I won the V0-0 sweepstakes while refereeing Youth-10 Men's Foil. It was about as exciting as it sounds--three minutes and forty seconds of abject boredom (grass growing, crickets chirping) followed by twenty seconds of furious slapstick comedy.
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Prise de Fer SYC 2009 Dates Announced!
Boys: March 14 & 15, 2009
Girls: April 4 & 5, 2009
Events will be held at Dana Hall school again.
I'd also just like to point out that these tournaments, although they get more more insanely huge each year, are running smoother than ever. Huge kudos to the BC and everyone one the organizing side. This time, in the 6 days I ref'ed I can remember only one reseed (which was unfortunately not on the day that "reseed" was the secret word!). I had only one truly long day; a 12 hour one, only because I ref'ed a quarter and semifinal, and then side judged the gold, in which there was a really long delay for a nasty rolled ankle. (Poor girl looked to be in a lot of pain. Still managed to win though!)
By contrast: we used to routinely have 15 hour days in the venue, and get released only after all the restaurants had closed. My first day ever ref'ing at a national tournament, I did an entire bracket of 32 DIV3MF by myself. I pretty much wanted to crawl in a hole an die after that. These days, 5 or 6 refs might do that on 4 strips.
Sure, things still go wrong, and there are lots of opportunities for improvement, but things are WAY better than they used to be....
1) Clean-ish. PM away.
2) Ummm at least 4? I think. Slight alterations. 2 different word of the day incarnations that I know of. Wasn't there for the last day or any occurrences on the 9th (though I did see the card)
3) Totally agree with Peet....whole page of D3 MF by yourself the year it was a table of 512 sucked hardcore.
__________________ I now dangle to the left....my tassle. Get your minds out of the gutter.
"Martin was not an optimist; he was a prisoner of hope." Optimism is about assuming there's evidence that justifies your outlook while hope is about creating the evidence and procuring your own happiness or vision of the world. - Professor West
But...did you really have a coach ask you to review the video he took of the bout?
Yes, quite. And I'm not the only one.
In my case, a fairly well known coach from a certain east coast club wanted me to review the video of the 15th touch that someone else (a parent I think) had taken from way down one end of the strip. He wasn't trying to get the call reversed or anything, he just wanted to prove me wrong.
3) Totally agree with Peet....whole page of D3 MF by yourself the year it was a table of 512 sucked hardcore.
Actually, my "page of 32 by myself" experience was not the year that DIV3MF was over 300 people. It was a few years before that. I had the tremendous good fortune not to be ref'ing the infamous day of the table of 512...
In my case, a fairly well known coach from a certain east coast club wanted me to review the video of the 15th touch that someone else (a parent I think) had taken from way down one end of the strip. He wasn't trying to get the call reversed or anything, he just wanted to prove me wrong.
My fairly well known coach from a certain east coast club who wanted me to review the video taken by a parent of the 15th touch on my strip was initially intending to have the touch overturned. My call was appealed, and the appeal decided. After that appeal was denied, the head referee then condescended to view the video. The coach said "Well, you can't tell." The parent came up to me and said I was right. I never saw the actual footage myself.
Getting to 14-14, three touches with no results, having the reel clip break, waiting approximately 10mins to finish the bout, not eating fast enough due to break, winning the bout, losing the next, getting a migraine, going home before my club medaled in the team event that day.
I can't believe "Coach/Parent screams at you/fencer in foreign language" is not marked
Aw, shoot! I didn't notice that screaming at the fencer counted for that square. That most certainly happened plenty. I only had them yell at me in english. Sure, often broken & heavily accented english, but english nonetheless.
-p
And honestly, I didn't get that much grief from coaches this time around. Either I'm getting better, or they're getting mellower. Perhaps both, but I'd like to think at least the former!
Yesterday (last day), one of the boxes was "You do something nice for the bout committee." My daughter came up and gave most of the BC crew shoulder massages, which were quite popular. (She did have an ulterior motive, though--our standard deal for tournaments is massage exchanges, and her shoulders--especially the one on the side she mostly used the remote on--were pretty stiff from all those signals).
Actually, my "page of 32 by myself" experience was not the year that DIV3MF was over 300 people. It was a few years before that. I had the tremendous good fortune not to be ref'ing the infamous day of the table of 512...
-p
A friend of mine remembers that day quite clearly. He tells it as the instructions were "Here is your part of a table of 512. Come back when you're in the 8."
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"Prefiero morir de pie que vivir siempre arrodillado." - Emiliano Zapata
Y10 boys cry a lot when they lose...V50's laugh a lot when they win...the huge blue room at the end made an instant mood change...some still salute at La Belle...someone from the Convention Center commented, "I watched this teenaged boy with two names on his jacket clean up an orange soda he spilled on the carpet instead of walking away. You fencers are a respectful crowd."...I overheard one newbie DE loser say at the handshake, "I know you kept doing the same thing over and over. " Opponent said "Well, it kept working..."
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"At the very heart of the power relationship, and constantly provoking it, are the recalcitrance of the will and the intransigence of freedom."
Michel Foucault, "The Subject and Power"
Y10 boys cry a lot when they lose...V50's laugh a lot when they win...the huge blue room at the end made an instant mood change...some still salute at La Belle...someone from the Convention Center commented, "I watched this teenaged boy with two names on his jacket clean up an orange soda he spilled on the carpet instead of walking away. You fencers are a respectful crowd."...I overheard one newbie DE loser say at the handshake, "I know you kept doing the same thing over and over. " Opponent said "Well, it kept working..."
I checked with Ashley (whose layout we used, by the way--for a bit before setup, it was thought we might have had 12 strips in the ballroom, and as strip manager for 7 of the 10 days, I found it really easy to block out events on the layout we ended up with) and she agreed that the pods were not nearly as messy at the ends of the days as has been the case for the past couple of years. Our theory is that the lack of the drapes made it easier for people to see the empty Gatorade and water bottles and nacho trays and jackets and body cords and broken blades that were left on the strip, so fencers were better at picking up after themselves. (One wag suggested that the difference might have been the lack of the Div. I events, but I think it might also have had to do with parents either nagging their kids to pick up after themselves or picking up after their kids themselves.) In any case, there was much less trash to be collected from within the pods at the ends of the days.
All in all, a remarkably smooth and pleasant SN--nowhere near the usual stress on Day 6 (I'm tired, of course, but never reached that "OMG, how many more days of this do we have to endure?" state common to BC staff who work the whole tournament).
