2005 USFA Coaches College

[oiuyt]

Note that the prices include lodging and food (in the athlete dorms and cafeteria respectively).

-B :)

[striker]

Originally Posted by oiuyt

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The classes vary in structure based on what level class and who the instructors are. Level 1 focuses on how to teach beginners. Although there are some high level and experienced coaches, the class is also designed to be accessible to people who are just getting started as coaches and includes a fair amount of instruction on cueing. For many people level 1 fits their entire needs -- perhaps they are only interested in being able to instruct beginners in classes at their club or to assist a higher level coach, perhaps they want enough knowledge to be able to safely and reasonably conduct an afterschool high school club, etc.
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-B

I appreciate a bit more detail. Do you recall what was the average
fencing experience of the people attending the level 1 Foil or Saber ?
It seems to me that the majority of the fellow fencers on this forum
who responded to this thread already had many years of
fencing, and on top of that they were teaching at the clubs.

Let me be specific, how many years of fencing does one need to have to
successfully complete a level 1 Foil at the Coaches College ?
I understand that this can vary from individual to individual. Perhaps
a summary of minimum qualifications and knowledge will help anyone
who would like to attend the program to find out if he can learn and
do well at the program.

[Peach]

I took Level I Foil when I had been fencing less than a year. I took Level I Sabre a couple of years after that. This meant I was pretty inexperienced, and I just managed to pass the practical, but it was still very rewarding. There were others who had almost no fencing experience, and others who had been fencing a long time. I don't know if this has changed, as I went in the early 90s, but the emphasis was on teaching people to coach fencing even if they were high school phys ed teachers rather than already fencers or fencing coaches.

[Allen Evans]

I should have been clearer in my previous post: the level of experiance in all of my Level 1 classes varied a great deal, from people who had not been fencing very long (a year, and sometimes less, like Peach) to people who had been fencing a long time. Level 1 is just that: a beginners course in teaching fencing. I wouldn't presume to set what the "miminum standards" are in a post, but I will say that some of the people in my Level 1 foil class saw actions they had never been taught before (like "transports", ie, binds, envelopments, and croises) but all passed the practical.

I think the keys to being successful at Coaches College are to work very hard to learn the material, cooperate with your fellow student coaches, ask questions, and practice. If you are new to fencing and teaching, you will get a lot out of the course. If you are not new to fencing or teaching, you will still walk out the door with a lot of information and some new ways of looking at old information.

Allen Evans
Dominion Fencing

[ReverseLunge]

Originally Posted by Mr Epee

I honestly don't mean to hi-jack this thread... but, why can't people just focus on their weapon(s) of choice?

I have never understood this coaching requirement that foil/epee coaches learn to coach saber. It really seems like a huge waste of time to me.

This is a good question and one I would like to have aswered too. I'm not expecting anyone to really know why though.

[Allen Evans]

Originally Posted by Mr Epee

I honestly don't mean to hi-jack this thread... but, why can't people just focus on their weapon(s) of choice?

I have never understood this coaching requirement that foil/epee coaches learn to coach saber. It really seems like a huge waste of time to me.

I don’t have the official answer to this question, but I will speculate.

I think I am a perfect example of who Coach’s College is trying to help. I teach at a very small club in Northern Virginia. My expertise is in foil and epee, but I am often asked by students for saber lessons. Rather than turn them away, Coach’s College gave me a decent foundation in saber and I’m perfectly comfortable giving lessons up to a “C” level saber fencer. Good for the students, and good for my club.

In the last club I was coaching at (a bigger club), saber was barely being taught at all. There were a number of coaches, but they were not interested (or trained) in teaching saber. I became a saber coach for the club by default. Again, since I am comfortable giving lessons in saber, it kept the club from turning a lot of students away, and we even earned a few medals out of it at the Vet and Div 3 level. Good for the club, and good for the students.

Coaches College seems geared for exactly these situations: clubs with one or two coaches who need to be a “jack of all trades” in all three weapons. New coaches that are members of big clubs with international expertise might not need Coach’s College. These new coaches probably have plenty of resources locally to develop in the weapon of their choice, and they don’t need to know any other weapons. For the coaches out in the “hinterlands”, however, it makes sense for the USFA to send them out to teach with as broad a base as possible.

I also suspect that Alex Beguinet is reaching back to an older tradition of the three weapon master. It’s a tradition he’s familiar with, and consciously or unconsciously, he’s modeled Coach’s College after that.

[swordsen]

When I did level one foil (back with Peach in the dark ages) I had been fencing for 10 odd years and fairly seriously coaching for 2. I left with a much firmer grasp of what I was doing and my students gained the benfits. I am considering going back next year and doing level one foil again just becasue I have been out of the game for awhile and could use the re-enforcement of my foundations. I keep telling myself that someday I will take level one saber jsut so I will have a clue what the ____ people are doing with that thing besides leaping and hitting each other. I used to understand old saber. Now I am lost.