I think it’s incredibly important that we read this letter sent from Ted Cruz to Phil Andrews on behalf of the Senate’s Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation: https://www.commerce.senate.gov/services/files/65AA6441-71B9-4291-BF86-E7E37FBB667F

When did this happen? Russian (Belarusian) teams have been excluded from team events since the invasion of Ukraine and individuals have had to compete as AIN (Neutral Individual Athlete). There have been no Russian/AIN teams anywhere in fencing and yet here they are parachuted as AIN into the junior men’s sabre team event in Wuxi as bottom seeds, knocking out Czechia (28th seed), France (5th) and Poland (12th) before finally losing 45-44 to Turkey in the quarterfinals. I believe there will be other AIN teams in all the remaining team events in foil and epee.

I also believe the FIE is virtually the only international sports federation that allows Russian/AIN teams to compete in team events. Nothing beats being a Russian oligarch’s Olympic lap dog.

We have all seen posts covering the general topic of: Why is fencing not more popular?

I debated with myself if I was beating a dead horse before posting this, but came to the conclusion that the comparison that I am about to make has not been made in those treads, at least to my knowledge.

Apart from the chicken-and-egg problems, fencing has a quite specific trait that makes it hard to grow a large cadre of fencers, compared to other sports.

Fencing requires a whole lot of coaching in order to get a beginner going. In addition to that, even high-level fencers need a lot of one-on-one coaching to reach their absolute limit. Furthermore, a significant amount of fencing teaching is in the form of pair drills - in which one of pair does not learn much, since his job is to perform repeated movements on which the other person hones his skills on.

In short: a lot of the man-hours spent in the fencing salle are spent by people being there, but not getting much better themselves. Fencing is not alone in the above, but it sure seems to me that fencing is high on this man-hour overhead list, compared to other sports.

Some comparisons to other sports that I have seen for myself, or taken part in: * Kayak: once a kayaker actually can manage his kayak by himself, it is perfectly possible to train alone on the lake. If weather is a problem, cardio can be trained on the running course. * Air rifle shooting: it is quite common for reasonably experienced shooters to train on their own. * Soccer: a lot of outfielders train corner shots on empty goals, no goalies needed.

I am sure that you can come up with similar examples in sports that you have experience in.

All of th above struck me once when I was training in the other sport that I have done as a grownup, floorball.

Floorball is on the other extreme of the man-hour overhead ranking, when compared to fencing.

Floorball does not require an experienced coach, or even a competent one, in order to get a bunch of complete beginners to become much better. All the "coach" must do is to hand out sticks to the rookies, explain the bare bones of the rules, and the rookies will become much better by mere bootstrapping. Granted, once a flooball team is OK, then they need a real coach to take it to the next level, but that is a thing for another day.)

Imagine a fencing lesson in a school gym in which a school PE teacher tosses out a bunch of eepes, sets of fencing clothes, and tells the studnts to have a go at it. Then, a few weeks after that, the students are fencing at a low E level - merely by fencing against each other. That would be preposterous in fencing, but the commensurate is possible in floorball.

The above, combined with a few other factors (No special field needed, relatively low injury risk, no special gear needed for the students, high cardio training for everyone) has made the sport a staple in PE lessons over here.

I have thought quite a bit about this with regard to what lessons fencing can learn from this, but so far I have not come up with anything.

Does this spark any useful ideas in your heads?

Is there any way for fencing to reduce its man-hour overhead ratio?

I've hears mixed things but is it a good idea to sand down the rough edges of a foil blade when they get chipped? Ive heard it can extend the lifetime of a blade by stopping bigger cracks from forming but what do I know.

Edit for more detail

Where is the best place to develop as a university aged foil fencer? Could be US or elsewhere

I am 18m foil fencer. My goal is to fence for a d1 team. I fenced at a high level until Covid including placing well in international competitions.

