Yesterday the McGill fencing team asked me if I was interested in becoming the head coach for next year.
I haven't trained at McGill very much during my time at school here... I went once in my first year here just to check it out, I went another time because my friend was fencing at the club and I went on Thursday when one of the guys on the team asked me to come by to talk about coaching. The club has got itself a dedicated salle since the last time I was there which is pretty nice. It has good wood floors, nicely painted strips and a mirror. On the other hand, while I was there there were only two working machines set up, the floors were really dusty and the space is fairly small.
My job is going to be leading the fencing 2 class twice a week. Apparently how it's going to work is I'm going to lead the overall warmup and group footwork, after which we will split up into weapon groups and two of the fencers who are already at McGill are going to take the foil and sabre fencers while I get to concentrate on epee. The fencing 2 class apparently an eclectic group because the skill levels are all over the place. Some of the fencers will have just completed a fencing 1 program (which is for complete novices) and some of the fencers have got several years of experience.
This'll be fun for me since I've always enjoyed teaching... When I was younger I used to coach summer camps for kids and I've done some volunteering at an elementary school and some summer camps. The difference here is that I'm not going to be dealing not with kids but with people who are approximately my age. I don't really think it's going to be an issue since (according to a recent Bill Simmons article on "life reps") I've done my "fencing reps" which means that my understanding and experience of the sport definitely surpass my age. Also, though I never considered it an advantage at the time, I have worked with tons of coaches. I worked with a couple different coaches at MFS when I started, then Victor at Dynamo, then when I moved out to Montreal I trained with Jurek while he was the national coach, Iulian and Jacques at Brebeuf and lately I've been doing a lot of lessons with Gabor. The diversity in coaches was at times pretty detrimental to my fencing since I had to adjust to different styles and concentrations but it has allowed me to understand the vast diversity in fencing technique in the fencing world.
What I want from my epee fencers is pretty much what Victor had me work on at Dynamo. Victor used the metaphor of a conversation to describe a fencing bout - but he said that no conversation was possible if a fencer couldn't defend him/herself (if you can't defend yourself it's just a monologue for your opponent I guess). That's why all the Dynamo fencers are known throughout Canada for their parries (particularly 6). The ability to parry sets everything else up... If people are scared to go straight they might try compound attacks, and that's when you pull out the counter-attack; or, your opponent gets to be so scared of attacking that you can get into really close distance and do simple attacks of your own. This fencing style is simple and requires patience, good footwork, some athleticism and good technique on certain actions.
I'm excited to do what I can to improve the epee program at McGill but I'm even more excited to improve the rate of retention at the club. I'm pretty friendly and outgoing and I'm enthusiastic about fencing which I think will translate into more fencers trying it and sticking around.
Hopefully, even though coaching will cut into my own training, I'll learn some valuable stuff doing this job and I'll make a bit of money while I'm doing it.
04-18-2009 04:14 PM