Persevering Through Disappointments and Losses
Originally posted on The Fencing Athlete:
Women’s Epeeist, Shin Lam of Korea, after her controversial defeat in the 2012 Olympics. Photo from TheGaurdian.com The very nature of Fencing means that we have all experienced losses, frustration, and disappointments. Looking back, throughout my career there are a few such moments that still register strongly, and…
Horror Stories About Fencing Safety to Tell Your Students and Teammates
In a recent study on Olympic sport injury rates, Fencing ranked among the safest sports listed. Given the fact that Fencing is a combat sport rooted in duels to the death, it should come as a surprise that such a ferocious sport would be safer than say, Badminton or Table Tennis. Yet, our equipment is (mostly) refined…
Poll: Are You a Fencer that has Played Pokemon?
Providing Clarity to Confusion: a Veteran Referee’s Perspective (Guest Post)
This is a guest post from Mary Frye, a seasoned referee and member of the FOC. Mary notes that “this isn’t from the FOC as a body per se, but from myself, as a member of the Domestic Assignments Committee (DAC) of the FOC. I suppose I’m splitting hairs a bit here, since a lot…
Growing Pains: Breaking into the Complex and Convoluted World of U.S. Refereeing (Guest Post)
Guest Post by Annamaria Lu The past few weeks, this blog has published a few articles about refereeing. Mary Griffith also produced a post-Nationals write up. All of them have provided different perspectives on refereeing fencing. After Nationals ended, I contacted The Fencing Coach and offered to share my perspective as a new referee. I…
Diego Occhiuzzi’s Greatest Hits
Diego Occhiuzzi is a really good saber fencer. He took a Silver Medal in the London 2012 Olympics. He is also the Luis Suarez of fencing. Here are my favorite Diego Occhiuzzi moments: Role model. This is how it’s done.
Should a Referee Vary the Cadence of his/her Calls?
A very simple post today to answer a very simple, trivial question: When a referee makes his/her “En Garde! Ready? Fence!” calls, should s/he very the cadence? For many of you, this is a “duh” answer, but for others, it might not be. Never hurts to clarify. I’ve heard multiple opinions from multiple referees, so…
Fantastic Finish for the Friendly Frenchman
Originally posted on Leland Guillemin:
The 2014 World Championships were held in Kazan, Russia from the 15th to the 23rd of July. The Senior Men’s Epee final match was between Kyoungdoo Park and Ulrich Robeiri who fence for Korea and France, respectively. Both fencers had a very tough road in the quarter, and semi-finals. Park…
Predicting The Men’s World Championship Field…With SCIENCE! (Guest Post by Todd Kozlowski)
Disclaimer, I’m not a statistician. Not even close. I’m so, so sorry to any of you who are for my lack of rigor. The prediction here is based on the commonly-used Elo system, which tracks competitor performance in other sports like baseball, soccer, and chess. I threw together a program to calculate the odds of…
