| I don't know what Maitre Gillham has planned for topics. At the last foil clinic of his I attended, we started with the basics of teaching footwork and worked our way up to tactical choice drills. We spent about 2/3rds of the time on teaching basic foil & fencing mechanics. The last 1/3rd is where we started discussing technical and tactical drills. We also spent some time throughout learning how to spot and correct common mistakes in beginning fencers (drawing back before a beat, footwork getting way ahead of bladework, etc).
The emphasis was on learning how to effectively coach a beginning fencer and ensuring all our cues were realistic and well thought-out. In general, we focused on learning how to give one-on-one lessons rather than group lessons.
Maitre Gillham will be the sole presenter. He has been coaching fencing for a long time now. I believe he earned his Maitre d'Arms certificate back in the '70s, he coached the UW-Madison team for a number of years, and he is currently one of the Vice-Presidents of the Academie d'Armes Internationale along with coaching at Caliburn Fencing Club in Milwaukee. |