Point in Line

Point in Line
A USFCA Email Newsletter
June 30, 2010
IN THIS
ISSUE:
Zbigniew Czajkowski
How to be a
Successful Coach?
Interview!
Marietta & Bill
Towry
Chuck Alexander,
Competitive Pyramid
part 2
Fencing in
Afghanistan
Three Advances,
by Dave Littell
Lessons from
History
Santelli Part 2
Stanford Fencing
The Good Coach
USFCA Conference
“The secret in education
lies in respecting the
student.”
Ralph Waldo Emerson
Volume 2, Number 3
From the USFCA President, Abdel Salem
Let me start by thanking you for being a member
and supporting your organization. The latest
Treasurer’s report shows that our membership is
continuing to grow. Again, thank you!
We are improving our website, which is an
on-going process. Please check it out.
http://www.usfca.org/
The USFCA is also on Facebook! Go to:
http://www.facebook.com/home.php?#!/pages/USFCA/115890408443489?ref=ts
Please join us online and share your comments, photos and news.
During the Summer Nationals we will have a chance to meet, visit, and
chat while enjoying a cup of coffee. Look for the USFCA Coffee for
Coaches Table at Summer Nationals on Thursday, July 8th from 7 to
8am.
The Awards Committee is producing a form with specific criteria for
nominating a deserving USFCA coach to be chosen for Coach of the Year.
The Committee decides upon the final recipient who will receive a
beautiful engraved sword.
Speaking of the AGM I am really excited about this year’s event in
Louisville. I think it will be the best ever. Details and registration forms
are at the end of this newsletter and also on the website. If you will not
have the opportunity to attend we will be recording it and the DVD will
be available for sale shortly after the conference.
The Executive Committee and the Certification and Accreditation Board
are trying to establish a National Training Program that will focus on
teaching members to be better instructors and coaches. It will also help
you to pass the exams and earn certification. The CAB is also working to
improve the study guides and exam process. We expect the changes to
make it easier to understand the requirements for the exams and also
help members to be better prepare.
I hope to see you in Louisville!
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How to be a Successful Coach?
By Zbigniew Czajkowski
Most fencing masters have strong individuality and a strong belief that the school they
represent is the best that exists, and an even stronger belief that without their
teaching, their student will fall apart.
Andrzej Wójcikiewicz
The really good fencing master is the one who develops his pupil’s positive traits of
personality, whose pupils achieve outstanding results in major competitions, who
efficiently educates younger coaches, and whose contribution towards the progress of
fencing theory and methodology is considerable.
Zbigniew Czajkowski
I present my ideas on the fencing master’s work and coaching philosophy in short
paragraphs, each paragraph opening with an appropriate quotation, motto or proverb.
Knowledge by itself is power. (Francis Bacon)
The strikingly strange phenomenon in physical education and sport is the habit many
teachers and coaches have of putting great emphasis on procedures, means and methods
without analysis of their subject or given branch of sport and without clearly defining the goals
of activities. It is very strange, because they choose methods and strategies not knowing
enough about their sport...this is a model based on procedures. Much more sensible and useful
is a model based on knowledge according to which we first collect as much information on our
sport (its history, structure, rules, tactics, physiological and psychological considerations,
sociology etc.), as possible, then choose main goals and sub-goals, successive tasks, and
objects. Knowing our sport very well, we may choose the right goals and only then select right
and proper methods to achieve consecutive tasks. A knowledge model is thus much more logical
and sensible, and it puts emphasis more on the quality of training than mere quantity. There
ought to be a strong interrelationship and unity of theory and practice, knowledge and practical
skills, cognition and performance.
There is nothing more practical than a good theory.
This may sound paradoxical, but it is a very true statement. The knowledge of theory enables
the coach to prepare sound programs, to conduct successfully the process of training, to assess
the training effects, and to avoid many possible didactic and psychological mistakes. The fencing
master should cultivate two approaches:
1. From theory to practice
2. From practice to theory
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He conducts training/practice taking advantage of his knowledge and theory; then, conducting
training, he watches his pupils, assesses the effects, watches carefully lit competitions, and
draws certain conclusions, thus enriching his knowledge. His newly acquired knowledge he uses
again in practice.
If names are not correct, language is not in accordance with the truth of things. If
language is not in accordance with the truth of things, affairs cannot be carried on to
success. Therefore a superior man considers it necessary that the names he uses may
be spoken appropriately. (Confucius)
To efficiently conduct training programs (lessons), assessment of training effects etc., to
communicate with pupils and other coaches, and to analyze the competitions, it is very
necessary to have a clear and well-defined terminology which includes names, definitions and
classifications, component parts and objects of fencing training, fencing actions and their
classification, weapon forms and methods of training, didactic principles, structure of lessons,
etc.
To look is not the same as to see, and to see is not the same as to perceive. We perceive
really well only the objects that we know well and can name. Fast and right perception depends
on our speed of reaction and our tactics, hence the great significance of having and using proper
terminology. The fencing master from his very first lesson must impart to his/her pupil’s correct,
clearly defined terminology plus basic information on fencing, training, reaction, tactics, etc.
Terms not forming a coherent system/classification, fragments of chaotic information etc, are
like heaps of bricks in a brickyard: they become useful only when well-organized and put
together in the form of a wall, bridge or house. The same goes for fencing terminology.
We don’t select champions; they select themselves by work, passion and
determination to achieve the highest results. (Janusz Bednarski)
Nowadays it is very fashionable to assess the most important characteristics of a champion in
a given discipline of sport - to profile the “model of a champion.” In fencing this is futile and a
waste of time and energy: one and only one type of fencer who wins competitions simply does
not exist! Among most outstanding fencers, winners of Olympic Games/World Championships
etc. we may find tall and short fencers, some very fast and some rather slow, extroverts and
introverts, of different types of temperament, competitors representing various fencing schools,
fencers of foreseen actions and fencers who like lightning-speed improvisation, offensive types
and rather defensive types, etc.
Fencers who win great competitions are not without any weak points, without faults and
errors. They are competitors who are strong and win because they have developed their assets,
their strong points, their possibilities to the highest degree.
So, looking for a model of champion is a sterile occupation. There are, however, certain traits
characteristic of great champions: high levels of achievement motivation, assertiveness,
initiative, capacity for work, resistance to stress, and quality of attentiveness.
Champions may differ very much and this is why fencing offers many different roads towards
victory and success.
Attempts to define one, unique model of an ideal coach are the same as trying to catch
a shadow or trying to find an ideal model of a champion. (Zbigniew Czajkowski)
After many years of active involvement in fencing, many observations, much research work
and reflections, I came to the firm conclusion that one type of an ideal successful coach does not
exist. Great fencing masters are people with very different dimensions of personality, different
traits of temperament, various mental types and attitudes; often applying different training
4
methods, and displaying various styles of leadership. Great masters are not, of course,
devoid of certain weaknesses, shortcomings, or disadvantages. They achieve great results
thanks to their strong points, their assets, and their original solutions. General conceptions,
training methods, ways of programming and conducting of exercises, educational influence on
pupils of great fencing masters who produce outstanding fencers - all these are varied. It is
enough to watch the lessons of various famous fencing masters to see how very different they
can be.
There are however, certain common traits among the best coaches: love for fencing, love and
capacity for strenuous work, an open mind and ability to introduce innovations, the ability to
inspire and motivate their pupils, creative attitudes, and belief that their school is good and
efficient.
The coach’s first duty is to make his pupil a fanatic. (Vitali Arkadyev)
I agree with the words of the great Soviet fencing master, although I understand that using
the word “fanatic” really means an “enthusiast” of fencing. Very generally speaking, the
effectiveness of human activities depends on two major factors:
1. Motivation and its direction and level
2. Abilities
Activities, of course, take place in a given environment and in various situations which also
influence the outcome and effectiveness of our actions. In fencing training, both these factors
(motivation and level of abilities/technique/tactics etc.) are strongly influenced by the fencing
master. The coach should skillfully inspire and motivate his/her pupils, for without motivation
one cannot expect any good results. This is why perhaps the most important duty of a coach is
to motivate his pupils, trying to instill the love of fencing and the desire to learn as much as
possible. In this respect, intrinsic motivation is particularly important, enjoying the process of
training and taking part in competition while attempting to improve one’s knowledge and
practical skills, without thinking of rewards. One should be very careful in applying extrinsic
motivation (money, rewards, privileges etc.) because in extrinsic motivation only its informative
function has a positive effect: when prizes, awards, etc., indicate the fencer’s social status,
competence, acceptance, or appreciation. The control aspect of extrinsic motivation may play a
negative influence. You train and compete because you must; we pay you for this. To achieve
outstanding results, fencers must above all be lovers and connoisseurs of their sport.
The main task of a coach is teaching. (Arle Selingen)
This statement complements Arkadyev’s words. Arkadyev stresses the importance of
motivation while Selingen, a very successful volleyball coach, stresses the importance of skills
and abilities. Both these factors have a decisive influence on the process of training, its
effectiveness, and competitive results.
Contrary to what some coaches think, conducting the process of training (coaching) is mainly
a matter of teaching and, of course, learning. A fencing master teaches in practically everything
he does: introducing new sensory-motor skills, demonstrations of fencing actions, verbal
explanations and instructions, giving new information about tactics, developing pupils’
concentration of attention, even setting goals and tasks, etc.
In fencing (and many other sports and activities), teaching often is based on creating
situations in which effective learning occurs. In gymnastics and other closed-skill sports, the
athletes learn mainly how correctly to execute a movement or set of movements according to a
previously established pattern and program. In fencing and other open-skill sports an athlete,
after having learned the basic form of various strokes, learns to choose the right stroke in
5
constantly changing tactical situations during lessons, training bouts, and competition. So the
fencing coach must constantly create situations forcing his/her pupils to react, to take decisions,
to choose the appropriate action. So, “mechanical” execution of a given fencing stroke is not
enough.
