Summer Nationals

[Mo]

Who is going and what are you fencing??

Is everyone qualifed and ready to enter??

[CvilleFencer]

I am going but missed the qualifing tourney for anything but foil. I also might be looking for somone to share a room with... I am from Austin originally so you get a free tour guide in the deal!

[Sarah]

I'm going! I'll probably br fencing: y-14 f, cadet f, Div II f, Div III f, and maybe Junior f if I am qualified. Oh and I'll also be fencing y-14 e. I'm quilfied for everything except Juniors I think. Look for me, I'll be one of the few foil fencers with a Hawaiian club! Good luck to every one who's going!

[Capt. Slo-mo]

Sarah:

A Hawaiian club? What a great director intimidation device!

You just report to the strip, casually lean the club against the scoring table, glance meaningfully between the club and the director, and hook up. For extra benefit, try whirling it around and uttering gutteral war chants while the director is checking the other fencer's equipment.

[Sarah]

Sarah:

A Hawaiian club? What a great director intimidation device!

You just report to the strip, casually lean the club against the scoring table, glance meaningfully between the club and the director, and hook up. For extra benefit, try whirling it around and uttering gutteral war chants while the director is checking the other fencer's equipment.

I meant I'm from a hawaiian club. Gosh! lol.

(I think that you were joking, because it made me laugh.

[ra2000a]

yay .. me go to nationals to! probally div. iii, ii, HOPEfully 1-A and probaly some others which im not sure about ... hope to see u there!

[afc fencer]

I will be there. Im going to fence div2, junior, cadet, probally div1a,and hopefully div1

[Jupiter]

I'm hoping so, I'm trying to rally a group together, but we're all on super-tight budgets. It appears we're all practially broke! But, it's part of "Living on the Edge" so, we may be there. I'm still trying to decide that if I go, it's epee, and foil? and Div III and Veteran. Or, just veteran? don't know, I haven't been there in 20 years. who knows? the odds are against me, wait....where's the rocky music....

[KShan5[PrFC]]

Going

cadets, missed junior sectionals, div II, and DIv III. MS

I believe I am just using the hotel provided on the website from the USFA.

Austin, Texas to host '03 Summer Nationals

[MikeHarm]

I qualified for Div II, and am thinking of doing Div II and Div III men's foil.

[edew]

Will do Div I MF. May do Div IA MF if I qualify. Forgot to attend the Div II quals for Sabre and Epee.

Will referee the rest of the time there. Got a nice room in an extended stay hotel for $33/day (after taxes and other fees). Add to that a (possible) rental car at around $14/day, it'll be cheaper than sharing a room at the host hotel. And, I got transportation and my own room to boot.

[Jupiter]

wait....host hotel is $109/per day. if you share with 2 or three other teenage mutant turtles, you should pay about $40 and you won't have to rent a car. good luck - you're fencing one weapon this year, that's pretty clever.

[Sarah]

I talked with my mom, I'm not fencing Junior. Oh well... (I'll be able to sleep!) Hope to see you there! Good luck to everyone!

[Mischa]

How does the American system work? We just have one championship event over here, for everyone to enter (seniors, juniors and cadets) but you have a system of divisions and grades?

Could anyone explain? Thanks.

[Sarah]

I'm not quite sure about it but I'll try to explain it. There are different sections, usually comprised of 4-7 states. And I think that each state has i's own division, but the bigger state have more then one, like Texas it has 4. There are 4 main tournaments. 3 NACs (North American Cups, anyone in North America can enter, Canada, US, Mexico...) and the Summer Nationals, that's the biggest tournament. It has all events from Y-10 to Team to wheelchair. I hope that explains some. If you need a bit more specifil info just ask.

[Mischa]

Thanks Sarah.

So is division 2 better than division 4? Or are they 'separate but equal' (Earl Warren...civil rights movement!)?

[Sarah]

No, when you talk about state divisions it's like different cities, um... London and Moscow. In texas you have the Northwest, the southwest and some others... but there aretournaments that have divisions, div I, Div II, ect.

[CarlKnoch]

My wife and I have been fencing a year now, and we are going to SNs. She in Womens Foil Div 3, and I in Mens Foil Div 2 & 3. We think it will be a fun although exhausting trip.

Hope to see everyone there.

[CarlKnoch]

Mischa,

I just wanted to make sure you had the explaination that you needed about Divisions in the USFA.

The United States Fencing Association has divided our country up into regions that they call Sections. Each Section is then further divided into Divisions. I'm in the Virginia Division.

Here's the tricky part.... and I'm simplifying it somewhat, so please understand that what I write is not the only way to get qualified for Summer Nationals......

At our National Tourneys, they divide the fencing up into different "ability levels" for lack of a better term, and call them Divisions also. Tricky of them to call those Divisions too huh? They are Divisions 1, 1A, 2, and 3.

To fence in the Division 3 part of the tourney, you must be a D rated fencer or below at the time you fence in the Qualifying event. Anyone who fences and isn't disqualified in their Home Division's Qualifiers (like for me the Virginia Division Qualifier) is elligible to fence in the Div 3 part of the Tourney at Nationals. To fence in Division 2 at Nationals you must be in the top 30% of the fencers at that same qualifier. That's not the only way to get there, but it's the way that I made it through. So I can fence Div 2, and Div 3 at Nationals, as I was a D at the time of my divison's qualifiers, and placed in the top 30% of the fencers there.

To fence Div 1A or Div 1 at Nationals, there are other things that qualify you. Of course, don't ask why we have a Div 1 AND a Div 1A, because that's just crazy stuff to me. The Div 1 and Div 1A fencers are the best, and I won't be there anytime soon, so I haven't checked into it. I'm new, and I'm taking baby steps still.

(Baby stepping to the strip, baby stepping to test valid....)

Hope that didn't confuse you... as now I think I am...

Cheers,
Carl

[edew]

Mischa and Sarah: We have a problem with communication.

Mischa is talking about divisions in terms of skills divisions. Division I, Division IA, Division II, Division III (there's no Division IV or higher roman numerals).

Sarah is talking about regional division breakdown. There are 10 sections of the US Fencing area. Within the 10 sections are divisions. Some sections have many divisions (like the Pacific Coast Section having ten divisions), and some sections have very few divisions (like the Metropolitan section having just one division, the metropolitan division).

Apparently, members of the USFA have a very limited vocabulary because everything is described as "division". The word, "division" is overused. Too divisive. (haha).

I would use "region" for the geographical description instead of division. I would use "Level" for the skills demarcation instead of...division.

In any case, the Summer Nationals is run more like the national championships for swimming: there are many events and categories. Some for masters swimmers, some for juniors, some for seniors (old folks, which we call "veterans" in fencing).

So, if you go to the USFening.org website and look at the Summer Nationals schedule, you can see the many different events offered. There are, of course, men's and women's foil, sabre, and epee. But there are those weapon-gender events in Division I (hardest level), Division IA (second hardest), Division II, Division III, U-19, U-16, Y-14, Y-12, Y-10, veterans, 50-59, 60-69, 70+, wheelchair, and open teams and U-19 teams.

We've got lots of events.

Oh, and we have 55 geographical divisions within the US.