A Hard-Hitting Post About Hard Hits

About a year ago, an anonymous user posted a story to a Facebook group for women in fencing. This user, who identified herself as an adult and a medical professional with several years’ saber-fencing experience, described a mixed-gender saber tournament where a few teenage boys started hitting her and the girls harder and harder over the course of the pool. The hits included unnecessarily hard hits and a few blows to the mask with the guard, one of which split a rivet on her mask. The referee did not stop it, the boys’ coaches did not stop them, and the girls’ coaches were unsure how to intervene. Ultimately they asked the tournament organizer to step in, which the organizer chose to do by making an announcement asking the boys to “calm down and fence like ‘gentlemen’” against the girls.

The post author said:

Of course, the girls who were in my event were both very disappointed, because this statement put them in the position of being viewed as weak, and as “complainers,” etc… (you ladies know the feeling I am referring to).  I interrupted the announcement and made the point that this was not about girls and boys, but about good sportsmanship.  No one should be intentionally hitting anyone else hard … it’s against the rules, even.  But I was not understood and told that, ‘no, no… still, the boys need to be easy on the girls.’

The comments on this story were full of women who’d experienced very similar things. The response from Bout Committee is disappointing but familiar to many women: when we ask for fair treatment and well-meaning folks overcorrect in a way that is still unfair. But let’s focus instead on the hard hits, from both a coach and an official’s perspective.

We on the Allies committee reached out to several fencing coaches, referees, and tournament officials to get their take on the problem of hard hits. Our goal is to empower you to address the issue in your own clubs and tournaments, to make the sport more fair (and less painful) for everyone.  Here is what we learned:

Hard hits aren’t necessarily about gender

This post will mostly talk about hard hits in general, with some additional info at the end when the hits seem to be coming from a place of discriminatory or biased behavior.

In the story that prompted this post, there’s absolutely an element of gender-based harassment in the hard hits. But fencing is a combat sport, and many people hit too hard irrespective of their own gender and that of their opponent.  Hard hits happen in mixed events as well as in single-gender ones, and across all age groups. 

How to coach athletes who hit hard

Some hit hard because they are using improper technique. An NCAA Women’s Saber coach, who asked not to be named due to publicity rules, gave us this advice:

If they are hitting with improper technical execution a coach should clearly tell them that they are not making their actions correctly. It’s important for the coach to explain it as inhibiting the long term development of their skills and in the students frustration to try and win “the finite game” they will lose on out on winning throughout “the infinite game”

When we asked the same coach how they would respond if their athletes were deliberately hitting hard, they said they would clearly tell the athletes they do not approve, and even let the referee know that they would support their choice to card them.

How referees should respond to hard hits

All the referees we spoke to agreed that it’s very hard to tell when hits are the result of improper technique and when they’re deliberate. Most referees agreed that, unless they had some specific evidence of intentional hard hits, they would card the same in either case. Most would start with a verbal warning unless the hits were egregiously bad. Susan Belanich, a national- and international-level epee referee, states:

There is flexibility to issue yellow (intentional brutality), red (dangerous/violent/vindictive action), or black cards (deliberate brutality or offense against sportsmanship), depending on my interpretation of the offense, so this is an effective way to stop the behavior. 

Katarina Hone, a former NCAA fencer and current national-level referee, elaborated on her thinking:

Fencing is a contact sport, hard hits happen however undue violence should never be accepted. When dealing with fencers who unintentionally hit hard, but whose heavy-handedness could injure, I prefer to start with a verbal warning and conversation. Usually, these fencers are unknowingly hitting hard, and reminding them that they need to be in control of their bodies is enough to change their behavior. Should subsequent hits occur, I would likely follow a yellow-to-red card progression under the category of abnormal fencing, hits with brutality. It is important to show these fencers that they are not being punished for being new fencers or not having good technique, but for endangering other fencers. One hard hit to the mask could result in a concussion that takes an athlete out for a season and that needs to be taken seriously. The second type of fencer I find no sympathy for. Intentionally hitting your opponents hard for any reason is unacceptable. Even at the Y-10 level where a lack of emotional control is expected, violent behavior should never be tolerated. Depending on the age group and severity of the hit there are circumstances where I would initially award a yellow card, but in general, I would start with a red card and should the behavior continue black card.