In teaching and perfecting pupils’ technique and tactics the coach must not only explain,
instruct and give lessons, but also encourage pupils to watch, observe, think, draw conclusions
on their own, e.g. analysis of one’s own technique and tactics, assessing the level of physical
fitness, analysis of competitions, etc.
In teaching we may distinguish two main didactic forms:
1. Proper teaching (pupil learns new skills)
2. Perfecting (pupil perfects already acquired skill).
Proper teaching is connected mainly with the cognitive processes plus motivation; the
perfecting is connected mainly with motivation plus cognition.
Even at the highest level of a fencer’s training, the master should constantly introduce
something new and interesting; not only perfecting known skills and abilities, but introducing
some new skills and abilities. This is an extremely important point. Training consisting only of
repetition of known skills and abilities becomes boring, leads to fatigue and staleness, and does
not develop new possibilities. The process of training, if done with the right amount of proper
teaching, new skills, new situations, new tasks - is more interesting, more emotional, more
challenging, develops cognitive processes, and enhances the motor educability. It also keeps
away boredom and mental fatigue.
A good teacher is always the most diligent pupil. (Maxim Gorky)
In order to teach well, one must know a lot. A good coach must always try to increase his
knowledge and improve his practical skills of teaching: keep things interesting and logical, build
on a model of knowledge (program of training, present various methods of conducting exercises,
set realistic and challenging goals and tasks, impart new and valuable information, etc.
The ingenious fencing master constantly improves his methods; he learns from books, from
practical experience and clinics, by talking with other coaches, by watching competitions and by
analyzing the process of training. He may learn a lot, too, by watching his pupils, by listening to
them and by trying to answer pupils’ questions. A good coach may learn a lot from ... his pupils!
And the best way to learn is to teach, for by teaching we learn twice. Very wise Rabbi Yehuda
said many centuries ago: “I have learned a lot from my teachers, more from my colleagues, but
most from my pupils”.
It is easy to be a good pupil when learning from a great Master. (Judy O’Donnell)
This is very true. As already stressed, the good fencing master should teach and motivate
his/her pupils. The amount and depth of the fencing master’s knowledge and practical skills is a
very important and valuable factor, but equally - or perhaps even more important - is the ability
to inspire the pupils, to choose interesting exercises, to conduct them lively and colorfully in
such a way that they not only are highly instructive, but also produce enthusiasm, interest,
enjoyment and satisfaction. The exercises, demonstrations, explanation and lessons should
stimulate a profound understanding of fencing and a desire to do more and better. It is then not
only the knowledge and skills that count, but also the ability to impart the knowledge and skills
to the fencers.
6
Don’t throw away a weak kid: it may turn to be a lion’s child. (Arab proverb)
I have chosen this colorful Arab proverb to show the unreliability and often futility of various
selective tests and attempts to select, by means of functional and motor tests, a future
champion. No tests of physical fitness can guarantee the correct diagnosis and prognosis of a
candidate for fencing. To begin with, at a very early stage of a fencer’s career, a high level of
motivation may be more important and reliable than a whole set of various tests. Many cases
are known of attempts to throw away a real future champion by merely relying on the results of
tests and a coach’s “impression.” Bednarski’s previously quoted words are very apt, “We don’t
select champions. They select themselves.”
We believe in what is pleasant to believe. (Napoleon)
Some coaches use selection tests and do not bother with children who - judging by the
test results – do not show any promise of becoming good fencers. Such coaches often choose
one kid, firmly believing that he is going to be a great champion. They give him plenty of lessons
and spend a lot of time, energy and effort, completely oblivious to the fact that - contrary to
tests results and coach’s personal fancy - the “future great champion” is rather lazy, not very
talented, and does not show any remarkable results. They don’t accept these facts, but work
with more energy and determination believing and hoping for a sudden outburst of fantastic
results. This is typical wishful thinking. It is difficult to part with our dreams.
The real measure of a coach’s value is the results of his pupils.
Quite often we hear such statements. In a way they are true, but this is not the whole truth.
To assess the fencing master’s worth - his personality, work, training methods, programs etc. we must, of course, consider the competition results of his or her pupils.
Although the rivalry and drive for outstanding results in competitions constitutes the very
essence of competitive fencing, one must keep winning in sensible proportions. To win is nice,
pleasant, and desirable - but to lose is not an utter disaster! There are other important and
valuable aspects of fencing: more social awareness, increased self-realization, satisfaction in
improving one’s skills and fitness, enjoyment of the very process of training and bouting, etc.
Apart from his/her pupils’ competition results, one should judge efficacy and value of a coach
by assessing his educational influence on pupils, efforts in developing the theory and
methodology of fencing, and successes in forming young coaches.
In assessing the value, efficiency and significance of a fencing master, one should also bear
in mind where and whom he is coaching. Different places of work demand various attitudes.
A fencing master coaching children must provide an optimum level of mental arousal, fun and
enjoyment, a feeling of competence, all-round fitness, and basic fencing skills. Coaching young
kids is typical “teaching for the future,” ensuring physiological, psychological and sociological
development, and such fencing knowledge and skill which would be most useful and beneficial in
the future.
A coach who conducts recreational fencing for adults ought to provide all around fitness, good
health, active rest, psychological relaxation, a sense of well-being, fun and pleasure, a friendly
atmosphere, and such a level of fencing skills as to enable the participants to enjoy exercise and
participate in minor competitions.
High competitive fencing demands a very strenuous, specialized, and specific training, taking
part in major tournaments, and achieving as good as possible results. Such training entails:
systematic practice; resistance to stress; courage; assertiveness; a high level of specific fitness;
a high level of psychological processes (perception, various qualities of attention, fast reaction,
and quick thinking); achievement motivation and - above all - a wide range of fencing actions
and good tactics.
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To sum up: great coaches produce outstanding athletes, develop theory and
methodology of their sport, form a specific school, and educate new generations of good
coaches. I have never ceased to be astonished by such coaches who produce good competitors,
but somehow fail to educate new young coaches!
Stressing the importance of competition results should not be taken too one-sidedly. Victory
is in sport, of course, very important, but it is not everything. The athletes must develop their
personality, endurance to stressful situations, desire to learn more, ability to co-operate in a
team, and they must enjoy the sport (see below).
Every great coach chooses his own road. (Nicolai Ozolin)
These words, by a well-known Russian specialist of sport science, are in a way
complementary to the paragraph about the diversity of types among the best coaches. Great
coaches form their own school/method and constantly try to improve it; they do not blindly copy
known methods and programs. They seek and find new and efficient solutions, taking advantage
of basic science and empirical experience - their own as well as that of other coaches. The best
coaches show the ability to inspire both public and coworkers. A really great and devoted (to his
sport) coach, even in very modest conditions, is able to produce good results and can extract
maximum effort, improvement and results even from a not very talented pupil. As Napoleon
remarked: “A lion commanding even a herd of sheep can perform miracles.”
It is easier to put a thousand cities into ruins than to abolish a firmly established
myth. (Ignacy Paderewski)
A
good
coach
appreciates
and
takes
advantage
of
everything
which
is
good/efficacious/progressive: that which brings results in the old methods but at the same time
tries always to look forward, to improve, to find new ways, to be more efficient. An outstanding
fencing master has enough common sense and courage to give up out-dated ideas and views.
He takes advantage of recent advancement in theory and draws practical conclusions from
research, observations, and the documentation of training and competitions.
In our activities we are often prejudiced, and it takes a lot of courage to reject certain views
and practical methods firmly established by force of tradition and routine. It is often difficult to
give up such ideas like “weightlifting is good for a fencer’s strength” or “a fencer’s results in
competition depend to a large degree on the level of all-round fitness” or “to produce a
champion we must first find a model of champion” or “in fencing, the best and only efficient form
of training is the individual Iesson” or “to develop endurance one must run long distances at a
moderate pace,” etc. (the last advice is, of course, valid for long-distance runners but not for
fencers!)
It takes a lot of common sense and an independent turn of mind to properly, justly, and
logically assess the real value and significance of the individual lesson, which for hundreds of
years has been practically the only form of the fencer’s training. It stands to reason that the
individual lesson is not a panacea (“good for everything and everybody”) but is one - and not
the only - form of training. It is highly efficient, but only when:
1. It is conducted in a modern, rational, logical and realistic manner, and
2. It is supported by other forms of training: group lessons, working on one’s own, drills
against the wall, drills with mirrors, pair exercises, exercises in line, training bouts etc.
One should firmly reject the old fashioned, mechanical, totally unrealistic manner of giving an
individual lesson; it may do more harm than good. Such a stereotyped kind of lesson was
described vividly and sarcastically by the great Moliere in his “Bourgeois Gentilhomme” of 1670.
It is unbelievable, but when one watches dozens of individual lessons at great international
competitions, one must conclude that large portions of these Iessons are totally unrealistic, full
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of ridiculous mannerisms, or “mechanical;” they do not improve concentration, choice of stroke,
or perception. If a fencer wins after such lessons, it is not because of them but in spite of them.
A great fencing master sees the individual lesson in proportion to all other forms of the
fencer’s training and conducts them in a coherent, rational, and realistic way. He also takes full
advantage of a well-organized and lively-conducted group lesson... in fact, I am inclined to think
that the real value of a coach - his ingeniousness, fencing knowledge, ability to keep interest
and inspire the pupils, correct choice of exercises, eye-catching demonstrations, his ability to
develop pupils’ initiative may really be shown in his interesting, lively and colorful conducting of
group lessons.
Coaches generally want their pupils to identify with them; it is much better when the
coach and athlete identify a common goal. (James Counsilman)
In sport, as in other spheres of human activity, a group (club, section, team, national squad
etc.) is strong, stable, coherent and efficient in action when all members of the group work
together, co-operate in trying to achieve a common goal, and co-operate with detailed tasks
necessary to attain that goal. The goals and subsequent tasks ought to be attractive and yet
sufficiently difficult; a group whose goals and tasks are very easy is unstable and not efficient.
The goals should be maximal, difficult but realistic, and possible to achieve - but with great
effort and determination. Maximum plan and programs stimulate intense efforts, and even if
100% of the tasks have not been fully achieved, a lot will have been done. Minimal tasks and
goals simply do not motivate one to great effort, and even when goals are achieved they are not
worth much.
