help with short attention spans

[parrythis]

There are a few good students (and good foilists) in the group but all attempts to get hem to act as leaders for their fellow foilists has fallen short.

Remember two things...

First - The fact that someone is a good student or a good foilist (or a good anything for that matter) does not imply that they will be a good leader. Leadership skills are different from fencing or studying or whatever. Read "The Peter Principle" to understand this better than I can describe here.

Second - Leaders are not born, they are made. Find someone that appears to have leadership potential, then nurture that by showing them what you expect of them. It will take more than one session to accomplish that.

Delegation is more than saying, "Go do that."

[Einin]

It sounds a bit like one problem (amongst others) is that there simply isn't enough time to coach all three weapons at once. At my club, there is a similar format, with one coach to coach the entire Intermediate group. The way he manages to get around the time issue is by giving one of the weapons each week a free fencing (i.e. bouting) session.

e.g. Week 1, foil and epee have drills, sabre on bouting. Week 2, the epeeists bout. Week 3, the foilists. I suppose you could turn it into a mini competition by introducing a poule sheet or other scoring system and/or a DE.

That way, you only have to concentrate on coaching two weapons at once. Plus you should be able to move between the two groups faster, too.

If the foilists only want to socialise, then you could even just take the easy way out and give them free fencing every week

[emagdnim]

It sounds a bit like one problem (amongst others) is that there simply isn't enough time to coach all three weapons at once. At my club, there is a similar format, with one coach to coach the entire Intermediate group. The way he manages to get around the time issue is by giving one of the weapons each week a free fencing (i.e. bouting) session.

e.g. Week 1, foil and epee have drills, sabre on bouting. Week 2, the epeeists bout. Week 3, the foilists. I suppose you could turn it into a mini competition by introducing a poule sheet or other scoring system and/or a DE.

That way, you only have to concentrate on coaching two weapons at once. Plus you should be able to move between the two groups faster, too.

If the foilists only want to socialise, then you could even just take the easy way out and give them free fencing every week

that is an excellent idea

[Jay83]

It's true what has been said before about training leaders. If you are doing group warm-ups, stretches and footwork, switch up the leaders each week for those activities. Not only will you see which people would make potential leaders but it would also get fencers used to the idea of listening to them.

[MdA]

....
If the foilists only want to socialise, then you could even just take the easy way out and give them free fencing every week

This is not an excellent idea...the situation will fester and will affect the other two weapons...eventually. Fix 'em or cut 'em...either way will take a little time and effort.

[emagdnim]

This is not an excellent idea...the situation will fester and will affect the other two weapons...eventually. Fix 'em or cut 'em...either way will take a little time and effort.

Its not a great idea to just let the foilists loose. I was refering to each weapon taking turns to free fence while I work with the other two. I have 3 college practices a week so that would leave one free fencing practice for each weapon per week

[MdA]

Its not a great idea to just let the foilists loose. I was refering to each weapon taking turns to free fence while I work with the other two. I have 3 college practices a week so that would leave one free fencing practice for each weapon per week

That's better but still not optimal. You gotta watch 'em while they free fence...and watch the reffing or self-reffing...otherwise they will re-enforce bad habits.

[emagdnim]

very true

[foibles]

Hey.

YOU get to have fun too, ya know. Not only that, it's important that you do so.

[Einin]

This is not an excellent idea...the situation will fester and will affect the other two weapons...eventually. Fix 'em or cut 'em...either way will take a little time and effort.

I wasn't really serious. Hence the smiley.

That's better but still not optimal. You gotta watch 'em while they free fence...and watch the reffing or self-reffing...otherwise they will re-enforce bad habits.

Well, I guess emagdnim has to do the best with what he has, which is only one coach... Unless he has six eyes, he can't really keep track of the foilists, epeeists and sabreurs all at once, especially if they've split up to do drills/ bouting anyway.

[emagdnim]

Hey.

YOU get to have fun too, ya know. Not only that, it's important that you do so.

I think that's the hardest part of all. All of this coaching buisness has taken fencing out of the "fun hobby" part of my life and has lumped fening into my "work and stress" pile.