Club question

[Alain]

Alright, here's another of those "what do you look for in..?" questions. From helping to run my own club, I find the feedback from this forum to be very helpful

So, think about the club(s) you fence at. What's do you like most about them, and why? Is there anything that could be improved, and how?

Thanks for your help, all the best

[ThatReallyHurt]

Great things at my club:

- Coaches are very good, and nice people to boot.
- The atmosphere is very friendly and encouraging, but also promotes competitiveness when appropriate.
- Easy access to the physical premises.
- A good club executive that works together and isn't in a power struggle with itself.
- Most of the fundraisers at my club directly benefit both the club and the person doing the fundraising... i.e. the club gets x percent, and I get y percent for my own equipment purchases.
- Decent mix of kids, teenagers, and adults.
- Good equipment (two boxes, clean jackets and masks, etc.)
- Club meets are 1.5 hours, twice a week. Makes for a decent workout, not too short, not too long.
- Club members get together after fencing class and go for coffee, that sort of thing. Really a great bunch of people.


Some things that would be great:

- Need some more people of all ages.
- Need more equipment.
- It would be nice if we could run some more mock tournaments in the club. Most people in my club know whether they're improving or not, but just don't have a good guage of how much.
- A place to fence on off nights or weekends would be great. I really enjoy fencing, and would love to be able to fence outside of the club, too.
- It would be neat if we could do little informal tournaments with other clubs in the city, you know club A vs. club B, that sort of thing.
- A website would be nice.
- When I first started, I wished I could have purchased equipment through my club, ideally talking to an experienced fencer or a coach. I've finally found a dealer that I'm comfortable with, but for a beginning fencer, it's kind of intimidating trying to figure out what brand is better, whether you need FIE, how sizing works, that sort of thing.

[O_O]

a good club is nice and big, with plenty of weight on the end. some people prefer clubs with nails on the end, but i find that this makes the club kill the person too fast... a nice blunt edge is VERY important for a good club, if you ask me.

[ThatReallyHurt]

Originally Posted by O_O

a good club is nice and big, with plenty of weight on the end. some people prefer clubs with nails on the end, but i find that this makes the club kill the person too fast... a nice blunt edge is VERY important for a good club, if you ask me.

Did you ever watch that Halloween episode of the Simpsons, where Kang and Kodos were chased off Earth by Moe with a board with a nail through it? That was great... "they'll keep building bigger boards with bigger nails in them - until they build a board with a nail in it so big it will destroy THEM ALL!!!!".

[O_O]

Originally Posted by ThatReallyHurt

Did you ever watch that Halloween episode of the Simpsons, where Kang and Kodos were chased off Earth by Moe with a board with a nail through it? That was great... "they'll keep building bigger boards with bigger nails in them - until they build a board with a nail in it so big it will destroy THEM ALL!!!!".

haha, yeah. that was great

[D+F+P=Hadouken!]

it depends on the needs of the fencer. I used to fence just socially, so a nice and quiet club did just fine. Now that I compete, I want a tough club with tough coaches and challenging fencers to push me to the limit.

[ra2000a]

positive things
- great people to fence
- hard workouts
- great coaches
- good amount of strips
- nice locker rooms

negative things
- some nights, the place is so pack that it takes more than 20 minutes to get a strip. (once it took me an hour)
- far away (for me)
- expensive

there are more pros than cons

[Alain]

Thanks for all your advice, guys and gals

I'm really happy with the way things are going at our club for the moment, it's been improving steadily for the last few years now

I've been fencing for quite some time, I guess, but always at the same club. So it's always good to hear how things go on at other clubs...

Cheers

Originally Posted by ra2000a

some nights, the place is so pack that it takes more than 20 minutes to get a strip. (once it took me an hour)

Our club is really busy nowadays. Sometimes it's best just to do a big shout out to your memebers and say "OI - FIVE HITS AND CHANGE!!!" - in as polite a way as possible. Have a queueing system - when you get on to the piste, fence to five hits. You stay on. Someone else gets on. You fence again, to 5 hits. After the match, you re-join the queue.
This system tends to work well, and although the fights are short you get a lot of them and you get to fence a lot of different people