The following is Part 4 of a directors guide written by Frank Zamary for the Royal Arts Fencing Academy HEMA tournaments. He has generously agreed to share with the wider community, along with a few tweaks to make it read a little bit better for a wider audience.
- Part 1 – What Are We Doing?
- Part 2 – How Are We To Do It?
- Part 3 – Practical Tips
- Part 4 – How Do We Learn?
Judging and directing are skills like any other. While there are related skills that you can practice, e.g. fencing, that will make you better at judging, the best way to get better is to consistently train and practice the skill. Judging is a skill that, with time, will become second nature and you will find yourself judging every match you see in your head, whether you mean to or not. But, to get there, it will require integrating this practice into your regular training.
The way that I have found to be best is to start with a coach or other seasoned judge acting as director with one or two newer judges. Run each exchange as you would in a normal tournament setting with calls such as “Ready? Fence.” and calling out halt and points. However, you should also use this time to discuss what happened and judges, asking them what they saw and making them state what they believe happened. You should then ask the fencers to see if the staff was accurate in their call. Sometimes, it will be unclear even to the fencers, but this is intended as a tool to help the judges learn how to spot what is happening and to help the fencers to hear what an outside observer is seeing. This can also be useful time for coaching, such as pointing out to a fencer that they have a tell before taking certain actions. You can use the theory above to discuss with them what they are doing and how it might be improved.
While you are training like this, there should be a lot of feedback and detailed discussion. You will want to go beyond, “Red attacked and hit Blue’s hand.” You will want to discuss specific actions: Who attacked first? How did the opponent respond? Was there a parry? Was there a riposte or a continuation after the parry? By looking at the bout as a tennis match and watching the back and forth between the fencers (the shifting of the Vor), you will learn how to follow the flow of a regular bout. Once the judges start to feel confident in their abilities, you can break them off into smaller groups, possibly even just one judges to a ring to allow the most people possible to be sparring while making sure that everyone gets a chance to work on their judging skills. One thing you will notice early on is that many of the edge cases that you worry about, exchanges that go on for five or six techniques in sequence, are quite rare and that most times you will deal with no more than one to four actions, such as an attack, parry, and riposte.
Conclusion
We are in a position of both power and of responsibility when we are acting as judges or directors. We have the authority to make a wide range of decisions regarding the outcome of a fight, but we have only that authority which is granted us by the confidence of the competitors. But, our highest responsibility to the fencers is not to get the most accurate result possible; it is to manage the ring, its surroundings, and the fencers to keep everyone safe.
Observe: Keep your eyes open both literally and figuratively; try to avoid hyper focusing on anything. There are things you will expect to see, but you must not be blind to the things that you were not expecting to see as well. Know the indicia of a landed hit (sound, depression in jacket, movement of the other fencer in relation to the hit, etc).
Interpret Actions: Use your Knowledge of fencing to aid the accuracy of your calls, see where the fencers are in relation to one another and then determine the most likely outcomes. Pay attention for those outcomes but remember to be flexible enough to see if something unexpected happens.
Apply Rules: Make sure that you know the ruleset of the competition well before the day of. Make sure that you understand what it is that you as a judge or director are looking for. Make sure that you and other judges all have a similar understanding of things lite quality and tempo to make sure all fencers get an even playing field.
Convey Outcome: Make sure that you clearly, concisely, and consistently call what happened in a match for the benefit of the fighters and the spectators. Remember the formula “Colour” hit to the “Target” “X” point(s) Colour. If an exchange is more complex, try to explain what happened. If you cannot explain what happened in an exchange, call it unclear and move on.
Remember to work together with your judging team and staff, communicate your needs and expectations to them and make sure that everyone is placed in such a way as to allow all of you to work together as seamlessly as possible.
Finally, remember that all of the theory in the world will not help you be a better judge without practice. Practice in class; practice when watching videos; practice when you yourself are fencing. Learning to be aware of the flows of a fight and how to read them will help both with your own fencing and your judging and will thereby allow you to make a better experience for the fencers you are responsible for.