AskFred vs. USA Fencing
Where to actually find every U.S. fencing tournament — and why one site never shows you all of them.
If you've tried to plan a competitive season, you've hit the most quietly frustrating thing about U.S. fencing: the tournaments live in two different places. Local events are on AskFred; regional and national events are on USA Fencing's site. Here's exactly what each one covers, how to register, and how to stop bouncing between tabs.
- AskFred (askfred.net) is where local club and division tournaments live.
- USA Fencing (member.usafencing.org) is where regional and national events — ROCs, RYCs, SYCs, RJCCs, NACs and championships — are registered.
- Many regional events are cross-posted on both, but neither site shows you everything at once.
- National points come from USA Fencing-sanctioned events, not from local AskFred opens.
What AskFred is
AskFred (askfred.net) is the long-running listing and registration hub that the U.S. fencing community uses for local tournaments — club "opens," divisional events, and rating-restricted events like "C and under." If you're entering your first competition, it's almost certainly on AskFred. Its search lets you browse upcoming tournaments and clinics, and you pre-register through the site.
What the USA Fencing site is
USA Fencing — the sport's national governing body — runs its own registration system at member.usafencing.org for the official sanctioned events: the Regional Open Circuit (ROC), Regional Youth Circuit (RYC), Super Youth Circuit (SYC), Regional Junior Cadet Circuit (RJCC), the monthly North American Cups (NACs), and the national championships. These are the events that award national points and feed the rankings. See our event-types guide for what each of those acronyms means.
Side by side
| AskFred | USA Fencing | |
|---|---|---|
| Best for | Local club & division tournaments | Regional & national events |
| Typical events | Opens, divisionals, rating-restricted events | ROC, RYC, SYC, RJCC, NACs, Nationals |
| Register at | askfred.net | member.usafencing.org |
| National points? | No | Yes (sanctioned events) |
| Run by | AskFred (community registration platform) | USA Fencing (national governing body) |
Plenty of regional events get cross-posted to both sites, which is exactly why it's easy to lose track of what's where.
The gap (and how to close it)
The practical problem: to see your real options for a given weekend, you have to check both sites, run separate searches, and mentally merge the results — then keep doing it as new events get posted. There's no official single view of the whole U.S. calendar.
That's the gap this site fills. FencingEvents.org pulls tournaments and camps from both AskFred and USA Fencing into one searchable list — filter by event type, weapon, age, rating and distance in one place →
Tips for searching either source
- Know your category and rating first. They decide which events you're eligible for — see our guides to age categories and ratings.
- Watch registration deadlines. National events close well before the event date; locals are usually closer in.
- Check both for regionals. An ROC or RYC might be easier to find on one site than the other.