Invalid Hit

I'm getting back into fencing after a 20+ year hiatus and have been
catching up on all the rule changes. But I just came across something
that has appalled me.

In Nick Evangalista's book, The Inner Game of Fencing, printed in
2000, he writes on page 58,

" ... the fencing powers-that-be have decided that off-target touches
in the game of foil will no longer be recognized." He goes on to
describe in detail the problems with this.

My question: IS THIS TRUE????

If so, what has happened because of this?

Tom

In article <6cpg3vgp6fb5rgl8tdn5r9cclbpe7orprs@4ax.com>,
Tom <t.buesing@att.net> wrote:

> I'm getting back into fencing after a 20+ year hiatus and have been
> catching up on all the rule changes. But I just came across something
> that has appalled me.
>
> In Nick Evangalista's book, The Inner Game of Fencing, printed in
> 2000, he writes on page 58,
>
> " ... the fencing powers-that-be have decided that off-target touches
> in the game of foil will no longer be recognized." He goes on to
> describe in detail the problems with this.
>
> My question: IS THIS TRUE????
>
> If so, what has happened because of this?


I think there was talk about doing this a while ago, but it never
happened. An off-target light stops the action.

--Harold Buck


"I used to rock and roll all night,
and party every day.
Then it was every other day. . . ."
-Homer J. Simpson

No-off-target was one of a slew of proposed changes to foil that were
floated a couple of years ago by the FIE. The last action the FIE
congress took was to table them and set up a committee to study them.
Since then, the attention of the FIE congress has been almost exclusively
focussed on the issue of the Olympics format, trying to figure out (and
pass and have approved by the IOC and accepted by the fencers) a way to
incorporate women's sabre into the Olympic Games given the apparently
set-in-stone limit of 10 events the IOC has handed down. I'm not holding
my breath for anything to happen with those rules proposals. The key
thinking behind no-off-target seems to have been that it would be less
confusing to spectators (never bought into that concept, myself). It
could additionally make a wireless scoring system for foil easier to
design.

FWIW, Nick Evangelista should not be considered an especially
authoritative or objective source on competitive fencing. As you may have
figured out, he pretty much hates everything that has transpired in
fencing since WW II, and is not involved in any significant way with
modern fencing, aside from hurling invective at it. Looking to him for an
objective opinion on modern fencing is a bit like looking to the Bob
Jones University faculty for an objective opinion on current trends in
Catholic theology.


-Dave

Tom wrote:

> I'm getting back into fencing after a 20+ year hiatus and have been
> catching up on all the rule changes. But I just came across something
> that has appalled me.
>
> In Nick Evangalista's book, The Inner Game of Fencing, printed in
> 2000, he writes on page 58,
>
> " ... the fencing powers-that-be have decided that off-target touches
> in the game of foil will no longer be recognized." He goes on to
> describe in detail the problems with this.
>
> My question: IS THIS TRUE????
>
> If so, what has happened because of this?
>
> Tom

No. Off-target hits still draw white lights and stop the action. There
has been discussion of changing this, but it has not gone beyond that.

Also that discussion on making the fencing arm become valid when in
contact with the 'true' target in foil??

j

William Marshal wrote:

> No. Off-target hits still draw white lights and stop the action. There
> has been discussion of changing this, but it has not gone beyond that.

James Russell <apo@slingshot.co.nz> wrote in message news:<3E38A874.DD228779@slingshot.co.nz>...
> Also that discussion on making the fencing arm become valid when in
> contact with the 'true' target in foil??


A lot of ideas have been bruited about, such as making the mask
conductive and valid target. They're all still in the brainstorming
phase as far as I know, and all the changes have varying levels of
opposition. Nothing has been done to implement or even to test any of
them, as far as I know.

Not to worry, foil has not yet been turned into sabre.