Format Overview

The format of a tournament is broken down into two main sections of bouting. The preliminary round (also called the ‘pools’) divides fencers up into different groups. All fencers in each group fence against each other (also called ‘round robin’ format) and based on their results, the tournament organizer can determine how to rank (also called ‘seeding’) those fencers for the direct elimination round.

The direct elimination round (also called the ‘DEs’), consists of a bracket of fencers competing against each other. A standard DE bout lasts for 3 periods of 3 minutes each, or a maximum of 15 touches*. The reason this round is referred to as the ‘direct elimination’ round is that after only one loss, a fencer is out of the tournament, and their final placement is determined by the round in which they were defeated. The last fencer standing wins the entire tournament.

Round of Pools

The purpose of the preliminary rounds is to rank (aka ‘seed’) fencers for the DEs. The total number of starting fencers in the competition are broken down into smaller groups, usually 7 people, called ‘pools.’ Each athlete fences everyone in their pool for a total of 6 bouts. How well a fencer does in their pool is then compared to how everyone else in the tournament did in their respective pools. Note that pools do not have to contain 7 people, and due to the fact that tournaments often do not have an exact multiple of 7 participants, many tournaments will run pools of both 7 and 6* fencers at the same tournament. In the pools of 6 fencers, each fencer would then fence only 5 total bouts.

How to read a pool sheet

One of the most important parts of successful attendance to a tournament is learning how to read a pool sheet. A pool sheet will show a fencer when they're fencing, who they’re fencing, as well as all of the previous results in the pool. As a fencer, it is very important that you know when you’re going to fence. Being called by the referee a few times can rattle your confidence, annoy the referee, and sometimes result in a card for delaying the bout.

On the left side of the sheet, you can see a fencer’s names listed, with a number next alongside. This number is the shorthand for determining when each fencer has to fence, and many referees will call fencers to the strip only with their numbers (and some prefer not to call fencers to the strip at all).

Some pool sheets will have multiple sets of bout orders on it, as they are designed to be used with any number of fencers in the pool. Each fencer can reference their number with the bout order on the bottom of the page that corresponds to size of the pool to determine when they will fence.

The bouts progress in ordered rows from top to bottom, with each new row starting after the last one finishes. The number and bout order will usually be circled, or the referee will have some other way of showing which bout order is being used. Here is an example of a pool sheet and the first two bouts for a pool of 7 fencers: