THRUST AND CUT

The Newsletter of Salle Green

No. 2008-1                                                                                                March 2008

WHY JOIN THE …?

If you are not a member of a national fencing organization we recommend that you join one.  Why?  That is a good question … so let’s count the ways.

Fencers, whether competitive, recreational, dry, or electric, should consider two organizations – the United States Fencing Association and the American Fencing League.  The first reason is simple: to fence in competitions of either organization, you must be a member.  Your $50 dues for the USFA and $18 for the AFL gets access to fencing in a recognized competitive structure.

Second, with the fencing comes the opportunity to earn classification, a recognition of your tournament performance.  The USFA has E, D, C, B, and A classifications; the AFL has Prep, Novice, Junior, Intermediate, and Senior classifications.

Third, USFA membership includes subscription to American Fencing, the magazine, a regular source of news on what is happening in the fencing world.  If you want to know who are the stars, what fencing camps are available, who is selling what new equipment, what the controversies are, etc., American Fencing is the source.  The AFL also publishes an occasional newsletter that helps keep you up to date on what is happening in the organization.

Fourth, USFA membership includes insurance coverage.  The Salle uses USFA insurance for liability and property insurance.  To qualify for these insurances we must have 10 USFA members as Salle members.  In addition, USFA membership includes medical coverage for you in case of injury coming to, participating in, or going home from fencing.

But there are two more important reasons.  By joining either organization you become part of a larger community of fencers, and the sport becomes more visible to you and more easily understood.  In the case of the AFL that is particularly important, as the AFL is the only organized representation for dry fencing in the United States – support for the AFL is support for relatively low cost, community based, non-electric fencing.

And then there is the fencing as an Olympic sport.  Decisions as to what sport to include in the Olympic Games are based on worldwide television interest – the history of fencing’s long run as an Olympic sport means nothing in this equation.  It is butts in seats in front of televisions.  With approximately 25,000 members out of 100-200,000 fencers in the United States, the USFA’s numbers do not send a message that fencing is an important sport worthy of inclusion in future games.  Without the Olympics, fencing would have a very difficult time surviving.  So your USFA membership literally is an investment in the continuation of your sport.

We have membership application blanks in the Salle …

NEW DIRECTIONS?

Salle Green is currently a full service sword school in the European tradition.  If it involves swordsmanship, whether modern fencing, classical fencing, or Medieval and Renaissance swordplay, we teach it now, or can teach it if there is an interest in lessons.

For some time we have had inquiries as to whether we teach Asian martial arts weapons.  Over the last year, we have started to introduce the cane into our offerings.  Fencing masters in the late 1800s taught the cane, and it seemed to be a natural reclaiming of our heritage, even if the programs we offered were more Asian martial arts based in their origins.  Today we can facilitate learning in the Goju-Shorei Weapons System, American Cane System, and the Kenpo Warrior Cane System – and the Salle is the home of new cane system, Tsue Kakuto, based on a mixture of modern Asian cane and classical Singlestick practice. 

Over the next two years we plan to gradually offer study programs in a wider range of Asian weapons, including the Chinese straight sword and sabre, the bokken, sai, fan, bo, jo, kama, and shuriken.  The order offered will depend on the sequence in which we can obtain instructor training – we expect to be able to offer shuriken starting in the April time period.  This Way of Weapons program will be very traditional in its approach, will be small group based, and will be very demanding in its standard of performance.  If you are interested, contact Maitre Green.

FEBRUARY LADDER STARTED

The Salle Ladder Tournament in Classical Foil, Foil, Sabre, 1 Touch Epee, and Epee for the period 1 February through 30 April has started.  But it is not too late to sign up … simply add your name to the ladder sheet on the cart on the fencing floor. 

The ladder tournament is an important part of our competition training program.  It provides a framework that lets you measure your performance against that of the stronger fencers in the Salle.  And every bout and every touch counts toward your ranking in the tournament.  As Linda Barrett said one evening “there just isn’t any point in your bouts not counting for something.” 

The rules are simple:

(1)  You can challenge up to 2 fencers above you on the ladder.

(2)  If you win, you replace the fencer you beat, and everyone below you slips down one notch.  If you lose, you stay where you were.

(3)  The ladder is processed weekly – if you do not fence a ladder bout for 3 weeks you are demoted a place on the ladder, and one more place each week until you do fence.

And the various ladders themselves compete in the Walpurgis Cup (yes, there is an actual cup) every quarter.  Again the rules are straight forward:

(1)  To qualify for medals and for the Cup the weapon ladder must fight as a minimum two times the number of bouts as there are fencers on the ladder.

(2)  Fencers who do not fence any bouts in the ladder for the quarter cause a one bout penalty for the ladder.

(3)  The winning weapon is the one with the most bouts fought at the end of the quarter.

RECENT INDIVIDUAL RESULTS

At the Regional Youth Circuit and Cadet Meet at the Mechanicsville Fencing Academy and the Richmond Fencing Club on 26-27 January:

--- Sam Archer won 2 bouts in his pool and his first direct elimination bout to place tied for third in a field of 6 (including one C).

