Why teach fencing?

[big daddy]

. I have a question for those of you that teach/coach fencers. What do you consider the rewards of teaching fencing?

[Poulet]

$$$...

[D+F+P=Hadouken!]

If you have to ask, then you will not really understand.

[Greg]

your own fencing will improve considerably by explaining and demonstrating it to others. There are great rewards to watch your students improve.

[larry hurdiss]

I must agree with Greg.
I certainly dont teach fencing, since i am a total new student. However, I do teach lots of other things, and it always makes it better. Not only do you get a deeper understanding of what it is you are teaching, but the extra payoff < for me> is watching the pleasure grow in the student, and knowing you helped "pay it forward".
DFP also put it right, " If you must ask, you probably wont understand"...
No matter. If you love it, learn it. Then teach it.
Works for medicine, pottery, and fencing....lol

[jBirch]

The biggest rewards:

1) The look of revelation on a fencer's face when they get a movement/concept.
2) The feeling of being the guy in charge.
3) The altruistic respect you get by giving back to your community with a youth-oriented sport.
4) The personal contacts.
5) Fencers that are fun to fence with.
6) The enjoyment of playing a strategic game well (ie// Can you grow top notch fencers consistently and in the face of adversity?)

The money in North America for fencing instructors is pretty much non-existant. And it doesn't make you a better fencer in any way. It makes you worse because you're not training.

You instruct because you want to and because you know you're not good enough to compete at a high level (there are exceptions to this generality, of course). But just because you're unable to compete at that level, doesn't mean you can't grow fencers that CAN compete at that level.

James.

[tbryan]

. I have a question for those of you that teach/coach fencers. What do you consider the rewards of teaching fencing?

Other than the general benefits from teaching just about anything...one of the benefits of teaching fencers is (hopefully) growing the sport. If you teach beginners, you introduce new people to the sport and increase the total number of people who know about fencing and may eventually cont.inue their training and compete. If you teach competitive fencers, you provide opportunities for growth and competition at some level. Many people involved in fencing want to feel that they are improving over time, learning new things, improving their game, competiting at higher and higher levels, etc. Without that, many of these fencers lose interest and leave the sport for a time.

And growing the sport means more fencers who can support more and larger events where you can compete.

[RITFencing]

I teach it because I really enjoy both fencing and teaching, and because I like seeing the look of comprehension when something dawns on a student, or how happy they get when the fence well. I also teach it because it puts food on my table and so that I hopefully won't have to get a real job.

[Wafath]

Because drugs wern't draining my funds fast enough and was far too socially acceptable.



W

[sabregrrrl]

I teach it to give back to the fencing community. Then too, as someone else mentioned, it has really improved my own fencing. Going back and drilling and redrilling the basics with students really helps me refresh my own knowledge and technique.

[smurfette]

. I have a question for those of you that teach/coach fencers. What do you consider the rewards of teaching fencing?

Before proceeding, ask yourself, in your heart of hearts: are you someone who should be teaching fencing? Many of those who "coach" fencing simply should not be doing it, and nice or not, may be acting like selfish pricks. Making your own fencing better is not a good enough reason, unless you can also (really and truly) make someone else's fencing better. Being able to compete (or having competed) competently on a national level (preferably a higher level) might be a good prerequisite. A session of coaches' college does not take care of what personal experience should give you. There are, of course, important exceptions, but some level of real competency should be expected, and it is -- much too often -- lacking. Not like I am coaching. But at least I know what I don't know ...

[veeco]

Rewards?

There aren't many...

But Allen has pointed out a few ones.

Coaching does NOT improve your fencing, for sure. I don't know of any person who's successfully fencing competitively (at high levels) and coaches.

Pretty much all the coaches that I have fenced in tournaments, I have beat, not because I was the better fencer, but because they were coaches, and had as such some weakness in their game, based on the lessons they were giving or the lack of exposure to high level fencing.

Now, in terms of helping out the sport, helping young people discover something you love, and the feeling you get at the end of the day when you see that your fencers have had a great day fencing, that's another story. You will feel great about helping the sport and "giving back to the community". But that's pretty much it. Otherwise it's a thankless job.

[Wafath]

Coaching does NOT improve your fencing, for sure. I don't know of any person who's successfully fencing competitively (at high levels) and coaches.

Brad Baker is a notable exception to that, but as a general rule, I agree with you.

However, I tend to require students who have been fencing for roughly one year to give footwork lessons to walk-ons. It makes them think about their own footwork.

W

[Padawan]

I would agree to disagree on this one. I believe that if the person is guided correctly to use teaching to improve their fencing then it can be done, otherwise it is not easy and can even be detrimental to your competititve fencing. To just teach without the proper method to improve a reflex, move, and/or action with a teaching method is to just replicate a move. In our organization it is called the mirrored method. If you are looking for information on it PM me. I just had an instructor spend a week with us and this was one of his goals to understand this concept. He got it and and loves it. I will let you know if it improves his fencing in about 6 months.

[RITFencing]

[QUOTE=veecoCoaching does NOT improve your fencing, for sure. I don't know of any person who's successfully fencing competitively (at high levels) and coaches.[/QUOTE]

Cody Mattern is one; he gives lessons at Michael Marx' place.

[Mr Epee]

I think that Veek and Wafath are working with different definitions of "high level" fencers.

I would be very interested in reviewing any non-anecdotal evidence that coaching (in the form of giving lessons) is not detrimental to 1) an established elite competitor, or 2) a developing elite competitor.

Like it or not, the body learns through repetitive activity... good things and bad.

Sure leading a drill once in a while is probably harmless, but anything more probably isn't a good idea. But, this depends entirely on the goals/motivations of the fencer.

In a sport like fencing, with little competitive saturation, I'm sure that it's possible to become an established (even fairly well respected) divisional competitor whilst participating in any number of not entirely beneficial activities.

[SaintDominique]

On the one hand, people who teach a whole lot will be less effective competitors than they might normally be because they're not training. There's simply a different interplay between two fencers than there is between teacher & student, and if you act in one mindset a lot more than the other it takes a bit of effort to switch.

On the other hand, if you're a really experienced teacher, then you've learned how to WATCH fencers, how to feed them, how to mess up their distance, how to show them their mistakes (my master always shows me my mistakes by hitting me ). The really good teachers can always be sly and sneaky when they fence because of that experience. I remember back when Pouj would enter tournaments just for fun and he always gave everyone a run for their money even though he hadn't trained; he always made his opponents have to think a lot harder to beat him. And EVERYONE always came over to watch those bouts -- they were fantastic.

And A. Salem has had success on the piste, even as a coach, hasn't he? Though the last time I saw him fence was seven or eight years ago, it was still beautiful to watch...

[Schiavona]

As a friend of mine says, "A coach's job is to get hit. This isn't good training to win tournaments!"

[MyrddinsPrecint]

there exist a large number of people who can't imagine spending their lives primarily doing something that's not fencing related.

It's also often a more fiscally viable option to run a fencing club than pay to fence somewhere else.

some people start coaching when they have injuries or other similar issues that prevent them from competing at a high level.


and those are all assuming that these people just love fencing, and get nothing out of the coaching aspect.