The Club enters BUSA team and Individual competitions as well as Regional and National Competitions. All queries relating to BUSA competitions should be directed to the Mens Captain or the Ladies Captain. Queries about non-BUSA competitions should be directed to Club Captain. Thanks go to Nick for his compilation of the information below
Opens: A decent-sized UK competition for any fencer of any nationality. You must have BFA membership (about £35 per year) before entering (they won't let you fence without proof of membership). Generally, standards are reasonable. Some are larger (and harder) than others; eg Shropshire/Wrexham/Plymouth/ opens are much smaller than Bristol/Welsh/Nationals. Multipliers and points: Anyone entering a UK Open is given a final position at the end of that day's fencing (eg 50 out of 100). If you are in the top 75% of fencers in your weapon in that tournament, you will be awarded some national ranking points. Over the year, your top six results are added up and you will have a UK ranking (so you can say to your mates: "look, i'm in the top xxx in the country!!"). Quite fun. Entry fees vary between £8-15.
Closeds: Smaller competitions. Closed means that you must live in the county where the competition is based; ie Loughborough is in the 'fencing county' designated Leicester&Rutland. These tournaments are generally low in number and lower in standard, because they are designed to clash with Opens (ie you choose to go to one or the other on that day). Again, you will need BFA membership. There are no national ranking points awarded for attendees - these are for experience primarily. However, if you are trying for sectional qualification, then attendance is mandatory. Entry fees normally about £5-10.
Regionals: These are closed, but are Regional, not county level. ie Loughborough is in the 'fencing region' designated "East Midlands". BFA membership required. Entry fees are normally about £10. No points are awarded in regionals.
Inter-Sectionals: The Regions compete against each other in two divisions: The Winton Cup (eg Wales, North East, South East, West Mids) and Southcombe Cup (eg Yorkshire, London, N.Ireland, East Midlands, etc). The strongest team recently has been the North East - Lazslo and Barry Flood run a series of very strong clubs in the Durham area. Entry is paid by Regions. You don't send in an application of these - the Region picks you, and asks you to represent them. No points. It's run near where I lived last year, so I went along to watch (not to play). Decent standard of fencing there.
Internationals: Not much goes on, unfortunately. There are individual competitions, and Home Nations matches. Individuals: The Olympics, World Championships, World Cup, European Championships, A-Grade Circuit. Team: Olympics, World Championships, World Cup, European Championships, 5-nations (Eng, Wal, Sco, N.Ire, Eire). Entry is usually by qualification, or invitation, except A-grades - entry is about £15, but you must have an FIE license (£20) in addition to your BFA license. Is fencing sounding expensive? Nah. A-grade standard varies, but it is generally quite good (excellent for abroad A-grades). A-grades will bring you many, many points. However, in addition to coming in the top 75%, you must also win one DE, or have one bye in the tournament.
BUSA: British Universities' Sports Association: Organise the inter-uni matches. BFA membership is required, although no-one seems to care/check. Although it is checked at the individuals (Dec 3-5th 2004). Entry and transport to all competitions is paid by the AU (thank god). No national ranking points are awarded, but if a club / individual does well, they may have University points awarded (the universities are ranked by BUSA at the end of each season. Loughborough won last year! and probably the last 30 years straight).
Novices' Tournaments: Are run privately by various people. Entry is usually about £10 per person. Usually, you must have fenced for less than two years. Foil-only is usual, but some are epee competitions. Warwick Uni run one in November-ish time (an ex pupil of mine won last year), Reading Uni also in March-ish, and Essex sometime after (not sure when). Also, one in mid-Wales mid-May. No points are available. You play for experience, and a small trophy that says "best student novice" or something. Weeeee! Well, if that doesn't provide sufficient incentive, i just don't know what will. Competition Info: I think Doug is organising an internal fresher's novice foil tournament at the end of this term. Next term, we shall probably send a few of you off to Essex or Reading to compete in the national student novices' competitions there. I believe we won last year - you must retain the trophy!!
If I was a responsible physiologist like i'm supposed to be, I would tell you to eat a high complex-carbohydrate meal the night before your competition. This will increase your endurance (ie you wont feel knackered half-way through). Complex-CHO would be eg rice, pasta, potatoes, etc. Dont worry about that Atkins bollox - that would only apply if you don't do any exercise (which you obviously do if you're reading this). Secondly, drink at least a pint of water the night before the competition; this will reduce the likelihood of you being dehydrated the subsequent day. Also, don't skip breakfast, but have a high-CHO breakfast, eg toast, cereal (not sausages, egg, etc). You might also want some caffeine in your system - coffee, tea, chocolate, cola, pro-plus etc).
During the tournament, it is useful to consume high glycaemic-index CHO (eg sports drink, chocolate, bananas, or generally anything sugary). Intake plenty of water - normally about 1 litre per hour. Don't forget to eat something AFTER you finish fencing (sandwiches are good), and remember to drink plenty of water for the rest of that day (nutritionalists recommend 8 x 1.5 = 12 glasses of water after an event, but that is playing it very safe in my opinion). PS: for sports drinks, isotonic water is a waste of time and money, non-gassy sugary drinks are good (eg Lucosage sport), but orange squash is practically as good. If i'm going to a small competition, i usually take about three 1/2 litre squash drinks and three 1/2 litre water bottles. For a large competition, two 1/2 litre Lucosade Sports drinks, two 1/2 litre squash drinks, and three 1/2 litre water bottles.
If you want to get really serious and a bit technical, then drink no alcohol for 3 days (3 weeks if you're REALLY serious), consume 10g/Kg CHO the day before (equates to 3 pasta meals), and 6mg/Kg caffeine the morning of tournament (equates to about 5 cups of coffee); Water - 12 glasses day before and after, with 1 litre per hr during the competition. If you still want more information or references, ask me in training :).
Follow the links to the left to view both the BUSA and the Non-BUSA Calendars. Explanatory notes for the Non-BUSA Calendar are shown below. If you are confused by the BUSA Calendar, contact the Mens Captain or the Ladies Captain.
N.B. "Unknown" probably means that information about the competition has not been released yet (or, if there was not a competition last year, no results are available)
Notes on standard:
This is difficult to quantify - "Low" means if I (Nick Charles) entered the sabre, I would probably win (I would NOT enter, because it would bring me practically no points); "Medium" means that I would expect to finish in the top half; "High" means that I would finish near the bottom.
What sort of competitions should people enter?
There are two schools of thought; firstly, one might consider it more beneficial for beginners to enter larger tournaments to gain experience, and see what sort of standard people are up to these days. However, this is generally not great for their self-esteem, and to stop beginners giving up fencing early-on, coaches generally do not encourage beginngers to enter the bigger competitions, which I think is a shame.
The alternative is for beginners to enter easy (small, usually local) competitions to play against rubbish opposition, thus beating them easily and getting a trophy - great for their self-esteem, but they will learn nothing about fencing but how a local competition is run. It is generally accepted that fencers improve with a combination of competing, and being coached - playing the same three people every week will hardly improve your fencing. Of course, some people don't play fencing to actually get better - it's more of a social thing, and that's fine too.