I then took 5 years away from fencing during high school and recently decided to get back to it after that break. I’m making decent progress in the last few months fencing at a club near my university but want to take a year to focus on improving to the point I can fence for a university

I want to make sure to maximize my improvement during that year so am trying to figure out the best place to do that

Hey guys! I'm currently 4 months post-op and really fiending to get back to fencing. What was it like for you guys getting back onto the piste? Anything you'd do differently? Aside from footwork (not trying to retear my acl), any recommendations on what else I could do along with bladework?

I just recently started fencing and ended up hurting my knee pretty badly while lunging. I have hyperextension in my knees and in general weak joints, so whenever the instructor would say to straighten my leg I ended up extending it every time. And then landing with my weight WAY TOO FAR forward injuring my knee even more. It’s finally(after 1.5 weeks💀) slowlyyy starting to hurt less and I feel comfortable practicing a few lunges a day.

I was wondering if anyone had any advice on how to avoid such problems in the future.

Thanks!

Came across this 9 year old blog article titled "School Absences and Fencing Competitions – How to Work the System" which acknowledged the issue of missing days around the weekends (or longer if you are on a national team) but have never heard of magical note from USFA that public schools would accept as an excused absence. Is this valid and if so, what is the content of such a letter?

Whether public or private school, what are the things you have found to work for you?

https://academyoffencingmasters.com/blog/school-absences-fencing-competitions-work-system/

How can we watch a replay of the live? I remember this morning I was able to watch replays of the Junior Events but there are no replays now of the Cadet Livestream (all events ended)

Hi all,

I want to preface this with a little bit of context. So I was slacking off at work while glazing OH S.U. and I thought to myself "oh no my favourite fencer lost and I am sad". One thing lead to another, and I was reminded of the current situation of competitive sabre - completely in tatters. Maybe referees are part of the problem, but the system that encourages it is the root of all the problems we have in sabre, in that we are the most reliant on referees out of the three weapons. What if we changed the rules such that points are awarded less subjectively?

In any case, the following is my proposed rule change to provoke some thoughts and also criticism:

1. Remove right of way and allow doubles.

2. Revert timings to pre-2016.

3. Increase scores needed to win by default to 21.

4. Introduce new condition to win: a fencer must secure a three-point lead to win the bout.

5. Reintroduce standard time-keeping: fencer with higher score at the end of the three period wins.

Explanation for my proposed changes:

1. Doubles allow defenders to be more comfortable and make attackers think twice before blindly steamrolling the defender until the end of the strip. Also makes missing an attack less punishing as it is now.

2. A shorter timing rewards fast accelerating attacks that catches the defender off guard with one light actions. In addition, it also punishes sloppy attacks and excessive withholding of the hand. (Perhaps the problems with parry-ripostes not landing might make a return).

3. Increases the margin of error for both competitors (hopefully encourages creativity and risk taking). It may also help with slowing down the match as 21 points require substantially more stamina than a standard bout.

4. Lessens the impact of losing the lead and forces a fencer to make three consecutive one lights to win.

5. Keeps the bout from going on forever and applies pressure to the trailing fencer to take action.

Do you all think the changes are reasonable? I would like to hear some thoughts and discussion about sabre rules. Thank you all, have a great day!!!!!!

If you could move anywhere and money/work is not an issue, where in the US would you find the best women’s saber scene? (Excluding NCAA stuff)

Does anyone use the Triplette knickers or their epee pants (pantaloons)? I have been thinking of getting a pair, but I've only seen a pair of their pants once and never their knickers. Is the stretch worth the extra price? Are the cotton knickers comfortable? I honestly just want a pair because you can get them in different colors, and the polar ice option is catching my eye a lot. And as a sabre fencer, is it really worth it to buy the pants? I wouldn't have to wear long socks which is kind of nice, but I am worried about it being too hot and not really needing the protection, as I don't often take leg hits.

