Depending on your needs, be it competitive or recreational, you may find that you have a lot of questions about fencing or this organization. You may also have questions about how to get, or stay, involved.
The purpose of this FAQ is to try and provide answers to some of these questions, and help you to become more familiar with how things work.
The FAQ does not attempt to cover items such as the rules of the fencing match or weapon specifications. More information on these topics can be found on the USFA web page at www.usfencing.org, or by asking questions in the forums.
The USFA national office is the highest level of this national fencing organization. One of the purposes of the USFA is to qualify and support athletes heading for the Olympics. But the USFA is also responsible for maintaining fencer ratings (how a fencer ranks with other fencers), and most non-collegiate fencers will sooner or later compete in a USFA sanctioned event. Not all fencing falls under this organization. For example, college fencing is under the auspices of the NCAA, as are other collegiate sports.
This is the hierarchy within the USFA:
The Rocky Mountain section is composed of a number of states: New Mexico, Wyoming, Kansas, Plains Texas, Arizona, South Dakota, and Nebraska in addition to Colorado. The sections are responsible for running certain qualifying events through the year, specifically the sectional qualifying event.
Although Colorado as a state is a division unto itself this isn't always true, for example, Texas and California are made up of multiple divisions and some divisions contain multiple states. Divisions are also responsible for running qualifying events through the year. Typically this includes qualifiers for Division II & III events, some youth qualifiers, and the cadet qualifiers.
Why is it necessary to know which Division and Section you participate in? Because there are qualification paths for national level tournaments and these qualification paths are fenced within your Section and Division. Also, when you sign up for USFA membership, you need to know your Division.
While it is not necessary to be a member of the USFA, to fence in many tournaments USFA membership is required. If you want to earn a rating at a tournament, the tournament must be sanctioned by the division, section or national office to award ratings. It is possible to find some local tournaments (usually club sponsored) that do not require membership, but in almost all tournaments at a division or higher level will require it.
In addition to fencing in competitions, being a USFA member gets you the US Fencing magazine and the newsletter.
Another membership option to consider is the Family membership. This allows two competitive family fencers to be members for one price.
Please note, as a parent, if you wish to participate in certain activities within the USFA (such as voting, or holding a committee position) you will need to be a USFA member.
The USFA runs on a calendar from August 1st through July 31st. Membership expires on July 31st. In the Colorado division, the fencing schedule for the season is set up in August. There may be some changes as the national schedule changes, or venues change, but we try to schedule in advance as much as possible.
A classification is a letter from A to E (with A being the highest) that is earned in competition. The classification reflects the skill level of a fencer. If a fencer has not earned a classification, they are considered a U (for unclassified). A classification includes the letter assigned as well as the year in which it was last earned, for example "A-03". Classifications are valid for four years, at which point they revert to the next lowest letter, or "U", if the classification has not been re-earned within the four year period. Classifications years are based on a calendar year (for example, a fencer earns a C rating at a competition in December 2003, that rating is a C03. If the fencer earns a C rating at a competition in February 2004, the rating is a C04, regardless that both tournaments are within the same fencing season. When the rating reverts however, this is based on the fencing season. For example, a B99 becomes a C03 on August 1st of the 2003-2004 fencing season.
There are competitions held at international, national, regional and local levels.
Local tournaments include our Colorado Cup tournaments and club tournaments. The Colorado Cup is a local tournament because although we do not restrict non-local fencers from attending, the majority of fencers are from our division and our annual awards are given based on points earned at these events. Some club tournaments are non-sanctioned events that do not award ratings and are usually held for some friendly competition.
Regional tournaments include the Regional Youth Circuit (RYC) and Regional Open Circuit (ROC) events. These are tournaments that tend to attract fencers from a regional area of the United States, such as the Rocky Mountain Region (which includes Colorado, New Mexico, Texas, and other states). Sometimes local tournaments that have gained popularity become regional tournaments by attracting fencers from outside of the area. The Nick Toth Open and the Falcon Open are two of these in Colorado - they are both held at the Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs, but are attended by fencers throughout the country.
Finally there are national level tournaments such as North American Cups or NACs, Junior Olympics and Summer Nationals. These tournaments typically draw fencers that are placing highly at the local and regional level, and in many cases have invested several years of training. These are also tournaments that often require the fencer have met certain qualifying requirements as defined by the USFA.
International competitions are really outside the scope of the information contained here as most of these require a high performance level at the national level before entry is allowed. If you want to more information regarding international competition we suggest that you visit the USFA Website.
Some competitions are restricted by age and/or rating, especially national competitions (see #8 and #9). At the national level, competitions are also restricted by gender. Opens are not gender restricted.
Here are some examples of our local tournaments:
Colorado Cup Open - any fencer can enter
Colorado Cup Women’s - any female fencer can enter
Unrated Open - any fencer without a rating in that weapon can enter
Y-14 Open - any fencer who falls in the Y-14 age category can fence
Age classifications are based on the fencer's birth year, not their birthday. So it is possible for a fencer to be in an Y14 group and not be 14. For a detailed list of the current age groupings please refer to the Age Requirements area on the USFA website.
