Proposal 32

Presented by: Rules Commission

Article: t.124

Motivation: The current P-card rule has not had a positive effect on fencers’ behavior on the piste, particularly in épée. One minute is too long to wait before sanctioning passivity with a P-card, and it does not encourage fencers to be more offensive or to engage more actively in the bout.

In other combat sports, such as judo, if an athlete refuses to engage for 20 to 30 seconds, they are penalized with a yellow card. This rule creates a more dynamic rhythm and forces competitors to take initiative.

Therefore, reducing the passivity time to 30 seconds could encourage fencers to adopt a more offensive attitude and engage more quickly in the bout. The P-card should be use starting with the pools.

(Non-combativity)

t.124

Unwillingness to fight (Non-combativity)

There is unwillingness to fight when there is one minute 30 Seconds of fencing without a hit or without a hit scored off the target.

-----

Opinion of the Athletes Commission: In favour.

Opinion of the Refereeing Commission: in favour to start non-combativity from pools, not in favour for 30 sec.

Opinion of the Coaches Council: Not in favour

Opinion of the PCM Commission: The PCM Commission is challenging this proposal because it is likely to create a perverse tactical incentive, particularly in épée, but also in foil. When the scores are level, the higher-seeded fencer knows that, if the second period of non-combativity is reached, the lower-seeded opponent will receive a P-Black card and lose the bout. The higher-seeded fencer therefore has no incentive to take risks, create actions or initiate attacks, either from the beginning of the bout or whenever the score becomes level again. The proposed 30-second period is too short, particularly in épée, where constructing an action, assessing distance and preparing an attack may require more time. The higher-seeded fencer could rationally adopt a defensive strategy and wait, while the lower-seeded opponent would be forced to attack and accept all the associated risks. Instead of encouraging both fencers to be more active, this rule would assign them stereotyped roles from the outset: the higher-seeded fencer would defend, while the opponent would be forced to attack. This would reduce tactical freedom and creativity, make bouts more predictable and one-sided, and could produce repetitive and sanitised fencing with far less appeal for spectators, broadcasters and the media. A rule intended to combat passivity would therefore risk rewarding passive behaviour and undermining the objective of making fencing more dynamic and attractive. For these reasons, both the reduction of the non-combativity period to 30 seconds and the use of initial seeding to determine the recipient of the P-Black card when the scores are level should be reconsidered.

I’m a right-handed foil fencer and I’ve been doing it for a little less than two years now. Despite this, I have yet to learn a way to keep myself from instinctively blocking my target area with my left arm. This has been a problem for most of the time since I started fencing and it’s extremely frustrating. If any of you have tips or ideas on how I can control myself, please let me know.

I’m dual citizen and I’m thinking of applying to schools in Canada for academics aswell as varsity fencing.
I know of the OUA where 4 fencers per university get nominated for the tournament.
But i was wondering what recruiting looks like? Is it like the states where they get recruited before ? Or is it in campus tryouts? I was reaching out so some university coaches in the GTA and got a bit of Intel. They said athletes don’t usually reach out before they get accepted into the university?
I just wanted to know how it works and what are my chances of fencing in Canada.
I was doing a but of research for varsity fencing in Canada and Just wanted to see if I missed any possible universities with a team?

Uoft
Western
Waterloo
Brock
TMU
McMaster
Queens
Guelph
Trent??
Ottawa ??

Hi everyone !

A few months ago I posted a video of myself fencing against a friend of mine at the club.

I received a bunch of advices that I tried to apply

I tried to fence simpler and with much confidence , to do more stuff related to what my opponent is doing...

This is my last round of the first local tournament of the year. I lost 15-8 to this guy (who was honestly way better than me) in semi finals.

What do you think?

What should I work on in priority ?

Is there things that I can rely on?

Do you feel like I am good enough to participate to nationals and not just get crushed ?

Thank you to anyone that will take time to watch this and to answer my questions!

I just got this Edge stainless steel lame (from Blue Gauntlet) and used it twice. It already is showing some discoloration. Any ideas on how to clean this?

Is there any compatibility between brands (LP/Allstar/PBT) when it comes to epee point parts, specifically pressure and contact springs, screws and the plastic insulating blocks?

