I remember reading an article about foil, years ago. It was about how the "bent arm' attack came into being. That is, how referees started to accept a fencer stepping forward and withdrawing the arm as an "attack", despite all rules and existing conventions. The article mentioned an Italian fencer. Was this the guy, Zotto? I might also add that the very young Romankov had no respect for his on guard line. Ref puts them on guard and Romankov is rocking back and forth, all the while slipping further ahead.
Well I think what happened is that outside of situations where both fencers go forward they decided to remove any proper judging of priority when one fencer is going back and the other going forward. They decided that if Fencer A is going back and B going forward there’s no way for Fencer A to win the point unless it’s just one light. So you have idiotic situations where it’s actually Fencer B who attacks and Fencer A has his arm bent until the last moment essentially doing a bent arm attack. In situations where both B and A go forward the point definitely goes to the fencer who started extending their arm first though.
@@BetterExplanation About that last point, I have to disagree with you. During my reffing days, I saw other referees call two foil fencers who immediately came forward off the line, one with a continuously extending arm, the other bending his arm back to execute a flick at the last moment, Simultaneous. I asked why, and he said "Well, if he's going to flick you got to give him a chance to bend his arm, right?" I could cry.
Great video.
I remember reading an article about foil, years ago. It was about how the "bent arm' attack came into being. That is, how referees started to accept a fencer stepping forward and withdrawing the arm as an "attack", despite all rules and existing conventions. The article mentioned an Italian fencer. Was this the guy, Zotto?
I might also add that the very young Romankov had no respect for his on guard line. Ref puts them on guard and Romankov is rocking back and forth, all the while slipping further ahead.
Well I think what happened is that outside of situations where both fencers go forward they decided to remove any proper judging of priority when one fencer is going back and the other going forward. They decided that if Fencer A is going back and B going forward there’s no way for Fencer A to win the point unless it’s just one light. So you have idiotic situations where it’s actually Fencer B who attacks and Fencer A has his arm bent until the last moment essentially doing a bent arm attack. In situations where both B and A go forward the point definitely goes to the fencer who started extending their arm first though.
@@BetterExplanation About that last point, I have to disagree with you. During my reffing days, I saw other referees call two foil fencers who immediately came forward off the line, one with a continuously extending arm, the other bending his arm back to execute a flick at the last moment, Simultaneous. I asked why, and he said "Well, if he's going to flick you got to give him a chance to bend his arm, right?" I could cry.
@ well that’s just them. I have no doubt that they are currently the exception. Might have been very different years ago?
Anyone know how far Paul Wedge GB got and in which format?
Searching on Olympedia.org doesn't show a result a for Paul Wedge from any country in any sport. www.olympedia.org/
This bout and the Dal Zotto-Stankovych bout showed the Russians got screwed big time.
Comedy. Three hits were fouled by the referee, let's just say that Dal Zotto is not an Olympic champion.