Bulletin for the Week of Sept. 28, 2009

1. Reminder: please wear long pants and sneakers for fencing - no shorts or sandals. If it's wet out, make sure your shoes are completely dry before entering the gym (or even better, change out of street shoes to your fencing shoes). We don't want anyone slipping on wet spots.

2. Next Champlain Cup tournament: WSC Open and Youth, Sat. Oct. 17, Essex Middle School. Registration is now open on AskFRED. Sign up by Oct 12 to save $10 on your entry fees. This is the first tournament of the year open to fencers born 1997 or later. To register, go to
www.askfred.net/Events/whoIsComing.php?tournament_id=9676

Event schedule:
9 a.m. Open Epee
10 a.m. Y12 Foil (for kids born 1997 or later)
12:30 p.m. Open Foil, Y14 Epee (for kids born 1995 or later)
2:30 p.m Y14 Sabre (for kids born 1997 or later)

Open events are open to all fencers born 1996 or before and require USFA membership. USFA membership is not required for kids born 1997 or later to fence in our local youth tournaments, but it is reccommended, and is required for most out of state tournaments. Our youth series (Y12 and Y14) events are intended to provide a supportive, fun environment for our youngest fencers to experience tournament fencing.

3. Myself, Julie Lamoreaux and Amanda Granizo are heading to Boston this weekend to participate in the annual Fence Against Breast Cancer womens tournament. All procedes from this tournament are donated to Strides Against Breast Cancer (an American Cancer Society campaign), so it's a fun time for a good cause. If you are a female fencer age 30+, it's not too late to get in on the action. For info and to sign up, go to www.askfred.net/Events/whoIsComing.php?tournament_id=8422. If you would like to contribute to the cause, Amanda, Julie or I would be happy to take your donations to add to the collection jar at the tournament. Checks should be made to Strides Against Breast Cancer.

4. The Green Mt Division will offer not one, but two, referee training events this fall. Viveka's Top 10 Reasons Everyone Should Learn to Ref:
-When you were a beginning fencer, somebody officiated your bouts so you could learn the rules and enjoy your first competitions. Time to pay it forward.
-Learning to observe fencing closely enough to reconstruct the phrases teaches you to observe your opponent and make good tactical decisions. Reffing makes you a better fencer.
-If you know the rules cold, you will not be the victim of bad calls from less knowledgeable refs.
-Your opponents will respect you more if they see you reffing. They will assume you are a very experienced competitor.
-Your friends have to call you "sir" or "ma'am".
-Many hands make light work. The more skilled refs we have in Vermont, the less the same 5 people have to watch novice fencers hit the floor, walls and tables for hours on end.
-Qualified refs are rewarded with GMD coupons worth $5 each toward entry fees at any tournament. You can tell the cool people at the registration table because they have those coupons.
-If you get good enough at it, you can get paid to travel and ref at major tournaments.
-Believe it or not, listening to Jon Moss talk about fencing rules for 8 hours is highly entertaining. Seriously.
-If Abby Yu can pass the Ref Exam at age 11, you can pass it (okay, so Abby's a smart kid...but so are you).

So how do you learn to ref? If you do all of these things this fall, you could be a rated ref by Christmas:
-During open fencing, volunteer frequently to ref practice bouts with feedback from those who are already good refs (your mentors could be fencing eachother while you ref them, or watching you ref other people).
-Go to www.fencingofficials.org. Click on "Rules" to download the 2008 USFA Rules Book and on "Ratings" to download the Study Guide. The Rule Book is very long, but almost everything you need to know is in the Technical Rules section (skim or skip the other parts unless you plan to manufacture equipment or run national tournaments). Read the Technical Rules and use them to answer the questions on the Study Guide. The actual exam questions are drawn from the study guide, so there are no surprises. If you get stuck, some good people to help you figure out the answers are myself, Ray Schuppe, Dan Crocket, Ben Hogan, and Deb Hogan.
-Test your recall by quizzing yourself frequently using Ray's cool online Practice Ref Test on the GMD website (www.vtfencing.org).
-Mark your calendar for Sunday, Nov. 8. This season's Development Day clinic in Burlington will focus on the aspect of reffing that confuses and intimidates people the most: reconstructing phrases. Reconstructing the phrase is that thing that foil and sabre refs do out loud (and every good epee ref does internally) where they tell the fencers what just happened (who did what when). We will spend an entire afternoon practicing reconstructing phrases in a no-pressure, noncompetitive environment, with feedback from experienced refs (so experienced refs, please count on being there to help). For this afternoon, we will ask epee trainees to do the same as foil and sabre trainees, so that we can tell whether or not you are seeing the action correctly (let's get this fallacy cleared up now: reffing epee is NOT easier to do -only easier to hide that you don't know what you're doing, and epee refs DO need to be able to follow the action and use the correct vocabulary to explain what happened).
-Attend the official USFA ref course with master ref (and great teacher) Jon Moss, tentatively scheduled for Dec. 12 or 13 (tba). This is an intensive 8-hour class which is the final step in preparing to take the Ref Exam. It is not a substitute for studying the Rules Book and working on the study guide. If you are already a rated ref, you are supposed to take the course annually as a refresher (and your ref rating drops if you don't renew it in 2 years). More info on this years' ref course when I have it.

