Salle hours

[Eduardo]

Hello Everyone,

I practice at a salle hosted by an university (the Univ. lets us use the gym, and club membership pays for equipment and coaching hours).

Currently our arrangement is:

Monday from 8-10pm (that's when we have beginners' classes)
Wednesday from 8-10pm (in theory that's advanceds classes)
Saturdays from 7-10pm (free fencing)

We have about 12 regular members, and each school term we get like 20 beginners, of which 2 to 4 will continue as advanced. We only have one coach (might get another one next term).

Is this a good arrangement? Can anyone give me other examples? I was thinking of suggesting a change, make the beginners class just 1 hour long (say, from 8-10), but offer it both on monday and on tuesday:

10 min for warm ups
10 min for footwork
20 min for bladework
20 min for free fencing

Is that reasonable? How do other clubs work it out?

This is me wondering what other clubs do -->

Thanks,
Eduardo

[noodle]

last year, our universityclub fenced from 9-11pm (yes, the school hates us a lot) monday, tuesday, wednesday, and thursday. no practice on friday through sunday to reserve this for travel and competition in tournaments. there was no set schedule for the material content of practices, as we did the stuff we felt we needed to do at the time in order to improve.

[Eduardo]

But how do you do with beginners? People just come, you give them blades... and then?
From my conversation with former students (ie, people who joined the club and then abandoned it), there were two major problems:

(1) Not enough equipment and/or uniforms for everyone, or disgusting gloves...

(2) Not clear what they'd be learning and how long it would take. ( I know "it takes a life", but it's hard to convince people of that :-) )

Your schedule (mon-thu from 9-11) isn't bad. But as we get people from the outside community, the saturday evening is important as people who work can come and enjoy some practice :-)

Also we're looking to get a bigger room - currently our space is not large enough to set an official-sized piste. :-/

[Mergs]

Originally Posted by Eduardo

(1) Not enough equipment and/or uniforms for everyone, or disgusting gloves...

(2) Not clear what they'd be learning and how long it would take. ( I know "it takes a life", but it's hard to convince people of that :-) )

(1a) Have beginners bring their own glove (work, garden, etc).
(1b) Work out a plan to share equipment during the lessons.
(1c) Have information for them on where they can get beginner kits.

(2a) Develop a sylibus for the class. There are some folks here that have semester plans already, perhaps they would share.
(2b) Break the plan into definable 'chunks'; beginner I, Beginner II, intermediate, etc.

[cfaustus]

We use a semester plan for beginners that is then broken down by week into two classes per week.

Our schedule is as follows during the regular academic season:

Mon-Thur: 7:30-9:30 Drills, Beginner Lessons and academic bouts and juried assaults
Fri: 6:30-7:30 Assaults and Instructor Drilling
Sat: 12:30-1 Junior Movement class 1-3 Drills, Beginner Lessons and academic bouts.

Our regular evening goes as such:
10 min footwork
10 min stretch
10 min strengthening (push ups and sit ups) and lunging

NOTE: we do the footwork first as the warm up and then stretch once the muscles are warm. Footwork may also include triages.

30 min conventional exercises for advanced students or 30 min group lesson for beginners.

30 min group lessons or progressives for advanced students and drilling time for beginners to practice what they just learned.

30 min. Academic Bouting for beginner II students, Juried Assaults for advanced students and/or 10 min individual lessons with an instructor.

On Fridays we just open the salle for an hour for free fencing and this is when instructors and apprentices take time to do drills themselves.

The saturday junior class is for kids who are not physically or emotionally mature enough for regular lessons. They learn movement, strengthening and discipline to get them ready for the regular lessons.

Re equipment:
We do not allow the beginners to use a weapon for at least a month, only footwork. This also gives us the opportunity to order extra equipment if we think we are going to need it. It also serves as a weed out period as people without the discipline required by our program rarely stay for four weeks of footwork. I usually wind up referring these to other less restricitve clubs who let their members fence almost from day one. I don't want to discourage them from fencing all together, so I figure there are plenty of other programs out there which may fit what they are looking for better.

All members begin with French foils and the French school. Advanced students progress to Italian weapons, Epee, sabre, etc... The club has several Italian foils, epees and sabres, but most advanced students purchase their own.

Once they begin with the weapons they will not be bouting until the end of their second semester. We have equipment for all beginners to use. (Masks and foils). I do not suggest they get their own equipment until the end of the first semester. This way they can get a chance to see if they really like it and whether they are going to be dedicated to it. I have seen too many students in fencing programs over the years get equipment in the first few weeks and then never show up again. It is almost a disease. I figure there must be thousands of sets of unused equipment abiding in closets due to this. We try to discourage that as much as possible by having as much equip. as possible available. Students can bring their own gloves if they wish, however, due to the emphasis on point control and conventional drilling there is little need for them. We ask the students to spray the masks with Lysol disinfectant before replacing them in storage.

Hope this helps.

[rvergara]

Our club is also a college club, formed from the guys who take the fencing class each semester. At the beginning of the semester, we do a month of heavy physical conditioning, this helps sorting out those really interested in fencing from those who are not, but also prepares those who are interested and are in bad shape. This includes basic footwork training.
As for equipment, we have very few and most of them are just women's uniforms. We do have enough masks and gloves for everyone. If for some reason there are too many people in a class, we open a new one, very often off-the-record.
About weapons, we don't have many electric weapons, so beginners only use dry french grip foils and epees.
About hours, there are three or even four classes each semester, each class meeting twice a week for an hour and a half. Advanced fencers often attend two or more of these classes.
We free bout on the afternoons, when the salle is not being used by the aerobics class.

[jBirch]

We put our members on a purchase plan, requiring them to purchase a glove and body wire from day one, then a weapon in year two, jacket year three, etc... It's a marginal increase in expense and saves club gear. We use dry weapons for drills and keep electrics by the pistes for communal use.

Our schedule is two nights a week, Wed., Thur. from 7-9 in 1 hr chunks. We have two beginner classes, from 7-8, one competitive class on thursday from 8-9 and one rec class on Wednesday from 8-9.

We only teach epee.

Our beginner lessons break down approximately:

20 min. warm-up, stretching & footwork
20 min. group lessons
20 min. bouting

We have a semestered lesson plan for our beginners keyed to achieving yellow or orange in the armband program.

Our competitive fencer program is structured around improving competitive performance and so is more individual. We assign drills and footwork to be performed at home, a weight and nutritional regime, a competitve analysis routine, and a tactical/theoretical task. We refer fencers that need more competitive attention then we can give to one of the professional Salles nearby. Our competitive fencers are expected to show up to class warmed up and ready to learn.

The competitive class breaks down:

20 mins. group lessons
40 mins. individual coaching
40 mins. bouting (happening simultaneously)

The rec class is just that: recreational. All fencers who have completed the beginner course are allowed to fence.

20 mins. warmup game (basketball, ultimate, dodgeball, tag or something)
20 mins. group lessons
20 mins. bouting

James.

[Eduardo]

thanks for the inputs guys!

anyone else?