In trying to achieve common goals, the main coach tries to create and keep in the team a
friendly, family-like atmosphere - at the same time ensuring discipline, mutual respect and a
sense of responsibility.
Nothing is more destructive than a coach’s self-complacency and conceit.
A prominent coach must be sure of himself and must believe that he is able to produce very
successful fencers. But every extremity may lead to absurdity! So a conceited, sure of himself,
uncritical coach is not likely to be really successful. Too great assertiveness/conceit and/or
rejecting all thoughts of possible mistakes may have various reasons. Quite common is a deep
sense of inferiority and attempts to compensate for it by glorifying one’s own knowledge,
boldness and attitude: “I never make mistakes.” Oddly enough, it may also be caused by the
fencing master’s assets, good work and long string of successes; a very successful coach may
come to the conclusion that everything he does is good and will bring further achievements.
Such a master ceases to analyze his methods of coaching, does not watch competitions, does
not see new changes in fencing training and in styles of fencing, competitions rules, and ways of
refereeing. He has no doubts about himself and his methods, and rejects all critical remarks.
Such an attitude sooner or later leads to failure and defeat, which the conceited coach cannot
understand.
A fencing master should constantly analyze his ways of coaching, trying to find the sources of
his successes and defeats. This will enable him to introduce necessary changes and
improvement into his/her system of coaching.
To a coach who shows a tendency to conceit and who is uncritically sure that everything he
does is perfect, I would offer this advice; “Such a fool does not exist from whom a wise man
could not learn something useful.”
A good coach has his favorite pupils and does not conceal it. (Vitaly Arkadyev)
9
This is, of course, true - but this principle ought to be properly understood and very
tactfully applied in practice. The good fencing master should have his/her favorite pupils - but
this means only that he supports and shows special interest in talented, hard working, highly
motivated fencers who are able to fight and win. This is in accordance with the needs of highly
competitive sport and the principle of individualization; it is not so, of course, in physical
recreation or recreational fencing.
Supporting the most talented and enthusiastic pupils must be tactful and subtle when dealing
with women and girls. Women, as we know only too well, very often do not take very kindly to
other women being praised. If a male fencing master says, for example, “Mary has long and
beautiful legs” in order to encourage her to make longer lunges, the other girls will not be very
pleased. Or if he says, “Jean works very hard and has made really big progress,” the comment
might be “She must have seduced him.” Be careful!
An ass knows seven styles of swimming, but when he sees water he forgets all of
them. (Armenian proverb)
Probably no coach exists who does not experience a great sense of disappointment when a
pupil who learns various fencing strokes very quickly and correctly, and who does extremely well
in the process of training, gives performances in competition which are poor - far below his/her
abilities and possibilities, and far below the coach’s expectations. It happens quite often that this
fencer’s movements in exercises and training bouts are correct, smooth, and efficient, but in
competition become bad, wide, chaotic, and inefficient. This happens in fencing (and other
sports) where there are many motor skills, technique is complicated, the motor skills are of the
open character, and one has to make very fast decisions.
In the process of acquiring the technique and tactics of fencing one may distinguish three
leveIs, three thresholds of difficulty:
1. Acquisition of many various movements and strokes (fencing stance, lunge, fleche,
basic strokes, parries, ripostes, beats, feints etc.)
2. Application of various strokes and abilities in a training bout with an active opponent
3. Application of these strokes and abilities in a competition where arousal, emotions,
fears, and sense of responsibility for the result all play an important role
It is mainly the fencing master who is responsible for the successful achievement of the first
level, the first “threshold of difficulty.” By using proper methods and forms of training, the coach
helps the pupils to learn various elements of fencing technique and tactics. Here, of course, the
pupil’s motivation and effort are very important too.
The second stage - how to apply in training bouts the strokes learned in the process of
training lessons and exercises - depends on the fencer himself, although the fencing master may
help by giving advice, pointing out technical and tactical mistakes, etc.
In the last stage, the third level of difficulty - the application of fencing strokes in a
competition - the responsibility lies nearly exclusively on the fencers themselves. This is the
most important stage, and at the same time a stage in which the fencing master can offer only a
little help. A competitor stands face to face with his opponent and tries to win. Only after the
bout (or after the entire competition) can a coach analyze the bout, the pupil’s good points and
errors, successful and unsuccessful tactical solutions, level of specific fitness etc. Results of
competition bouts depend nearly exclusively on the pupil’s form, technique, tactics,
psychological processes motivation and resistance to stress. But, of course, the coach’s presence
at the strip, his attitude, interest, his remarks before and after the bout are very important.
We must bear in mind that the third stage (fencer’s effectiveness in competition) is the most
important. It is the very essence of competitive fencing. So the fencing master should not be
unduly fascinated with a pupil who learns quickly and with ease the various skills of fencing
10
technique (although, of course, this is very important), but has difficulties in successfully
applying in competition the strokes acquired in the process of training.
The ability to transfer the skills from training (first stage) to training bouts (second stage),
and from training bouts to competitive bouts (third stage) is in a way a measure of the fencer’s
talent, a base of assessment, and a prognosis of his future achievements. Pupils with such ability
ought to be the object of the fencing master’s interest, care and work. As I quoted before, “A
good coach has his favorite pupils and does not conceal it.”
A person is a reflection of his imagination; one is what one thinks one is. (Mohammed
Ali)
One should not take this too literally, but there is a lot of truth in it. Of course, it is not
always exactly so, and the number of Napoleons in psychiatric hospitals show it.
A coach in his/her activities must often assess not only his pupils and co-workers, but also his
own personality, assets, weak points, knowledge, practical skills, programs of training, standards
of lessons, results, etc.
Some people, contrary to Mohammed Ali’s opinion, think that a person is as others think of
him. The truth is that our perception of ourselves is different from other people’s opinions of
us...also; we perceive differently other people’s views of us. Naturally, we ought to take into
consideration other people’s opinions, especially those of our fellow coaches, but one should do
it with a pinch of salt. The fellow coaches’ opinions may be very misleading, especially when, as
it often happens, they are tinged with a slight hint of professional jealousy.
One of the leading Polish coaches (Vinnie Bradford, Jason Sheridan and Michael Marx will
probably know whom I have in mind) has heard the most fantastic and improbable opinions
about himself! According to some of his colleagues he is a diamond smuggler, vindictive and
revengeful, a drug user whose arms are covered with pus due to dirty syringes, and has no
earthly idea how to teach foil, sabre or epee. In reality the only “smuggling” in which he was
involved was bringing to Poland, when under Communist rule, Solzhenitsyn’s books - and to the
Soviet Union, Ilya Erenburg’s “Adventurous Life of Lejzorek Rojtshwanit.” As to his
vindictiveness, he very often reproaches himself for stupidly being too nice and helpful to people
who wronged him. The poor soul is so sensitive that the mere thought of an injection makes him
feel faint! And lastly, judging by the results of his pupils in all weapons at the World
Championships and the Olympic Games, he does seem to know something about fencing, which
reminds us of one of the previous maxims that “the measure of a coach’s quality is the success
of his pupils.”
Personally, I came to the conclusion that fencers assess a fencing master’s value, knowledge
and practical abilities better, more precisely and objectively that do fellow coaches. This
resembles a little bit the theater where the critics (and above all the public) appreciate an actor
more objectively than fellow actors. In fencing even quite young children notice and appreciate a
coach’s work, punctuality, devotion, and teaching skills. I have also noticed that what impresses
the pupils most is the fencing master’s own fitness, speed of execution, dexterity and all-round
fencing skillfulness.
Coach’s work begins and finishes at the desk. (Zbigniew Czajkowski)
The work of a coach is usually associated with the fencing salle, gym,
soccer field. This is the most important, spectacular, and practical part of
however, practical teaching is preceded by learning, gathering knowledge,
Every training session, training period, and competition ought to be followed
and drawing of conclusions which would facilitate further training.
swimming pool or
the coach’s work;
programming, etc.
by careful analysis
11
These remarks show many aspects of a fencing master’s job, underlining its creativity,
its theoretical and practical aspects. It is very demanding and may offer plenty of satisfaction.
Moliere’s fencing master in “Le Bourgeois Gentilhomme” was not exaggerating when he said:
“In this way it is evident with what consideration we should be regarded in the State, and
how far the science of fencing excels all other useless sciences such as dancing, music...” and
“You are scarcely serious when you seek to compare your sciences with mine!”
Athletes first, winning second. (Rainer Martens)
This is simple to state, but not so simple to implement, yet the successful coach must strive
to secure not only his pupils’ good results in competitions, but also – and above all – take good
care of his pupils’ personality, their health, sport enjoyment, self-confidence, self-efficacy,
resistance to stress to situations, feeling of independence etc. So – very shortly – one may say
that the coach’s most important tasks are:
1. To help them to develop physically (good health, energy abilities, co-ordination),
psychologically, and socially
2. To teach technique, tactics, and psychomotor capabilities
3. To help them achieve high results in competitions
4. To help them develop an optimum level of achievement, motivation, and arousal
5. To help athletes to secure sport enjoyment
As Rainer Martens aptly remarks, “There is more to being an athlete than just having motor
skills” and “if winning is your first and only goal, you are far less-likely to be a successful coach.”
To fulfill these tasks, most suitable is a co-operative and friendly style of leadership.
I could hardly finish these remarks better than by quoting George Silver who wrote in 1599 in
his famous “Paradoxes of Defence” in his quaint old English:
“The exercising of weapons putth away aches, griefs and diseases;
it expelleth melancholic, cholericke and evil conceits; it keepth a
man in breath, perfect health and Iong life.”
Editor’s Note: Point in Line gratefully acknowledges the assistance of
Swordmaster Editor Emeritus, Jeremy Schmid in the publication of this
article.