Division categories are used at NACs and Summer Nationals for different levels of fencing (not to be confused with the geographic division discussed earlier). Division I requires a fencer to have a classification rating of C, B or A. Division II requires a fencer to have a classification rating of C, D, E or U. Division III requires a fencer to have a classification rating of D, E or U. In summer nationals only, there is also a Division I-A. Division I-A is only age restricted - fencers must have been born in 1990 or earlier.
Most of our local competitions are run in the following manner:
Fencers are seeded (based on rating and club) into pools. Pools usually consist of 5-8 people, depending on the number of fencers. Fencers fence every other fencer in their pool in a 5-touch bout. Once all the pools have completed fencing, a tableau is completed based on how well the fencer did in their pool against fencers in other pools. In our tournaments, 100% of fencers are promoted to the next step. Some competitions restrict promotion to the next level - for example 80%.
The next level is direct eliminations. These are 15-touch bouts. As the name implies, if the fencer loses, they are eliminated from the competition. Final ranking is based on which bracket you initially seeded into from the pools and the bracket you finished in.
Often it is club and division members who are volunteering to run the local competitions. We are always looking for fencers and parents who will help, since there is a lot of effort involved as you can see from the previous section. There is the bout committee, who is responsible for seeding the competition, assigning referees to strips, recording results and resolving disputes. There are referees who watch the bouts and make the calls. There are support people who help with errands - getting food for the volunteers, laying strips and other necessary components. Most of this work is done gratis, and as a division we try to get new people involved as this will only help to strengthen our division.
Ratings at a competition are determined by 3 factors:
There is a chart that the division follows at competitions from the USFA. When a tournament is listed as a ‘potential’ event, this means the expectation based on the number of entries and the ratings of the fencers entered is that the event will finish that way.
Here is an example:
The event is a ‘potential’ C1 if there are at least 15 fencers entered and there are 2 C rated fencers, 2 D rated fencers and 2 E rated fencers (or higher). For example, if there is a B rated fencer and a C rated fencer, this would count for the 2 C fencers. In order for the event to finish a C1 event, 2 C rated fencers and 2 D rated fencers (or higher) must finish in the top 8. If that happens, the first place winner earns a C, 2nd through 4th earn a D and 5th through 8th earn an E.
RYC stands for "Regional Youth Circuit". The goal of the RYC is to grow youth fencing by allowing youth to fence more competitions within closer distances than national tournaments. There are 8 regions; the Colorado Division is in the Rocky Mountain region. The RYC holds events for Y10, Y12 and Y14 age groups. Fencers can fence in other regions than their own. Currently, Y10 and Y12 fencers need to fence in one of these circuit events to go to the youth NAC in April or to the Y10 and Y12 opens held during summer nationals. Additionally, the winner of Y14 events will qualify for Summer Nationals. For more information about the RYC, see the USFA web page, under the Competitions/Regional Youth Circuit section.
Point standings are calculated based on placement in National tournaments. This is often abbreviated as NRPS (national rolling point standings). The standings can be viewed on the USFA web page, under the Points heading (they are broken down by weapon category, and age classification). As the fencing year progresses, points earned at past tournaments are replaced with the equivalent tournament results from the current year.
The Colorado Division also maintains it's own points standings, seperate from the NRPS. The categories are Mixed, Women's, Veteran's, and Y14, Y12, and Y10. At the end of the season, the top four finishers in each category recieve awards recognizing their achievment.
The USFA has qualification paths for National Championships (individual and team) and Junior Olympics. Most national championship events are held during the Summer Nationals (early in July). Sometimes the Division I National Championships are held separately, depending on the international fencing schedule.
This is just a brief overview of qualification paths, specifics can be found in the Athlete’s Handbook, found on the USFA web page, under the Resources tab.
There are often several qualification paths for an event. Some of these are considered ‘automatic’. For example, if the fencer placed in the top 8 at the previous year’s Division 1-A championship, they are automatically qualified to fence in this year’s Division 1-A championships. Another ‘automatic’ qualification for some events is to be on the NRPS list (for example, the Junior Olympics).
If you are not an automatic qualifier, you can qualify through qualifying tournaments. There are 3 qualifying tournaments held in our Division and Section: Junior Olympics, Divisional (Individual and Team) Qualifiers and Sectional Qualifiers.
Division 1-A and U-19 championships are qualified for through the Sectional Qualifying tournament. Division II, Division III, Under 16 and Y-14 championships are qualified for through Division Qualifiers (with a couple of secondary qualifying paths through Sectional Qualifiers and RYC competitions). The Y-10 and Y-12 Opens are qualified for through the Regional Youth Circuit (see the FAQ item about RYCs). The number of fencers that qualify is based on the number of entrants.
As an example, to qualify for Division III Summer Nationals:
Fencers must have a classification in the weapon of 'D', 'E' or unclassified and be born no later than 1997 AND
As you can see, there are several ways to qualify BUT you also need to look at the qualifying tournament schedule. The Colorado Division board attempts to schedule division qualifiers in a way to maximize the opportunities for fencers to qualify for national events, however, it is the responsibility of each individual fencer to be aware of what the qualifying opportunities are, and plan accordingly.
If a fencer qualifies through a given path they will be considered already qualified even if they participate in future qualifying events, and will not be double-qualified. That space is allotted to the next fencer that didn't qualify through Division Qualifiers.