Refereeing in fencing

As with other sports fencing bouts are monitored by a referee.  This could be another fencer or a certified referee.  They use hand signals to show when to start, stop, how points are being awarded and who gets penalties.  Since fencing is an international sport and language could be a barrier hand signals are very important to help fencers understand the rules.

 

The referee's job is to ensure the safe and fair conduct of the bout. Occasionally these two conflict, as the referee must prevent or penalise disorderly or dangerous fencing while not restricting the fencers' ability to compete with each other. The referee is also responsible for the maintenance of order in his/her pool or bout or around his/her piste. The referee has a jurisdiction over all fencers in the competition and all persons present in the venue. The older term for a referee is a referee (as the referee was the referee of the jury of judges before the use of electric apparatus).

 

Fencers start each point and each time period behind the guard lines. If they are stopped for a hit that does not result in a point being awarded, then they are placed on guard at an appropriate distance where they stopped.

 

A hit must be landed on valid target to be considered. This means that it must land with the point in foil and epee, or with the point or blade in sabre, and must land on the valid target as defined for that weapon. This is measured by the electrical apparatus and a hit may not be awarded if the apparatus does not receive it.

 

The referee must halt the bout if one fencer commits an illegal action. These include: turning, stepping off the side of the piste, passing the opponent, jostling or corps-a-corps (touching the opponent with part of the body), crossing the rear of the piste. In all these cases the referee will stop the action by calling "Halt". The referee will penalise the fencer at fault as specified in the rules, e.g. loss of 1 metre for stepping off the side of the piste, loss of a point for crossing the rear of the piste.

 

The fencer who commits an illegal action may not score a point by it, though the opponent may. In practice this means that the fencer who commits the illegal action may not score after it is committed, e.g. after they have turned, passed, left the piste etc. The opponent may, if their action began before the halt, score a point by hitting after the halt with the same action.

 

 

The referee may annul a hit registered by the apparatus if he/she can establish that the apparatus or fencer's equipment was malfunctioning. The malfunction might cause a hit to be registered falsely or cause a hit by the opponent to fail to register. Not all detected malfunctions require the referee to annul the point. In any case, the referee can only annul the last point, and only if fencing has not recommenced and the equipment has not been used or modified by the fencer subsequently.

 

If the box registers a hit by each fencer: at epee, both fencers will receive a point, this means they each hit within 40 ms of the other; at foil and sabre, the referee will award the point to the fencer whose hit he/she judges to have had priority.

 

Bouts are won by the first fencer to reach a particular score. For pool bouts, this is 5 points. For most DE bouts it is 15. If, in epée, the scores are 4-4 in a pool bout or 14-14 in a DE bout then double-hits are not counted.

 

Bouts are limited in effective time. This means that a bout runs only for a specified length of time. This time is the "effective time", i.e. the time between the commands "Fence" and "Halt". This is timed by a stop-watch with is started on "Fence" and stopped on "Halt". For pool bouts this time limit is three minutes and for most DE bouts it is three-periods of three minutes with a minute rest between each period. In sabre the first period ends when one fencer reaches 8 points, because sabre bouts are extremely fast. If the time runs out before one fencer reaches the winning score then the bout is won by the fencer whose score is highest at the end. If both scores are equal then the referee draws lots between the fencers (by flipping a coin or using the random indicator on the box) and announces to each fencer the result of the draw. Then the clock is set to one minute and the bout starts again, to be won by the next point, or by the fencer who won the draw if there is no point scored after the extra minute.

 

Appeals against a referee's decisions can only be based on the rules and can only be made to the DT by the fencer concerned. This means that coaches, parents and teammates cannot appeal to the DT on behalf of a fencer (the exception is that the team captain may do so in teams matches), and that an appeal must be on the grounds that the referee misapplied the rules, not that he/she failed to see an action correctly. The DT has no power to override a referee's decision of fact, i.e. the referee's view of what happened, even if a member of the DT saw the action in question. The appeal can only be considered if it is on the grounds that the referee, having phrased the action that he/she saw, awarded the points or penalties incorrectly under the rules.

On Guard	This is the referee signal to order the fencer into the guard position.
Ready	This is the signal made by the referee to determine if both fencers are ready to begin.
Play/Fence	This is the signal to start fencing.  The referee will bring his hands together.
Halt	This signal requires you to immediately stop fencing.  The referee will normally hold up his right hand unless the halt was caused specifically by the left hand fencer.
Attack from left/right	This is the signal that determines the attack fencer.  Left hand raised represents the fencer on the referee's left while the right hand raised represents the fencer on the referee's right.
Hits	This is the signal that determines which fencer hits.  Left hand raised shows the fencer on the referee's left has been hit and if the right hand is raised it shows that the fencer on the referee's right has been hit by the opponent.
Point Awarded	This is the signal that determines whom the referee is awarding the point.  Left hand raised means the point goes to the fencer on his left while the right hand raised means the point goes to the fencer on the referee's right.  In Epée if both hands are raised it means both fencers receive a point.
Together	This is the signal that shows both attacks started simultaneously.
Off Target	This is the signal that shows that the fencer has hit a non-valid target.  In this case the fencer does not score a point.
Parried	This signal indicates that a fencer successfully parries an attack.  The left hand represents the fencer on the referee's left performed the parry while the right hand represents the fencer on the right.
Point in Line	This referee signal indicates that one of the fencers established point-in-line against his/her opponent.  The left hand represents the fencer on the referee's left took point-in-line while the right hand represents the fencer on the right.
Fails/Miss	This signal shows that the action of one of the fencers has failed to hit either on or off target. Left hand raised shows the fencer on his left has missed while the right hand raised means the fencer on the referee's right has missed.