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