Competitive Fencing

Are you ready to take your skills to the next level?

This page will explain how tournaments are organized and rated, how to obtain USFA membership, and how to sign up for tournaments.

competitive fencing.jpg
Image credit to usafencing.org 
Image credit to usafencing.org

USFA Membership

USFA membership is required to participate in any USFA sanctioned, or “rated” tournaments. There are also unsanctioned tournaments, but one cannot obtain a rating at these tournaments. The tournament season ends every year on July 31st and begins again on August 1st. This means that a membership obtained in March of a given year will only last until the end of July of that year. As a result, most tournaments take place after August 1st whereas the early summer months see few tournaments.

There are multiple types of membership options. These range from non-competitive to competitive. The non-competitive membership is only required for Premium Fencing Clubs and does not allow access to any tournaments. The competitive membership allows fencers to compete at any level, whether it is local, regional, or national. In between these two is the Access membership, a new, affordable type of membership starting in 2021 that allows competing at local sanctioned events, a perfect option for those who want to start going to local tournaments or for those casual fencers that do not plan on going to the large national competitions.

The link below links to the USFA membership website. At the bottom of the page is a link that takes you to the USFA online portal. Paper applications are also available.

AskFred

Once you are a USFA member, you can sign up for tournaments. While national tournaments are organized by USA Fencing directly, local and regional tournaments are listed on AskFred. You can check out tournaments in your area by clicking “Upcoming Tournaments” and filtering results based on your ZIP code.

Note: While are are located in Arkansas, our club is affiliated with the Oklahoma division, not Ark-La-Miss! This is important when choosing your USFA membership. Also, our competitive name for tournaments and on AskFred is the Fayetteville Fencing Club (FFC).

Image credit to askfred.net 
Image credit to askfred.net
Image credit to usafencing.org 
Image credit to usafencing.org

Tournament Classifications

For a tournament to award a certain rating, they need both number of fencers and pass a certain threshold of their ratings. The chart on the left explains the requirements a tournament needs to fulfill for a given rating. For example, if 10 fencers show up for a tournament, regardless of their ratings, it will be an E1 tournament. First place will get or renew their E-rating. If they are already rated higher than E, their rating remains unchanged. Ratings range from E to A, A being the highest. A rating of U implies unrated.

For a tournament to have, let’s say, a C1 rating, at least 15 people need to compete, 2 of which are rated E or higher, 2 D or higher, and 2 C or higher. The 2 C- and D-rated fencers also need to finish in the top 8 of this tournament. As a result, first place will get or renew their C-rating, 2nd to 4th their D-rating, and 5th to 8th their E-rating.

A rating will contain the letter and the year in which it was awarded. A C-rating earned in 2021 will show up as C2021. The year is important since a rating can expire. After 4 seasons (years), if a rating is not renewed, it will show up as the next lower rating of that current year. In this example, The C2021-rated fencer will downgrade to being a D2025-rated fencer. This can have its benefits as the next section describes.

Divisions

Aside from geographic divisions, like the Oklahoma, Ark-La-Miss, or North Texas divisions, there are also rating divisions. There is Division I, II, and III. A Division I tournament allows only A- to C-rated fencers. A Division II tournament allows only Unrated- to C-rated fencers whereas Division III tournaments only allow Unrated- to D-rated fencers. The latter two allow less experienced fencers to still compete in larger tournaments. As described above, a fencer who drops from a B- to a C-, or from a C- to a D-rating will then be able to compete in Division II and III tournaments, respectively.