12
Dr. Milton Bank – In Memoriam
On May 25, Dr. Milton Bank, who singlehandedly kept fencing alive on the Monterey
peninsula for about 40 years, died of a heart attack while being treated for lung cancer
at the local hospital. Dr. Bank taught swordsmanship to generations of students on the
peninsula, aviation safety at the Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey, and flew fighter
jets in Vietnam. A retired Navy Lt. Cmdr., he was born in Brockton, Mass. and grew up
in Michigan. Dr. Banks graduated 12th in his class at the U.S. Naval Academy at
Annapolis, Md. where he was a member of the Navy's 1956-57 NCAA Championship
fencing team.
Milton Bank flew aboard four aircraft carriers during his career as a naval aviator,
including a combat tour flying missions over Vietnam. Diabetes forced his retirement
from active duty in 1968. He was decorated with four Air Medals and the Navy
Commendation Medal with combat "V."
He earned graduate degrees from NPS, Stanford University, and Georgia Institute of
Technology. He was certified as a Prévot d'Armes in fencing. He coached at Monterey
Peninsula College for more than 35 years and co-founded the Monterey Peninsula
Fencing Club.
Dr. Bank joined the faculty of NPS in 1971, teaching first in the Department of
Aeronautics and then in the School of Aviation Safety. He was the 1994 winner of the
Scheiffelin Award for Excellence in Teaching and the 1995 Allen Griffin Award for
Excellence in Teaching.
After retiring from teaching in 2005, he worked at the Center for Interdisciplinary
Remotely-Piloted Aircraft Studies (CIRPAS), a research center at NPS that operates
unmanned scientific research aircraft and provides air vehicle support to the military on
training exercises and with tests, evaluations and operational demonstrations of military
technology. Dr. Bank was internationally recognized in the fields of aviation safety and
accident reconstruction.
Milton Bank is survived by his wife of 52 years, Linda; two sons, Baynes Bank of
Bakersfield and Milton Bank III of San Diego; two brothers; one sister; and six
grandchildren. Another brother preceded him in death. A memorial service was held
June 26, at Carmel Presbyterian Church in Carmel, California.
In lieu of flowers, the family requests donations to be given to the Monterey Peninsula
Corps of the Salvation Army, P.O. Box 1884, Monterey, CA 93942.
13
UPDATE!
AAI Diploma Holders
(effective July 1, 2010)
To honor our commitment to the AAI we will have a
page on the USFCA website that lists all AAI diploma
holders residing in the US who are current USFCA
members.
For an AAI diploma holder to earn USFCA certification,
the AAI diploma holder must be a current USFCA
member and pass all of the required steps to receive
the USFCA certification
USFCA members with AAI diplomas who do not have
USFCA certification may not serve on certification
boards ( giving Exams) or serve as Executive
Committee officers of the USFCA or CAB members
Any member who has (prior to July 1, 2010) been
granted equivalency by the USFCA will be considered a
USFCA certified coach with full membership and rights.
From the Certification and Accreditation Board:
An alternative to the written thesis is available to
obtain a USFCA Master Certification.
The alternative to the thesis may involve, but is not
limited to; answering a series of Research Questions
relative to teaching and coaching fencing that will
require research and/or extensive thought and
personal analysis.
Questions may relate to pedagogy, fitness, business
acumen, or others as deemed appropriate by the CAB.
14
An E-mail Interview with
Marietta and Bill Towry
By Mary Annavedder
When did you begin fencing and what
were the reasons behind it?
Marietta - My father, Tinnin Windsor, had
started me lunging at a target against my
bedroom door. I was fine when he was around,
but I was too bored to practice alone. The fellows
at the Officers Club at Ft. Brown, Texas, were
very old (from my 11-year-old point of view) and
I never really went there. This was 1941. I saw no
women fencers until college years.
I began in earnest in 1947, when Daddy
formed the Border Division in El Paso along with
his club, Sala de Armas Windsor. (See more
information on the Border Division’s activities at
the end of the interview.)
Bill - I was in marching band, as was
Marietta. Several friends met to try fencing in the
Windsor’s living room with weapons ordered from
Wilkinson Sword in Great Britain and Castello in
New York. We were enthusiastic and talked Col.
Windsor into opening a club.
When did you become interested in
coaching fencing and what brought you
to it?
Bill - At Kansas State University in Manhattan, Kansas. I assisted the Army coach, Al
Nazarino, at Kansas State, as I had done at Sala Windsor. Col. Windsor was in the NFCAA
(publicity) and had proposed me for membership.
Marietta - There were no women members in coaching, nor refs, nor touches below the
hips in foil (at 4 touches). It was a different world.
Marietta -Bill’s job was in Oklahoma City. For entertainment we liked to dance, but this
was the “Bible Belt:” no dancing. Back in 1951, recreation was golf and tennis for the country
club types, bowling and beer for the rest. The “New” YMCA was opening. We offered to teach a
fencing class, got a bit of gear, and five people registered…Oops, Bill was transferred to Wichita
Falls, Texas. So, to the Wichita Falls YMCA, classes again - both of us teaching.
Marietta - We taught basic competitive fencing…folks paid for the class thru the Y, and
bought their own gear. Foil $6.00, Mask $10.00, jacket 12.00 - From Castello, and Santelli.
AFLA dues were $2.50.
15
When did you begin a club and how is it run?
Marietta - We moved from Wichita Falls, Texas, to Dallas about 1953, and joined the
Dallas Fencer’s Club which was meeting at the Downtown YMCA, on the roof in the summer time
and in the gym in the winter. After our experience with the club in El Paso and ours in Wichita
Falls, the Dallas club seemed to be rather disorganized, and being the aggressive types that we
are, we were soon leading the classes and running the club. Our style has always been the
“benign dictator” style although we usually are willing to listen to good advice, and try to go to
clinics and seminars as often as possible to stay up to date.
In the latter ‘50s a women’s coaching group was proposed, but dropped and women were
included soon in the NFCAA. Somewhere in the '60s we were both “grandfathered” in as threeweapon coaches.
Bill was the perpetual chair of the North Texas Division for 30 years. In 1985, our
business responsibilities and family ties caused us to move back to El Paso. When we arrived
the fencing community of the Border Texas Division was at a real ebb. There were no more than
eight fencers, mostly young adults. Uniforms were not required at meets and entry fees were
$2.00 per event. There was one metal strip and one machine. Bill was again elected division
chair and began the process of rebuilding. The USFA had allowed Border Division to continue
without closing it down as it dated back pretty far with its origins. Or the division was simply lost
in the roster.
Bill - Marietta started a youth program through a continuing education program at UTEP in
an old abandoned Synagogue that had achieved Texas Historical status, with five high school
boys from the area high schools. We were then the UTEP Continuing Ed Junior Fencing Team.
When does your club practice and how many hours each time?
Both - After moving to the UTEP Continuing Education Program for several years we were
very fortunate to acquire a suburban location in an old Wynn Dixie Food store. That was about
the time that Bill retired from his “Day Job” and went full time as a fencing coach. That would
have to have been about 1992. The team became Texas Excalibur. Our colors are blue, white,
and orange.
Youth/Cadet classes are held on Tuesdays & Thursdays from 5:00 p.m. to 6:30 p.m. Adult
Beginner Classes, private lessons, and bouting are on Monday and Wednesday from 7 p.m. to 9
p.m. Students enrolled in the classes are entitled to one lesson per week. Classes are paid by
the month. Dues are either by the month or payable by the semester (fall and spring).
What classes do you offer in your club?
Marietta - We teach foil & epee. Someone pointed out recently that it is well over 700
miles to the nearest decent saber referee. That doesn’t help the progress in any weapon, but
saber is always being asked for. So Bill gives in - tired of watching guys cut and chop, and will
do a saber clinic. With another coach we will expand the youth program, camps, conditioning,
etc.
Bill - A few years before I came to UTEP there had been a fencing recreational sports
program. It was run by Gerard Poujardieu Jr., (of all people, a central Texas family friend). I
have been there since 1985, teaching a beginning fencing class and a recreational sports club.
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If you are involved with a school, how did you get it to begin a fencing
program?
Bill – I went in and asked for it by name…but fencing is the best kept secret on campus.
It is strictly a club. When we won the Western Region Championship last year against
Swarthmore College, CalPoly, etc., it did not even make the campus paper.
What has been your satisfaction in coaching?
Bill - Watching and guiding young kids/or students develop into fencing athletes who
enjoy what they are doing.
Marietta - My joy is competitive coaching by the strip. To have execution by fencers
award them with success, because they see and understand what is in front of them, when the
computer, that is the coach, gives them the options to choose, and they know what to do, and
do it well. That is very rewarding!
How has the USFCA helped you in your coaching?
Marietta – It has really helped. Absolutely. The area clinics and national meetings are fine
examples of what is going on in the "real” world of fencing, which is pretty broad.
Bill - It has most certainly. It is the carrot in front of the donkey. It has kept us going, or
we would bog down. The USFCA offers such a variety of styles and innovation. It is continuing
education for the coaches.
How are you involved with the USFCA?
Bill - Dare I say, this year: The nominating committee.
Are you also involved with the USFA? How so?
Bill - A very busy member as a coach and Congress representative.
What success have your students had locally?
Bill – Locally: Cadet, Junior, Open, and Veteran is all Texas Excalibur. Currently, our
youth are just getting into competition. Our club is strong and fills most of the spots, with a
challenge to us every week or so from within our small division.
What success have your students had nationally, or internationally?
Bill - Nationally, we have had a very good year. Beginning with 2009 Nationals - Div II
Women’s Epee champion. NAC E: 1st Div III MF, 3rd and 6th Div II MF, 2nd, 5, and 8 Div III ME,
Dallas NAC E Div II MF Team: 2nd and Div II ME Team: 2nd
Since Southwest section is qualifying I am listing it here:
1st Div1A ME and 1st U-19 ME
Have any of your students become coaches?
Bill - Yes, our very first student, Sgt. Larry Cupchoy, US Army, was NFCAA in the ‘50s,
and taught in Hawaii. He also won the All Army Epee in Marseilles, France. We were lucky to
have an “International” so early. He wrote a Special Delivery Air Mail letter every day of the
event.
