Arriving At A Meet
What To Do First
You
arrived at the meet site and located the competition area. It should be
a minimun of 45 minutes before check-in ends and earlier if possible.
Now what should you do?
- First off, look for other club members. If
they found a gathering spot, put your gear with theirs. If not, find a
place away from traffic areas (doorways and walkways) next to a wall or
on a bleacher seat.
- Find the check-in table and ask if you can
check in. They may say yes or tell you to wait. Just make sure you
check in on time since many meets do not allow late entries. If entry
fees are not prepaid, you will pay at this time. Bring a check.
-
Have your equipment officially tested. Your mask, weapons, cords and
lame' are all required to meet minimum standards for competition. If
you try to compete without correct inspection markings, you will be
ejected from the competition with possible suspension from the national
organization. Often a parent or one fencer will wait in line for
several fencers to have equipment tested. Come early for equipment
testing. Don't use warm-up time to test equipment.
What next? Warm Up!
The
physical warm-up only takes a few minutes unless it's early morning and
you feel tired. Then it takes forever. The worse the physical warm up
feels, the more it is needed. If you want to stretch, do it after the
physical warm up, not before.
Fencing skills take 30 to 45
minutes to properly "warm up". For fencing, it should be called
"recalling" the perception and rhythms you will need during the bouts.
Don't plan on using your first bout as part of the warm up. You must be
fencing your best during this bout. Each win places you approximately
20% higher in the direct elimination table and every touch places you
several points higher. The higher you are seeded after the first round,
the better your result! With good seeding you will have easier
opponents and potentially do better. Most fencers cheat on their warm-
up and hurt their results without realizing it. It's a shame, unless
they are your opponents. (Note: Kids under 10 need a maximum of 15
minutes for warm-up. They are always warm. Mostly they need to learn
what to do for latter years.)
When you are called to the strip
You will be called by name and told to go directly to a strip, or an announcement will be made telling you to look at a posted pool list. On the list will be the number of the strip you are to proceed to. Each fencer had been placed in a group (pool) of five, six or seven competitors. Bring your equipment to the strip, two weapons and two body cords minimum, and sit down. Wait until the referee calls you for your first bout. Other fencers may compete before you, so sit tight, but also be ready to be the first bout. An experienced fencer watches the fencers to learn how they fence and what moves they like best. As a beginner just look and learn.
A bout between two fencers
is won by the competitor who first scores five touches. After every
fencer has fenced every other competitor the pool is over. When all pools
are completed the results are posted. The top
rated fencers (without losses) then compete against the fencers with
the most losses. Elimination bouts are then held and last for fifteen
touches. For younger fencers the best two out of three five touch bouts are
fenced. The loser is eliminated from the meet.
After you are finished at the meet
When the meet is done, or you are done, it is important to think about what happened. Competing is both a challenge and a learning experience. Hopefully, you have learned what it is you need to work on at practice so as to improve and do better the next time.
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