5. The USFA board of directors has approved the proposal to include Essex and Clinton Counties in NY (the northeastern Adirondacks) in the Green Mt Division. So welcome to our friends from the Champlain Valley Fencing Club of Westport, who have been participating in most of our tournaments for several years. Now they can also participate in our qualifiers, host tournaments of their own, and contribute to running the division.

6. The 2009-10 season got underway on Saturday with our annual season kick-off, the Fall Foliage Epic in Burlington. Congratulations to all the finalists:

Open Epee (28 competitors, C2 event)
1 Jijina, Marc, QCF, earned C rating
2 Harris, Keegan, SC
3 Wing, Trevy, CCFC
3 Fournier, Louise , Brebeuf FC
5 Rivait, Birk, VFA
6 Watson, Doug, QCF
7 Crocket, Daniel, QCF
8 Parker, David, VFA, earned E rating

Open Foil (19 competitors, B1 event)
1 Jacovino, Jonathan, BDFC
2 Hogan, Benjamin, VFA
3 Flynn, Joanna, SC
3 Woodward, Maureen, MOE
5 Chen, Tan, DARTMOUTH
6 Dobbins, Evan, FSC
7 Parker, David, VFA
8 Rivait, Birk, VFA

U Epee (9 competitors, E1 event)
1 Hogan, Christopher, VFA, earned E rating
2 Granizo-Mackenzie, Zoe, VFA
3 Jones, Caroline, VFA
3 Clarino, Mario, RIFRAF

U Foil (11 competitors, E1 event)
1 Looby, Sarah, CVFC-earned E rating
2 Pomicter, Madeline, VFA
3 Brisson, Benjamin, VFA
3 Fierman, Rose, SC

Performance of the Week: Chris casually announced this fall he was now captain of the VFA Junior Team (being the longest serving member and all). Much to Chris's alarm, I completely endorsed the idea and announced that not only was he captain, but I now expected him to step up and lead like one. Well, he set a good precedent this weekend, becoming the first member of the team to earn a gold medal and a new rating this season. I was sorry to miss the show, but a certain epee ref (who happens to be Chris's mom) sent this report: "Chris finally pulled it all together and went undefeated all day. He stayed focused, using his perfect timing in fleche attacks and distance. Chris has been overdue for an epee rating, and he finally fenced with the confidence that he knew he could get the job done."

Honorable Mentions: New Jr Team members Ben B and Maddy began the day not only finishing higher in the open foil even than any other unrated fencers, but also higher than any of the Es and a few of the Ds as well. In the unrated foil event, they dominated their pools and started DEs as the top seeds. They were both stymied this time by the same opponent, but I suspect an E rating is in the near future for these two fencers, as they are clearly fencing at a new level. Also new to the Jr Team, 8th grader Caroline pulled off a DE upset over a collegiate fencer to earn her first medal of the season. A good effort also from Zoe (who is now representing the VFA), who was able to defeat the fencer who knocked Charlotte out of contention. Don Selby sent this report " Charlotte was in my open epee pool and she was getting beaten badly at first. She made some changes and started winning. I fenced Zac in my first DE and was dominating at first because he was letting me do what I wanted. He made some changes after the first period and started to make a come back until I changed what I was doing." Nice to see that all of my Jr Team and all of last year's "freshman class" of adult students (Adam, Zach, Julie) had a reasonable level of success in at least one event on Saturday, and all got some victories under their belts.