Bulletin Board

This will allow us to offer unofficial, smaller introductory level tournaments on Saturday afternoons at 3pm. These events must have a minimum of 5 competitors to run and have a maximum entry of 12. These events usually take about 2.5 to 3 hours and will follow official USA Fencing competition rules: full uniform required, full complement of electric scoring equipment required (if applicable) and all regular protocols followed.  For more details, please refer to the USA Fencing website. 

Any athlete participating in our afternoon events has done their pre-event warmup by attending class and is ready for the competition close of check in at 3pm. Class at this level mirrors what they should do before a tournament:  warm up, stretch, footwork practice, drill, bouting. Athletes not participating in an after-class competition will finish class at 3:30, but still have a chance to help teammates with warm up bouting and possibly spectate at least the first round of the event.

These practice tournaments prepare the athlete for official competitions, whether at F.AP. Central or elsewhere; the athlete is learning to arrive an hour before close of check in to warm up and get their pre-event practice bouts.  Occasionally the events will be official, sanctioned tournaments where athletes can earn ratings, so participating athletes will have a chance to help their more experienced teammates move up by making it a bigger tournament.

Start looking for these events after Junior Olympics are over (Feb. 18-21). You can check the schedule on askfred.net and/or the F.A.P. website bulletin board.