Your local competition organization - bad or good?

[BugabooX]

General topic for discussion.
Have your local circuit competitions been run very well this season? Have they been worth the travel and effort?

(And did anyone here attend the Longhorn in Austin last weekend? Oy.)

[DJ Apostrophe]

I'm from the New England division (and usually have a hand in running most of the events) I may be biased, but I think the ones that are run here for the most part go well... There are one or two people who you do NOT want running a tournament... but if you get the right people (namely myself and adam blake) the tournaments run great. For example, last weekend we ran the U20 JOQ's, pretty much all day there was fencing going on on all 10 of the strips we had available. We had a lot of kids fencing (150 event entries) (results are on www.neusfa.org in pdf format, including pool results and de tableauxs ) and I didn't have one "when are DEs going to start?" type question.

[edew]

I think the original question pertained to the general feel of the whole local competition program, and not any specific local event.

I think BugabooX was asking whether there were plenty of fencing opportunities, convenient locations, good turn-out, events scheduled well in advance, events are well-publicized before the competition, hired officials, blah-blah.

Is that right?

In that case, check out the Bay Area's local fencing scene:

www.eskimo.com/~edew/baycup

I think it is one of the better ones.

[oiuyt]

The headline said local, usually implying divisional. The actual question however was asking about local circuit events (eg PCC, SWSC, etc.). There aren't any such things in the Northeast unfortunately.

-B :)

[edew]

I think the term, "Circuit" is generic in that it meant any local series of events, regardless of whether they're named (e.g., "Duel In The Desert"), pointed (e.g., offers points for the series), or whatever.

Also, the concept of a "division" is 99% for administrative uses, as far as the USFA is concerned. The remaining 1% deals with people qualifying to national events.

In the near future (possibly next quadrennial after the 2004 Olympics), the qualifying paths will come from larger "regions" (hence the Regional Youth Circuit) which are non-static geographic boundaries based on where the fencing population is high (or growing).

The problem that USFA is seeing for the near future is how to competently offer high-level competition to an ever increasing number of competitors. It is expected, if things do not change, that NACs may soon break 250 competitors in each event. That becomes too unwieldy. On the other hand, having such numbers is GOOD for fencing. It's a good problem to have. But, it's a problem nonetheless and must be addressed and resolved. The suggestion is to go to a "regional" format, which will be the qualifier to national events (National Championships, primarily). The regions, as mentioned above, are not statically assigned geographical areas. But, they will be split on a geographical basis.

Those regions will run "local" competition with all the trappings of a standard NAC, but perhaps with more intimacy and certainly with allowances for more creativity in the staging and such.

[remise]

DJ -

You have a right to be biased and proud. I was at the Veteran's Challenge, and it is the BOMB! I remember walking in and looking around and thinking,"Wow." It was VERY well run. I hated to have to go home.

[BugabooX]

It's not like this message board is known for the way posters adhere to topic and never veer into tangents...

Anyway.
So prereg was supposed to end at 9 a.m. This was after 60 fencers had already preregistered online, mind you. And yet the strip assignments weren't posted until 11-ish. Some guys were assigned twice; others not at all. Late fees were assessed against fencers who didn't realize the online list had been shifted to a new site (askFred.net). That was just the start of a long, long day, other details of which include:

* A director, to determine priority in a tie out of time: "I'm going to think of a number between one and ten...."
* After posting the Direct Elimination brackets -- sans a final seeding list -- several fencers express confusion about how top finishers in their pools (5-1, for example) could somehow be seeded below 40th.
* An hour after trying to recalibrate the brackets, a member of the bout committee posts modified brackets and explains, "These should be pretty close." Still no seeding list.
* And don't even ask about the guy who was told that he had to stand on guard bending over backward at nearly 90 degrees at the end of the strip so that his blade didn't touch his opponent's blade. Hoo boy...

It's the same (lack of) organization year after year at this particular event. That's whack.

[edew]

Originally posted by BugabooX
It's not like this message board is known for the way posters adhere to topic and never veer into tangents...

Anyway.
So prereg was supposed to end at 9 a.m. This was after 60 fencers had already preregistered online, mind you. And yet the strip assignments weren't posted until 11-ish. Some guys were assigned twice; others not at all. Late fees were assessed against fencers who didn't realize the online list had been shifted to a new site (askFred.net). That was just the start of a long, long day, other details of which include:

Main way to avoid long check-in and seeding time: DON'T USE COMPUTERS!

* A director, to determine priority in a tie out of time: "I'm going to think of a number between one and ten...."

Well, that's not fair. Even or odd is fair. A number (assuming integer) between 1 and 10 gives the chooser a 10% chance of being correct. Even or odd is 50%, which is the same odds (or so we're led to believe) as flipping a coin.

* After posting the Direct Elimination brackets -- sans a final seeding list -- several fencers express confusion about how top finishers in their pools (5-1, for example) could somehow be seeded below 40th.

Kinda wonder how they decided that. Most touch received?

* An hour after trying to recalibrate the brackets, a member of the bout committee posts modified brackets and explains, "These should be pretty close." Still no seeding list.
* And don't even ask about the guy who was told that he had to stand on guard bending over backward at nearly 90 degrees at the end of the strip so that his blade didn't touch his opponent's blade. Hoo boy...

Hey, why bother to fence hard in the preliminary rounds if they're not going to seed based on that information?

It's the same (lack of) organization year after year at this particular event. That's whack.

Does this division belong in the Northwest area of the Pacific Coast?

[BugabooX]

Longhorn; Austin.

Sounds familiar anyway, though, eh?

[135711]

I wasn't there, but it seems like everyone has a gripe about the way competitions are run. Why not get involved with the planning of the event. I my limited experience, what I think happens, is that we like a lot of competition and because of that lots of competitions are planned, but they're difficult to carry off. Maybe less competitions that are better planned would work in everyone's interest. My gripe is WHERE IS EVERYONE? doesn't anyone practice anymore, do I have to run 3 miles a day forever until I can find more fencers?

[135711]

[135711]

yes i do. more running. I found fencing tues and thurs. it's going to be fine. in 6 months i'll either bug out again, or bug her for one more day on the calendar.