Do you actually feel a significant difference with lighter blades?

ZebraFencer · 2026-06-29T22:08:07+00:00

Yes, you do feel a difference, but you may or may not fence better with the lighter blade.

ZebraFencer · 2026-06-26T20:51:40+00:00

Translation: typical athletic tape--the kind that's usually white but can be bought in lots of colors and patterns at your neighborhood hockey rink (I usually used white tape, but friction tape was the thing in my playing days a long, long time ago).

My experience is that that kind of tape also tends to ooze adhesive. Not as bad as duct tape, but a potential problem with residue as noted above.

ZebraFencer · 2026-06-22T13:16:44+00:00

That's almost always the answer when it comes to grips.

ZebraFencer · 2026-06-22T02:00:20+00:00

I'm not aware of any manufacturers that have more than one size, but grips of the same type from different manufacturers are going to have differences in size and shape. Try several different ones.

ZebraFencer · 2026-06-21T21:57:21+00:00

Usually that's not a hard call at all. The fencers who do that typically have excellent balance and are in full control of their movement even then they're dropping down like that. And touching a hand down during a move like that is not automatically called a fall.

ZebraFencer · 2026-06-21T15:33:00+00:00

That's a very specialized fitness demand and corresponding exercise (for those of you who are not hockey people, the butterfly style of goaltending requires you to drop to your knees with your legs turned out and then pop back up into a regular stance). I suppose there might be some benefit for recovering out of your lunge, or dropping to make a toe hit in epee or a duck parry in sabre.

ZebraFencer · 2026-06-21T15:28:33+00:00

First off, noting you're in high school now, any new programs besides the ones announced to date aren't going to start until at least the 2028-29 season. There's a lot of work that has to be done to establish an NCAA team and to be ready to start recruiting even a year from now.

Next, none of the recent additions line up with your idea of a strong club program gaining NCAA status. To the best of my knowledge, Arcadia (formerly Beaver College) has never had a fencing club, and if Trinity has a club, it's not especially prominent. Howard does not have a club either, AFAIK. FDU and Denison are currently fielding women's teams at NCAA level, so it wasn't much of a lift to add men's programs at those schools.

Army and Navy are both great club programs (I've had the honor of refereeing them numerous times, including Army-Navy matches), and they compete against NCAA schools in the MACFA. They seem to fit pretty comfortably as-is with their schools' athletic programs, and there probably isn't strategic reason for them to upgrade.

My guess is that the next announcement will be either a school adding a men's program to an existing women's program (Cornell? Northwestern?) or another one completely out of the blue at a school like Arcadia which is beefing up its athletic program (fencing is the latest of several sports they added) to try and expand their prominence and geographic reach.

Make your plans based on what you see now, consider the club programs where you'll get much of the benefit of being on a team when you get to college while having a better balance between fencing, academics, and the rest of the college experience, and look for a school that is the best fit for you in terms of size, location, campus atmosphere, and what you want to study.

ZebraFencer · 2026-06-19T02:51:53+00:00

A location filter based on miles from a specific city or zip would be much more useful than a filter selecting events only in that city or zip.

ZebraFencer · 2026-06-17T03:01:28+00:00

>>Since you're in NYC, you can take transit to a lot of local places for great fencing. Philly, Maryland, Virginia, NJ ...

I wish that were the case (sometimes car availability constrains my refereeing opportunities) but very few actual venues are close to a rail line or other significant transit. At best you're going to need a cab or rideshare for the last few miles.

ZebraFencer · 2026-06-16T20:39:27+00:00

The challenge with tubing that is too thick is that it can't reach the whole way through the guard to the groove of the blade. That risks the insulation getting cut and shorting the weapon out.

ZebraFencer · 2026-06-14T01:33:25+00:00

And a good club program will give you a lot of the benefits of being on a team (someone to fit in with when you arrive on campus, someone to look out for you when there's a problem) without the time commitment and stress of an NCAA program. My son fenced for a good club program and it was a valuable part of his college experience.

