USFA Times & places

[3attacks]

Why can't the USFA tell you the times of your event in time to get a flight at a better price? I have been waiting and waiting to see the time my daughter fences in Palm Springs. The tournament is 12 days away. Still no time for check in. If she has an 7 - 9AM checkin we will get a flight out that day. If it is after 12 we will have to go out the next morning. So we still do not know and we are paying the extra money to stay the next day. Also, Why can't the USFA tell you a year ahead of time where their tournaments are going to be held. The colleges already knew that the JO's were in Cleveland but the USFA kept having TBA on their website. If I knew ahead of time we could plan when would be the best time to use our frequent flyer and when we should pay to fly. Many people are spending big bucks to attend these tournaments at least give us some help.

[Peach]

The check-in times for Palm Springs are up--I just checked them. Have been for at least a couple of days.

While I sympathize, and wish the USFA would commit themselves more firmly, I always schedule myself to arrive the night before my event and leave the day after. There are no guarantees my event will end when it's supposed to. I ended up sending my teenager home on our pre-arranged flight and driving home overnight as the 9th person in a car the last time I scheduled my flight by calculating from the check-in time.

[Capt. Slo-mo]

When possible, we try to arrive a day early, and leave the day after: Saturday event--arrive the Thursday night, sleep in a bit on Friday, see the town, get gear checked and ready, get good night's sleep. Leave first thing Sunday morning.

Seems like every time we veer from that plan, we have a cancelled flight or lost bags or weather delays or some other travel emergency, and get in at 2 am the day of the competition.

Similarly, the last couple of times we've tried to economize and fly out on the last flight the day of the competition, we've missed the flight, and paid extra.

It just seems like these national events are too important to have the fencer overly tired or stressed from normal travel problems, when adding an extra day can make all the difference.

[edew]

There was supposedly a motion proposed by Paul Soter to require that USFA publish the check-in close times for events 45 days prior to the competition, the event dates 60 days prior to the competition, and have all locations and blocked weekends decided by June of the previous season.

Don't know if that was passed, changed, or whatever.

Still, I agree with Peach and Slo-mo: there's no reason to cut arrival and departure times so close. Unless you don't expect to do well and just want to go and leave. In which case, why are you there in the first place?

[K1P2]

Arriving the early afternoon the day before you fence and departing the earliest you can the day after is always the best. When your child is flying 3,00 miles and experiencing a time change arriving a day and a half before is really smart. Red eyes home the evening of the event aren't that great either, they can't make school and you can't put in a day of work after flying all night and arriving home at 6:00 AM. Better to have as good dinner, relax and leave the first flight home the next morning.

[Sabresque]

One problem with the two days ahead scenario is that if your kid is attending school, they will miss work. It depends on the work ethic of the kid, and the attitude of the parents. A person I know who has to go to many NACs and yet is still in school, schedules to arrive the night before their event, at the latest, 8 or 9. Oftentimes, the kid will get to part of their school day before they must leave for the flight. they fence the next day, of course, then leave the next day after that, departure time pending on whether it's still the weekend or if it's another school day.

[hscoach]

It is not the money as much as the school time lost when not necessary. My child is a Junior in high school and if he took the extra day each time because we do not know the schedule he would miss quite a bit of school. He is on the junior point list in men's saber. The schedule this year so far for men's saber has not been very good. If we took the next day off or the day before off he would miss many days of school.
Louisville - Sunday - 1 day of school
Palm Springs - Sunday - 1 day of school
San Jose - Sunday and Monday - 2 days of school
JO's - Friday - if he arrives early because we do not know the start time on Friday - 2 days of school
DIV 1 in April ???

If we knew he was starting at 8 AM or on Friday or 10AM at the JO's we could catch the appropriate flight and he would not miss school.

I think common courstesy to the students should be a published start time at least 6 weeks before a tournament.

[hscoach]

We found out 2 days ago that the men's saber in Palm Springs would be 8AM. This means you could catch a 8:20PM Red Eye with no problem out of Palm Springs. If we knew this ahead of time it would have been easier. We would love to stay in Palm Springs longer if it was the summer or spring break. But, he is there to fence not sightsee.

[Peach]

I just figured my kid was going to miss some school. I apologized to her teachers and we took the heat when she had an NAC, and she never missed any other school days. They complained. But as a teacher in a school similar to the one she attended, I knew that they lost other kids for family vacations, early or late travel days between vacations, professional sports games that went into the evening so the kid was exhausted, other plans, and random sniffles, so I didn't feel particularly guilty.

[Mo]

I find that the timing for meets is very difficult. After some experience, as a parent, the timing is starting to become more clear.
The popular wisdom is to fly to a Euro meet the day before, actually you leave (two days before the meet,) on the 21 and arrive on the 22. (as an example) Then after all the travel and lack of sleep, the kid will fence on the 23rd. My daughter takes her fencing gear except the weapons in a carry on. Usually there is between 12-16 hours between arrival in a country and the fencing.

Allegedly, according to the research, that is supposed to be your freshest day. It screams against all the common sense I have in my head but I bought it.
Next meet we will do an experiment. Get there a full 24 hours, perhaps even 36 before the meet. That way if the bags are lost then can be found. That way if you have a noisy hotel room you can still get some rest.

We tried leaving the same night as the competition too and that was a disaster. Had to call the airlines and cry to get the ticket moved until the following day(the 100 bucks per ticket did not hurt either.) Also had to scramble to find another hotel room. It really sucked.
Take the time your kid needs. School will always be there. Rushing them through the competition does not help their heads.

[Zelda]

I must say that is where most Australian competitions are good. The cadets and juniors are always scheduled in the school holidays (U/20's in January and U/17's in June). The senior comps (except for nationals) are only generally 3 days and they try to hold them on 3 day weekends which are already gazetted public holidays (or they did). Nats are slightly different and I must admit this will be the first time I will not have arrived at least a day before my event. I arrive the night before, to a state I dont know, to a venue which I dont have a clue about. Least I know my gear has passed weapons check!!!!
I know there is a tentitive calendar out for next year already, and its only the later dates which are TBC. Maybe in that sense the AFF is slightly more organised then the USFA.

[edew]

USFA does that as well (schedule things over 3-day or 4-day holidays, excepting for Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Year's).

However, it still requires some people to come in the day before and some people to leave the day after.

[Army Fencer]

The timing issue is very rough for me because I really can't miss a whole lot of school days. I'm not too pleased about this Friday tournament coming up because I have to miss an exam and a lab. My school isn't too happy letting me go and because of it the dean only wants me to go to one national or international tournament a semester.

It would help me a whole lot to convince my school and my chain of command if I had a better idea of when these tournaments go.

I suppose that's what I get for being an overachiever.