other schedules

[drayke]

Too much to hope for: schedules all in one place for divisional/sectional events as well as USFA events? How about Canadian events and other international open events?

And would someone please explain the point system and what events award points? A division open event, an international open event, a NAC for example?

[Capt. Slo-mo]

Drayke:

Others can chime in here, but this is my limited understanding of points.

Points are awarded for placing at or above certain threshholds at NAC and World Cup competitions. Local, regional, divisional, or sectional meets carry no points. In the US at the NAC level, it's generally the top 32 finishers that get points, but not always. It depends on the number of competitors.

On the USFA website, click on the "national rankings" line, select a category, then when the points lists are displayed, click on the link to explain how points are calculated. This will give you a rundown of how the USFA keeps track. Also in the point standing page you will see the results of various competitions. If you follow the link to one of the meets, it will tell you the placings and how many people got points. At the very bottom of the main ranking page for any category is also a listing of international points some fencers have accumulated...these are tabulated separately and added to the totals. Also, there is a table in the USFA Athlete's Handbook (a PDF downloadable document) that gives exhaustive details about what events earn what points for each fencer's placement.

And as if that's not complicated enough, there are separate tabulations for national "team" standings with the points that may not exactly correspond with the national rankings. That's because only certain event's points count for the team.

Also, you will notice that there is a sliding scale for point awards. At the NAC level for instance, if you win a Y10 event, you get a hundred points. Win a Div 1 event, and you get a thousand. In many of the age categories, points earned in the next higher age bracket can transfer down to your designated age bracket. Div 1 and international points can seep down to both the junior and cadet levels, listed as "Group II" points.

[lochinvar]

...And speaking to your first question, the capacity to find schedules of divisions, sections, the USFA, and international competitions is a function of the information available and the willingness of webmasters/division sectretaries to post same.

In the Michigan Division, whose site I have more-or-less inherited, I intend to list: Division events, Sectional events, National events, and those events which conceivably the members of my Division might be interested in attending: Indiana Division, Illinois Division, the Ohio Divisions, and Ontario events.

Craig has set aside a place for announcing tournaments and such, but I don't know that anyone has made much use of it up 'til now. I intend to start forwarding information for posting, and I hope others do the same.

Until then, it's catch-as-catch-can...just keep your eyes trained on the Division/Section sites that have event schedules you're interested in, and hope that they update on a timely basis...

[Craig]

You can use the forum section and calendar here to announce tournaments. As lochinvar stated, not many people take advantage of it.

[oiuyt]

In large part the problem is two-fold. It's a lot of overhead to list your events (anywhere, this is not limited to here). You have to go to the calendar and enter the details of each event separately. Each division has their own way of formatting their schedule so it's not easy to just combine them all in any automated fashion. Second, if you choose to spend that effort, what's the return? Everyone checks their local divisional website for scheduling and would rarely use this composite schedule. If no one checks your schedule it was wasted effort. Why bother doing it? Now if it doesn't get done then there's little reason to bother checking the schedule. We now have a catch-22 where it's not worth updating becuase no one checks and not worth checking because it isn't updated.

-B :)

[qatet]

I used to love the North Atlantic Section's site with the full list of events in the entire section. Now that I'm in the Mid-Atlantic I cruise five or six schedules and curse at divisions that haven't yet put their up (often mine!). I do hope that askfred.net will catch on on this coast. It seems like a great way to get cross-division information out there.

[Craig]

OK. Here's another idea.

Anyone who wants tournaments put up on the calendar here, email me your schedule and I'll get it into the db.

Craig
craig /at/ fencing.net