August 2004 USFA Rule Changes

In July, the USFA Board of Directors adopted many rule changes effective starting with the 2004-2005 fencing year. These rule changes were all modeled after changes the FIE had previously made in its rules, and and published. But, the USFA has yet to make this information available at its Web site.

1. Now all (instead of some) first group offenses which involve the scoring of a touch, where the person committing the offense has some sort of advantage due to the offense, result in the annulment of that touch as well as the penalty. This change involved "simple corps-à-corps (foil and sabre)", "touching/taking hold of electrical equipment", and "covering/substitution of valid target".

   Referees: You no longer have to look at the penalty chart to see if there is an asterisk next to a first group offense. If it is still a first group offense, and if you would ever want to know if a point should be annulled, the asterisk will be there without needing to check.

   NOTE: "Covering/substitution of valid target" appears in the rules in one place for saber which has no counterpart in the discussion of foil (rule t.72). The change of the rules for this extra occurrence is causing some confusion. The list of revisions quotes the whole paragraph with the change, including the already-existing mention that in saber off-target hits are non-events. But, due to where this changed text appears in the list of changes, many people have mistakenly thought that it applies to foil, and have been surprised about the (existing!) wording saying off-target hits are non-events. Although there has been discussion of making such a change in foil, last time it went to a vote (the FIE late last year), it was defeated. The white light in foil is very much still with us despite the confused mistakes about the revised text of this saber rule.

2. Reversing the line of shoulders is no longer an offense (it never was in épée), and watching for this is no longer something for judges to do. However, nothing about this makes it legal to cover target with your off arm, and turning back is still illegal.

3. Judges (the assesserus who assist the referee) always had to switch ends between periods of DE bouts, so the same judges don't always watch the same fencer. Now, this switching also happens between bouts of a team match too, so the same judges don't always watch the same half of the fencers (ignoring what happens with lefties).

4. It is illegal for the fencer to have electronic communications equipment which, e.g., would allow his coach to whisper into his ear during the bout. The penalty to the fencer for doing this is the same fourth group black card as any other clearly deliberate cheating with equipment.

   Referees: In the pre-bout equipment checks, add looking for electronic communications equipment to your standard routine. If and when the referee discovers such, confiscate it and turn it over to the technical experts just as you would a weapon which might have been rigged for cheating. To remember this, just remember that you is supposed to act on his own when things don't work or break, but you are supposed to get the experts involved when there is a reasonable possibility that there is willful and intentional violation of rules about materials in an attempt to cheat. Something which could be either a hearing aid or a one-way radio counts as something which has a reasonable but not certain possibility of being willful and intentional cheating.

5. The penalty for absence of a satisfactory name or national colors on the clothing (in such tournaments where there is a requirement) is now a second group offense (immediately and always a red card), but only one such card for the offense and the bout may then proceed using the equipment.

   Referees: In the few tournaments which actually require a name on clothing, you can stop overlooing the rule because you feel sorry for fencers who have no way to comply. Now they can fence anyway, even after you award the required red card.

6. The rules concerning calling a fencer, or the balance of a team, to strip have been revised. There is no longer a yellow card for absence at the first call, but it is now sufficient for the referee to make all calls for the missing fencer (instead of there being "an announcement").

   Referees: When a fencer is missing, call the fencer but don't get out the cards. You will no longer find this listed as a first group offense. Your call at the strip for the fencer is sufficient. You no longer have to get the bout committee to make a general announcement. When the fencer is not present at the third call, then use the black card. However, it may be wise to use your judgment. The bout committee expects you to be as efficient as possible. But, if the bout committee itself has not done an adequate job of making accurate information available to the fencers about where and when they are due, it might be prudent to involve the bout committee instead of penalizing a fencer who might end up winning an appeal.

7. Saluting is now required both before and after the bout, in addition to a handshake after the bout. Failure to do any of this results in suspension continuing for the next two competitions.

   Referees: You no longer need to remember how the penalities differ for failure to salute beforehand, failure of the winner to salute, and failure of the loser to salute -- all have the same extremely harsh variety of black card. But, the USFA used to allow the handshake as a substitute for a salute afterward, while now both are required. Try to avoid giving this black card if a fencer is being genuinely forgetful, and reserve it for genuine refusal. This particular kind of black card will require reporting the offense to USFA authorities.

8. Passivity is handled slightly differently. Old version: Pools and non-final DE periods, verbal warning, then end the period, skip the break, and resume fencing (which is hard to do with a pool!), and if in the final period, determine priority just in case and fence for one whole minute (or until one reaches the score limit). New version: In everything but pools, final periods of DEs, and last bouts of team matches, no warning, but skip to the end of the current DE period or end of the current bout in a team match. For pools, final DE periods, and final team bouts, first warn, then jump to the final minute with priority determined in advance just in case. And, passivity when already in the final minute is ignored.

   Referees: Remember it this way. If passivity happens in ANY situation when the upcoming time expiration DOES NOT produce a final score, just pretend time expired already. If passivity happens in ANY situation when the upcoming time expiration DOES produce a final score, then 1) if it is too late to advance to one minute remaining, ignore, and 2) if it is still possible to advance to one minute remaining, issue a warning the first time and the second time advance to the one minute point with priority determined in advance just in case. (Y10 and Y12 DE bouts, which are best two out of three encounter bouts, which were not explicitly addressed.)

   Referees: Note that you do not have to watch 30 seconds of dead air time before invoking passivity. If the two fencers somehow make it clear to you that they're not interested in engaging each other (like dropping their arms and backing away from the en garde lines, or even speaking of the desire to be passive), that suffices.

9. Penalizing people not fencing in the bout for disturbing the bout has changed slightly. Warnings and expulsions are the same as before, but whether or not to use a card at all, and which card if so, has been clarified. The warning uses a yellow card, and the expulsion uses a black card.

10. A deliberate touch not on valid target has been moved on the penalty chart from a first group to a second group offense (i.e., you don't get one free deliberate non-target hit any more).