Another student, Jeff Crowe, in Dallas has a club (Renaissance) and is the North Texas
Division Chair.
Michael Ross began refereeing under me when I was doing clinics, etc., and is continuing
in that vein. It’s not exactly coaching, but similar.
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How do you balance working, coaching and family life, if you have a noncoaching job as well?
Marietta - I teach beginner fencing at UTEP and adult continuing education… no coaching
there. Bill handles the Fencing Center. Family life? You jest! Our family life with the two of us
IS fencing. Oh, we do see our grown band director daughter during her concert All-State season
(if there is not a big fencing event concurrent) and sort of vice versa.
18
19
Border Division was formed by Col. T. F. Windsor way back in 1947/51. It covered from
Tucson, Arizona (U of A) to Lubbock, Texas (Texas Tech). Fencing was pretty strong in North
Texas and the Gulf Coast Division. This tied into the area. With assistance from Giorgio Santelli
and James Castello, and Windsor doing the organizing, the Border Division got under way.
Three large events livened up the year.
One in Tucson, The Gran Tucson International, was a romantic fall event with Epee de’Honor,
where two slips of paper were handed out to two competitors at dawn and only one slip of the
two would return. Breakfast was al fresco, in front of the old cathedral. This was the original
Duel in the Desert, hosted by Tucson YMCA’s Irving Kipnis.
In the spring, the Sala de Armas Windsor in El Paso hosted the Border Invite International,
a team event. Texas A&M University lettered Varsity in Fencing in those days, as did University
of Texas, so they sent good-sized squads. Mexico sent teams from Salle D’ Artagnian, the
Universidad Autonimo de Mexico, and Chihuahua University, and US Military teams also came.
20
The highlight there was Heidelberg Saber, a takeoff, of course, on a nine foot strip. Bare chests,
mask, and glove for upper body. Head cuts only. Such an event would never be allowed today,
but it was great stuff for the age-group of the 1950s.
An accent was placed on sportsmanship during the team events, and at the presentation of
awards there was an open nomination for three competitors for the Cordon D’Or, a patch with a
knotted metallic gold cord that would be seen in meets for several years (the Van Buskirk, the
Dallas Open, and the Reforma in D.F., Mexico.
The third of these meets was the Universidad de Chihuahua Gran Torneo, run by Professor
Terrazas of the Drama Dept, Univ. of Chihuahua. Well attended, and a meet run all in Spanish,
it was a good end of season event. We first met Dan DeChaine of Pamona College, California, in
Chihuahua. (We were all young and skinny then.) These events attracted fencers from a large
area.
And time passed, and with it, time for meets like these three. Events full of Honor and Romance.
The competitive point events slowly replaced these purely fun endeavors with today’s, NAC,
ROC, etc. Such meets were fun and memorable while they lasted.
But one young coach at Texas Tech University in Lubbock, remembered hearing about the
Border Invite. Mike Husband recalled and knew that Windsor was Marietta & Bill’s Dad. He
arranged a large team meet, with several teams (among them Air Force Academy under Wendell
Kubic) held at Tech. There was a break in the meet and T-shirts were handed out with the actual
name of the competition, The T.F. Windsor Memorial Tournament. Wow! A very thoughtful and
fine idea. The event was held at Tech until Mike moved on. He suggested that UTEP in El Paso
was the more appropriate place to continue the memorial. And the event was held several times
at the Fencing Center. The past several years our strong fencers have been too young to
warrant good competition, and time for another event on division schedules is tight. But the
Windsor may rise again.
Coaches! Create your own e-mail interview.
This can be about you or another coach whose story you wish to share.
Save the questions in a .doc, supply answers as long or short as you wish.
Send the interview and photographs.
Submit to [email protected]
21
Fencing in Afghanistan
Camp Eggers, Kabul, Afghanistan
By Captain Marissa Romero
Even in a deployed environment service members from around the world have found a
way to enjoy their deployment tour. SFC Thomas Mitchem, United States Army, had
been fencing on and off since 1994, and started a fencing club here in Afghanistan in
September, 2009.
The majority of the equipment has been donated from various sources, including Leon
Paul of Britain, Fencing.net of Atlanta, Georgia, and Physical Chess of New Jersey. The
number of participants range anywhere from 3 to 15, twice a week, depending on the
operations tempo of the day, and include service members from each service, foreign
military and civilians. Coaches include some of the more experienced fencers who spent
a few years fencing in college or took up the sport on their own. I am a former US Air
Force Academy saber fencer and am among the more experienced fencers. I have taken
up instructing beginner saber fencers. Making do with the limited equipment, these
deployed fencing instructors have been able to spark interest for beginners to learn the
sport and allow more experienced fencers to further hone their skills. Hopefully, as
personnel rotate through their tour, they will be able to pass on the interest and
continue with this fencing club in Afhganistan.
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Three Ways to Advance
by Dave Littell
We tend to teach what we were taught. I was taught to advance by swinging the front foot
forward until the heel touched the ground, then to move the back foot as the front toe hit the
ground. There was a lot of emphasis on smacking down the front toe and back foot at the same
time. Landing at the same time was presented to me as the key issue—weight transfer, balance,
ability to change directions, or the size of the step were not discussed.
As you can already tell, today I think much more about these latter issues. Still, for a long time I
clung to the timing of the back and front foot that I learned as a young fencer. Coaching
seminars with several top-notch saber coaches started (slowly) to open up my thinking about
this issue. One coach talked about putting the front toe down right away while another kept
referring to slowing down the back foot.
Whenever I’m trying to understand fencing movement I like to work with similar, but decidedly
non-fencing movements. It helps to avoid fencing habits and preconceived notions about doing it
the right way. If you stand with your feet shoulder width apart, toes pointing forward, and take
steps to one side or the other, it quickly becomes obvious that there are a number of plausible
ways to time the movement of the feet.
One way is similar to the one I was taught. From this standing position, with the knees soft, it
starts with shifting the weight to the left leg, releasing the right leg and reaching to the side a
foot or two. As the toe touches down, push off the left foot and finish the step. This step starts
slow and ends fast, in other words it accelerates.
Another option begins with the same slow reach to the side with the right foot. Now after the toe
touches down, continue to put the full foot down and slowly transfer weight until the right foot is
fully weighted. Only now, once balanced on the right foot, move the left foot to finish the step.
This approach has the advantage of being fully balanced on one foot or the other at all times.
This is more similar to walking. Also, like walking, you can smoothly string together steps
because you are moving foot to foot.
A third option is to move more quickly. As soon as you reach with the right foot to the side (and
before it touches down), push off the left foot and finish the step. This is a simple quick step.
All these options transfer directly into three different ways to advance. If you watch fencing
you’ll see that fencers use all three of these methods, which means that it makes sense to teach
all three steps. If this seems complicated it really isn’t. If we were teaching dancing, we wouldn’t
hesitate teaching students a number of different dance steps.
It’s also less complicated when you start by teaching what all three steps have in common. Each
one starts the same with the fencer’s weight subtly shifing to the back foot to begin, softening
the leg joints, and slightly coiling into the back leg. It’s pretty clear that to push off the back foot
you first have to weight it, but it’s quite common that fencers do not do this. This should be
done with a slight bending of the legs, and without a large movement in the pelvis (the torso
23
stays between the legs). As the weight shift occurs, the front leg releases and it is easy and
natural to swing the leg forward. After that, each type of advance is a little different. Here’s a
description of each and when to use it.
Marching Advance: After shifting the weight to the back foot and swinging the front leg
forward until the heel hits the ground, concentrate on putting the front toe down and fully
weighting the front foot, while the back foot remains on the ground. Only move the back foot
when you fully feel the support on the front foot. This type of step is best learned at a very slow
speed. Think tai chi—make it really slow and really smooth. You can easily string together
multiple steps by releasing the front foot again as soon as the back foot lands. This type of step
is what the saber coaches were talking about. And to no surprise, it turns out to be a great step
for marching down the strip. Because one foot is weighted at all times it is extremely easy to
stop—even if you are moving fast.
Accelerated advance: Another option is more similar to the way I was taught. After swinging
the front leg forward and touching down with the heel, push aggressively off the back foot with
the front toe and back foot landing at the same time. This step starts slowly and finishes quickly
(accelerates). This step is useful for sneaking into distance or accelerating into a lunge if you
notice a distance change at the beginning of the step. It’s more appropriate when fencers are
making single steps and changing directions a lot—like in epee.
Quick advance: The third choice is one we probably all use—a quick or fast advance. With this
step, as soon as you begin to reach forward with the front foot, you’re pushing off the back foot.
If a fencer attacks with a full advance lunge, or takes over the attack with an advance lunge,
this is typically the type of advance to use. There is an almost uniform technical problem with
the quick step. When fencers go fast they forget to weight the back foot at the beginning of the
step. They push their weight forward. This makes it harder to stop or parry, and also telegraphs
the speed change to the opponent. Personally, when I start going faster I concentrate more on
starting by going into the back foot and staying back as I begin to swing the leg forward.
I find it easy to teach the three steps if you start with the steps to the side. First, teach one of
the side to side steps, and then have students try it from the on guard position. Then move on
to the next. Once students know the steps, you can mix the steps up and have them practice all
three. Then start creating appropriate patterns for different weapons using different steps.
If you’re like me, the step that will be the hardest to get comfortable with is the marching step.
It seems choppy at first and you really have to fight all those years of doing it a different way.
But for foil, and especially for saber fencers, understanding and using this step is a must. It
allows you to push forward while in total balance and control. This is true even with larger and
quicker steps.
What ever you do, hopefully you’ll get in the fencing room and try all of this out. Let me know
what you find out.
Editor’s note: Coach Dave Littell will be one of the presenters at the USFCA AGM
this July. See registration material at the end of the newsletter!
24
(Prevot Charles “Chuck” Alexander, coach of No Fear
Fencing Club, recently held an epee workshop. This
article covers a portion of what he discussed. Part 3 will
be covered in the next issue.)