One NCAA coach pointed this out in respect to a referee’s motivation for carding:

You cannot profit from a foul, even if the profit is merely preventing a touch from being scored. If we are to err on a side of caution, it should always be on the side of safety. Fencers are generally considered to be highly intelligent and many have stated collegiate aspirations as a driver in participation. We should then seek to protect athletes and try to prevent head injuries that result in brain trauma.

We also asked the referees how they would respond if a fencer pointed out that their opponent was hitting hard. Several pointed out that gamesmanship may cause some fencers to play up their hard hits or even feign injury to try to inhibit their opponent or get them carded. They agreed that a comment on hard hits may make them pay closer attention, but in the end they needed to trust their own judgment and experience and card as was appropriate.

The response from Bout Committee

The tournament officials we surveyed essentially said that hard hits need to be addressed during the bout by the referee, and that there is little the bout committee can or should do to intervene. Rich Weiss, Local/Regional Tournament Organizer, and National Bout Committee Team member (and Allies committee co-chair), gave this response:

I personally would ask the fencer or parent of the fencer if they need medical assistance.  Bout Committee then needs to tell the fencer, parent or coach of that fencer, that when they feel this happening they are to notify the referee while the bout is happening that they feel they are being intentionally brutalized.  The referee will make a judgment at that point, consider a warning, a penalty, or do nothing.  Once the bout is over, unfortunately, nothing can be done to penalize that specific fencer by the referee or the Bout Committee.

The big takeaway

The big takeaway from these conversations is this: hard hits happen and are part of sport, but with proper technique and experience they should not be a regular part of a fencer’s game. Coaches should train their fencers to hit with proper technique, both in hitting and in avoiding hits. When you’re in a tournament situation, the referee should feel comfortable and confident in giving a verbal warning and issuing the appropriate cards, proportionate to the problem. Fencers can point out hard hits to their referee, but should expect the referee to card based on their own observations, not the report of the fencers.

Wait, what about the bias thing?

This post started because of an anecdote about boys deliberately hitting girls hard, but so far we’ve mostly addressed hard hits in general. In the specific case where a referee or coach suspected or overheard that a fencer was hitting an opponent hard specifically because they belonged to a different gender, race, or something along those lines, how should the response change? Most agreed that this would be an automatic black card for “deliberate brutality,” (t.149.1) and would probably warrant a FenceSafe or SafeSport report. Referee Katarina Hone, though, pointed out the difficulty of figuring out a fencer’s motivation:

It can be hard to determine that the violence is because of discrimination. I have heard of situations where fencers screamed insulting words at an opponent and this is easy to card for, but without some sort of confirmation, it may be too much to accuse someone of discrimination. I think the most important thing is to not get stuck doing nothing. If the hit is unreasonably hard, card for it, you don't need to be certain of bias to protect fencers from undue violence.

The emphasis is mine – as fencing officials we should be working to protect the integrity of the sport and the safety of its competitors, whatever the cause of the problems.

My hard-hitting conclusion

Fencing is a combat sport, but one based on finesse. There’s no benefit to hitting hard, but hard hits will still happen when you’re working at top speed to score touches. I’ve been fencing for over two decades and I still occasionally deliver or receive a hit much harder than I wanted to. An individual fencer’s experience, fencing style, and even small factors like equipment or handedness – all of these will affect how many bruises they go home with. As a coach, I want my fencers to accept bruises as a fact of life, but I also want them to go into competitions confident that they won’t receive worse than a bruise, and that no one is trying to hurt them on purpose. I have a few fencers who hit hard because they aren’t using good technique or distance, and this is something we work on in class and in lessons. I make it clear that hitting hard is not a great long-term strategy, because it uses more force and energy than was needed. Beyond these coaching strategies, I want to be able to trust that the referees and staff at our tournaments are looking out for our fencers’ best interests, including safety and allowing both people in a bout to compete to the best of their ability.

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Author Liz Mayerich is an owner and coach at Houston Sword Sports in Houston, Texas, and co-chair of the WFencing Allies Committee. She is an epee fencer, a USFCA prévôt in epee and foil, and occasionally dabbles in saber coaching. She is also the chair of the Gulf Coast Division of USA Fencing and the mother, wife, and daughter of fencers.