The South Texas Division of Fencing annual meeting will be held on July 20th at 8:00 pm via Zoom. If you wish to attend, contact the president or the secretary for the Zoom link.

Proxy for the meeting 

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The Texas State University Fencing Club (San Marcos, Tx) announces that it is inviting experienced fencers in all 3 weapons to its open practice at the upper gym of Jowers Center every 2nd Monday of the month.  No floor fees and parking is at City Park next door to Jowers Center.

 

Twelve strips are available; fencing starts at 7 p.m. and ends at 

10:00 p.m.  The club has open fencing on Monday, Wednesday and Thursday evenings; Monday evenings seems to be the most popular evening.  Epee fencers in particular have been taking benefit of this opportunity with around 25-27 taking part on 20 September.

 

Waivers of liability must be signed in accordance with Recreational Sports Department policy.  These fencing practices are not USA FENCING sanctioned.

 

 

For more information, contact Josh Paez (Tx State University Fencing Club President) at:   Joshua.Paez@TxState.Edu or Oscar Barrera at:   ob01@TxState.Edu

Covid-19 Updates :

USA Fencing Return to Local Events Guidelines: here 

Local Event checklist: here 

2021 Annual Membership Meeting Minutes 

The financial report is available upon request to the treasurer. The request should include name and current USFA membership number of the person making the request, 

The Texas State University Fencing Club (San Marcos, Tx) announces that it is inviting experienced fencers in all 3 weapons to its open practice at the upper gym of Jowers Center every 2nd Monday of the month.  No floor fees and parking is at City Park next door to Jowers Center.

 

Twelve strips are available; fencing starts at 7 p.m. and ends at 

10:00 p.m.  The club has open fencing on Monday, Wednesday and Thursday evenings; Monday evenings seems to be the most popular evening.  Epee fencers in particular have been taking benefit of this opportunity with around 25-27 taking part on 20 September.

 

Waivers of liability must be signed in accordance with Recreational Sports Department policy.  These fencing practices are not USA FENCING sanctioned.

2019-2020 SoTxDiv Sanctioned tournaments

These are the dates chosen by the South Texas Division for its tournaments for the 2019-2020 season.  The national calendar has already been published.  The dates below have no conflict with national, regional or local tournaments that are currently listed on that calendar.

 

November 17, 2019          Junior Olympic Qualifiers          Venue:  To be announced

April 4, 2020                       Summer National Qualifiers      Comal ISD (New Braunfels, Tx)

April 25-26, 2020               38th Poujardieu Memorial         TxState University

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The Division is announcing a trial run, an experiment for the upcoming season, of how tournament dates will be selected for the SOTXDIV calendar.  This is an attempt to make the scheduling process as clear and impartial as possible.

 

Regular submission of preferred tournament dates will begin on Friday, 12 July and end on Wednesday 31 July, 2019.  Submissions should be done by email to both the Chair and the Secretary of the South Texas Division.

 

Precedence of preferred dates will be given to the date submission received on a first come, first serve basis.

 

If there is a conflict of dates, then the affected clubs must meet with each other to resolve the date conflict, arriving at an agreement that is acceptable to all the clubs involved.  Only then can the tournaments be submitted to the South Texas Division.  Only those tournaments on the Division's calendar will be considered to be sanctioned.

 

Simply placing a tournament on ASKFRED.NET does not mean that a tournament is  sanctioned by the South Texas Division.  The dates must first be submitted to the Division in the process described above.

Additional tournaments, clinics, seminars can be added anytime during the season following the above process.

We want all of the clubs wishing to host tournaments to work together.  This is your division!

We are sure that there will be questions so please contact us with those or any additional concerns.

Thank you for your time,

 

 

Oscar Barrera                                                          Emmanuelle Jean

 

Chair, South Texas Division,                                  Secretary, South Texas Division,  

USA FENCING                                                          USA FENCING

ob01@txstate.edu                                                   emmanuelle.jean@gmail.com                                       

512-665-0686  

Division policy related to non-USA Fencing member clubs

Promotion of non-USA Fencing clubs within a Division is not permissible.  This can include listing on a public web site, promotion in social media outlets, club representation at local and Regional tournaments and any other form of promotion that directly or indirectly, associates a Division and USA Fencing with a fencing club that is not a current Affiliate or Member Club.  While we certainly want to see clubs grow and thrive within every Division, we cannot promote a club that is not a member of USA Fencing for several reasons.

