As a referee what are you looking for to determine the attack when sabre fencers both start right from the command "fence"? In other words, what actions by the fencers create a true simultaneous call vs. an attack/counter-attack call. Are there tempo-stealing moves involved, is it a matter of "fastest out of the gate", or are there other factors?
Nearly every fencer has, at some point, read at least part of one of Nick Evangelista's books on fencing. Also, at some point, every competitive fencer learns to take Evangelista's writings with a very large grain of salt.
Looking at his writings, there are several areas where he is just out of touch with the fencing world and modern sports science. Oftentimes his assertions on what constitutes proper form are variations of the "we've always done it that way" arguement.
One thing to his credit, he does love fencing and wants to promote it.
Fencing.Net recently sent over some common sabre refereeing questions to national sabre referee Matthew Cox.
Matt Cox - Sabre Ref
What do you look for with a point-in-line in sabre? What kind of break in distance is needed for you to assign the PIL priority and what is the fencer "in line" allowed to do while still maintaining priority?
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Nearly every fencer has, at some point, read at least part of one of Nick Evangelista's books on fencing. Also, at some point, every competitive fencer learns to take Evangelista's writings with a very large grain of salt.
At the US Summer Nationals in Miami, FL, I had the opportunity to talk with a few fencers about their Uhlmann masks and inform them of something that was quite surprising to most.
The new 
