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How to go about running an LPJS competition
If you would like to organise an LPJS competition you will need to inform Leon Paul. Simply send us an email saying where, when and which weapon(s). You will then receive a detailed set of instructions of how an LPJS event works along with a registration form. As long as your event doesn't clash with an existing LPJS event the process should be straightforward; simply complete the form and return it. Your competition details will then be added to the LPJS website and you are good to go.
The process of submitting a registration form to Leon Paul has to be done every year, even by established LPJS events. This is to ensure the competition details on the website are kept up to date and to avoid no clashes on the calendar. The registration forms can be completed online for subsequence years.
All entries for LPJS will be made through the LPJS website*. There will no longer be postal entries and fencers will not be able to enter competitions on the day. This allows real time entry lists to be shown on the website and permits organisers to plan with accurate entry numbers and up to date information.
All LPJS events have to be run in accordance with the same format and adhere to certain standards. This ensures a consistent and positive experience for the children and parents. It also reflects the experience and feedback we have received over 30 years of youth events. You will find the answers to most of your questions in the following section but if you have any questions after reading them, simply contact the team at Leon Paul who will be more than happy to help you.
Each club or organiser can run one LPJS individual event, per weapon, per year and one LPJS team event, per weapon, per year.
*This only applies to individual LPJS events. Organisers running team events in 2016 will still be required to manage their own entries. Future development of this website will allow for team entries.
The competition format will be:-.
1 or 2 rounds of poules followed by Direct Elimination without repercharge.
The number of poule rounds is at the discretion of the organiser within the following parameters.
There is no fight off for 3rd place, both losing semi-final fencers will receive bronze medals.
Poule matches are fenced to 5 hits or 3 minutes apart from U10s who fence to 5 hits or 2 minutes.
Foil U17 competitions must use conductive mask bibs.
The size of blade, year of birth & fencing time for each weapon and age group can be found in a table on the home page.
All fencing matches are to use full size pistes in line with BFA rules. U10's start the match and following each valid hit with their back foot on the engard line.
The number of fencers who can compete in an LPJS is restricted by the amount of space you have and the number of pistes you can set up. The first and possibly most important task an organiser should carry out is work out how many pistes a venue can safely hold. It is important to remember that each piste requires 17 meters (14 + 1.5m run-off at each end). The spacing between pistes is vital. An organiser must balance the desire to squeeze in as many pistes as possible with the space required for the referees to referees to work safely and the supports to watch the fencing. A gap of 3 meters between pistes and at least 1 meter between back-to-back pistes is recommended.
Don't forget to have space set aside for fencing bags and spectators! Where possible we recommend a separate area for bags, to reduce obstructions. Ideally, spectating areas should also be designated and taped off, to prevent well meaning but undesirable encroachment close to fencing and refereeing areas.
| No. | Item | |
| 8 | x | 3W box & Spools |
| 8 | x | LPJS Pistes |
| 8 | x | Piste leads |
| 1 | x | SG12 Scoring Box |
| 1 | x | Table & Surround |
| 1 | x | Tower lights |
Leon Paul supports each event with the free hire of competition equipment. As a LPJS event organiser you are entitled to the following equipment free of charge. Organisers are responsible for the collection and return of the equipment. Addition equipment can be hired from Leon Paul, organisers should contact henry@leonpaul.com well in advance of their event to guarantee availability. Leon Paul will also supply a set of medals for each age group along with the 1st, 2nd & 3rd podium banners.
It is always a good idea to have a Timetable for the event. You will know how long the day is going to last and, in the meantime, when people ask you what time something is likely to happen you can give a realistic answer.
The timing for poules depends on the size of the poule, the weapon, the age of participants and the availability/experience of referees. Most established events will learn by experience. We recommend you speak to us if you have not run a LPJS event before, to ensure the timetable is realistic. Late running of events is one of the most common complaints about fencing competitions.
Time between close of check-in to the start of the poules should be kept to a minimum. Fencing competitions can start on the close of check-in time but not before.
Remember to allow a minimum of 5 minutes at the end of the poules for fencer to check the results and to correct any errors.
Most DE fights go to 10 hits briskly at LPJS level. We find that allowing 10mins per DE fights works well for most foil & epee tournaments. Sabre of course is much quicker! For 12 and 15hit fights 15mins for foil and epee and 10mins for sabre are considered the standard for planning.
You don't need to use a computer to run a competition, but ,most events are now run using fencing competition software packages and for any events involving multiple poules we strongly recommend doing so.
