I attended the Cougar the first day only and I must say I liked many things, did not care for some, and disliked few aspects of what I witnessed.
First, I want to congratulate Davis for putting on the first "open" of the season for the GC Division. The venue at UH was very nice, beautiful natural light, nice temperature inside, with ample space to go around and put your bags and stuff.
Second, I appreciated the contributions of all volunteers in the registration process and the running of the tournament, in particular the referee volunteers drafted on the spot, and the general relaxed atmosphere as I expect when trying to have fun and watch some nice fencing from people I don't have the opportunity to see that often.
Third, I like to thank all participating fencers, young and old, for doing their best, making this a nice tournament, and spending a holiday weekend fencing instead of on another past time.
What I did not care much for was the long time it took on Saturday to get going (2 hours). I attribute part of the delay to the rechecking of "affiliation to the USFA" by Matt who had to read twice what was already checked upon registration. But in the end everything passed even his mustard.
I thought that the strips were not the right length. I might be wrong, but I did not see the scrupulous measurements of the strips which are performed at other venues. Better this way, since if it had happened, it would have delayed the start even longer and I never consider this measuring procedure that important anyway.
Two things were not adequately planned creating more problems no doubt because of the success of this tournament (in terms of participation), namely
the number of referees and
the absence of any grounded strip. I understand the cost and all that, but at smaller events we have had one "strip" to make it "official."
These shortcomings would not have been such a big deal--after all it was a local tournament, and other than the much desired letter ratings, it is for many of the competitive fencers a nice practice for the season starting a month from now--if the class and sportsmanship of some participants had been what it should have but unfortunately it was not. Another issue I have is on what the referees do or think they ought to do or are expected to do when they are in that role.
1. Lack of class and sportsmanship
I always thought that it is part of the code in fencing to acknowledge when you are touched. This is how you show your honor on the strip and off the strip, not if you win a particular bout. In an open tournament, you may have a 13 year old kid (as of January 1, 2007) who weighs 100 lbs and is 5' 2" and a 40-50-60+ veteran who weighs more than 200 lbs and is more than 6'.
The last time I checked, the tip of the epee was gauged at 750 g (about 1 1/2 lbs) so to score a touch there really is no need to go with the momentum of your 200+ lbs frame combined with the thrust of your powerful arm that goes with your 200+ lbs frame against a young person who weighs 120 lbs or less, and is also a girl.
Naturally, the younger opponent has a greater mobility and variety of moves which are the result of dexterity and proper training, not brute force. In epee, as a spectator, I appreciate very much the toe/foot touches and the touches to the wrist ever so light and precise. As a father of a young fencer I don't appreciate very much the bruises and even the scratches under her 800 N FIE uniform caused by
geezers who like to show their prowess in being still capable to stab a bull.
But let's give the benefit of the doubt and accept that the hits that caused the bruises were unintentional. What about when the above geezers are indeed touched -- delicately I might add -- on their size 12+ foot and don't acknowledge? Not all toe touches are toe touches, as we all know, but in this situation there are two persons who know what happened because they feel it: the one who is touched (he knows, unless he wears steel-toed working boots and there weren't any) and the one executing the touch by the feel of the impact transmitted through the blade to the hand. Of the two, the first one is really the only one who feels it when he is hit, so it is expected of him to be honest about it and to exhibit a sense of sportsmanship and class by acknowledging the touch so deftly delivered.
I know that there are always two sides to any story, and I may be biased toward the lighter, younger fencer, but this example should prove that something was amiss and that I may be, regretfully, right. Quick move by the younger fencer followed by a light touch on the shin! The judge appears in doubt. The opponent remains quiet. When the judge does not give the touch, the young fencer protests according to the rules and says,
"Ask him if he was touched or not!" The referee asks the question and the opponent, reluctantly, answers thusly,
"Yes you did, but you got so many touches you did not deserve so it is right you don't get this one!" The referee quickly reversed the call.
Contrast this with the following shining examples of great class and sportsmanship by
Davis Jno Finn. In a tight bout to make it to top 8, which he won 15-14 in overtime and earned him an "A", he acknowledged a tow touch against him and had the judge reverse the call. And even more, after the bout, he had the courage to tell his young opponent, that on a grounded strip he probably would not have won since he
"really wasn't sure of some annulled touches which the machine on the grounded strip could likely have accepted." What a class! Thank you Davis for showing that you are a gentleman and a sportsman!
Compare this, if you will, with the geezer who could not accept being whipped by a 16 year's old girl and not only never admitted to anything, but after the bout was huffing and puffing and telling anyone who would listen and not how he was robbed by a sixteen year old and the judge + two side judges! What a looser!
I hope that this was only a manifestation of poor sportsmanship under the stress of competition, and I don't hold any grudge. But there is an issue when at open tournaments or in practice,
"bigger and physically stronger" fencers are opposed to younger, smaller, and more mobile fencers who often prevail because of their mobility, flexibility, youth, and because they are better fencers.
The older fencer has, or should have, more maturity and use his psychological advantage, his brain, against the younger fencer, not his body mass and his thrusting arm with the intent to score a hit by force and the result of hurting someone. If you win by brute force, you are not 10 years younger, 30 lbs lighter, have more hair and less gut, nor a fencing champion. This is a sport, an amateur sport at that. Your manhood, in this case, is not threatened, so take it easy and try to enjoy it. And if you really want to show how youthful you still are, then go for a foot touch and let see how you recover...
2. What a referee is supposed to do
I also have profound reservations on the judging in general at this tournament, how the referees interpreted what their duties were. I'm not a referee but I believe I'm right if I say that
it is the referee who decides on a touch even when there are side judges to ASSIST him. If the referee is in doubt, he THEN asks the side judges and he still has the right to overrule the side judge. In this tournament, all referees decided to not even look at the feet and depend on the side judges for what THEY (the side judges) had seen, giving up in my opinion the prerogative of being the referee.
Everyone makes a mistake and most are honest mistakes, but if the referee does not want to look at the entire picture,
from head to toe, he should step down and ask someone else to do it in his place. This is why I do not referee nor would I ever, because in my honest opinion I don't know if I could see correctly what is going on and would have to rely upon others to tell me what THEY saw. But I expect from people who claim to be referees, who make a point in keeping and upgrading their own ratings, to act as such.
This relying on the side judges was made by every referee I observed. In fact I also observed that they acted differently when on their own (generally speaking they were all fair) and when they were assisted by the side judges (I had many doubts about the collective judgement).
Naturally, in a local tournament this is not a big deal and it could be a non issue if we dealt with gentlemen who are not afraid to admit a touch by a 16 years old girl.
PS: I know that there is someone with the nickname of
geezer on this board and I just want to state that I use just the term "geezer" to maintain a level of civility in this post, not to call on the innocent (I suppose) member of this forum. I could have chosen another more colorful term that everyone who was there was using when describing this person and his behavior on the strip and off but that would detract from the point I wanted to make: fencing is a great sport, it does good for young and old, it puts on the same strip both young and old facing each other as equal, man against woman, heavyweight against featherweight, it seems to attract a large number of very nice people irrespective of age, background, or social status. Sometime though, when someone in this nice group of people loses it and does it so repeatedly, one should tell him, for his own good,
"get a life! Grow up!"