Personally, I don't like the idea of holding separate events.  Many people fence two weapons, frequently one seriously, and the other for fun.  Since I fence two weapons (foil and epee) I never liked the idea of spending a huge amount of money just so I could fence for one day, finish in the middle of the pack and then go home.  Current system of separating NACs by age and classification (ie, Div I/II/II) is much better because it makes it makes it possible for people to fence multiple weapons, which makes them more likely to spend the money to go to an NAC.  On the other hand, your proposal might have the effect of reducing the attendance at the higher level NACs, which seems to be a goal of the USFA at the moment. The other reason I don't like the idea is that it would tend to break up club unity.  All the epee people from one club might goto the epee NAC; however, none of their fellow foil and epee would bother to spend the money to not fence.  For everyone out there who isn't in the top 10 on the points list, the main goal of going to the NACs is to have fun, and half the experience of an NAC is being with your fellow club-mates. Still it was decent suggestion,     Graham

I like the idea of fencing one weapon per tournament, but if someone chooses to fence multiple weapons what business is it of anyone's. Be careful of those blanket statements. I didn't read Mark's post as suggesting that people don't have the right to decide to fence multiple weapons (it is indeed their right to do so), but rather that it might benefit fencing as a whole to *encourage* people to focus on a single weapon. I have to say that the idea has merit, in some contexts anyway. I've certainly seen excellent (advanced) fencers who competed successfully in multiple weapons, and I include myself among the people who get a kick out of fencing outside my primary weapon (sabre) on occasion. I can't comment on how multiple-weapon fencing affects elite fencers, as I don't have any experience there. But for beginning-to-intermediate fencers, frequent switching between weapons tends to disrupt their improvement. The responses (physical and mental) required for each weapon are quite different, and until those are well fixed in the fencer's mind and body for a given weapon, it's not possible to switch modes cleanly

bracket.  I don't have time to cross compare the FIE rankings in weapons, but I challenge you to find anyone in them who appears in more than one weapon.  And I seriously doubt you'd find many folks in the rankings who touch, much less compete in more than one weapon. Especially not on the international level. . actually, there are 6 people.  and the most common combination is sabre and foil. and I don't have enough data to be able to count how many are ranked in one weapon and compete in another but are not ranked.