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Coaching "intermediate" saber fencing at our local club

Melensdad

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I was in my happy place last night. Back to "coaching" and having a blast of a time doing it. And by "coaching" I mean real coaching of students who really were motivated, and who I can actually coach to improve their skills. You all know I "coach" Dasha but I actually can't teach her anything. In this class I was teaching and they were learning and it was a lot of fun.


Our club offers "beginner" Saber classes about 3 times each year. They are described as an INTRODUCTION TO SABER and they last 8 weeks and cover a ton of material.

The problem is that they cover a ton of material. Each session is 2 hours, but realistically 90 minutes of actual class time and 30 minutes of trying to get the students dressed. We show them new techniques for the first 6 weeks. They see so many things and get 10 minutes of practice on each technique. We stuff information down their throats but they don't actually master, and actually barely learn, anything.

I started something new last night. I offered a FREE 2 HOUR class. I pulled in the students last night that were 12 years old and above ... sorry, I'm not going to teach little kids because they don't have the attention span to repeat, repeat, repeat and repeat actions until they master them.

So I had 7 students last night. Highly motivated. My outline had only 5 subjects to cover. In 2 hours we had time to work on 3 topics.

I kept explaining to the students that each of these topics would be 1 full week of training for my high school students.

We did in 45 minutes of what I normally do over 6 to 8 hours at high school. Not enough to master anything but at least long enough to begin learning the technique. Each skill I taught built upon the previous skill. So we progressed and improved.

It was a great lesson.

The class seemed to love the intensive work.

100% of them voted to come back and do it again next week. Some of them offered to PAY to be able to come back. So this is the start of something :clap: I am going to run this "free class" for 3 to 4 weeks. I'm working on fine tuning the subject matter that will improve their skills the fastest. Since they all want to come back, I already told them they will learn the VERY SAME THINGS again next week, with a few more things added, in progression. So a lot more repetition of drills, with a few added twists after I feel they can progress up a step. I was REALLY HAPPY with what I saw.

We are an all volunteer/non-profit club. The club does charge for some services to fund repairs & equipment purchases, upkeep, etc. Once I figure out the correct topics to cover for this skill level, this will be converted to a 4-week long PAID class that will become a money maker for our club :thumbup:



The 3 males on the left of the photo were in the class. The 2 adult males were accompanied by their high school age daughters in the class last night. The young black male is high school aged and has fallen in love with this sport. I want to get him into tournaments. The blonde on the far right is one of my college fencers who came back for spring break and stopped in. The young woman in the middle is our club secretary.
 

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