Coaching: Fitting in Private Lessons

[jBirch]

Hey All,

Where do you guys fit private lessons into your club schedule?

James.

[swordsen]

Whenever the guy paying me asks for them. But we are a small club and are pretty flexible.

[Chafunkta]

We fence twice a week, so we run our classes from 7 - 8:30, and then have open fencing until around 10:00. Lessons are offered during open fencing.

[Inquartata]

Our coaches ONLY give individual lessons. Beginner footwork drills and such are handled by advanced fencers delegated to those duties.

[LeftHanded]

I get private lessons from a different club but I just call ahead most weeks and tell them that I will be coming in for some fencing and a private lessons. Then I show up take a lesson fence and pay.

[HDG]

Our coaches ONLY give individual lessons. Beginner footwork drills and such are handled by advanced fencers delegated to those duties.

Delegated or relegated?

[AdamH]

Our club operates a couple of systems, depending on who the night is aimed at.

Our adult beginners class currently runs with 4 coaches. We all start together with a little warmup and some very simple footwork.

Epeeists and one coach run away to their piste.
Absolute beginners (<6-8 weeks) are taken by a foil coach.
Those working through the syllabus we use are with another foil coach.
The rest of the foilists will play tactical games and get a 15-20 minute individual lesson with the remaining foil coach.

We have a sabre coach who will, if possible (another coach is availible to take the 'middle' foil group) take beginners for sabre.

After an hour we'll get the foilists together then split them over two pistes for bouting. All of the foil on this night is steam.

Our other nights are smaller in number, maybe one or two paid coaches with usually no more than 12 fencers.

Group footwork, circuit training.
Group lesson on one tactical concept.
Bouting on the boxes while coach does their best to get through 3 or 4 individual lessons.

Our junior class which runs before the seniors is pretty much all groupwork using steam foils. Those looking to compete are welcome at one of the two 'electric' senior sessions. Some receive private coaching in their own time, outside of the club.

The electric nights are pretty standard for most clubs that I've seen. Because we also are specific in having a senior beginners/novice session we are better able to serve the needs of all our members. Clubs that don't have a solid programme for beginners tend to have a wee bit of trouble making the night interesting for everyone, senior fencers have to help out which cuts in to their own time. This could be annoying if they are paying to improve themselves!

I do know of one university club where the coach runs the night footwork -> group lesson -> boxes/individual lesson. To cater for student beginners, any club member that gives a newer fencer two individual lessons receives an individual lesson from the coach in return. Otherwise it's pay to play.

Hope this helps a little.

Adam

[rudd]

Our coaches ONLY give individual lessons. Beginner footwork drills and such are handled by advanced fencers delegated to those duties.

Out club is the exact same.

[qatet]

We run about an hour of drills for the kids after they're warmed up and have done some manner of cross-training speciic to that moment in the training cycle. Sometimes kids get pulled from the drills for lessons. Mostly, though, the lessons that happen after drills, during free-fencing.

Kids are generally first (unless there's some kind of prior understanding that an adult needs to leave early) because they've already been there for several hours and do have strange things like food and homework to take care of. Adults tend to stay later in the evening and thus get their lessons later.

[Inquartata]

Delegated or relegated?

Depends on which side of the gate you are facing.