Donna writes: >From: "Joshua Kronengold" <mneme at io.com> writes: >>Interesting. Traditionally, in fencing (pre-electric), specific >>judges are assigned to watch specific fencers, and cannot call points >>on the other fencer, so there may be less of this effect." >This is definitely true. I did think that was one of the cooler parts about >tournament fencing. One judge watches the back of one fencer, another judge >watches the front, and then two judges for the other fencer and one in the >middle. The one in the middle is a "director", fwiw -- they only get half a point (or is it one and a half? Not enough to override both judges, in any case) for judging whether attacks are valid, but have full discression on the conduct of the bout and right of way (priority). >guy gets poked, you raise your hand. It wouldn't work quite as well in a >karate tournament because the competitors get to move around so much. Actually, I've done judging at a rapier tournament that was modeled off of classical rules (ie, pre-electric fencing), and it worked ok -- the judges needed to move a bit to stay to the back of "their" fencers, but could usually manage ok. -- Joshua Kronengold (mneme@(io.com, labcats.org)) |\ _,,,--,,_ ,) --^-- "Get your mind right and you can make a stick /,`.-'`' -, ;-;;' /\\ your wand and the sky your hat and a puddle |,4- ) )-,_ ) /\ /-\\\ your magic..." -- Granny Weatherwax '---''(_/--' (_/-'