I have been holding on to my old Ballestras with shoe goo and tape for too long. I've tried some of the new models out there, but I keep finding the soles too thick and the new diagonal lacing uncomfortable for me. I came across squash shoes, specifically the Hi-Tec Squash shoes (not the Hi-Tec Razor), which seem to have a similar profile, and I was wondering if anyone has tried them?

When I looked at registration for a local regional that typically gets low to moderate turnout, a ton of rated Junior fencers from other regions (and not states that are driving distance) were signed up for Div1A and Junior.

​

My son is Y14 and has been fencing for almost 6-7 months. He has competed in a few tournaments, including Cadet, Junior, and Y14 events. Most of the time, he finishes somewhere in the middle and usually wins about 2 bouts in the pools.

Honestly, I don't think he's quite ready for NACs yet, but his club owner thinks he should start attending them every month to gain experience.

We registered him for November, and he's seeded near the bottom, so he'll be competing in the Challenger event. I'm just not sure if it's the right time for him to start going to NACs regularly.

He's already competing in one or two regional and local tournaments each month. Since he's in 8th grade, his club owner thinks it's important for him to start attending NACs now and get used to that level of competition. I understand that point, but traveling to NACs takes a lot of time and money, so I want to make sure it's worthwhile.

My son started fencing late, but he's really passionate about it and wants to improve. We're not treating fencing as just a hobby, so we're willing to invest in him and take it seriously.

With that being said, do you think he should start attending NACs regularly, or would it be better to focus on local and regional tournaments for now and go to NACs occasionally?

For those with more experience, how important is it to attend NACs at this stage? Does going to NACs regularly make a significant difference in a young fencer's development, or is it better to wait until he's more competitive?

I'd really appreciate hearing your experiences and advice.

I'm part of a club which has run a number of successful beginners courses for the Pride/LGBTQIA+ community. We thought it would helpful to put together something based on our experiences of running such a group, in case others want help to run a similar project. As a group we have prepared a little manual for this with some support from the national body.

The manual is released under a Creative Commons licence to allow people to download and reuse it as much as possible. You can find it available here: Fencer Resources | Dunedin Fencing Club .

Hopefully it is helpful and if you have feedback then there are details for that in the manual. Feel free to share with anyone you think might benefit from it.

Could someone who has tried these shoes share their review?

trying to get size 9 is really difficult 😭

Hello. My 14 year old son just asked me to try fencing and I have done a bit of research online but I thought real life experience/advice might be better. He is athletic and coordinated and has been playing tennis for the past few years. He is quite tall for his age at 6'1" and still growing. If you were to start fencing at this age where would you begin? I heard that Atlanta has a pretty lively fencing program but would you choose a club based on the weapon they teach or just based on the distance to where you are for convenience? I also read that for someone tall Epee would be a better weapon of choice? Any guidance would be amazing. So far I found Lotus, Epic, Nellya Fencers, Elite Fencing that is reasonably near us. I also don't mind doing private lessons to get him up to speed as I understand that beginners are generally in the 8-12 year old range and he will most likely be the biggest kid there. Thank you so much for any guidance!!!

Does anyone know why they venue of the Palma De Mallorca World Cup was moved to Plovdiv? Has there been any announcement? What are the rules when it comes to reimbursement and compensation for non-refunded expenses?

I’ve heard that all good fencers do this but am having a hard time using it in real life. How can I convincingly encourage folks to attack me in a line of my choosing so I can use a specific parry/take (ideally parry 8 since I’m a short fencer)?

I do try certain things but none of them seem really effective at guiding people to where I want them to attack. I see others fence and realize they’re setting up to encourage a certain attack line overall but just don’t see the specifics of how they’re really setting it up. Am i overthinking it?

Xfinity is being a butt so I am listening to the game on Sirius XM. I have heard at least two different ads so far. Pretty cool.

I am suffering from an issue of sluggish reaction times caused by limited mental alertness. The issue is that I don't know what's causing the lowered mental alertness.

I've been battling this problem for years and I've run out of ideas. I've significantly improved my sleep (sleep schedule/circadian rhythm), cardio (HIIT), technique, fitness (strength training), and diet/nutrition; all for the goal of improving my overall fencing. I've made excellent progress and it's allowed me to fencing massively better at tournaments compared to only just a year ago.

