Hey Grim,
I run a club with about 120 youth fencers of all levels. I start them as young as 6. Each age group should have different methods of reaching the same goal - which is to enjoy fencing as a fun and positive sport.
examples:
6-8yearsold:
Lots of games, focus on large muscle development, proper approach to warming up, stretching etc. I don't worry too much about perfect technique here, teach them the basic footwork patterns, basic blade work and then repeat again and again. They don't care that they have done it before so long as they are having fun. Higher teacher to student ratio is also helpful.
9-12 years old:
Again games, more intensive warm ups and stretching, they learn a routine to follow at tournaments. focus is on skill acquisition. I use a system much like Karate belts, Students can test on a skill and out of a level at their own pace. Group lessons are the norm here, though I pull out a few of the talented and focused for private lessons outside of practice. Competition is introduced here in limited ways - a few local tournaments, if the student has fenced for a while move on to national tournaments.
13-18:
If they are just starting, we put them into epee right away. Easier to have immediate success, easier to understand at the beginning levels.
Private lessons become the norm, physical conditioning becomes important and competition is the goal.
Games and drills:
warming up:
blob tag - 2people hold hands and tag another. third person joins the blob. when the blob gets to 4, it splits into 2 blobs of 2 again. repeat until all students are caught.
brain tag - partner up everybody and spread them about the gym. choose 2 people one as the chaser and one as the chasee. the goal of the chasee is to join up with one of the pairs. the goal of the chaser is to tag the chasee before they can join a pair. If the chasee makes it to a pair safely, then the person at the opposite end of the pair BECOMES the chaser and the previous chaser BECOMES the chasee. If a chaser tags the chasee, then they switch roles and the chasee becomes the chaser and the chaser becomes the chasee. With older kids, have 2 pairs chasing each other. It is a fast moving game that demands total attention, quick thinking and reflexes.
Glovetag: each person gets a glove. they tuck it into the waistband of their shorts, sweats etc. with half of it sticking out like a tail. This can be everyone vs everyone or teams (boy vs girl works very well) the goal is to get the glove of another person. there is no body contact allowed.
and so on..so many I don't want to type them all.
Drills:
Timed drills to practice one minute fencing, 30 second fencing 10 second fencing etc.
technical blade drills - although to be honest, we do these mostly in a group lesson format. we call them line drills. This ensures a high level of expertise as the coach is involved. it can be anything such as working on parries, attacks, false attacks, counter attacks etc.
strategy drill: fencer a makes simple attack and hits fencer b. Fencer b must come up with strategy to stop fencer a. Fencer a repeats first action and fencer b executes their strategy. Fencer a must now come up with strategy to counter fencer b and so on.
example:
Fencer a fencer b
attack gets hit
attack parry 4 direct riposte and hits A
attack with disengage parry 4 direct riposte and gets hit
attack with disengage counter attack closing out the 6 line/hits a
etc.
footwork
-quick small steps in between two lines
-pattern footwork (double advance - retreat the length of gym)
-dynamic footwork - have students shuffle/bounce in garde position in place, on clap do advance lunge, lunge, etc. recover back quickly and continue shuffle/bounce
-pair drills leader follower etc.
-2 fencers engarde inbetween the engarde lines. they can't cross over the lines. one person is the leader. when coach claps hands, the person who is not the leader trys to catch the other by advancing as quickly as they can. the other person tries to escape by retreating past the 2 meter line.
and so on.
by the way, the name of the book in the previous response is "Fencing and the Master" translated by Stephen Vamos into English and written by Szabo, Laszlo. The pictures are of his sons, Andras and I forget. This is without a doubt, the best book on how to be a coach. Get it and read it if you don't have it. Other books talk about fencing, this one talks about coaching fencing.
ok, too much typing. bye
sparkie
Quote:
Originally posted by GrimRiposter
Greetings. Our club has been working to develop our youth fencing program. We've had youth of varying ages in our club since we started, but have only started a specific class for them within the last two years. We now have almost two dozen youth, ranging in age from 7 to14. What we're looking for now is ideas on other drills and/or games that might work well for this age range, as well as any other suggestions for youth fencing programs. We're using this summer to revamp our program before we start the "formal" youth group up in the fall and are looking for new ideas.
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