My name is Chris. I am the co-founder of the GMU fencing team, for which I currently serve as the coach, and the captain, The crazy part is that im only 20, and I am not a very accomplished fencer. I referee (alot) because I need the money and I enjoy it. Im becoming a better referee than I am fencer, by far.
So I am going to try to use this blog to document and follow my development as a referee, from local schmo, into hopefully, an international level ref...
So I've been spending most of my summer either at my club, Clinton Fencing Club, or at one of Mr. Ma's clubs, taking and watching alot of lessons from both coaches, Eric Bowden and Mr. Ma respectively. Then I spent this past weekend at the foil coaching clinic with Michael Marx down in VA.
All 3 coaches have a very very different method of teaching fencing. I'm still mentally working through all of it, and processing it. Because what they do is so dramatically different, I think there is tremendous room to improve on my own ideas as a coach. There are things that I really like and dislike about all 3 different methods.
I will probably post another blog entry within a couple days detailing my thoughts on this, and more specifics about how I see the styles differently. Either way, I think once I get all of this sorted out I will be doing some awesome things with my students, and I will be giving much more varied and versatile lessons, including elements from all 3 coaches.
Now to continue thinking about what they've been doing...
07-20-2009 01:50 PM