Xenophon

What is Xenophon?

Xenophon is a web application that lets you upload a video of a fencing match and quickly and efficiently review and annotate all the actions and points.

Xenophon is a video editing and annotation tool specifically designed to review recorded fencing matches. It lets you mark when the fencing begins and ends and notate the specific details of what occurred during the match.

A fencing match can seem random and chaotic as fencers move back and forth to score a point. But there is a logic to a well-fenced match that can be observed if you look closely. Xenophon finds order out of chaos by giving a practical framework for identifying:

• Who initiated a fencing action
• What action was executed
• What the target was
• Where on the strip the action occurred
• In what Mode the fencers were performing

Xenophon uses a simple and efficient interface that lets you focus on the fencing.

Who is it for?

Xenophon is for anyone who wants to better understand fencing. It's for anyone who wants a way to carefully review pre-recorded videos of fencing matches to identify patterns, spot errors, and improve their understanding of what is really going on in a match.

This applies whether you are reviewing your own fencing, your students', or matches of elite international champions.

How to Use Xenophon

1. 1
   Create a Bout. Enter the tournament details — location, date, weapon, event category, and age group — then identify the two fencers and provide a link to your match video.
2. 2
   Set the Starting Point. Press Start Match when the video reaches the beginning of the bout. This anchors all timing calculations to the video timeline.
3. 3
   Mark the Action. Press Fence! when fencing begins and Halt! when it stops. After each Halt, indicate the reason: Touch Scored, Period Ended, No Touch Action, or other.
4. 4
   Record the Touch. When a touch is scored, the touch form opens automatically. Enter the action sequence for each fencer, assign modes, and identify targets. Xenophon tracks the score and match clock for you.
5. 5
   Add Commentary. Add written commentary and appraisals to build a detailed narrative of the match.
6. 6
   End the Bout. When the match is complete, close the bout to lock in the final score. Closed bouts are preserved in view-only mode and can be reopened at any time.
7. 7
   Analyze. Review your annotated bout at any time. Click any touch or interval marker on the timeline to jump directly to that moment in the video.

The Four Modes

Adopted from The Spirit of Épée by Delhomme, DiMartino & Carré, and with inspiration from Maître Michel Sicard.

About the Xenophon Project

This initial version of Xenophon is a manual tool that requires close attention from its users to produce quality data. Based on user feedback, we hope that future versions can automate more and more of these review functions to make the process even easier, more efficient, and more productive.

Stay tuned for Xenophon 2.0.

Who was Xenophon?

Xenophon was an Athenian soldier, historian, and student of Socrates who lived in the 4th century BC. His most celebrated work, the Anabasis, is a masterpiece of tactical documentation — a precise, firsthand account of leading 10,000 Greek mercenaries through hostile territory that remains a model of careful observation and recorded analysis.

A man who combined battlefield experience with a scholar's discipline, Xenophon believed that victory belongs to those who study conflict most rigorously. We named our annotation tool after him because his legacy — soldier, observer, recorder, analyst — is an inspiration for what we are building.

Ready to Annotate?

Upload a match video and start building your analytical edge.