Taking notes during competitions?

[catwood1]

This is going to spoil a lot of your data.
Fleche is not an action. It's a movement--like lunge or extension or advance. A fleche can be used to make an attack or riposte or counter-attack or whatever.

If you note when a fleche was used, but don't record the action that was being used, the rest of your data is compromised. If you record 5 attacks, 3 ripostes, and 10 fleches, you have very little usable info because you only noted the attacks and ripostes that weren't fleches. What actions were those 10 fleches used for? Did the fencer actually make 15 attacks and 3 ripostes? 5 attacks and 13 ripostes? 10 attacks and 8 ripostes? It's all very different info.

While you are absolutely right, it could be useful to note when attacks, ripostes, etc ARE carried out with a fleche. If someone is weak against a fleche, then it will show up in the data.

But absolutely right, fleche isn't an action, its just another way of delivering a hit.

[Allen Evans]

What is your take on that, if any?

Peter:

Unless we know the method of those hits and the opponent being faced, knowing where those hits occur is only part of information needed. For example, you could tell me that a fencer is scoring 70 percent of their hits on the opponent's side of the piste. But without knowing the opponent, and how those hits are scored, I might interpret this as success on aggressive actions, when, in fact, with this particular opponent, hits could also be scored on counter-attacks or counter-time against an opponent under pressure.

The information you're keeping will add extra dimensions to the anaylysis of fencers you already know (against both known and unknown opponents) but really isn't enough information for an outside observer to make conclusions.

A

[RkfdFencer]

One of those fencers had a very distinct pattern. In her poule bouts, some 80-ish hits were scored. Of those, only 8 happened in a position where the scoring tip was behind the middle line. Of those 8, she lost 2-6. Of the hits which occurred where the scoring tip was near, or behind, the opponents warning line she scored a majority. Of those that were scored close to the opponent´s guard line, though, she lost a majority.

Time-wise, she had a negative scoring differential during the seconds 0-30, a positive one during seconds 31-60, and slightly negative beyond that.

I'll jump in with my first impressions (which may just support Alan's point that we are not given enough data to draw the best conclusions from).

Only 8 out of 80+ touches scored in her pool bouts on her half of the strip (as long as I am reading correctly). Best success for her in scoring during the 31+ seconds of a bout. Possibly this fencer is a little impatient and attacking before she has a good read on the opponent.

I do realize there are other possibilities and other ideas the data brings up that I am not addressing. I do find this to be an interesting topic and look forward to some good ideas coming out of it.