Frequently Asked Questions

As you can see by the breadth of content here, this list is a work in progress!

The ratings are updated as soon as USFA does that in their database. If you want, search for yourself in it and let us know if your new rating is there, but not on our site.

In the past, USFA has taken close to a month to update ratings in some cases. So please be patient!

FencingTracker is focused on the United States at this moment because of the ease of matching athletes by their membership IDs. International competitions often require manual matching and we, unfortunately, don't have the resources to do that yet.

Usually, we have tournament results the day after they are published. If we don't have them, it means that they were published to a tournament platform with which we haven't integrated yet. We're working on expanding our list of sources, so please check back in a couple of weeks and it might be there!

If the result is wrong, please let us know the tournament and event and send us the link to the published results so we can verify that there is a mistake. If there is, we'll fix it as soon as possible.

When your strength graph is displayed as a dashed line, it indicates that your strength rating is not yet considered reliable. The number of bouts you have fenced plays a significant role in determining the reliability of your rating.

To provide a simple explanation, if you have participated in fewer than 12 bouts in a particular weapon, your strength rating may still be subject to significant uncertainty. As you engage in more bouts, typically around 12, the uncertainty surrounding your rating tends to decrease, and we represent it as a solid line to signify its reliability.

However, the situation is more nuanced. The 12-bout guideline serves as a general rule of thumb, but it's not an absolute threshold. In reality, we take into account the uncertainty measure, often referred to as "sigma," which needs to drop below 200 points for us to consider your strength rating reliable.

Occasionally, it may take more than 12 bouts to achieve a reliable rating if your performance displays inconsistencies or erratic patterns. For example, if you alternate between defeating stronger opponents on one day and losing to weaker opponents on another, the uncertainty surrounding your rating remains high for a longer duration.

Therefore, the reliability of your strength rating depends on both the number of bouts you have fenced and the stability of your performance over time.

Please let us know and we'll get back to you as soon as possible.

Please let us know and we'll get back to you as soon as possible.