This is great. You see these weird stances in historical illustrations that don't seem practical to the modern eye; to see them actually in practice and effective is amazing.

Good to see the last criteria of control. I see a lot of "sword sports" where you win by scoring a hit regardless of how open you are to a counter attack.

I did fencing in college, but only foil -- didn't get into it enough for epee or saber. Rating quality of a hit and control both seem like they would be good additions to the judging in fencing to me.

"Right of way", which can be gained by attacking first or reclaimed by making a successful parry and counterattack is a decent substitute, but the concept of "control" as they describe it sounds more pragmatic/real.

Im moving to Connecticut at the end of this year. I am looking forward to joining (one of) the local groups there, now that I know of the sport. Fencing and Kendo have always been too 'restrained' for me. This is most likely due to not understanding certain, set customs on my part, but from my perspective if my nature, and what I perceive as natural, oversteps some organizations predefine ruleset, I can't see it as a test of actual ability. You can most certainly find examples for and against that, but that's how I look at a particular structure prior to empirical evidence.
If I were to translate that to human understanding it would probably be: In the majority of competitive events throughout my life, when questioned on the 'why' of rules, 'just because' has been the overwhelming answer, rather than a rational understanding/explanation of the sport.
Anyway, I'm going to longsword some mother-fuckers in a few months, and I can't wait for that final joust and the claiming of the princess, silhouetted against that raging castle fireplace (Defender of the Crown reference, FYI).

Beyond LARPing---Full contact sword fighting has been added as a related post - related requested by artician on that post.