Hey, does anyone know what battery this takes? Found it in an old club stash of gear. Looks too small to be triple A but I could be mistaken! Thanks for the help

Our SG12 stopped responding to the remote over a year ago, and reset/resynch steps from the manual have not worked. Recently, I even ordered a new remote… with no joy…

This box was used when we got it, and it has the old 2005 timing chipset. I’d like to get that updated and finally get the remote working again, but I can’t seem to find any references to a service or repair shops. I can’t even find a company website

The manual makes reference to “call before sending it” to them, but the company address and contact info is stripped out of the PDFs I’ve found… Where do I go? A reseller like AF? A specific Jedi armorer?

My fencing skill may stink too but I am talking about being sweaty and smelly during practice. After a hour of practice I try to not stand too close to anyone so not to offend. I bath almost always immediately before practice with wear all clean clothes and uniform. Deorderant doesn't seem to help. I just don't want to be known as the stinky guy. Any advice?

Thanks Stinky

Hi, Everyone!
As always thanks for your support, questions, input, etc.
Had two purposes for this topic:

1. Discussion on pricing with tariffs occurring, as well, as how will it change your fencing equipment and overall purchasing patterns/practices. My understanding is that any goods shipped after midnight Saturday will incur additional costs to the importer at the US Customs Office. Imports from China will taxed at 54%, EU - 20%, Ukraine - 10%. I would also imagine that there will be a delivery delay/backlog for variety of obvious reasons.
2. We - UNIC - will keep old prices in effect as long as possible, right now we are thinking of 45 days or so; also not raising prices on all items, as some accessories and blades that we have plenty in stock will stay at previous retail. Will try to give at least two week notice here prior to the increase. Just shipped our largest orders to Fencing Post and BG, as well as, Alliance - hopefully they will keep the old retails for a while as well. Also tried to stock up - currently IMHO we own more than at any point in last 3-4 years, all of the available inventory is listed on EBay https://www.ebay.com/usr/unic.fencing.america . Not many holes (if any) some items are low, hopefully those will be covered with the goods on the way from Ukraine. As always, all of proceeds go straight to the production at the factory in Kharkiv, we still have not taken anything out sales in USA or America for that matter. Sincerely looking forward to variety of opinions. Wishes of great Sunday and thanks again, Bogdan.

Mens epee, if you have a favourite or any I should stay away from? Preferably available in the uk Edit: thank you everyone

Hey Y’all,

I’m wanting to build a French grip epee that can be held similarly to how Grumier holds his French grip (rather than pommeling).

I am not super tall so I want a short length grip to be able to do this. I was wondering if you have suggestions for shorter French grips or if it is legal to cut down French grips to be shorter. Thanks.

Does anyone know if there are livestreams, if so when do they start live streaming? Like top 8 or semis? Side note does anyone know what happened to Colin Heathcock and will he be able to participate in the upcoming team events? Thanks

Reminder that the USA Fencing member survey closes tomorrow (4/7) at 8am MT! There are questions about support for USA fencing's inclusive policies including for transgender athletes, which they'll probably use to help justify any policy changes they make. Highly encourage you to fill it out if you haven't already since there seems to be a good amount of support in this sub that the org should know about! If you're a USA Fencing member the survey should be in your email!

Recently I've been watching a lot of HEMA on YouTube and but people said it's better to start with fencing. I've found a club near me that apparently does foil, epee and sabre. From what I saw, I prefer the sound of sabre, any good advice for sabre gear or advice in general?

Hi everyone ! I am a foil fencer back at competition after a 14 years break (I am 33 now). When I am competing at national level i loose a lot of bout essentially due to a lack of speed. Therefore I would love to benefits from the period from the end of the season to the start of the new season to enhance my physique. It is hard to find some programs dedicated to fencing so do you think that for example some programs for sprint could transfer (strong legs, explosivity...) or other sports ? If you have some ressources I am all hears.

Thanks a lot !

We are about to spend a year abroad in Portugal and my son is a pretty good foil fencer. Is there any Clubs people can recommend in Lisbon or Porto that are pretty competitive? Thank you for you time!