Foil Coaching Clinic in Wisconsin

[aamct2]

The University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point Fencing Club is proud to sponsor a Foil Coaching Clinic on Sunday September 20th, 10am - 5pm. Maitre d'Armes Tony Gillham will be the instructor for the clinic. This will be geared at the Moniteur & Prevot levels.

18 years of age and USFA Membership required. $20 fee.

For more information, check out the AskFred page at the link below.

http://askfred.net/Clinics/moreInfo.php?clinic_id=9002

~aamct2

[MdA]

Why do you require USFA membership for this clinic....don't get me wrong, I think every serious coach should be both a USFA amd USFCA member? Does this have something to do with USFA liability insurance? Doesn't the University cover activities on campus?

[aamct2]

The university would cover it, for an additional few hundred dollars since not all participants would be members of the university. We felt requiring USFA membership the less onerous route as opposed to making the clinic fees outrageous.

~aamct2

[parryDoh]

Possible to renew USFA membership at the clinic?

[aamct2]

We will have the paperwork available and the handle shipping for renewing/joining the USFA.

~aamct2

[Allen Evans]

Curriculum? Topics to be covered? Something about the presenter(s)?

[aamct2]

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.

[MdA]

So how did it go?