@bloodworks I did most of my competitive fencing in Canada (Toronto) many years ago. Now I've started competing again as a veteran (50+), mainly just for fun, unless I start getting some results that make it seem worth while training more seriously. We don't have a proper fencing master at the university where I teach, so all the coaching is done on a volunteer basis by former or semi-active fencers. But the students are really enthusiastic, so for me, it's quite fun.
@AlanMunn yeah i can understand that.. i', still listed active although i never found the time to become really good... though we have a few good masters in town
@PauloCereda There are three weapons in fencing: foil, épée and sabre. I don't know what their names are in Portuguese. Foil and épée use the point and sabre uses the blade (and the point). Foil and sabre have restricted targets and rules constraining whose touch counts; épée has the whole body as the target and first to touch gets the point (or a double if withing 250 ms of each other.
@bloodworks There's a certain point at which you need to make decisions about life. :) I was Canadian junior champion but then decided that I should focus on university instead of fencing. You can't really make a career out of it unless you want to be a coach.
Psmith, the TeX bot, in fixed font mode: Let's take a look at the last fencing results:
- Oh dear, nothing happened so far.
Our fencing expert Alan might explain these results later on.
@bloodworks That's too bad. That's definitely a problem, and you do need a certain critical mass of people to get a reasonable practice. Luckily there's no shortage of people who like to fence épée.
@AlanMunn yes definitely ... in the club i used to fence until lately we had a bunch of foil fencer, but all with job ... so their appearance was more occasional.
@DavidCarlisle In the history of the Olympic games, Italy earned 48 gold medals, 40 silver and 33 bronze (in fencing, I mean). The highest ranked nation. UK has 1 gold, 8 silver and no bronze.
@percusse Psmith, the TeX bot: 1 | adjective | on a regular route of a railroad or bus or airline system :: 2 | adjective | connected to a computer network or accessible by computer :: 3 | adjective | being in progress now
@AlanMunn: ooh the épée (gotta love words with a lot of accents) seems classy. :)
Psmith, the TeX bot: By paying attention to the dangerous bend signs in this book you'll be better able to focus on the level that interests you at a particular time.
@egreg Absolutely. That's why I would put her above Nadi as an athlete. Of course Nadi contributed much to the sport over his whole life, which is a different matter.
since in fact fencing has a very low danger potential ... i think the last man who died in a fencing tournament was that russian back in the 80s. He was kill by a german fencer i think.
@bloodworks I don't think that volume is so much a necessity as levels. I think you need to regularly fence people who are better than you if you want to improve. Obviously a very small club isn't ideal, but 100 members in a club isn't too bad. There are a lot smaller clubs here in the US which get very good competitive results.
Trying to edit an answer I keep getting: `An error occurred saving the edit (click on this box to dismiss)`
@bloodworks Even if you get good individual results? Here the national teams are chosen on objective grounds (national point standings based on competitive results). Canada does the same thing, although it didn't when I was competing, and things were much more politicized.
@AlanMunn there are some fencers on national level which are individuals but the majority comes from the big five... the association is a very political thing. and cares a s**** about the broad (fencing) mass . After the olympics imke duplizter rose her voice... but was put down fast as possible
@AlanMunn yes they have so called target arrangements which means that they have to get x many medals to get funds for the next 4 years. This year this arrangements weren't met in many disciples including fencing. So there was a short public discussion but i belive they just carry on
@egreg Hmmm.. Did not know that tabular had a dimen spec... Good to know before I get the gold badge for tables. :-) So, is tabularx superseded by tabu?
@PeterGrill The author has some peculiar thoughts about typography; and also about LaTeX syntax. For instance, he decided that multiple >{...} specifiers should behave contrarywise to what they do with array. :( And he insists with \begin{tabu} to <dimen> instead of providing \begin{tabu*}{<dimen>} which would be consistent with LaTeX conventions.
Well dear attendees i grant you the fencers salutation and ask for permission to leave the planche for today (@AlanMunn is this the right term "fencers salutation"for the grande salut?)
