Referees are Part of the Game -- They Don't "Cause" Your Kid to Lose

[lovefoil]

Conrad,

You are dead wrong! I do not know who complained at nationals and how many, but you might need to start listening to those. I have a lot of experience and international recognitions and trust me there were some incompetent, major incompetent refereeing going on in Y10 foil, among others. Those kids just starting to fence, some might not even understand that they are doing the right actions and the referee is encouraging the less skilled fencer to do the stupid stuff he/she is doing while confusing and taking away the confidence of the good one. The good one might even give up and stop fencing. You tell the kid to to change the action, but simply they do not have the experience yet. When you become a strong fencer, you will be able to change and "fence for the referee" Please don't expect that from the 8-10 year olds! You need to check out those young kids directing and get confused anytime someone hits the blade, inconsitently stop the bout, cannot distinguis attack and contra-attacks, preparations and direct attack, or just zoomin on the frikin box and forget to watch the action... oh please...on top of that they get off on a power trip when you nicly ask them what the action was... I say better not to serve as a volunteer if you dont know what a heck are you doing!

[Fencing Mom]

Conrad,

You are dead wrong! I do not know who complained at nationals and how many, but you might need to start listening to those. I have a lot of experience and international recognitions and trust me there were some incompetent, major incompetent refereeing going on in Y10 foil, among others. Those kids just starting to fence, some might not even understand that they are doing the right actions and the referee is encouraging the less skilled fencer to do the stupid stuff he/she is doing while confusing and taking away the confidence of the good one. The good one might even give up and stop fencing. You tell the kid to to change the action, but simply they do not have the experience yet. When you become a strong fencer, you will be able to change and "fence for the referee" Please don't expect that from the 8-10 year olds! You need to check out those young kids directing and get confused anytime someone hits the blade, inconsitently stop the bout, cannot distinguis attack and contra-attacks, preparations and direct attack, or just zoomin on the frikin box and forget to watch the action... oh please...on top of that they get off on a power trip when you nicly ask them what the action was... I say better not to serve as a volunteer if you dont know what a heck are you doing!

Could there be better evidence that y10 does not belong at Nationals? Why subject kids to the atmosphere of Nationals, kids who... "might not even understand that they are doing the right actions." These kids are one quadrant down from Div 1 women's sabre where someone is screaming her lungs out for a spot on the team. They are next to the final of Jr. Men's Foil where one coach is holding noisy court on one end of the strip and the other coach has his entourage screaming at the ref from the other end. Come'on parents - don't put your 8 yr old in the craziness of Nationals. Believe me, no 8 year old is going to miss his/her spot on an Olympic team because he or she stayed in the youth circuit until Y12.

[Allen Evans]

. Those kids just starting to fence, some might not even understand that they are doing the right actions ....... I say better not to serve as a volunteer if you dont know what a heck are you doing!

Why can't this be extended to the athletes?

I've refereed kids foil (though not at the national or international (?) level) and I can tell you that it can be insanely difficult to distinguish what actions the kids are doing. The parents and coaches often mistake the intent of the fencer for the actual action. They've seen their kid or student do an action a hundred times in lesson and they have expectations about the result of what that action should be. When the referee doesn't confirm that result (because the action is done poorly, or done in the incorrect circumstance, or at the wrong time) the referee gets blamed.

Are there bad referees working kids events? Most certainly. Are there good referees who call against fencers poorly executing actions, or executing actions at the wrong time? I think there are many more of the latter than the former.

A

[jfarmer]

Conrad,

You are dead wrong! I do not know who complained at nationals and how many, but you might need to start listening to those. I have a lot of experience and international recognitions and trust me there were some incompetent, major incompetent refereeing going on in Y10 foil, among others.

Then why aren't you refereeing? If you know "how it's supposed to be" then show your rating and get out there and ref.

[lovefoil]

jfarmer,

I did referee for a while.... no time, nomoney in it, long hours, etc... but you probably know that...

[Alexander Kai]

After that yellow card that guy lost the knock-out match (of the last tournament that year) so he had nothing to lose. It was very non sportsmanly behavior display if I ever saw one.

Isn't that a group three red card on it's own? Just who runs the tournaments you go to?