Post by schlager7 on Apr 15, 2006 17:57:42 GMT -6
The following is an excerpt from an email I received about a year and a half ago from a friend who was well established as a referee and has since moved out of the division. He sent it to me shortly after I had begun to referee and had just come through a particulary difficult tournament.
I am still very much a developmental referee and sometimes refer back to this email before a tournament. I thought it might be helpful to others.
To add some fun, I did cut out a section in part #10 that mentioned certain fencers by name. Anyone who can correctly guess the author on my quote below in a PM can have the part I excised in a return PM.
__________________________________________________________
Here are a few of my directing tricks and thoughts.
1. I am right.
2. I am still right.
3. When I am not right, I learn and correct myself in the next bout. See 1 & 2 for this bout.
4. Image is everything. Fencers, like big cats, can smell fear and indecision. You are right to look and act like your call was obvious to everybody. There should be no "it looked like you pulled your hand back" but rather "You were hit in prep! Point to your opponent. On guard."
5. We all blow calls and make mistakes. Just make sure that you are consistent in your calls. My goal is always to reduce the number of mistakes that I make.
6. Reduce the amount of conversation in your bout between yourself and the fencers. You are not their coach so there is no need to explain your call in great detail. I sometimes only use the hand signals. That says enough.
7. Relax. I find that when I am concentrating really hard on the bout I get a sort of tunnel vision. I try to take a zen like approach and I mentally tell myself to relax and defocus. I can actually feel my eyes and
face relax while my field of vision expands. The actions then seem much more obvious.
8. Slow down your analysis of the action. Gary Van de Wege said it correctly when he said you don't need to call the action as fast as it happens. As I mentioned earlier, reduce your vocabulary and take a breath before you speak.
9. Call only the last action. You don't need to call attack, parry, counter-parry, counter-parry, riposte, point left. Just remember where the original attack began and then say "last action was counter-riposte. point left."
10. Stay calm, stay in control of the bout, card quickly and document everything. Don't learn this lesson the hard way. Fencer's may not like you but sometimes fear is a good replacement. Fencer's that are abusive to
directors have very little social standing in my book and I don't lose a lot of sleep over carding them. Allowing abusive behaviour only encourages more of the same.
11. Fencer's that don't preside are the most unappreciative bunch of people. If you didn't direct then there wouldn't be a tournament.
I am still very much a developmental referee and sometimes refer back to this email before a tournament. I thought it might be helpful to others.
To add some fun, I did cut out a section in part #10 that mentioned certain fencers by name. Anyone who can correctly guess the author on my quote below in a PM can have the part I excised in a return PM.
__________________________________________________________
Here are a few of my directing tricks and thoughts.
1. I am right.
2. I am still right.
3. When I am not right, I learn and correct myself in the next bout. See 1 & 2 for this bout.
4. Image is everything. Fencers, like big cats, can smell fear and indecision. You are right to look and act like your call was obvious to everybody. There should be no "it looked like you pulled your hand back" but rather "You were hit in prep! Point to your opponent. On guard."
5. We all blow calls and make mistakes. Just make sure that you are consistent in your calls. My goal is always to reduce the number of mistakes that I make.
6. Reduce the amount of conversation in your bout between yourself and the fencers. You are not their coach so there is no need to explain your call in great detail. I sometimes only use the hand signals. That says enough.
7. Relax. I find that when I am concentrating really hard on the bout I get a sort of tunnel vision. I try to take a zen like approach and I mentally tell myself to relax and defocus. I can actually feel my eyes and
face relax while my field of vision expands. The actions then seem much more obvious.
8. Slow down your analysis of the action. Gary Van de Wege said it correctly when he said you don't need to call the action as fast as it happens. As I mentioned earlier, reduce your vocabulary and take a breath before you speak.
9. Call only the last action. You don't need to call attack, parry, counter-parry, counter-parry, riposte, point left. Just remember where the original attack began and then say "last action was counter-riposte. point left."
10. Stay calm, stay in control of the bout, card quickly and document everything. Don't learn this lesson the hard way. Fencer's may not like you but sometimes fear is a good replacement. Fencer's that are abusive to
directors have very little social standing in my book and I don't lose a lot of sleep over carding them. Allowing abusive behaviour only encourages more of the same.
11. Fencer's that don't preside are the most unappreciative bunch of people. If you didn't direct then there wouldn't be a tournament.