| Not all fencers are equally talented, technically or | | | | What happens in the pools determines the next |
| tactically. If they were, running competitions would | | | | round of seeding. What this means is that you |
| be absurdly easy. Any fencer could be assigned | | | | want to emerge from your pool with (1) the best |
| to any pool or to any position on an elimination | | | | possible percentage of victories and (2) the best |
| table, and the organizers could still be assured of | | | | possible indicator. The number of victories is not |
| the fencer winning who was best of the identical | | | | the measure because you may have pools of |
| athletes. But reality does not work that way. As a | | | | unequal sizes, but in practice you get a better |
| result, there has to be some method of dividing | | | | victory percentage by winning more bouts. |
| fencers so that the outcome reflects the skill | | | | In any competition, there will be several fencers |
| level present - enter seeding. | | | | with the same victory percentage. Their seeding |
| The objective of seeding is that the bouts result | | | | relative to each other is determined by indicators |
| in the best fencer winning the competition, the | | | | (the number of hits scored minus the number of |
| better fencers surviving further into the | | | | hits received). This means that every hit in the |
| competition (the rounds of 16, 8, and 4 of an | | | | pool round counts. When you win a bout you |
| elimination table), and the weaker fencers being | | | | want to win by as large a margin as possible. And |
| the first athletes eliminated. This means that for | | | | when you lose a bout, you want to score as |
| you, the fencer being seeded, it is to your | | | | many hits as possible. If you can deny the |
| advantage to maximize the advantage that | | | | opponent a full 5 hits, that is also to your |
| seeding can give you. | | | | advantage. Because tournaments usually do not |
| The initial seeding lists the fencers from strongest | | | | result in even multiples of 2 (rounds of 64, 32, 16, |
| to weakest based on their competitive record | | | | etc.) even a difference of 1 indicator may mean |
| before the competition starts. This listing may be | | | | that you do not have to fight to get into the first |
| based on fencer classification or on a division or | | | | full round. The pools are a game of winning as |
| the United States Fencing Association national | | | | many bouts as possible and scoring as many |
| point system. It may even be based simply on | | | | touches as possible. |
| the best judgment of the bout committee or by | | | | Seeding based on the results of the pools |
| administrative convenience. Regardless of how | | | | determines the initial bouts of an elimination table. |
| relative strength is determined, it is to your | | | | In this case the strongest fencer is paired with |
| advantage to achieve the best result you can in | | | | the weakest, the next strongest is paired with |
| every competition as the prior results may | | | | the slightly less weak, etc., until the two bouts at |
| influence your seeding in future competitions. | | | | the middle of the table are nearly equal in |
| Seeding determines the distribution of fencers to | | | | strength. You want to rank as high as possible in |
| pools. For example, if there are 24 fencers to be | | | | this seeding, as the higher you rank, the weaker |
| distributed between 4 pools, the goal is to have | | | | your first opponent will be. And this seeding also |
| each pool of relatively equal difficulty. The fencers | | | | determines your overall result among the fencers |
| are distributed to pools in their order of strength | | | | in a round in which you are eliminated before the |
| based on the seeding. This process sometimes is | | | | semi-final round of 4. It is important to note that |
| skewed by the necessity to separate fencers | | | | the direct elimination table bout scores do not |
| from the same club, and some pools can appear | | | | influence your placing in a normal direct elimination |
| to be stronger than others because of the way | | | | competition; now a victory is a victory, and |
| the distribution works, but when done properly | | | | tactics that accept a hit as a tactical tradeoff |
| the cumulative strength of pool 1 and pool 4 | | | | (such as the double hit in epee) become useful. |
| should be nearly equal. | | | | |