-':'~L4sz. --- -------_.,. AMATEUR FENCERS LEAGUE OF AMERICA, INC. FENCING RULES AND MANUAL Edited by JOSE R. DE CAPRILES 1965 EDITION RULES COMMITTEE, 1963-64 CONTENTS Page Harold Goldsmith, Chairman Roger Jones PREFACE-The A.F.L.A., Inc. v Warren Dow Jack Keane Ralph Goldstein Fred Linkmeyer RULES FOR COMPETITION Table of Contents 3 Part I: General Rules and Rules Applicable to All Three Weapons 13 Part II: Foil 35 MANUAL COMMItTEE, 1963-64 Part III: Epee 47 Donald S. Thompson, Chairman James Castello Part IV: Sabre 58 Joseph Byrnes William Latzko Part V: Organizations of Competitions . 65 David Rice Part VI: Disciplinary Rules for Competitions . 97 Part VII: Automatic Judging Equipment 114 Index To Rules for Competitions 128 AFLA MANUAL ALL RIGHTS RESERVED Table of Contents 133 Part VIII: Organization and Conduct of AFLA Competitions.. 139 Part IX: Administrative Manual 163 Copies may be obtained from Appendix Al AFLA By-Laws. .. .. .. .. 217 AMATEUR FENCERS LEAGUE OF AMERICA, INC. Appendix A2 Articles of Alliance 228 33 62ND STREET Appendix Bl National Champions 229 WEST NEW YORK, N. ].07093 Appendix B2 Sectional & Metropolitan Champions. .. 247 Appendix B3 National Rankings 263 Price: $3.00 per copy Appendix C Olympic & Pan American Teams. .. 269 Appendix D Olympic & World Champions. .. .. .. 274 Alphabetical Index to Rules and Manual 281 Parts I through VII printed in England. The rest printed and bound in the United States of America by the HEFFERNAN PRESS INC., WORCESTER, MASS. PREFACE THE AMATEUR FENCERS LEAGUE OF AMERICA, INC. I-General FOREWORD A. JURISDICTION AND AFFILIATIONS The Amateur Fencers League of America, Inc. (AFLA) is the official This book is published by the Amateur Fencers League of governing body for amateur fencing in the United States and its exclu- sive jurisdiction is recognized by the Federation Internationale d'Escrime America for the guidance of all fencers in the United States. (FIE), the U.S. Olympic Committee (USOC) and the Amateur Athletic The rules contained in Parts I through VII are the interna- Union (AAU). tional rules which govern fencing events throughout the world. The The AFLA is the sole representative of U.S. amateur fencing in the FIE, the governing body for all official international fencing competitions English translation has been made available through the good offices including the World and Olympic Fencing Championships. Any U.S. of Mr. Charles de Beaumont of Great Britain. Any additional rules fencer wishing to participate in official international contests must be applicable to U.S. competitions are contained in Part VIII. Part IX accredited to the FIE or to the host country as to amateur standing, is a guide for administrative officers, bout committees, fencing juries qualification, etc., by the AFLA. and technicians. The AFLA is a member of the USOC and works in close cooperatiun with that body in the selection and training of U.S. Olympic fencing The Editor, Rules Committee and Manual Committee have worked teams. A member of the AFLA is appointed to serve on the Board of hard to make this book as informative as possible. We hope it will Governors of the USOC. Every member of a U.S. Olympic fencing team must be a member of the AFLA. be studied with care by all fencers. Through articles of aIliance signed in 1905 (see Appendix A2), the The Amateur Fencers League of America solicits your assistance AAU recognizes the individual winners of AFLA national championships as the official amateur fencing champions of the United States (see Ap- in fulfilling its mission to popularize the sport of fencing in the pendix B1 for complete list of U.S. Champions). A member of the AFLA United States. is appointed each year to the Board of Governors of the AAU. The AAU also respects and enforces all penalties of suspension and disqualification PAUL T. MAKLER, President imposed by the AFLA. November, 1964 The AFLA maintains close relations with the National CoIlegiate Ath- letic Association (NCAA), the IntercolIegiate Fencing Association (ICFA), the IntercoIlegiate Women's Fencing Association (IWFA), and several regional intercollegiate associations, whose respective jurisdiction of fencers in their member colleges is explicitly recognized. The tradi- tionally close cooperation between amateurs and their fencing teachers was formalized in 1953 by the adoption of constitutional amendments creating the Associate Membership, open to non-amateurs. Most of the active fencing teachers in the U.S. are Associate Members of the AFLA and enjoy voting privileges. The AFLA also maintains close liaison with the National Fencing Coaches Association of America (NFCAA). B. BRIEF HISTORY AND STRUCTURE 1. Foundation and Leadership The AFLA was founded in New York City on April 22, 1891. Prior to that date fencing events had been conducted by the AAU. The orga- v nizers elected Dr. Graeme M. Hammond as the first president and he Non-administrative regional units, called Sections, are created for the held that office from 1891 to 1925. The office