:10 - about 30 seconds left. A's coach just arrives to the strip and starts yelling : "Take your time" and "Get to the break", obviously assuming that it the second one. The fencer actually listens and lets the time run out - we are talking about a young lady in her late 20's - early 30's - with a C? rating.
Bout ends - the fencer looks at the coach in befuddlement, the coach shrugs, gives the fencer a quick "good bout" speech and sprints towards a different strip on which presumably another one of his fencers is "busy".

[Grimaldi]

Originally Posted by Nolano

I don't understand how mad some people get when beaten...
I guess it's my E rating, but I beat two A's this weekend, and all I noticed was that one of them dropped his mask and the other flicked the ground in anger... My coach said one actually threw his mask, and the other threw his weapon on the ground and jumped on it. I was kinda elated to notice.

This reminds me of my experience in college with the fencing club. I had only fenced occasionally with some family members and had taken a semester course in basic fencing, so I was still a newb. I joined the club, and at the first open floor night I ended up fencing the club captain in a 5 touch practice bout. I ended up beating him, and he screamed in frustration after every touch of mine, ultimately throwing his mask on the ground and storming out of the room. I had never seen anything like it before, so I was pretty stunned. The coach took me off to the side and apologized and said that some fencers are like that. Very strange for a new fencer.

Shortly thereafter, either later that evening or at the next open floor night, I faced him again. This time he repeatedly fleched against me, and I couldn't figure out how to stop it. I could parry the attack, but he was always past me before I had time to riposte. The instant we would start, he'd fleche at me, time after time. If I recall, he would pass on my open side (left?), so I figured I'd see what happened if I shut that down. As he fleched again, I hopped to my left, set, and lowered my shoulder. He was already fully committed and ran right into me...and then tried to push me over. Being completely set and partially crouched down, however, it was easy for me to push up and send him flying, landing on his butt spread eagle on the floor. The director then carded him for contact with me, at which point he stormed out of the room.

I only got to fence for a semester or two, and those are the most concrete memories I have from it. Everyone else was great, so I chalk it up to every organization having a few bad apples. I'm getting involved again with a more mature group, and it seems like that helps a lot, too.

[Chuck]

Originally Posted by Grimaldi

Shortly thereafter, either later that evening or at the next open floor night, I faced him again. This time he repeatedly fleched against me, and I couldn't figure out how to stop it. I could parry the attack, but he was always past me before I had time to riposte. The instant we would start, he'd fleche at me, time after time. If I recall, he would pass on my open side (left?), so I figured I'd see what happened if I shut that down. As he fleched again, I hopped to my left, set, and lowered my shoulder. He was already fully committed and ran right into me...and then tried to push me over. Being completely set and partially crouched down, however, it was easy for me to push up and send him flying, landing on his butt spread eagle on the floor. The director then carded him for contact with me, at which point he stormed out of the room.

It seems that you should have received the card for causing the contact since you moved into the open space after he had already initiated the fleche.

In any event, during practice years ago, my son was practicing his fleches (fencing foil) against another fencer and his opponent kept stepping sideways in front of my son, who would then abort the fleche in order to avoid colliding with his practice partner. We told the young man that he could not step sideways in front of the fleche to block it without getting carded in competition. However, he continued to deliberately step sideways, each time causing corps a corps with a collision. Finally, my son decided to finish the fleche no matter what. The young man stepped in front of him again (he was a lefty) and this time the fleche was not aborted. The result - the young man blocking the fleche suffered a broken left wrist. He didn't fence for about 6 months. The best part - somebody was taping practice that day so we could show fencers their mistakes and the whole thing was caught on video. You could clearly see him step in front of the fleche.

[Grimaldi]

Originally Posted by Chuck

It seems that you should have received the card for causing the contact since you moved into the open space after he had already initiated the fleche.

Perhaps...it's a more advanced question than I could answer. I moved immediately and set, so it wasn't like I stepped in was way at the last second. I figured he had the obligation to avoid me as I had assumed a position, but maybe not. I'd feel worse if I didn't know the guy was trying to be a jerk about it.

[Chuck]

Sometimes you break the rules to make a point. I expect that you made yours. Plus, when your opponent IS being a jerk, the penalty is a small price to pay for the satisfaction in making the other guy look stupid.

My son did not want to break the guy's wrist. But I don't remember him ever blocking a fleche like that since then and he turned into a pretty good fencer.

[Chuck]

Originally Posted by Grimaldi

Perhaps...it's a more advanced question than I could answer. I moved immediately and set, so it wasn't like I stepped in was way at the last second. I figured he had the obligation to avoid me as I had assumed a position, but maybe not. I'd feel worse if I didn't know the guy was trying to be a jerk about it.

It's not like basketball. Whoever causes the corps a corps gets the card.

[lefty_monster]

Originally Posted by telkanuru

I never understood why fencers would go on one knee for weights.

Because an egotistical ref at my first tournament told me to. Two tournaments pass. Then a smart ref told me not to, so I stopped. Two years pass.

I am tall, so I often have to let go of the weapon, slide out some bodycord, and hold it so the short ref can reach the tip easily. Put weapon back in hand, pull bodycord. DONE! Then...I go to some NAC and a ref tells me to kneel down during weapons test.

I think some refs just enjoy seeing fencers bow to them.

[Nolano]

Originally Posted by darius

Some people take it personally. Some people don't like losing.

Congrats! At PNW Sectionals? In which event?

darius

Junior Men's Epee.

I beat Robert Greer and Wade Withington. They both beat me quite badly the last time we had fenced.

Carlos, who reffed my pools for both Junior and Senior, thought it was hilarious the way I kept winning, commenting that I hadn't made a single attack throughout the pools. I did, but both times they ended up in a touch against. So I waited for the attacks, and countered. Worked well. I ended up placing 7th of 17, fencing the person who took 10th. Anthony D'Auria. He didn't make the same mistakes Robert and Wade did, and he beat me.

Attacks are what I'm going to be working on next.

And by the way, you have some most interesting stories, I've found.

[PeterGustafsson]

Hi!

Originally Posted by oiuyt

She mentions competing (and doing well!) in her blog....

Unless I'm misinterpreting multiple different Nationals as the same thing.

-B

Peter<-

I read the WE results list, but STILL managed to miss her name.


Hanging head in shame,

Peter Gustafsson

[bigdawg2121]

Originally Posted by dramamine

To get the ball rolling:

- People in foil/sabre acknowledging extremely obvious or one light hits. Usually the person doing this is a jerk. Thanks, rocket scientist, I think the judge can see the box.

This usually makes sense both for reasons previously mentioned and b/c often it's an indication that you don't expect a call. Information gained from calls is important to ROW fencers; I may have missed but it's important to know if it was my riposte or his direct attack, my attack after the fall short or his valid remise during my preparation etc...