Referee Test and Action Database

It was pointed out to me today that I don’t actually have a link to my referee test app / action database on the blog.

A small progressive web app that you can use to practice your foil refereeing can be found here:

https://refereetest.quarte-riposte.com/

If you want to do it action by action in browser you can go here:

https://actions.quarte-riposte.com/

I use the results of this data to classify fencing actions. If you want to browse this data, you can look here:

https://actions.quarte-riposte.com/browse?u=actions

Foil Point in Line in Practice with Examples

Having just watched the most recent foil bouts in the 2020 Olympics, I have reason to believe that some of the examples in this article are now out of date. I think that the basic explanations and reasoning are still accurate, but the timings seem to be a lot tighter now against slow attacks, making it more possible to place a line. I will need to review this with some FIE referees and provide an update.

Continue reading Foil Point in Line in Practice with Examples

Basic Foil Actions with Examples

To a laymen, I think that fencing can seem really daunting. If you look up glossaries of terms, such as the one on wikipedia you’ll find a list of dozens of terms in French, Italian and English pertaining to various ways fencers can move, or their equipment or the rules of the sport etc. Fencer’s tend to really like cryptic terminology and technical definitions – I think it makes us feel smart! But really, it’s not all that complicated.

Continue reading Basic Foil Actions with Examples