Passivity and P-cards in fencing, explained
Passivity, which the rulebook calls unwillingness to fight, is not a judgement about whether you looked busy. It is a clock. If a direct elimination bout runs one minute of fencing time without a touch, the referee calls halt and penalises both fencers, however hard they think they were trying. The relevant article is t.124, and its opening line is blunt: there is unwillingness to fight when there is one minute of fencing without a hit, or without a hit scored off the target.
The penalty ladder used to have three rungs: P-yellow, then P-red, then P-black. It now has two. At the FIE Congress held in Manama on 22 November 2025, the member federations voted to delete the P-yellow, with application from the 2026-27 season. USA Fencing put the change into effect at its own competitions on October 1, 2026, beginning with the October NAC in Orlando. So as of the 2026-27 season, the first minute of nobody scoring costs each fencer a penalty touch, and the second minute can cost somebody the bout.
How the minute is actually measured
Three details trip people up. First, it is one minute of fencing time, not wall clock time, so all the halts, the equipment checks and the referee's explanations do not count against you. A bout that has eaten four minutes of your afternoon may only be ninety seconds of fencing.
Second, the minute restarts after each hit, each hit off the target, each annulled hit, each penalty hit, and at the start of each period or relay. That is a longer list than most fencers realise. In foil, a flick that lands off target and lights the white lamp resets the clock, which is one reason passivity calls are far rarer in foil than in épée. An attack that gets annulled resets it too.
Third, the halt is a decision of fact. Under t.136.2, decisions of fact cannot be appealed, so there is no point asking the referee to reconsider. You can ask what the score is. You cannot argue the minute, and trying is its own kind of mistake, as our answer on arguing with referees explains.
Where the rule applies, and where it does not
Non-combativity applies to individual direct elimination bouts and to team relay matches. It does not apply in pool bouts, so a cagey five touch pool bout can simply run out of time. If the three minutes of a pool bout expire with the score level, you go to the deciding touch with priority instead, which is a different mechanism entirely and worth reading about alongside the basic rules and scoring of a bout.
No P-card of any colour may be given in an individual bout at 14-14, or in a team match at 44-44. USA Fencing adds its own line for shorter formats: no P-card may be awarded in individual competitions at 9-9 in ten touch bouts. Veteran direct elimination bouts are ten touches over two three minute periods, so that clause earns its keep.
And if regulation time simply runs out with the scores level, t.124 stops applying. The extra minute with priority decides the bout under t.40.3 for individuals and t.41.5 for teams. You cannot be P-carded into a loss during the priority minute.
What each P-card actually does
These are not the ordinary yellow, red and black cards, and they are recorded separately on the scoresheet. They are also not cumulative with ordinary sanctions, so a P-red does not mean your next normal offence jumps to red. If you want the ordinary card ladder, that is covered in our answer on what the yellow, red and black cards mean.
- P-yellow: a warning to both fencers, no change to the score. This is the rung that has now been removed.
- P-red: a penalty touch awarded to each fencer, so both scores go up by one. At 5-5 you restart at 6-6. The period continues.
- P-black: the bout ends. If the scores are level, the fencer with the lower initial seeding in the competition receives the P-black and the higher seed wins. If the scores are not level, the fencer with the lower score receives it and the leader wins. The FIE version now also spells out that lots are drawn among fencers who are not in the ranking.
A fencer or team that loses this way is recorded in the final results as having lost that bout, and receives the corresponding points and placement. P-cards live and die inside one bout or match, including all nine relays of a team match, and never carry into the next one.
What the 2026 change does and does not do
Only one thing changed: the P-yellow is gone. The stated reasons were to simplify the rule and the referee's job, to remove a warning that was not changing behaviour, and to cut the amount of passivity a match can contain. The arithmetic is the point. Under the old ladder a bout could absorb three separate minutes of nobody scoring before anything decisive happened. Now it absorbs two, and the very first one costs a touch each.
Everything else stands: the same one minute, the same resets, the same protection at 14-14 and 44-44, the same priority minute when time expires level. If you are unsure whether a given domestic event is running the new ladder, the current rulebook and penalty chart are posted on USA Fencing's rules page, and the FIE publishes its 2025 Congress decisions, including the amended t.124 and its 2026-27 application date.
Why fencers argue about it
Experienced people genuinely disagree here, and it is worth understanding both sides rather than picking one. The case against is that épée is a weapon where patience is a legitimate tactic, not a failure of effort. Probing, testing reactions and refusing to commit are how good épéeists win, and a clock that punishes both fencers for a shared standoff punishes the one who was winning the waiting game. Worse, the cards are symmetric but the outcome is not: because a level score at P-black goes to the higher initial seed, both fencers know from the first en garde who benefits from a stalemate. Team épée feels this hardest, because a relay can reach a position where a passive minute is cheaper than an exchange.
The case for is that something has to break a genuine refusal to fight, and the alternative used to be worse. The old system asked the referee to judge who was being passive, which was inconsistent and easy to game. A clock at least applies equally to both fencers and is visible to everyone. Referees, for their part, mostly want the rule to stop changing long enough for scoring box manufacturers to put the one minute clock on the box, since today most of them count it in their heads.
How to keep the clock off your back
- Know before you salute whether you are the higher or lower initial seed. That single fact tells you who a stalemate favours.
- Count from the last touch, not from the start of the period, and remember that halts do not run the clock. Training with a running clock helps: our bout timer will show you what a silent minute of fencing actually feels like.
- Use the resets. A real attempt that lands off target or gets annulled restarts the minute. Standing still does not.
- In team matches, treat every relay as a fresh minute, because it is.
- At 13-13 heading to 14-14, remember the cards switch off, so the bout will be decided by fencing or by the priority minute.
- If you are behind on the clock and behind on seeding, you are the one who has to go. Have a prepared action ready rather than improvising at forty seconds.
The short version
One minute of fencing with no touch, in a direct elimination bout or a team relay, and the referee stops the bout. From the 2026-27 season that first minute is a P-red, a penalty touch to each fencer, and the second is a P-black that ends the bout in favour of the leader or, at a level score, the higher initial seed. Pool bouts are exempt. Cards stop at 14-14. The clock resets on every touch, off target hit, annulled hit and penalty hit. Learn where the resets are and the rule mostly stops being your problem.
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