 

1)      USA Fencing fully supports any efforts to create the safest possible environment for our clubs and their membership and will always comply with the United States Olympic Committee and the US Center for Safe Sport policies.  We will only recognize, support and promote organizations/clubs that agree to comply with Safe Sport policy.

2)      Clubs in a  Division that choose to NOT be a member with USA Fencing should NOT receive the benefit of promotion as it decreases the value of the membership for those clubs who are members and do follow Safe Sport and USA Fencing policy.

3)      Athletes are NOT PERMITTED to represent a non-member fencing club at a sanctioned local, regional or national USA Fencing tournament.  This is once again an effort to encourage all fencing clubs to become Safe Sport compliant via the USOC and US Center for Safe Sport protocols.  Any fencer who competes in a sanctioned tournament and is NOT A MEMBER OF A CURRENT USA FENCING CLUB must be listed as “Unattached” for the tournament.

 

If an individual fencer requests to represent a fencing club at a local tournament, the request should only be granted if the club is a current Affiliate or Member Club.  Rich Weiss from the Virginia Division has offered this very helpful guide on downloading CURRENT membership information in preparation for your event.  This will help a tournament organizer correctly list fencers and their club affiliations.  Click to read.    You can also access the current club list HERE

USA Fencing Sanctioned Tournaments

As of August 1, 2017, all USA Fencing sanctioned tournaments must have a rated referee (any rating).s of August 1, 2017, all USA Fencing sanctioned tournaments must have a rated referee (any rating).

 

USA Fencing Division Qualifying Tournament

​A level 5 or higher rated referee is required for Division Qualifying Tournaments.

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Day Schedules

The day schedules for all North American Cups as well as the Junior Olympic and Division I / Wheelchair National Championships are available here.

 

Division III NAC

A second Division III North American Cup will be held this year at the April NAC, April 20-23 in Richmond, Va. This follows the Division III event which will be held at the March NAC, March 9-12 in Baltimore, Md.

 

Domestic Strength Factor for Division I NACs and Championships 

Beginning with the October North American Cup, all Division I national events in 2017-18 will utilize a strength factor similar to the one used for senior international events. 

 

The strength factor will be used for all Div I NACs and the July Challenge with a minimum Strength Factor of .8 and a maximum Strength Factor of 1.1.  

Beginning with the October NAC, weight values will not be used for senior rankings and team selection. This will allow points to be based on the strength of a tournament on competition day rather than a preset weight value which may or may not reflect the number and caliber of competitors who fence in the event. 

The use of the domestic Strength Factor is a pilot program for the 2017-18 season which will be evaluated by the USA Fencing Sports Performance staff for future seasons.

The Division I National Championships will have a minimum Strength Factor of 1.0 and a maximum of 1.1. 

The formula used to calculate the Strength Factor is as follows: 

SF = [n/10 + 6(SrFIE32) + 5(Sr4) + 4(Sr8) + 3 (Sr16) + 2(Sr32) + 1(SR64)]/100

N=Number of competitors

SrFIE32=Number of athletes ranked in the top 32 of the FIE World Rankings

Sr4=Number of athletes ranked 1-4 in the National Rolling Point Standings

Sr8=Number of athletes ranked 5-8 in the National Rolling Point Standings

Sr16=Number of athletes ranked 9-16 in the National Rolling Point Standings

Sr32=Number of athletes ranked 17-32 in the National Rolling Point Standings

Sr64=Number of athletes ranked 33-64 in the National Rolling Point Standings

*All rankings used as of the start of competition. Competitors who withdraw prior to the start of competition or who are excluded from the event will not be counted in the Strength Factor.

For further details regarding the point values of events for team selection, please visit http://www.usfencing.org/selection-criteria to view the 2017-18 selection criteria. 

 

Division I Men’s and Women’s Epee Format at North American Cups

Following the conclusion of the trials of two different formats used by Division I epee fencers at the three NACs held during the 2016-17 season, the two-day format was selected to be used for the entirety of the 2017-18 season.