--- Brett Colbert placed ninth in a field of 10 that included 3 B, 1 C, 1 D, and 1 E classified fencers.

And at the Richmond February Open at the Richmond Fencing Club on 24 February (an A2 rated event):

--- James McMath placed nineteenth in a field of 27 that included 2 A, 7 B, 4 C, 5 D, and 1 E classified fencers.

SHEDULE FOR MARCH

1-2 March        Regional Youth Circuit (Virginia Division USFA) in Manassas

15-16 March    Conomikes-Gutenberg Memorial Open (Virginia Division USFA) at William and Mary

22 March         Central Virginia Division Novice Foil at Salle Green (start time Saturday at 1:00 pm)

29 March         Central Virginia Division Sabre at Salle Green (start time Saturday at 2:00 pm)

5-6 April          Virginia Division USFA Youth Championships in Charlottesville

BEING A BETTER FENCER - THE LADDER AND COMPETING

Fencers often ask “how do I get into competition?”  Parents of our younger fencers also ask that question.  The simple answer is just to enter and compete. However, like most things in life, the devil is in the details.  To be ready for competition, you need to be competing regularly, and, no, this is not a chicken and the egg thing.  To do well in serious amateur competition you need to develop competitive skills, and one way to do that is to use the wide variety of competition we offer in the Salle. Fencing for fun never prepares you to do anything, except fence when it does not count for anything.  And that is never, because fencing is inherently competitive – one person is working to score on the other and to keep from being scored on.  Fencing for a set number of hits (1 in one touch epee, 5 for pool bouts, 10 for veterans direct elimination, or 15 for direct elimination) in practice bouts helps because it gives you the measure of success (victory or defeat, and a numerical score of that).

However, if you really want to be a competitive fencer, you should be fencing most of your bouts during class practice time not as practice bouts, but rather as ladder bouts.  The ladder provides an end goal, the best possible placing over a three month period against your fellow fencers.  It provides an opportunity for strategy – who to fence in what order.  It develops your ability to track the competition (who is above you and who is below you).  Although the skills are not exactly the same as those in a regular competition, they are transferable to the world of one hundred plus electric fencers in multiple pools on multiple strips.

Some fencers say “but Bill or Sam or Mary never comes to my practice session, so how can I fence them and move up the ladder?”  Ah, reality check time – we have three times a week when everyone can be in the same place: (1) the intermediate class time for the weapon, (2) Saturday competition practice – free practice on Saturdays from 1:00-2:15, and (3) Sunday open fencing from 11:00 am to 1:00 pm.  And if none of these will work, you are welcome to schedule a bout any time the Salle is open.  It is as simple a sending an e-mail or dropping a note in their mail box at the Salle suggesting a place and time.  Ladders in clubs in a wide variety of clubs in a wide variety of sports are highly successful training grounds as well as providing for enjoyable club competition because the members make an effort to make the system work.

The message is simple, if you ever want to be a competitive fencer in either the United States Fencing Association or American Fencing League circuits, start fencing competitively on the Salle ladder.   That means you – find the time, make the time, just try, and it will make a difference in your fencing.

CLASSICAL FOIL WINS THE WALPURGIS CUP, AGAIN

For the fourth straight quarter, our Classical Foil fencers won the Walpurgis Cup, awarded to the weapon squad that posts the best results in the quarterly ladder.  The numbers:

1st       CLASSICAL FOIL – 4 fencers fenced 12 bouts – 12 points

2nd      EPEE – 7 fencers fenced 10 bouts (2 fencers did not fence) – 8 points

3rd       1 TOUCH EPEE – 7 fencers fenced 9 bouts (2 fencers did not fence) – 7 points

4th       FOIL – 5 fencers fenced 4 bouts (1 fencer did not fence) – 3 points

5th       SABRE – 5 fencers fenced 0 bouts (5 fencers did not fence) - -5 points

LADDER STANDINGS November 2007-January 20080

Classical Foil

Gold medal       John Shields

Silver Medal     Linda Barrett

Bronze Medal    Dot Mackey

         Fourth              Brian Ainley

Epee – insufficient bouts were fenced to result in medal awards (medals are awarded when the ladder fights bouts equal to at least two times the number of entries)

            First                 Pat Norman

            Second             James Greer

            Third                Brett Colbert

            Fourth              Andy Fore

            Fifth                 Dot Mackey

One Touch Epee - insufficient bouts were fenced to result in medal awards (medals are awarded when the ladder fights bouts equal to at least two times the number of entries)

            First                 James Greer

            Second             Brett Colbert

            Third                Andy Fore

            Fourth              Dot Mackey

            Fifth                 Pat Norman

Foil - insufficient bouts were fenced to result in medal awards (medals are awarded when the ladder fights bouts equal to at least two times the number of entries)

            First                 Lindsey Carr

            Second             Aaron Seal

            Third                Kelsi Callahan

            Fourth              Betsy Stephens

DUAL MEET WITH AMELIA STEEL

On 2 February our Junior Foil Team hosted Amelia at the Salle for a dry foil team match.  After the first bout Salle Green took the lead and maintained it for the rest of the match, holding off a final push by Amelia and ending with the victory and a score of 43-40: