USFA membership growth - under 15 - How to keep them

[JEC]

Originally posted by Capt. Slo-mo
I saw an interesting statistic yesterday from the USFA--over 55% of the membership is UNDER the age of 15.

Go figure. The little people are taking over.

Duck and cover... ,no, wait, climb up on a big chair and cover.

Originally posted by Purple Fencer
And parry the low lines REAL good!

Originally posted by JEC
Well, that should make the USFA rethink how the organization will be able to retain them when they move away and go to college.

Originally posted by edew
Not meaning to threadjack this discussion, but the USFA is thinking long and hard about how to retain youth fencers as they age out into the college age and beyond.

Fencing is actually quite better at it than a number of other sports, like soccer and swimming, where the competitive levels drop dramatically after the teenage years.

The Youth Development Committee, which I am somewhat a member of, is thinking of how to keep them in the sport. There are other committees which are thinking of how to keep them after they're no longer youths, and when it's quite clear to the fencer that he or she has very little chance in making the Olympics, say. (In other words, if that goal isn't there, what other goals can USFA provide that will not be pooh-poohed, and is attainable? The Div IA championships is a viable goal, as is the Div II and Div iII championships. Various sectional championships are equally good. But it has to be publicized and properly honored for them to have value.)

These quotes (from the US Sabre ... thread) underscore a big issue. One opportunity for the organization is to keep the fantastic growth we have witnessed in the participation at the NAC Youth tournaments (but please not another Saratoga Springs) while making great strides at retaining the newly gained membership. These kids are going to go to college in 3-6 years. How can we increase their chances to continue the sport. Obviously, there are not enough number of varsity teams (due to many reasons). However, we need to foster the development of clubs and their competitions (such as SWIFA We need to send info to them when they are cadets and juniors regarding college fencing at club and varsity levels, so that is is considered as they are thinking of their choices. Then is the issue of membership. Maybe it would be useful to have a subsidized Junior category (no magazine) $10 bucks while in college.

GOT IDEAS!!! Post them.

[Peach]

Best way I can think of to keep our young people fencing is to make it possible for them to continue fencing AFTER college. Most college graduates have no money. At my club quite often my coach makes them apprentice coaches; that way he gets more help and they reduce their costs. Only problem with that is that coaching can really screw up their fencing skill and eat up their time. Time is often something they don't have either.

[Inquartata]

I am afraid I cannot fully understand the problem here.

There are fencers who have to be given reasons to keep fencing?

[magma]

fencing in high school, instead of the infernal football. then after 4 or 5 years of high school fencing, they've developed a skill and can look forward to collegiate compeition if they choose, if not they can go forward in private clubs and fence for pleasure.

[a517dogg]

uhh
make fencers international superstars
i for one am in favor

[edew]

Originally posted by Peach
Best way I can think of to keep our young people fencing is to make it possible for them to continue fencing AFTER college. Most college graduates have no money. At my club quite often my coach makes them apprentice coaches; that way he gets more help and they reduce their costs. Only problem with that is that coaching can really screw up their fencing skill and eat up their time. Time is often something they don't have either.

Mark Masters has the right(-ish) idea: you use your skilled fencers to help the beginning ones. But use an MLM approach: Charge your skilled fencers $60/lesson, say. That way, as head coach, you can make more money per lesson. BUT, offer them the opportunity to give individual practice lessons with beginning students at $5/lesson (for a group of four, say). That skilled fencer would have two groups of four to work with, gets a gross of $40 from the beginners, pays the head coach a net of $20 for his advanced lesson.

The beginning students get a more individualized, personalized instruction, the money helps defray the skilled fencer's costs, and the coach gets to take home a bit more.

But the main thing is not to have the skilled fencer lose his edge by teaching too much. The skill fencer can benefit by helping work on fundamentals like footwork. Even the best fencers in the world can benefit from doing nothing more than slow advances. Well, do the slow advances, but with four other beginners beside you. In other words, the skilled fencer has to do his drills to keep sharp. Might as well throw in a couple of beginners in tow. Makes him (the skilled fencer) more responsible, and thus more likely to do the drills, anyway.

If the skilled fencer has to do 200 lunges a day, say. Then two or three classes with seventy to 100 lunges will do the trick. It's an opportunity for skilled fencers to work on fundamentals (which I think US fencers lack in doing -- no discipline in doing fundamentals).

I recall reading an interview with Peter Lewison, NYFC foil fencer and '84, '88 olympian. He said that the most useful thing to do are drills. They're more important than lessons with the coach. Do the drills right, and often, and you're better than getting drills with coaches, or free-fencing. But it takes a lot of discipline and effort to do those drills. They may be nothing more than beat disengage, again and again and again...

Those are "lessons" that skilled fencers can give beginners and both will benefit. That way, the skilled fencer, presumably the recent college graduate with a saddled debt and a new job, can still continue with fencing while not having to pay as much as he needs to.

Some drills and exercises that this person can lead may include:

1. Jogging/running/sprints
2. conducting exercises and stretches (calisthenics)
3. Footwork drills
4. Glove game type drills
5. MORE footwork drills
6. Blade work: tapping up and down the blade, light parries, small bit disengages, etc.

[Capt. Slo-mo]

Originally posted by JEC
One opportunity for the organization is to keep the fantastic growth we have witnessed in the participation at the NAC Youth tournaments (but please not another Saratoga Springs)

We didn't go to Saratoga Springs this year...was there a problem?

[JEC]

Another one sneaking to the Duel!

[Capt. Slo-mo]

Another one sneaking to the Duel!

Money issue, the kids went to the meet in San Diego instead. Can't afford to do all of them.

[magma]

i don't understand what you're saying at this point captain, use the outline provided above, and adhere to it. if you have confidence in other people's abilities and let your students know this, it'll work. you have to back up your assistant to your students. they all want the zimmermans to teach us fencing, but it isn't happening -yet- but maybe in the meanwhile, if your kids understand that you selected an assistant that will take them through the basics until it's time for their one on one lesson, and then free sparring, it'll work. they can't have everything, and sometimes i think that's what the kids expect. in teaching young kids, make it exciting. good luck, AGAIN! at some point also, you'll want to invite a very strong fencer to your salle to build it up, who will that be?