 

The format listed below, which gives the top 62 fencers in the field a bye into the second day of competition, places emphasize on the importance of strong pool fencing which is key for success at the international level as well as domestically, both in USA Fencing events as well as in collegiate fencing.

The format that will be used at the October, December and January NACs will be for Division I epee only and will be as follows:

A preliminary pool on day 1 with the top 62 initially seeded persons receiving a bye to day 2. 75% of the preliminary pool promoted to a preliminary direct elimination table until 64 persons remain. A final pool round on day 2 with the top 62 initially seeded persons joining the 64 remaining persons from the preliminary direct elimination table. 112 persons advance from the final pool round to a final simple direct elimination table. The top 62 initially seeded persons receiving a bye will be determined immediately following the close the regular fee entry period.

All persons eliminated from the competition in Day 1 will be automatically entered into the Division I Epee Classification Tournament on Day 2. While athletes in this event will not be eligible for Division I national points, they will be eligible to renew and upgrade their classifications based on the USA Fencing Classification Chart in the Athlete Handbook.

The July Challenge and Division I National Championships will still utilize the single elimination format which will be used by all non-Division I epee fencers as well.

Updates to Championship Qualification

Several changes were made to the qualification paths for Championship events in order to allow more participation and streamline the regional process.

 

Division I National Championships

The qualification paths for the USA Fencing Division I National Championships have expanded to include athletes who hold points on the Junior National Rolling Point Standings in addition to individuals on the Senior National Point Standings as of the regular entry deadline. The top four athletes on the Cadet National Point Standings also will qualify for Div I Nationals.

 

Junior Olympic Championships

The regional qualifying paths for the Junior Olympic Championships changed to allow athletes to qualify via only a set minimum point total rather either a point total or a percentage of the rankings list. This allows athletes to know their qualification status earlier in the season rather than having to wait until the close of the final regional qualification tournament. For both junior and cadets, the minimum Regional Point Standings totals has been set at 110.

 

July Challenge

The regional qualifying paths for the July Challenge changed to allow athletes to qualify via only a set minimum point total rather either a point total or a percentage of the rankings list. This allows athletes to know their qualification status earlier in the season rather than having to wait until the close of the final regional qualification tournament. For both junior and cadets, the minimum Regional Point Standings totals has been set at 65.

 

USA Fencing National Championships

Y10, Y12, Y14

New Saber Rules Effective 8/1/2016

The USA Fencing Board of Directors recently approved two rule changes for saber fencers beginning on Aug. 1 at the start of the 2016-17 season in accordance with decisions made by the Federation Internationale d’Escrime.  Both of these rule changes will be in effect for ALL sanctioned USA Fencing tournaments.

 

New On Guard Line 

Official FIE language in Summary of Decisions from Congress: For sabre, the referee places each of the two competitors in such a way that the back foot of each is 2 m from the centre line of the piste (that is, in front of the "on guard" lines). Application as follows: the tests have to be done after the Olympic Games and until December 31, 2016 and, according to the ad hoc Commission, the Executive Committee will decide if the rule will be applied for the rest of season 2016-2017.

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New Timing

Official FIE language in Summary of Decisions from Congress: After a hit has been registered, a subsequent hit made by the other fencer will only be registered if it occurs within a maximum of 170 milliseconds (± 10 ms tolerance). Application as follows: starting with the season 2016-2017.

 

Foil Rule Change for 2016 Season

Beginning August 1 2016, a foil fencer who reverses the line of his/her shoulders (bringing the shoulder of the non-weapon arm forward of the weapon arm shoulder) is now subject to a Group 1 penalty (a yellow card). Much like other penalties (such as corps-a-corps to avoid a touch or substitution of non-valid target), any hit scored by the fencer committing the penalty will be annulled.

New Rule for Tournaments

Beginning October 1, 2015, all tournament organizers will be required to submit a list of officials who worked their event. We ask that the division submit the list of officials when the classification report is sent to the National Offices. All officials are required to be background screened for USA Fencing sanctioned events. If a non-screened official is used, the tournament organizer will receive a warning letter. On the second offense, the tournament organizer will not be allowed to host a sanctioned event for a period of six (6) months. On the third offense, the tournament organizer will be referred to the Board of Directors for investigation and potential disciplinary action. The requirement does not include self-directed events or apply to individuals who are under the age of 18.