Portland NAC - Black card, voodoo donuts, Becca Ward and more

[edew]

95% of all statistics related to the outcome of a fencing action are fabricated out of whole cloth.
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It's closer to 98% now.

[catwood1]

Almost always, if there's a decent parry and at the right distance, the riposte is going to hit in saber. Of course, the person who got parried is going to try to make a saving counter parry, but generally, it's a tepid effort because it ain't going to succeed. History shows that. About 50% of marching attacks land, 35% fall short, 15% get parried and of those 15% that get parried in the right distance, the riposte will generally score. If they're parried and the defender continues a few more retreats (i.e., not the right distance), then the march goes the other way. Once in a while, the riposte misses (like a kill shot that hits the net). It's pretty standard. You're not going to see something funky happening, like a counter parry. If you don't believe me, go to the highlight reel. Count the number of counter parries in a typical bout.

If you're going to make up statistics, at least make up statistics that don't entirely forget about the possibility of attacks into preparation or counter attacks...

[Inquartata]

If a referee cannot see a fully outstretched arm brought back towards the body to deflect the opponent's riposte (and it being successful due to the lack of a light being turned on), and then re-extended towards the opponent's body, then I don't think that referee deserves the title of "referee".

Well, if that were how most counterparries were done, I might agree.

But a lot of them don't involve very much in the way either of "fully outstretched arms" or "brought toward the body". These aren't the old line-closing parries we're talking about; sabre these days is too fast for more than one of those. The counter parry tends to be just a sideways flick of the blade---when it's not just the interposition of the blade or guard, intentional or otherwise.

Most of the vets I know, have coached, or worked with never saw fencing prior to the 2005 timing change. But I guess you know more vets than I do.

All I can say is that an awful lot of the little blurbs about the finalists on the NAC awards podiums tend to go along the lines of "He fences at X Fencing Club, his coach is Y, he's been fencing for 47 years..."

95% of all statistics related to the outcome of a fencing action are fabricated out of whole cloth.

Including that one?

[Dev]

Including that one?

Congratulations on getting the joke.