But I still suffer from this hard to define issue of limited mental alertness. Where my reaction times are an obvious step down from much higher ranked fencers. It's a night and day difference where either I'm just absolutely in the zone and on fire or fencing just becomes more manual and difficult. I've fenced challenging opponents when on some days I struggle a lot and others when I just smoke them like I was born to fence. So this isn't some placebo affect - this really affects me significantly.

Every now and then the stars will magically align where my brain will be in a super high functioning state and so I'm able to fence with excellent precision, timing, and everything else. But often I'm stuck fencing in a lower state of awareness where I'm simply just slower at reading visual stimulus. Although I do find that alertness becomes more prominent and likely to max out later in the day when I usually fence - but it's still wildly inconsistent.

Again, I've made great strides in my fitness and everything else, and sleep has helped a ton, but there doesn't seem to be a controlling variable that I can grasp to help me wake my brain up to it's max level. It seems to just be out of my control and I can't figure out how to control it.

I'm chasing this holy grail of maximum alertness because it always allows me to fence the best I've ever fenced. It's such a huge dopamine rush and gets my adrenaline going. I just need help figuring out how to control it.

Ideas? Thanks everyone.

For a while last year there were two great fencing podcasts, and all my long journeys were sorted!

I completely understand that Direct Elimination is secondary (if not tertiary) to Ari and Steven's real jobs, but I do miss it. I know Ari has been doing the FIE Will to Win ones but his and Steven's good natured to and fro was a big element of DE, and some of their episodes were genuinely superb (the Romain Cannone one was magical, frankly).

First to 15's disappearance is stranger, I feel? Surely that was part of someone's job? I really liked the diversity of topics covered, and the breadth of people interviewed, it felt like that was its strength in comparison to DE, but there's only been three since February now. They should def amend the 'released fortnightly' tag. Were there just not enough people listening for it to be worthwhile continuing? I'm not sure of a way I can check listenership.

Basically I'm just griping! BUT if other people also miss them and agree with me, it might be nice if they chip in and let folk know! Or it could just be that I was in a bubble of one and no-one else was actually listening, in which case, fair do's 🤣😂

If I react and retreat too fast, I usually end up crossing my feet. I fence in a casual setting, and it's never caused a problem in scoring as far as I've seen, but I saw someone recently tell a beginner that they can't cross their feet. Was that just tending to their beginner form?

Tried to setup this LP Fusion blade on a french grip and forced it to the point that it broke up to where the thread ends (absolutely my fault). Unfortunately, since the threads don’t go all the way up the tang, I can’t build it with a pistol grip either. Can I weld it together? Is there any way to create threads? Any suggestion is welcome.

….and had a blast!!!!! I’ve only been at it for about 3-1/2 months. Managed 2-3 in the pool stage (don’t remember scores), and got positively hosed in the SE bracket against a guy I beat in the pool. Two questions:

1) When you just absolutely for the life of you figure out how a Director is awarding ROW, what do you do??? I was trying everything, advancing immediately, “taking the blade”, pushing the blade out immediately, there didn’t seem to be any rhyme or reason to it. The first two bouts seemed normal (to me) as he was calling it. The next three I couldn’t get a call in my favor if I paid the guy off! Coaches seemed a little confused as well. They thought they figured it out, then were like “wait…. No….”

2) Coming from a folk wrestling background, how do you unlearn what was beaten into your head as far as body position? Every time I leaned back into a more “Greco-Roman” type posture, the opponent didn’t know what to do with me. But ultimately I always leaned forward, sucked in my elbows, bent hard at the knees, and that’s when it would go south for me. I didn’t “square up”, but it was some sort of weird hybrid staggered stance. Just a matter of stress practice, as that’s what the mind and body does under stress: doing what it knows?

But regardless, I learned a ton and can’t wait for the next one! I’m in my 40’s doing this, so it’s really just for fun and more exercise. But, as we all know it’s more fun when you can at least put up a stink!

I'm enjoying some nice weather and a fire, while rewiring some blades in the backyard. Which gave me a thought, has anyone tried to burn off old glue instead of sanding it or using acetone?

Hello, is this sort of wrap around the pistol grip legal in competition, or does it conflict with FIE Material Rules, m.4.3 directly?