price of clubs

[sabrefencer93]

I was in the club corner and reading the posts on how much clubs cost, but the last post was in about 2007. I was just wondering how much your club currently costs to attend?

For me its $25 a month 3 nights a week open bouting, it starts at about 7 pm and goes until the last fencer leaves. Beginner lessons are $40 for twice a week, a 6 week course. Other classes my coah may offer such as itermediate or a sabre class are free as long as your monthly membership is up to date and we dont have to rent electric equipment, its just there for us to use. From what ive seen around here this seems pretty cheap... We are also allowed to borrow club stuff for tournaments.

[InFerrumVeritas]

Don't know costs for beginner lessons, but:

$5/night open fencing. Open six nights a week (I fence three). Lessons from my coach are $15/half hour.

[sabrefencer93]

Don't know costs for beginner lessons, but:

$5/night open fencing. Open six nights a week (I fence three). Lessons from my coach are $15/half hour.

Thats not bad, how long is the open fencing, lessons are cheaper than my coaches. I believe his are $20 for 20 mins. But you can usually get a lesson if its an off night for free.

[Chafunkta]

And I thought we were cheap!

We do $40/mo for 10 classes a month (alternating 2 a week and 3 a week). We have 1.5 hr classes followed by 1.5 hr open fencing.

[InFerrumVeritas]

Thats not bad, how long is the open fencing, lessons are cheaper than my coaches. I believe his are $20 for 20 mins. But you can usually get a lesson if its an off night for free.

6-10 officially. It can go later some nights though.

[sabrefencer93]

Wow, both of you sort of blew my club out of the water! and i thought we were cheap. I assume you guys dont have to rent equipment or anything?

[seven6ty]

Geez, I'm paying so much now, it feels pretty ridiculous, twice of what either of the clubs I used to fence at in LA charge. :-/

[jjefferies]

Comparison of clubs on costs alone is quite misleading and most often an apples and oranges comparison. Before you go off saying hey they get a much better deal because they pay only $x dollars take a good look at what they get versus what you get for $x+y.

I'm not saying you shouldn't take a hard look at what you're paying but arguing to look at the true costs and benefits which are not always realizable in simple dollar figures. A part time club which meets in a YMCA or a church basement or someone's social hall isn't going to have the costs associated with club which has its own dedicated space. Cheaper in that case also means much less convenient to you the fencer. Someone has to put up and tear down the strips. Often the strips aren't even marked out. And there is a big difference in your learning between someone who casually coaches for a couple hours a few times a week versus a coach who is a professional and for whom coaching is their main interest.

The question is what kind of fencer are you? What are your intentions? A part time club with a casual (i.e. partime) coach might get you started but in my experience it's not going to make you a competitive fencer. What is your time spent in training worth?

And if you really want to look at $ values then do some analysis of what costs are in your area. Think of how much the facility(building) costs, utilities for light, heat, and is the coach trying to make a living? How much would you expect to make if you were doing the coaching and running the club and probably having to do the maintenance too?

So try and put some realism in your view of this question. Paying a bit more is quite often a much better deal.