The two leading software packages on the market are Engarde & Fencing Time. Both have their enthusiasts! You will probably find pros and cons with each and it is entirely up to the competition organiser which one to use. We do recommend Fencing Time as the functionality is better and it will produce a consolidated results report with a few clicks.
The software can be downloaded from the links below. For the latest versions you will need to purchase a licence.
Engarde - engarde-escrime.com/
Fencing Time - fencingtime.com/
We will email competition organisers an XML file for each event in advance of the big day, this will contact all the information including rankings and can be loaded directly into your competition computer saving you lots of time. There is no longer a need for organisers to process entries or manage entry lists. You will however be required to answer any queries about your event from fencers and parents before the event.
Some events provide all the referees required and others rely on clubs with larger entries to provide them. It is important to have at least 1 referee per piste and is a very good idea to have some extra to allow referees to take breaks and allow for mishap/cancellation.
It is best practice to have a room for referees away from the fencers and parents well stocked with food and refreshments. Referees that are well feed, watered and rested will, like fencers, perform better and are more likely to return for the next year. Payment and/or expenses for referees is up to the event organiser.
All events should have a named, qualified first aider, or, if the venue has first aiders available throughout the event, one of the organising team should have responsibility for ensuring any injury is dealt with appropriately. This will include checking that the first aid materials on site are adequate, reporting injuries or incidents, and sending reports of any significant injury to BF.
When fencers arrive it is important to get them checked in ASAP. After the close of check-in time announce the names of the fencers who have failed to check-in, they might be in the building but not reported to you yet. 5 minutes after the names of the missing fencers are announcement you can assume they are not coming and start to draw the poules.
Information is key. A well placed notice board and PA system to keep the fencers and parents informed of where they need to is vital to the smooth running of an event. Try to avoid putting results up near doors and choke points.
Event organisers are recommended to introduce a consent form, ideally as part of the process applied when a fencer enters the event, concerning the taking of images. The consent can be included as part of the event entry form and should describe the types of images expected to be taken and purposes for which the images will be used.
This consent form should state that if a competition takes place in a public place the event organisers cannot be held responsible for photographs taken by members of the public.
In the event that consent is withheld the organisers should ensure that they do not use images of the individual in question. In the event that an organiser is alerted to the fact that a child or adult is ‘at risk’ then more proactive measures should be considered to avoid images being taken – for example additional competition announcements and/or approaching members of the audience who appear to be taking images of any kind and requesting that they delete the images.
Failure of an individual to follow a reasonable request of this nature should be reported to British Fencing.
The British Fencing Photography Policy can be found here.
Following the completion of each competition it's time to present the medals. Leon Paul will provide all the medals for the event and the 1st, 2nd & 3rd banners. Organisers are responsible for the collection and return of the equipment. Fencers will also ask you to validate their LPJS Passports. It's a good idea to have a stamp on hard specific to your competition so fencers can collect them like well seasoned travellers do with airport stamps! Simply check the details the fencers have filled out are correct and stamp in the validation corner.
It is very important to get the results submitted to Leon Paul as soon after the event as possible. This has to be done in a specific format so that results can be displayed correctly on the website and the LPJS rankings can be updated.
If you have run your competition using Engarde you can extract the results by following these instructions:
1. Open Engarde and then the competition you want.
2. From the File menu, click Results files, other files.
3. Click FFF transfer file. Results: final ranking should already be selected; if not, click it and then click OK.
4. You now get 2 questions; click OK to both.
5. Give the file a name, and decide where you want to save it. The default is to the AUX folder for that competition within the Engarde directory, but you may find it easier later if you save it to the desktop or My Documents (I usually create a folder on the desktop called 'Transfer Files').
6. Open a new workbook in Excel.
7. Open your spreadsheet program, for example Excel. Click file then select menu, choose Open, and then find the FFF file you have just created. (You will need to change the default value for the Files of Type box at the bottom of the Open menu to All Files). Double click on the file name. Alternatively just double click on the file without opening Excel first. If it doesn't want to open, and asks you what software to open it with, select Excel.
8. You should now have the Text Import wizard on screen. Click Delimited for the file type, then click Next.
9. Check Tab, Semi-colon and Comma on the next screen. Then click Next, and then Finish.
10. You should now have a spreadsheet with all the results.
11. Rearrange the columns of data into the correct order as shown on the example. You can also download the results template sheet.
12.Do not leave any empty line or spaces between your results.
13. Save the file as a .csv file and then send the results as one large file that contains all the information and all the results for your competition to jon@leonpaul.com with the subject title: LPJS RESULTS | 'comp_id'
| comp_id | Category | Weapon | Final Position | Forname | Surname | Gender | LPJS id | Club | Nationality |