has been held successively purpose of conducting annual regional championships among divisions by Col. Henry Breckinridge, F. Barnard O'Connor, Leon M. Schoon- within a section. The first sectional championship was organized in the maker, Harold Van Buskirk, John R. Huffman, Dernell Every, Miguel A. Pacific Coast in 1925 and has been held annually ever since. The Midwest de Capriles, Jose R. de Capriles, Donald S. Thompson and Dr. Paul T. held its first championship in 1934, the Southwest in 1950 and the North Makler, the present (1964) incumbent. Atlantic in 1955 (see Appendix B2 for complete list of Sectional and Metropolitan Champions). The office of Secretary has been held successively by W. Scott O'Con- nor (1891-1925), F. Barnard O'Connor, Leon M. Schoonmaker, J. Howard 3. Government Hanway, Dernell Every, John R. Huffman, Ervin S. Acel, Warren A. Dow, Dernell Every, Ralph M. Goldstein, Allan S. Kwartler and An- The AFLA is a non-profit corporation organized under the laws of the thony J. Orsi. Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, governed by annually elected represent- atives of the individual members. The classes of membership are defined The office of Treasurer was discharged by the Secretary prior to 1936. in the By-Laws (Appendix AI). Since then the Treasurers have been J. Howard Hanway, George Coch- The Board of Directors, which is the final authority on all fencing rane, Robert S. Driscoll, Rudolph Ozol and Leo Sobel. questions in the United States, consists of the national officers, three Di- The Foreign Secretary was not an elected officer until 1951. The office rectors at Large, a non-divisional Director, the Chairman of each divi- has been held by Tracy Jaeckel, Gen. J. V. Grombach, Ralph M. Gold- sion, and a number of "Additional Directors" fixed each year on the stein, Lazlo Pongo and Norman Lewis. basis of the number of members in the division or the non-divisional Vice Presidents, one from each Section, normally serve for four years. group. The national officers include a vice-president from each section. All AFLA officers, national and local, perform their duties without re- All national officers are elected each year at the Annual Meeting of the muneration or expense accounts and often at considerable sacrifice of AFLA, held at the site of and during the national championship tourna- time and personal income. ment. The divisions enjoy a considerable degree of autonomy in the manage- 2. Geographical Organization ment of local affairs. An outline of the method of organizing and admin- At first, membership in the AFLA was heavily concentrated in Metro- istering a division is contained in Part IX, Chapter I. politan New York, although "divisions" were created to administer the 4. International Activity local affairs of fencing groups in other parts of the country. The first di- visions were established on March 20, 1892 in Nebraska and New En- Under the leadership of the AFLA, United States fencers have achieved gland. In 1964 there were 49 active and 11 inactive divisions as well as considerable international prestige on and off the strip. a Non-Divisional group composed of members who do not belong to an Despite financial and geographical handicaps to participation in most active division. This non-divisional group included all of metropolitan major international competitions, the U.S. has competed with distinction New York until 1956 when the Metropolitan Division was formed. in international events since 1904 and has been a finalist in the team and The active divisions in 1964 were: Arizona, Northern California, South- individual competitions of every weapon in the Olympic and World Cham- ern California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Florida, Central Florida, pionships (see Appendix Cl for list of Olympic Team members and Florida Gateway, Florida Gold Coast, Georgia, Illinois, Central Illinois, records). Indianapolis, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, The record of the Pan American Games has established the supremacy St. Louis (Mo.), Nevada, New England, New Jersey, New Mexico, Hud- of U.S. fencing in the Western Hemisphere (see Appendix C2 for list of son-Berkshire (N.Y.-Mass.), Long Island (N.Y.), Metropolitan (N.Y.), Pan American Team members and records). Westchester (N.Y.), Western New York, West Point (N.Y.), North In 1958 the AFLA was host to the World Championships in Philadel- Carolina, North Dakota, Columbus (0.), Miami Valley (0.), Northern phia. The event attracted 22 nations, and 203 different individuals com- Ohio, Southwest Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, Harrisburg (Pa.), Philadelphia peted. (Pa.), Western Pennsylvania, Border (Tex.), Gulf Coast (Tex.), North Two fencers have served on the International Olympic Committee Texas, Washington D.C., Western Washington (State), West Virginia, (lOC) which is the highest authority for all international sports. The Wisconsin. The inactive divisions were: Birmingham (Ala.), Alaska, Sacra- first was Frederick R.