The Competitive Pyramid
– Part 2
by Mary Annavedder
STRATEGY
The Plan
TACTICS
The Action
BLADEWORK
Blade & Point Control
FOOTWORK
Distance
PHYSICAL FITNESS –
Strength, Speed, Endurance
Footwork. It is the number two goal. Blade work relies on proper footwork. You can’t
redouble unless your footwork is right. It helps you make subtle actions, such as going
onto the blade, letting your opponent take a parry and then finish anyway. Second
intention can be a series of actions chained together. Your opponent may make a
mistake on the third action, because he is in the wrong distance to stay correct.
Examples are: falling over, too big a step, bouncing on guards, over lunging, too wide
an on guard, lack of acceleration during the lunge.
Training footwork
• Repetitive practice of great footwork is required (when by yourself or when you
fence).
•
Repetitive practice of poor, mediocre, or merely good footwork is a waste of time.
(At worst, it trains you to have poor footwork.)
•
As a rule, practice small quick steps going forward, and small to large steps
retreating. Stay down, in position and ready to go (don’t lose a tempo).
•
KEEP YOUR BACK STRAIGHT AND MAINTAIN EVEN WEIGHT OVER BOTH FEET.
25
Maintaining your phrase for two or three actions is enabled by the footwork. Push your
opponent, then pull him back into your distance, by small double advances and double
retreats. One of the best times to attack someone is when his/her front foot is in the air.
Critical distance is the distance in which you can hit your opponent without being hit by
him. Correct fencing distance depends on the moment. It is the distance you need to get
to, to do what you need to do tactically. It keeps changing. One keeps going into the
middle distance to draw the opponent into an engagement to a point where one has
control.
If you can’t control distance down to an inch, then what you can hope to do is catch
your opponent at the perfect time and maybe fleche or do a long lunge, but what do you
do after that if you haven’t hit? It gets ugly; you get all your weight on your back foot.
You can’t get away. Example: if all my weight is on my back foot, which direction will I
go? Forward. On my front foot? Backward. Where do you want to catch me? When the
weight is on my back foot and my front foot is lifted.
Watch for tells. A shift of the body to the back foot means the opponent is going to
launch. You can bait him a little and step back, making him short, and hit him. It can be
that simple. Often you hide your lack of perfection with a lot of blade work because you
don’t know what to do. Also, an example of using the right distance can be when you
want to do a stop to the shoulder, if you are too far you can’t hit. You have to be at the
right distance. If you are too close, you may end up going too far and have to come
back for a parry. It is two tempos, as is going in, being too short, and continuing to a
touch. Reduce the tempo; make it shorter, more effective, with the footwork, the key to
blade work. Think of it as being synonymous with control. You have to practice foot
work.
Stance – I prefer a 60/40 – a little more weight on the front. You can use gravity to go
forward. You can adjust back if you want to go forward rapidly. How do you judge
distance from your opponent? I prefer the shoulder, using peripheral vision to see
movement. Watching the shoulder, you can see if the opponent is moving forward or
back, can see weight shifting. You can also focus on a point beyond the opponent,
looking through the opponent’s mask, see the big picture and react to it. In-fighting, the
middle distance inward, has nothing to do with vision. It will be full-on reaction from the
hand. Tells can come from anywhere. You are looking for distance control that will
enable a hit.
For me, there are three engagement distances: long (an advance lunge to opponent
with a hit on the chest), middle (a lunge to the opponent and hitting), and short (hit
with an advance). Within the distances you will use different techniques in response to
your opponent, and you need to be aware of those. If you are at long distance and
lunge to the toe, it gives the opponent the opportunity to react safely with a
counterattack to the hand. Long distance doesn’t involve blade work. Another example is
an advance lunge to the hand. The opponent can’t take the blade or control the action.
He can do a feint of second intent and move into middle distance.
26
Middle distance is where the blades actually cross, where the phrase occurs. The middle
provides interesting blade work. Often a mistake is made during the blade work during
the third action. What is required to control your opponent’s blade? Physics says if your
blade is in the forte portion, you are in control. If your blade is holding his in the weak
portion, he is in control. If you can learn to have good blade work, and get to that
distance and maintain it, you will end up winning in a more consistent manner.
Competitive Issues - Manage Fencing Distance
•
Manage the distance to enhance and enable your blade work
•
Identify correct distance with each new opponent
•
Proper distance is not static. Continually adapt distance as change occurs in the
bout
•
Always fence in the optimal distance, based on you, your opponent, and your
strategy
Lunging. Be aware of when you are out of your opponent’s lunging range. If someone is
tall and uses a French handle, he can get to you in a single action and you can’t get to
him. You are always threatened and the other person isn’t. Threat isn’t just about length
of legs and the lunge, it is also about arm length. What is faster, moving with the feet or
the arm? The arm. You get to the right place with your feet and the arm will give you
the final acceleration. If your opponent has a longer lunge, you have no choice but to go
after him with second intention. It will take a lot of good footwork. You can take his
blade, extend, your opponent will counter, and you can counter, because you can’t get
to him like he can get to you.
Attacks can be very fast. How fast is your recovery? If you have a very fast attack and a
slow recovery, what’s happening while you are recovering? You are expending your
potential energy at the end of the lunge and it must be recovered in the on guard, so
you can go again. The same thing can be done with the hand, extending and recovering.
While you are recovering, you are at risk. Normally, during a recovery, you are finding
yourself parrying. One can use the metaphor “conversation” for fencing. There are
pauses during conversation. “How are you doing?” “Feeling good.” POW – an attack!
If you attack with a lunge, and then a remise while bending forward, getting out of the
position will take you longer than if you had recovered forward with the remise. Once
the front foot lands, the action is done. You have to go onto the next action. That action
may be a remise, or it may be a counter parry, riposte.
In a competitive situation, if you know you have to lunge or fleche to hit your opponent,
and he has better distance and point control, and time is running out and you have to
go, which would work better, a lunge or a fleche, and why do you think that? In terms
of the bout, when you lunge and miss, you are still in the game. When you fleche and
you miss, you are out of town, you are done. You don’t have to deal with the risk of
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staying in front (perhaps doing multiple actions, if the other fencer is a better fencer).
You have to use the fleche at the right time.
What is the difference between pressing your opponent and attacking him? It is keeping
pressure on your opponent. Attacking is going in to hit. If you are pressing your
opponent, it is a good way to do a counter attack action. If your opponent is backing up,
you can press him. Proper distance creates proper blade work. If you are fencing in a
long distance, you will find yourself pressured to the end of the strip, and will end up
fencing in middle distance. You need a small middle-distance game and footwork is the
only thing that will keep you in the right distance.
A half-inch difference in distance management could be night and day in your results.
Distance can be greater than what you are used to. There are a range of distance
changes, and you don’t have a lot of time to identify them. These are the skills you need
to develop: identify the proper fencing distance, which will change over a 15-touch bout,
and make an immediate adjustment to a new distance.
Blade Work
Basic Blade Actions – Control with Opposition
•
Six, Circle Six
•
Eight, Circle Eight
•
Four, Circle Four
•
Seven, Circle Seven…
Basically, you don’t have to have that many actions to get a phrase going. A lot of it is
just experience. Touches to the foot, to the hand, to the head, but statistically, 80% of
touches in epee are on the body.
Blade work attack elements: Pick, Flick, Beat, Direct, Indirect, Absence of blade,
Tempo
Basic Blade Actions – Keep it simple
•
Pick three to four blade actions
Three actions will give you 9 combinations!
Four actions will give you 16 combinations!
•
Pick your actions to match your strengths
•
Combine with long, medium and short distance
•
Combine them in different ways to create EFFECTIVE combinations
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We make things complicated by not being in the right distance. How many of you have
found yourselves withdrawing your hand to avoid a touch, instead of the right response,
retreating. Distance has to come from the feet, not from your blade work. You
compromise your blade work every time you adjust your distance because you have
screwed up. If you are going to fence the best game you can, you are, pragmatically,
going to adjust your distance a little with your hand, but you want to minimize it by
putting as much into your legs as possible with small, fast, and controlled steps.
Hold yourself together so you are upright when on guard. If you are fencing Germanstyle epee, you want to be out in six so you can take your opponent’s blade with a
minimum of strength, and use all your physiology. Even with the French style, absence
of blade, it is good. If you extend with an inward motion of your shoulder, it is weak.
You can’t take a six with any strength while moving your shoulder in. You also tense and
start fighting yourself. Physiologically, if you take a six or eight, and you are right
handed, your thumb should be at one o’clock for strength.
If you are engaging the blade, you have to make sure you have the leverage. You can’t
muscle anyone out if he has leverage. It is pure physics. A twelve year old can take
someone out if they have the right technique. What is really important is that you
deliver the point to the target with acceleration. Acceleration is defined as increased
speed over time. The key to acceleration is that when your front foot lands, your point
should hit the target. In a fleche, you accelerate, decelerate and run. A fleche is not a
running attack. Deceleration puts you into defensive mode. Do you think it is really
important when taking a blade or moving in opposition that you use a lot of force? Yes.
Acceleration will give you force. If you have leverage and drop your blade to hit, you
lose your leverage and your opponent will have the opportunity to either oppose and hit
or parry effectively. You can push your opponent’s blade away as you go to hit, or
accelerate.
Opposition is used less today and more foil blade work is being used, as opposed to a
straight action which gives you the opportunity to use opposition. Opposition requires
that the fencer needs to fight his opponent. Why do you have to fight your opponent to
be in control? If I’m fighting you, and am locked in, and you have the better leverage,
then you are in control. If I just roll off your blade when you try to take it and retreat,
you can’t control me with opposition. Opposition won’t work unless you are giving a
counter force. Sometimes counter force can be directional – i.e., a press four, your
opponent disengages and you take the blade in six and hit. Counter force can also be
direct, and not side to side. You won’t push it away, but deflect it, deflecting the energy
and pushing it aside. As s/he comes forward, and you take the leverage and extend, the
fact that s/he continues on gives you control.
