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Salle Green a modern and classical fencing school
Information For Parents |
AGE GROUP FENCING
Amateur fencing has a strong age group development program designed for young fencers. The standard age groups are:
The exact age range for each age group is set based on birth year and is published in the annual competitors handbook of the US Fencing Association. Young fencers can compete at state and national Junior Olympics championships (Cadet and Junior fencers), in a circuit of age group meets, and at the Summer Nationals. In general fencers may compete in their own age group and in the age group above their age, unless they meet certain national ranking requirements. Young fencers also fence on an equal footing with adults in regular senior competitions in Virginia.
A number of vendors provide equipment sized appropriately for younger fencers.
FENCING AS A YOUTH SPORT
Fencing offers many advantages as a youth sport. The following list, based on an article by Richard Cherry ("Why Your Kid Should Fence," American Fencing, Winter 1995), an experienced Junior Olympic coach, highlights what your young fencer will learn through their participation:
Fencing is a skill based sport - it develops the ability to successfully deal with the physical and psychological challenges of individual competition with others.
Fencing is one of the few sports in which boys and girls compete on equal terms against each other.
Fencing demands self-discipline - the athlete is ultimately responsible for victory or defeat. Every athlete who becomes a fencer learns to accept personal responsibility for their actions.
Fencers learn to develop friendships with their peers - across the state and on a national basis - and these friendships last a lifetime.
Fencers learn to accept authority - the referee is always correct. At the same time fencers learn how to appropriately represent their interests and to respectfully question incorrect decisions.
Fencers are encouraged to learn to officiate and to serve as referees for their peers - learning how to make decisions, explain those decisions confidently, and control the play of a bout.
Fencers learn to share equipment, knowledge, and enthusiasm, not only with team mates, but also with competitors.
Fencers learn to set and meet long term goals for their own performance.
Young fencers learn to compete with fencers in their own age groups and with adult and veteran fencers, both in the salle d'armes or club and in tournaments.
Fencers learn to be winners, well before they ever earn a medal in a tournament.
PARENTS AND FENCING
If you son or daughter becomes a fencer, here are some simple guidelines that will help both of you enjoy the sport together:
A professional fencing coach, whatever their level of certification, has a background as a competitor and an official and formal training as an instructor. Teaching fencing effectively requires mastery of skills and knowledge that you most likely have not been exposed to, even if you fenced in high school or college. Knowledge of movement patterns or specific skills in other sports does not translate into the skills required of a fencer. Your child's coach is the best person to teach those skills - please do not try to second guess the coach based on your experience in football, basketball, baseball, field hockey, rugby, tennis, soccer, etc. If you undermine the trust the fencer has in the coach, your son or daughter will not succeed in this sport.
Fencing develops individuals as individuals. One of its greatest strengths as a lifetime sport is that fencers constantly learn and grow. Some individuals want to become great competitive fencers; others will have a very fulfilling lifetime experience as someone who fences in a club purely for fun. Still others will be fascinated by the self-discipline required for the level of technical perfection required in classical fencing. Support your son or daughter in their choice of how they want to fence - each path is equally good.
Fencing is about winning and losing. Every bout has a winner and a loser. On any given day, even a superb competitor can be defeated by a much less experienced fencer. Losing about says nothing about self-worth, success in life, attitude, future performance or desire. Fencers understand that and work for one touch at a time. Over a fencing career the goal is to win more than you lose - it does not have to happen in the first competition.
Fencing is about sportsmanship. Salle Green fencers are expected to behave themselves with dignity and decorum and according to the rules of the sport. We teach our fencers to respect the volunteer officials who manage tournaments for the general good of the sport. Although individually we may not agree with a decision, only the fencer, or in some cases the coach, should ever question the decision of a referee. Never encourage your son or daughter to blame their defeat on bad officiating.
Your son or daughter needs your support preparing for and competing in tournaments. These are often large and confusing events. Just the simple logistical steps of making sure all their equipment is in order, their water bottle filled, healthful snacks available, and a host of other little things will allow them to concentrate on their fencing.
Fencing has a great need for supporting volunteers - scorers, timekeepers, armorers, etc. If you want to be more involved in the sport and in helping to run tournaments, there are plenty of opportunities to help make a difference. Volunteers make it possible for our amateur athletes to compete and excel.
FENCING AS PART OF AN EDUCATION
In today's educational system emphasis on physical education in schools is often neglected in the pressure to meet other, test based program requirements. Unfortunately, this means that young people do not have structured opportunities to learn all of the things that sports teach. As a result parents often view after school sports as a seasonal activity, a sampler of two month bites, that their children should be exposed to generally make them better, but that is not part of their education. We suggest that any sport (of course, we are partial to fencing in this role) is as important a subject to study and master as is mathematics, science, the social studies, etc., and should be approached the same way. Not only does sustained physical activity help develop a healthy young adult, but mastery of a sport teaches a wide range of skills and knowledge that two months each of 5 or 6 different after school activities never provides. Please think about fencing as part of your child's education, and as preparing them to actively participate in sport for life.
THE USFA PARENT GUIDE
The United States Fencing Association has published an excellent Parent Guide, available online as a .pdf file.
FENCING, COLLEGE, AND THE PROS
Fencing is not a pathway to significant financial assistance with college costs or financial success as a professional athlete. Most college level fencing programs are club sports, often run by the students with a volunteer or, at best, part-time coach. Scholarships for fencers are rare. After college there is no professional competition circuit, all competition is amateur, and even sponsorship for elite amateur fencers is small and hard to get. Professional coaches are the only regularly paid professionals in the sport, and it is fair to say that even the best do not get rich as fencing masters. Fencers fence as adult senior fencers (age 20-40) and veterans (over age 40) because they love the sport, its competition, the comradeship they find, and the superb exercise it provides. This is truly a lifetime sport.