Referee recap and movies for Turkey Day

So I managed to make it through the weekend. Actually, I was incredibly disapponted at the lack of referee skill that was at this tournament. Sad but true. There were plenty of volunteers (too many actually), but only a few rated refs, and even a couple of them weren't exactly optimal choices. It was really heavy on foil/epee refs. Fine. Not a problem. I'd prefer to ref saber anyway, but with the number of conflicts we had, there were far too few saber refs, and far to many foil refs.


My other observation was that there were a few refs who actually managed to scew up epee. I had to remind one guy not to coach the fencer (during a break), or remind fencers of the time! The same guy was telling fencers to hit their point on the floor when the weapon was presented for a test! I mean, give me a break......


There is bad blood between clubs in every single division, no doubt. However, I was absolutely appauled at the fact that parents and friends of fencers would actually "boo" an opponent from another school. Way to teach your kids sportsmanship people....


Anyway, aside from the sad lack of talent among several referees (and I really can't attest to the ability of the people who reffed foil, because I didn't watch them), the evnt ran fairly smoothly. A few things I would have done differently to move things along, but that will happen with any tournaments that I'm not running myself.

The facility was awesome. The LOC was very friendly and organized. We didn't run too terribly behind in any event. All in all, a positive experience.

Anyway, moving on....
I can't decide what movie I want to see first this weekend. Harry Potter or Rent. What's a girl to do? I waited a whole extra week to see the former, but the latter is my all time favorite stage show gone movie. From everything I've read, Rent stays very close to the play, including most of the songs, and 90% of the original Broadway cast. I haven't really heard if Harry Potter butchers the book or not. It seems as though the first HP movie was very true to the book, and it just strays more and more with every movie they put out. The 4th was my favorite book, and I'm almost too afraid of the outcome of the movie to go see it! *sigh* I'll see them both before the weekend is out, but what to see first?

I think I've got someone fooled

So your's truly has managed to get hired as a referee for JO qualifiers this weekend. Why would I put myself through such torture? One of my major goals for this season is to get certified. We don't have nearly enough decent referees in my division, and my section is only slightly better. I'm going to pass that darn test if it's the last thing I do! I've been studying and taking practice tests while I'm supposed to be working, studying the hand signals and penalty chart, and practicing more on reffing than fencing. (shhh! a little secret is that I want to be a higher rated referee than my husband, who's a 6 in all three weapons!)

So, anyway, I've managed to convince the people who run the Division that I'm a good referee. (I have no idea how!) You see, it's not that I'm NOT a good referee, it's just that I'm not noticed all that often for being a good referee. I don't usually volunteer to do it at anything other than our home tournaments. (Although I used to referee as often as I could.)

I have my navy blazer and grey pants. I have my own set of cards. I even went out and bought comfy, yet classy shoes to wear. They confirmed my hotel room and 2 meals a day (3 if we run late!). They pay crappy, but hey, I knew that when I volunteered.

Wish me luck! Here goes nothin'......

The blessed weekend off...

I have been travelling for tournaments for 8 out of the last 9 weekends in a row. I think it's going to do me a lot of good to have a break this weekend! I have sore muscles and blisters and bruises that have been there for almost 2 months, and they need some healing time!

So what am I going to do? I'm going to get a very long overdue haircut. I'm going to do some Christmas shopping. I'm going to (attempt to) sleep in! I'm going to gear myself up to referee the NC JO qualifiers next weekend. Ahhhh!

...Or not.

So I made my debut in foil. It actually didn't go nearly as bad as I thought. My goal was to try to get at least one point in every pool bout. My results: 1-5, 1-5, 2-5, 5-3, 5-2. I won 2 bouts!!!! OMG it was totally unexpected! DE's are up, and I win my first one. (We only had 12 people, so it wasn't all that exciting.) My next DE is against one of the kids that beat me in the pool. Ugh. Anyway, I had a sort of light bulb go off in my head, and I realized that a lot of the things that work for me in saber, also work in foil! Amazing. Anyway, I actually gave the kid a run for his money, and lost that bout 15-11. Oh well. It was kinda fun, but I don't think you'll ever find me "training" in foil.

Epee was dreadful. I started out fencing it like foil, which was getting me nowhere. Apparently, my brain doesn't switch weapons in the same day very easily. So I went 3-2. Fair. Who is my DE against? The same guy who beat me 5-1 in my second pool bout, in which I was incredibly frustrated. Great. So I go to fence him, and I actually stay with him, and figure out a few tricks that work. We get into the thrid period, and the score is 9-6 I think, with me winning. I had a three point lead, and ended up losing 15-14. I hate that about myself. I can never close the deal in a tough bout when it counts. Dreadful.

Sunday I ran the saber tournament. Awwww hell. I had 33 fencers show up (for an E and under tournament!), and we tried to run it as fast as humanly possible. Unfortunately, some of the parents don't have a patient bone in their body. We started fencing about 12:30, and the last bout got done at 5:30. I don't think that's bad, being that we had 33 fencers and 3 strips.

Anyway, my feet hurt.