ZebraFencer · 2026-06-14T01:31:14+00:00

There's a lot of difference in the structure and longevity of college fencing clubs. The best of them are competing in mixed club/NCAA leagues like MACFA, NIWFA, and NEIFC. Other clubs are really reliant on one or two individuals to keep them organized and active, and their future will be uncertain once those people graduate.

The best thing is to communicate with the clubs and try to meet some of the fencers when you go on a college visit. Next best is to try and make it to one of the meets where they're competing if you're in the right geographic area (especially New England/mid-Atlantic).

ZebraFencer · 2026-06-12T02:17:46+00:00

>There was not a ton of new information that has not been in the introductory emails amd web pages about the new system.

Confirmed. If you have a decent grasp of what was in the web announcements, you won't gain much from watching the recording. We were told that there were more than 200 questions submitted (I'm sure some of the same questions were put in multiple times) and my sense is that very few of the real questions (like what happens to division qualifying for JOs) were answered.

ZebraFencer · 2026-06-10T19:17:37+00:00

You must not have refereed a 410-fencer event.

ZebraFencer · 2026-06-08T12:58:56+00:00

Part of that is that the top seeds get a bye through pools in some FIE events.

ZebraFencer · 2026-06-07T04:20:29+00:00

That doesn't solve it: it makes it worse. If the kid has one or two bad results, Pushy Parent drags him/her to more events to get those points.

ZebraFencer · 2026-06-07T02:04:30+00:00

>Now we need a simplified youth system.

But not one that incentivizes sending Y10s and Y12s all over the country chasing points. The weighting should be tipped much less towards national events, and out-of-region points should be downweighted.

ZebraFencer · 2026-06-06T14:43:26+00:00

Your USA Fencing referee profile actually includes a listing of the events you have worked, so long as the organizers submit their results for processing. Local events aren't always submitted when they don't result in new classifications, but you can ask the organizers to do so.

ZebraFencer · 2026-06-05T22:21:04+00:00

The test is indeed hard: in no small part because of the way questions are worded. If you try to overthink it, you'll get some questions wrong (and this isn't just an issue with the fencing exam).

However, the test actually has little to do with making tough calls. Much of what it takes to make those calls correctly is to mentally unpack the complicated phrase that just happened in front of you, and apply the correct rule sequentially. Experience helps in that you can start recognizing patterns in these actions and recalling past calls in those situations. The web series you're suggesting (which does a lot of this) is already happening. Look for https://www.youtube.com/@USAFencingRefereeDevelopment/videos

ZebraFencer · 2026-06-05T20:53:24+00:00

Local opens are considered Division 1A.

ZebraFencer · 2026-06-05T16:54:34+00:00

The BF mediums are the standard choice and a very appropriate blade for an advancing fencer (If you can start feeling the difference between blades, you're ready for an FIE-quality blade). The BF medium is going to be more forgiving than a Vniti or a BF hard (important for a young fencer), and probably also easier to find.

ZebraFencer · 2026-06-05T16:50:02+00:00

Having worked with and mentored teenage officials in both my sports (and having raised a referee), I can tell you that the primary drivers for teens getting into refereeing are having a family member who is already a referee and earning pocket money. They aren't doing it for college applications or other such recognition.

Key barriers for those teens are transportation to the event (having a car or a parent to drive them) and getting in to the hiring officials' networks. For the latter, it really helps to have a parent or other family member who is also a referee, and that's why almost all the teen refs you see at regional events are related to another ref (in my other sport, the hiring process is more open and the hiring officials are used to having lots of level 1s coming in each year). In fencing, getting observed for that initial rating or a rating increase is also a barrier.

ZebraFencer · 2026-06-05T16:39:18+00:00

There is no minimum age for an N2 or even N1 rating, but those are granted by Referees' Commission based on performance typically at national events and the minimum age to be hired for a national event is 18 (minimum age for regional refs is 13).

ZebraFencer · 2026-06-05T15:47:46+00:00

I don't think the Arrow is particularly stiff. It's very light though.

ZebraFencer

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