your thought on tournaments abroad

[amia]

My son is 13 years old and is fencing for 3 years now.
His coach is pressing for him (and us) to take part in tournements abroad.
He is allready taking part in 10-15 tournements a year. He is doing pretty well in his age category (up to 15 years) and got a few times a medal (1-th once, 3-rd place 2-3 times) and sometimes not. He also participates in higher ages tournaments and has still a long way to go there.
The coach claims that the competition abroad will make a big difference. I am worried that it is premature since he has a lot of work to go still inside the country and the expenses for such trips are large. In addition, I don't see how another competition can change that much his performance. The coach also presses for this other people which are younger and with less successes.
I would like to hear your thoughts as coaches with experiance in the field regarding the impact and what is the right time to dive into that pool.
Another item is that this we are in a small country that has about 70 competitors in each competition (if this is relevant).

[Allen Evans]

There are three reasons to fence outside of your home country:

1. You have aspirations to make a National Team for your country, and you need the experiance of being in a foreign country with strange referees, unfamiliar pronounciations of your name, and the added stress that such a competition will bring. It's best to get comfortable with overseas travel before you DO make your countries team, and face all of this on your first trip.

2. Travel to a neighboring country is easy, cheap, and brings additional, quality competition to you that you would not have had before. I travelled to Canada quite often when it was a two hour drive away from me. It enabled me to fence a lot of people that I didn't get to fence regularly, and was a simple day trip (This was before 9/11).

3. You find a place you want to visit, and they happen to have a fencing tournament you can attend. Here, the primary reason to visit are all the usual tourist ones, and you happen to have your fencing bag with you. I did this once on a trip to Hawaii (not to imply that Hawaii is another country, of course, but it was a wicked long trip from Alaska).

You should ask your coach why, in his opinion, fencing in another country is important right now, when you (as the parent) still see a lot of room to grow without travelling far from home. He might have some good reasons.

AE

[amia]

There are three reasons to fence outside of your home country:

1. You have aspirations to make a National Team for your country, and you need the experiance of being in a foreign country with strange referees, unfamiliar pronounciations of your name, and the added stress that such a competition will bring. It's best to get comfortable with overseas travel before you DO make your countries team, and face all of this on your first trip.

2. Travel to a neighboring country is easy, cheap, and brings additional, quality competition to you that you would not have had before. I travelled to Canada quite often when it was a two hour drive away from me. It enabled me to fence a lot of people that I didn't get to fence regularly, and was a simple day trip (This was before 9/11).

3. You find a place you want to visit, and they happen to have a fencing tournament you can attend. Here, the primary reason to visit are all the usual tourist ones, and you happen to have your fencing bag with you. I did this once on a trip to Hawaii (not to imply that Hawaii is another country, of course, but it was a wicked long trip from Alaska).

You should ask your coach why, in his opinion, fencing in another country is important right now, when you (as the parent) still see a lot of room to grow without travelling far from home. He might have some good reasons.

AE

Thanks AE.
I did ask him and his answer was not convicing enough for me. It was that it could improve his performance a lot and that the top competitors in his age are doing so. Since I don't have enough knowldge in this field I cannot say that it will not improve his performance a lot although it does not sound like one more tournement will do that and I have no way of knowing if his competitors are doing so. Therefore, I wanted to hear from your experience. Since options 2 and 3 are not the case I guess his motivation might be 1 (unless the couch has personal interest in 3...). Therefore, I was wondering if it is not too soon (low cost performance ratio) and when is it in your experience a good age to jump into international competitions?

[Durando]

Another item is that this we are in a small country that has about 70 competitors in each competition (if this is relevant).

Where are you?

[amia]

Where are you?

Israel

[Allen Evans]

Israel? We can probably rule out Reason #2.

At this point, Amia, there isn't much more advice I could -- or should -- give. It's impossible to second guess the decisions your son's coach is trying to make without, well, being your son's coach, and knowing your son (and your son's fencing) much much better than two or three lines on an internet post.

The fact that you've reached out to total -- if well meaning -- strangers for advice tells me that you don't sound comfortable with this request. Have you spoken to the parents of any other children that are travelling internationally?

AE