The NIF system was first introduced in 1999 and has not changed much since then despite a significant change in the competitive landscape, in particular:

• The number of fencers competing internationally in most weapons has increased;
• The number of fencers earning points in most weapons has increased;
• The range of size and quality in Opens has increased making it harder to provide an objective valuation.

The Rankings Group in conjunction with BF Events Manager have been working on addressing the limitations in the current NIF system as it does not adequately reflect or support the growing competitive community.

Therefore, from 1^st September 2015, it is proposed that the NIF allocation system will be changed to take account of these factors.

Specifically:

• A new top 10 point NIF tier has been introduced;
• Each NIF tier is sized to take account of the size and strength of the weapon;
• The points required for overseas fencers to earn NIF points have been adjusted to match the new scheme.

The NIF bands for each weapon will initially be set to: 

NIF	ME	MF	MS	WE	WF	WS
10	1-10	1-10	1-5	1-5	1-5	1-5
6	11-35	11-30	6-15	6-15	6-15	6-10
3	36-70	31-60	16-30	16-30	16-30	11-20
1	71-175	61-150	31-75	31-75	31-75	21-50

The full ranking scheme can be found at http://www.britishfencing.com/uploads/files/senior_ranking_scheme_2015-16.pdf

This new scheme will be closely monitored for the 1^st three months and may be subject to further change. In particular, the rankings group are monitoring closely the effect on Satellite calculations.

Should any member have any queries or concerns about the potential impact of these changes please forward these, along with a full explanation accompanied with any appropriate calculations to [email protected] by 30^th September.

Peter Smith
Rankings Manager
08.09.2015