The Bout, electric

When you want to fence with the electric scoring machine, you have to pull a body cord through your weapon arm sleeve. Your glove will have an opening in the Velcro, string the cord trough it and close the Velcro over your jacket sleeve.

So you have your gear on, your body cord is plugged into your weapon and you are looking for someone to fence. You find each other, agree and hook up to the machine. This is the step by step process, with a director:

• Director calls your names, for example says “Strip one: Mr. X is on the right, Mrs. Q on the left. On Guard please.”
• Hook up to the machine, plug the end of cord that is coming out of the back of your jacket first. Hook up the alligator clip from the scoring machine wire to your jacket.
• Test the weapon, a colored light should go off. If you are on a metallic grounded strip, hit yourself or off the strip. If nothing happens, there is a problem with your side of the strip. To diagnose, where it lies, unplug the weapon from the cord and short out the A and B lines. (The two closest together…) If nothing happens, unplug the body cord half way out of the machine and short out the A and B lines on the box. If nothing happens, it is the machine, if a light goes off, the the issue is with your body cord.
• Test each other’s guards. If you hit and your light goes off, that means your opponent’s weapon is not grounded. That is their issue. To test whether it is their body cord or the machine, take the tip of your weapon and press it against your opponent’s C line. If it goes off, then their C line is broken somewhere. Test the C line on the opponent’s machine by pressing your tip against it. If nothing happens, the C line is OK on the machine and your opponent needs a new cord.
• Everything went smoothly, your equipment is in perfect order, you salute each other, the director and whatever audience you may have. When you self direct, salute only each other of course…
• The Director will say: “Ready?” This is the time to say “No” if you need to adjust anything except mental state. Say “Yes” if you please so, but unless the Director hears explicit objection, they will say:
• “FENCE!”
• Hit first!

Once some one does hit, the machine will beep and light up the person’s that hit side and color. The Director will then say “HALT!” and award a touch. You must stop, walk back to the on guard lines and get on guard.

The director may also call a “HALT!” anytime they see a violation of bout protocol. Normal directors will call a “HALT!” most often for:

Stepping off the strip: One foot off to the side looses you a meter. Front foot stepping behind your end line earns your opponent a touch. This is important in bout strategy. Usually in the club we don’t pay attention to the side rule unless it’s super obvious, we do not have full size strips.

“Corps à corps”: This phrase is a moment when fencers come into physical contact with each other and no touch is scored. Guard to guard is ok, but not wrist to wrist, shoulder to shoulder, ect… Doing this intentionally will cost you a red card (touch against you) and doing this brutally will get you kicked out of the event for jostling.

Passing: If you attack and fly past your opponent, they get one tempo to hit you while you are behind them and/or already off the strip, you as the attacker must hit either on your on attack or immediately after while still on the strip. 

Here is the full USFA rule book.

So barring the common halts above, you then rinse, repeat to either 5 or 15 touches.

The director is not obliged to say the score, but it is a good courtesy. They are severely obliged to keep the score in their head though. So should the fencers. Once someone wins, the Director will say “Bout right (left)” and thus indicate who won.

In most competition you will fence to time, three minutes in a five touch bout and three periods of three minutes in a 15 touch bout. If the score should remain equal the end of time, you must flip a coin, determine “priority” and fence for one additional minute. If no touches are scored then, the person that won the coin toss wins the bout. I’m sure this is under one of the links I posted under great detail, but this is the main idea.

There’s a new link to a decent armory site where you can learn how the weapons work from within and how to repair them. There are a couple of tricks I’ve learned over the years that make them more durable, but we can talk about that if you are interested in competing.