Cadet and Juniors Fencing Qualification for junior Olympics and July Challenge

Cadets and Juniors Fencing Qualification is not a walk on a beach!

One of the most confusing areas each yr is the qualification path for different historic period groups of fencers. That'due south not considering of a deficit on your role – information technology'due south considering the rules are constantly irresolute. You lot barely have a chance to get yourself familiar with last twelvemonth's path to the July Claiming for Cadets before finding out that a few short months later it is completely dissimilar!

The reason is simple – fencing is an evolving sport in the USA.  More and more fencers want to participate in different levels of national competition, so the USFA is continually trying to find the winning formula that will let information technology to satisfy several, sometimes contradicting objectives. From one side, the USFA wants to provide the all-time competitive level of opportunity for loftier level fencers, merely from another side it also wants to provide national level competitive opportunities for a broad range of fencers in every specific age category. And so every twelvemonth the rules alter as USFA searches for the perfect mix, leaving fencers and their parents needing to acquire the new rules – again.

The truth is you lot cannot put off your educational activity in the subject of qualification until the stop of the flavour. And relying on other parents to tell y'all what to do isn't going to work either, because they might have quondam information or be dislocated themselves. Every bit a matter of fact in our own club nosotros have had a few fencers that have gotten the rules completely mixed upwards and planned to participate in events that were non right for them at all from the qualification perspective.

Yous need to programme your child's competitive season from its very starting time, otherwise you might miss some important qualifying event, decreasing your child's opportunity to go to that title they dream of!

While there are several qualifying paths for different age groups and skill levels (among senior fencers), in this mail we are going to focus on one of the most changing paths to Junior Olympics Fencing Championship (or short JO'south) and the July Claiming – qualification via the regional path.

Historic period Groups

In that location are 3 major age groups for the sake of this exploration of regional qualification:

  • Youth
  • Cadet/Inferior
  • Senior

The first two age groups, youth and cadet/juniors, are simply age specific. That means that skill level doesn't thing at all, only historic period. The senior group does have skill levels – 4 to be exact. These are: Partition 1, Sectionalization 2, Sectionalization iii and Division 1A.

While the others are important, in this post we're going to focus on the Cadet/Inferior group of fencers.

A New Concept: RJCC

Last twelvemonth USFA introduced a new concept – RJCC, which stands for Regional Inferior and Cadet Circuit.

What is RJCC? The brusk explanation is that RJCC is RYC for Cadets and Juniors. Well, nigh. In that location are but a few differences.

  1. RJCC'southward provide qualifying path for both the Inferior Olympic Championship in February and for the July Challenge for cadets and juniors.
  2. While all RYC tournaments have all youth ages (Y10, Y12, Y14), the RJCC tournament is not required to accept all of them – there might but exist an RCC (Regional Cadet Circuit) or an RJC (Regional Junior Circuit), with each of these of course only catering ot their corresponding age categories, and can even restrict it to a specific weapon only.
  3. The top ii results in each RJCC (per age category, of course), count towards qualifying, unlike in the RYC where the top three results count.

Other than these few things, the concept is exactly the same and well-nigh important, the concept of regionality is the same.

Notwithstanding this as well means that at that place are several changes from the final twelvemonth'due south RJCC. In particular, two points are major changes: are really worth mentioning.

  • Point 1:

A fencer tin earn regional points in the cadets or junior category ONLY in their own region.

That's worth repeating:

Yous should fence only in your region'due south RJCC to earn points towards qualification.

  • Point 2:

Every fencer competing in the RJCC earns regional points regardless of their concluding placement, just similar in the RYC (keeping in listen that, per betoken one to a higher place, that this is just the instance if the fencer belongs to that region of course).

One more than clarification to both points: you can argue in whatsoever region, and you tin even win these tournaments in any region! Nonetheless, you'll only become points for those tournaments that yous earn within yous own region. Still in every region you lot will have fun!

Finding RJCC'due south to Participate in

There are many RJCC's effectually the country and the USFA publishes a list of all RJCC's. Here is the latest listing:

http://avails.ngin.com/attachments/document/0075/5021/USA_Fencing_2015-16_Calendar.pdf

To understand which RJCC tournaments your child should fence in, first notice those that are held in your region. There are 6 Fencing Regions in the The states, and so cheque out this link to determine what your region y'all belong to. These events have (Reg X) after their name in the list.

Based on your kid'south age, determine which competitions yous want to participate at. If your child is of a cadet'southward age, he or she can go to both buck and junior events, and thus your fencer will be age eligible for all J/C variations: RJCC (which has events for both age categories), RCC (for cadets only) and RJC (for juniors merely). Withal, if your fencer is junior, only RJC or inferior events of the RJCC will be correct for them.

Search those events on askFred, and if these events are already published in that location, then note which exact dates are your fencer's events. Pay attention to the exact dates, times and locations, considering inbound and outbound travel dates besides and based on that run across whether you tin upkeep for this trip, both in terms of finances and vacation/off-schoolhouse fourth dimension. If yes, then become alee and book your trip and sign upward!

The Junior Olympics and July Claiming RJCC Qualifying

Concluding twelvemonth when the USFA introduced RJCC events, they served merely as a qualification path to the Inferior Olympics. The earned points also were global and the top 32 in the country earned their right to go to the JOs. Thus the last RJCC in the flavour was held in the get-go of January to suit this qualification process.

This twelvemonth the USFA decided to expand the role of RJCCs and to accept them serve every bit a qualification path for both JO's and the July Claiming.

The change didn't stop simply at that! Other changes include:

  1. Points are regional, not global
  2. Top 25% of regional fencers in their respective age category will qualify for JOs
  3. Meridian 50% of regional fencers in their respective age category volition authorize for the July Claiming

The last RJCC which will exist considered to be a JO qualification and will be held no later on than January 11, 2016.  And so to give yourself a fair risk to try to authorize for JO's, go to at least 2 RJCC'south in your region before that date.

For the July Claiming qualification you accept slightly more time – until the last RJCC in your region is held. That bracket is besides twice as big – fifty% of the regional fencers on the regional list will qualify. So if you completely missed the opportunity for the JO's, practice not go desperate – go on to attend your regional RJCC's and who knows, maybe yous will fulfill your dream!

1 terminal point. It is important to annotation that the JOs are considered to exist the United states Fencing Title for Cadets and Juniors, and thus only The states Citizens or Permanent Residents are eligible to argue in that location.

Still the July Challenge has the aforementioned status as an NAC (in fact information technology is really and NAC with a qualification path), and thus any nationality tin can fence in that location. In that location are few more ways to qualify for the JO and for the July Challenge, such as past having respective national points or being in top 25% of JO's Divisional qualifiers. But for many fencers, the regional path is the best style to go there.

Conclusion

Hopefully this post shed some low-cal on the slightly confusing subject of regional paths as a way to qualify for Nationals and the July Challenge. While information technology all might seem like a lot of confusion at glance, one time y'all kickoff planning your fencer'due south flavor it volition all somewhen sink in.

To heighten your chances to compete at either the JO's or the July Claiming, detect and sign upward for as many regional RJCC's as your budget and fourth dimension allows! Even if you practice not qualify via this path, y'all will accept a lot of fun along the way and will meet with some other corking fencers from your region. And equally we all know, good things happen on the strip.

Good luck at that place!