The best thing to look for in local competition is for someone holding his weapon too
tight. Everything gets tightened up and s/he can’t move very fast. This doesn’t happen
at the national level, because if you do it, you will be defeated. In a local competition, if
someone is posting, beat his blade. If s/he has good skills, the blade will come right
back. If someone is just using it for extra reach, and doesn’t have any skills with it, s/he
will start holding the handle tighter and tighter. The tighter s/he holds it, the more the
shoulder will be worn out, because of isometrics, and eventually you will be able to beat
29
and come around and they will be so tight, that you will be able to oppose and hit. This
only works locally, with people who haven’t been properly trained. You try that with a
higher-level fencer and s/he will come around and hit your hand. Using the metaphor of
a “conversation,” in order for the press to work, your opponent has to stay on the same
“topic” with which you began. People who roll off are on a different topic. It is like
someone is running at you, and you step aside. S/He has to want to hit you, believe
s/he can. That is why distance is so important. You can step back just enough as s/he
lunges. S/he continues on, thinking “just a little more,” and is hit.
You have to open your senses up. At a longer distance, you can see tells. The question is
whether or not you can do anything with it. If you see your opponent make a mistake
and you can’t take advantage of it, it isn’t a mistake. It is just a fact. If s/he does a
movement that allows you to take advantage of him, that is a mistake, don’t be
confused. S/He may not be able to do multiple actions, but can lunge faster than anyone
else. Use your peripheral vision; don’t get locked into counting the threads on your
opponent's jacket. Looking through your opponent and opening your senses up, you still
have to have intensity and it allows you to relax your mind.
Read body language. See if your opponent is fixated on your hand. Someone fixated on
the hand starts using it as his distance. If s/he is, you can shorten your arm and bring
your body forward without his realizing it and hit. Relative to your position, your hand
did not change. You have to keep your sense open and see everything. You have to be
in the space where everything is balanced mentally. You can’t do that without practice.
You can’t fence at the club everyday and just goof around, and then go to a meet and
think you can turn it on immediately just because you know it on a conscious level.
Competitive Guidance
•
KISS – Keep it simple
•
Observe your opponent before you bout
•
Develop a basic strategy, but be flexible
•
5 vs. 15 touch bouts require different strategies
•
Body and position awareness on the strip
•
Remember your mistakes, but don’t dwell on them. Write them down, fix at
practice
•
Use the field of play to your advantage
Keep it simple is imperative in competition. You can make it more complex during
practice if you are trying to achieve a particular goal. Everyone has a different comfort
zone on what is simple. Observe and correct what you are doing wrong, but it has to be
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simple to you. If you are being hit on the top of the arm, maybe your hand is too low in
the final action. If you are being hit on the bottom of the hand, maybe your hand is too
high and exposed and your distance is wrong. If you find patterns in yourself, you need
to correct them. On the strip, it is not “I’m going to go in, extend and do a double
disengage and fleche.” Using the conversation metaphor, you don’t know what your
opponent is going to say. Each tempo is your sentence. “Hi, how’re doing?” “Just great.”
“Fine. I’m going to kick your ass.” “Okay.” If you don’t pay attention to the
conversation you will be hit.
What beginning fencers do is different from what mature fencers do. Beginners tend to
watch someone and think “Okay, I see what he is doing, and I’m going to do this, this,
and this.” That is great if you are drilling, but you don’t have any guarantees that your
opponent is going to give you the same actions as your coach gave you in a lesson.
Every action is independent of the next action. You have to do what is appropriate.
Remember your mistakes, but don’t dwell on them during competition. There are
emotions that are very negative and debilitating. Anger, in a controlled way is good.
Self-pity is absolutely irrelevant. It is about adversity, about turning yourself around.
Even if you are down, you aren’t dead. To the end, with a score of 14-0, you aren’t
finished yet. If you quit, you might as well have not stepped on the strip.
Five- and fifteen- touch bouts require different basic strategies. Five-touch bouts
have a set of goals, rather than a singular goal. Use the field of play to your advantage.
If you’re fencing a lefty who likes to fleche, he likes to fence on your left side, and the
table is a great place to fence. It really slows down his fencing, in terms of fleching. It is
a cheap trick, because in local competitions the table is too close. When your opponent
is at the end of the strip, almost stepping off, what is going through your mind? The goal
should not be pushing him off the strip. The goal is to hit. If he subsequently steps off
the strip, that is okay. If you focus on forcing him off the strip, you will be hit, nine
times out of ten. If you focus on hitting him and not being hit, then you are setting
yourself up for an unexpected attack, because you are pushing and pushing, until there
is a short distance, and he will launch at you.
Competitive Guidance
•
Use the clock
•
Use the referee (respectfully, “Why did you call halt?”)
•
Check the score after each bout
•
Don’t sign the score sheet without checking it
•
As a goal, strive for a result that is better than your original seed
•
If you can make the final eight, you can still win (just happy to be here…)
31
In a competition you need to use the clock. I don’t like having clocks or scoring in the
club because it undermines your training. You use more time looking at the clock or
score. It is irrelevant in practice. Practice is about improving your skills. It is about
taking the hit, finding out what your limitations are, and knowing when you’ve crossed
them. You will be hit, especially when your coach teaches you a new move. You’ll be hit
over and over, but if you keep working on it, and not worry about the score, you will get
better and better, if that move is good for you.
Here is a formula: during practice, spend 60% of your time on attacks, 30% on
defense and 10% on “I’m going to kick his butt!” You still need the competitive practice
in the club, but it is minimized. Everything else is supporting the 10%. The reason I say
60% on attacks is because when you are in a hole, you need the attack to dig yourself
out without being hit, without digging a bigger hole. 30% is defense and can be strong,
especially when you have a better opponent. You don’t want to go after him. Here is the
set up: you have a 15-touch bout, your opponent is a ranked fencer, and you have one
touch you know will hit. Only one. You only need one touch to win. You let time run out
and score the touch at the very end and beat him. That could be one plan. It doesn’t
mean you don’t fence. You fence hard, and if an opening comes up, you take it. It does
mean that you don’t take inappropriate risks.
If you are seeded 12th, one of your basic goals should be to better that seed. Sometimes
that is really hard, especially with the new NACs, with 280 men’s epeeists and 150 of
them being A’s. This is important: you don’t get the opportunity to win a competition
very often. As it gets harder, you need to get tougher. If you make the final eight, you
are not just happy to be there. It’s not good enough. Why did you work so hard? You
are there to win. Don’t get tense. Fence like you have all day and keep your focus. If
you’re physically fit it will be easier to keep your focus. You may have a coach there
pushing you, have your five-hour energy drink, but at the end of the day, you have to
want it, be in shape, and be able to execute your attack. What is more frustrating than
to be eighth when you could have been third? Gold is gold, and that is what you are
going for.
When a coach is giving you your lesson, he is giving you specific things, putting a game
together for you. Perfect mechanical skills become rote skills. If you want your skills to
become something that you can rely on happening, you need to practice them in the
club. You can’t become frustrated. Rote skills are achieved through repetitive actions.
That can be a big trap. These skills are subconscious, visceral; they come out of you at
the moment, and you go “wow.” Those moments don’t happen when you are thinking,
“I’m going to do this and this…”
How people learn is interesting. Using Skinner as my basic operating condition, if I want
someone to do something, I ask, and give him a reward for doing it. Then I ask again.
When they do it, I don’t give the reward. I repeat the request and give a reward. Then I
ask two more times, and don’t give them an award. They are doing what I want because
they want the reward. Their behavior has been modified. Think of the slot machine.
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There are people sitting there, putting in dimes, quarters and dollars. They get a payout
every once in a while and feel good about it.
Have you found yourself in a situation where you have a “Hail Mary” move and you do it
every single time? On the strip, you make a move and it works. You say I’m going to try
it again. It doesn’t work. Well, I’m going to try it again. It didn’t work. I’ll try it again,
faster, harder. It didn’t work. Everything is possible in epee. It may work, it is possible it
will work, but will it work consistently? That is why you practice. When you practice and
throw out touches like that, you get positive reinforcement for those bad actions, and
you continue on with them. When you are hit, you think I must have my action wrong.
You have to be very careful, because the more you practice, the more you have the
opportunity to program yourself to do bad things. You have to practice right. If you don’t
have the discipline during practice to work on your actions, get them right, so they are
built into you, you are providing your opponent with the opportunity to hit you very
consistently as he notices your pattern.
Coaches provide cues for actions. When you are on the strip you are like a coach. When
you are fencing and you find a pattern and can provide the cue for it, you can beat your
opponent. Having good body awareness – knowing how your body is working, the
position of your hand, distance, etc., and correcting that during your practice is relevant.
Beating your opponent because you are faster than him only works locally. Your skills
won’t go to a higher level.
You want consistent results, and epee is the hardest weapon with which to get
consistent results. Never abandon the basics: footwork and blade work. As you train and
gain more control, you still need the basics. A downside is that when you fence your
teammate all the time, he will figure out what you are doing, and how to stop it. You’ll
try harder to adjust to him, instead of doing your actions correctly, and now you are
establishing bad habits. Remember, it doesn’t matter if you are hit in practice, it matters
in competition. Practice perfect actions and strategy. With a beginner, work on point
control and distance, going slow and not hitting him hard or brutalizing him. If fencing
someone of your level, you may get beat up, but don’t have a problem with it.
Fence for fifteen minutes without keeping score, and when you begin to lose your
mental acuity, go for five touches. Fencing to win will sharpen your mind again. It is
reasonable to tell your opponent what you are doing.
Editor’s note:
Be sure to read part three of the Chuck Alexander article in the next issue of Point in
Line!
33
Lessons From History
by Andy Shaw
Giorgio Santelli was a legend in New York City for many years and was interviewed by
scores of writers. We can all learn much from Robert Lewis Taylor's wonderful 2-part
profile on Giorgio in The New Yorker Magazine from 1953.
January 1953 - NEW YORKER PROFILES
TO TOUCH AND NOT BE TOUCHED by Robert Lewis Taylor
Part 2
George, or Giorgio Santelli, the coach of the American Olympic fencing team and the best-known fencing
master in the world, frequently tells his pupils that “in fencing the purpose is to touch and not be touched. This
is the fencer’s creed.”
Santelli’s pupils are scattered over America and Europe, most of them convinced that man should live not only
by the creed but almost by fencing alone. Once they take up the sport, they pursue it without pause. One pupil,
Pieter Mijer, who won second place in the recent national Epee Masters’ Tournament, is believed to be nearing
his prime as a competitor at the age of seventy-two. Great things are expected of him in the succeeding
decades. First place in this important meet was taken by Ralph Goldstein, representing the Salle Santelli, an
old-fashioned fencing salon that Santelli operates in the Henry Hudson Hotel. In times past, he has been
fencing coach at the New York Athletic Club, at both Columbia and Hofstra College, and, officially or
unofficially, at a good many other institutions in the East. His advice on points of technique is regarded as
biblical in sporting circles and is solicited by other groups as well. Movie and stage people who envision
crossed blades in a dramatic presentation usually call in Santelli to coach and to establish a pattern. He refers to
the ebb and flow of these painless jousts as “choreography,” and has positive ideas about them.
In Maurice Evans’ production of “Hamlet,” for example, Santelli sought to preserve the competitive aspect of
the swordplay in the last, obliterating act.
“It actually is a competition, you know, arranged by the King,” he says. “I saw it as my job to look both like a
tournament and dangerous. Very difficult.”
Santelli has directed the fencing in all the more recent New York productions of “Hamlet” except that of Sir
Laurence Olivier, which caused him to suffer. “It was a minuet,” he says. “The English are inclined to be
purists in these matters, and some of them prefer to reproduce fencing exactly as it was done in 1200, or
whenever. Since those days, civilization has developed a people more advanced. They want a fight with a
strong promise of blood.”
Santelli is particularly happy in his dramatic work when he can direct Cornel Wilde or Paul Lukas, who are
authentic fencers and need little prompting from the sidelines. Both actors spent some of their early years in
Hungary, where Santelli himself, though of Italian parentage, was born and reared, and both of them learned to
fence in a famous salle d’armes that Giorgio’s father, Italo, conducted in Budapest. Wilde shifted to Giorgio’s
Salle Santelli when he came to this country, and while a student at City College was intercollegiate sabre
34
champion. Nearly all of Santelli’s thespians continue to take lessons from him after the official tutelage for
their play is ended. He is a man of courtly good humor, with an air of negligent abstraction, and he makes a
strong impression on them. The impression he made on Eva Le Gallienne, during the Civic Repertory Theatre’s
production of “Romeo and Juliet,” was of special interest. When the costumes arrived at the theatre, Miss Le
Gallienne asked the male players to slip on their tights and parade across the stage. The sight was discouraging
in the extreme. The legs of the first wreck to make the passage were frail and knobby, and the situation
deteriorated as the parade went on. Miss Le Gallienne’s face was a study in unadmiration. Turning to Santelli,
who was standing beside her, she said, “You’re probably the only fellow in the house with a decent pair of
legs.” She added impulsively, “Would you mind climbing up onto the stage and hoisting your trousers?”
Several of the cast acknowledged later that the presentation itself never quite came up to the spectacle now
offered by Santelli, who stood, beet red, in the center of the stage and pulled up his trousers. “Now, there is a
man!” rose Miss Le Gallienne’s wild cry from the pit, and then she ordered her actors to take fencing lessons
three times a week until their legs were in fit condition to unveil.
Santelli is fond of actors, but he has to watch them carefully. Essentially, the trouble is that all they like to do is
act. Santelli would prefer that they subordinate their love for acting to a love of fencing. At the beginning of
each new costume piece, as he lines the actors up to start the drudgery of elementary fencing, he catches them
sneaking out of formation into the wings or crawling into heavy crevices among the props. He is polite but firm
with renegades. For Katherine Cornell’s “Romeo and Juliet,” some years ago, the fencing got under way
somewhat tardily, only a few days before the opening. Pressed for time, Santelli barked out his commands
with, for him, almost military briskness. He was not surprised to see a furtive-looking chap onstage wheel,
duck, vanish, and then reappear amidst the shadows of the set’s balcony. Santelli halted the proceedings and
yelled, “All right, you, Romeo, come down off your balcony and get to work!” The man descended
apologetically and introduced himself as Guthrie McClintic. Santelli turned him loose, but his gaze indicated
that he thought the man could do with a little fencing, no matter who he was.
Santelli is convinced that fencing is the cure for nearly all evils. He points out that as athletics go, it has a
uniquely ancient past and has had to be worth while to endure. In a scholarly work, “Schools and Masters of
Fence,” written by Egerton Castle and published in London in 1885, it is airily remarked that “a history of the
sword would be a history of humanity.” More recent authors have added the priceless ingredient of gunpowder
to round out the cycle of man’s accomplishments. Curiously enough, it was the impact of the latter upon the
former that turned fencing into an exercise for the two purposes of serious duelling and pure sport. In the
Middle Ages, the sword was used along with such weapons as the mace, the halberd, the pole-axe, the vouge,
and the flail to crack open body armor. The stronger and heavier the blade and the lustier the blow, the more
skillful the duellist. As late a notable as Henry VIII was an ardent wielder of the two-handed sword, until he
became too fat to stand without assistance, and he proposed its use in the much-sung English-French
tournaments on the Field of the Cloth of Gold, but Francis I objected, on the ground that there were “no
gauntlets stout enough to protect one’s hands against its powerful strokes.”
In late years, Santelli, who has a reputation among his friends not only as an athlete but as a bibliophile, has
collected a modest library of rare old volumes dealing with his specialty. He is both uplifted and chagrined by
the knowledge that fencing schools go back nearly as far as swords themselves. His chagrin rises from the fact
that in medieval times the masters were among the most dangerous ruffians unhanged and were the periodic
targets of edicts, bulls, and pronouncements issued by the authorities. Edward I was once moved to proclaim
that “whereas it is customary for profligates to learn the art of fencing, who are thereby emboldened to commit
the most unheard-of villanies, no such school shall be kept in the city for the future, upon penalty of forty marks
for each offense.” This is an undignified contrast to present-day fencing schools, which, in Europe particularly,
are often supported in part by the government, as was that of the Santelli family in Hungary, where fencing
35
masters were sought after in high social circles. There are, in brief, no modern instances of cases such as the
following one, which was entered in the London records of March 13, 1311: “Before Sir Richer de Resham,
Mayor of London, appeared, among other delinquents: Master Roger le Skirmisour, attached for that he was
indicted for keeping a fencing school for divers men, and for enticing thither the sons of respectable persons so
as to waste and spend the property of their fathers and mothers upon bad practices.”
Fencing schools were licensed and permitted to flourish when it became evident that a knowledge of arms was
necessary to protect governments. In 1615, several schools in London offered instruction under “masters,”
whose degrees were proposed by the crown and (according to a writer of the time) “must be wonne by pubic
triall of their proficiencie and their skill at certain weapons, which they call prizes, and in the presence and view
of manie hundreds of people.” Santelli is grieved that in this period the word “swashbuckler” was coined to
describe the arrogant habits of fencing masters, who usually carried, besides a heavy sword, a small shield, or
buckler, and made an unholy racket as they walked about, half hoping to irritate somebody into a fuss. After
the introduction of gunpowder in Europe in the fourteenth century, total armor had gradually fallen into disuse,
and it was finally discovered that a pointed sword could be very effective in furthering human misery. The
resulting weapon was the rapier, first seen in Spain. It was of such unwieldy length - up to seventy-two inches that it was customarily augmented by a defensive device held in the left hand: a dagger, a cloak, even another
rapier. The long, pointed blade proved its worth on many spirited occasions. With it, the French assassin
Francois Ravaillac (known to his compatriots as the Monster from Hell) was able, in 1610, to mount a wheel of
the stalled royal carriage, peer in a window, lean across several torpid courtiers, and deliver three deadly thrusts
into the bosom of Henri IV. Numerous experts remarked afterward that an ordinary sword could never have
performed the trick. Notwithstanding, the rapier was viewed with contempt, both on the Continent and in
England, where Queen Elizabeth took the notion that it was the arm of a bully and issued a few proclamations.
The chief of these had the effect of stationing guards at the gates of London to measure the rapiers of incoming
coach passengers and to lop off the points of all swords over three feet long. The Queen’s good judgement was
borne out not long afterward when the rapier was shortened by common consent to roughly the size of the
present-day fencing weapons, or about thirty-five inches.
The great days of duelling now began, in the middle of the seventeenth century, and were to extend until the
early eighteen-hundreds. The new, shorter sword was an uncumbersome part of one’s costume, and the motion
of the right hand toward the sword belt became as natural as tipping the hat. A military historian of the period
has estimated that in a hundred and eighty years France, the most dedicated of the duelling nations, lost more
than forty thousand “valiant gentlemen, killed in single combats which arose generally on the most futile
grounds.” The evidence is fairly plain that a good number of the forty thousand deaths, especially in the
beginning, came about at the hands of Italians, who originated the fundamentals of the modern school of fence.
Both England and France imported Italian masters, such as Capo Ferro and the Cavalcabo brothers, Giganti and
Paternostrier (whose names appear most frequently in European fencing chronicles of the time), and then
France branched off with a school of her own. Though differing in certain stylish details, the Italian and French
systems were, and still are, built around the two basic motives of thrust, to carry the offensive, and parry, to
establish the defensive. Over the years, a bewildering variety of capers has been evolved from these simple
moves.
Giorgio’s father, Italo, is generally credited with guiding Italian fencing to its triumphant peak. His work with
the sabre – a two-edged weapon useful for both hacking and thrusting – was especially notable. Before Italo,
the Italian approach to the art differed slightly in each municipality; then, at the Scuola Magistrale d’Armi, in
Rome, where Italo was a student for years, his influence became so strong that he fused the differing systems
into one unified and quickly identifiable style. The Scuola Magistrale d’Armi, now defunct, may properly be
said to have been the fountainhead of modern fencing practice. Italo Santelli dominated everybody in it,
36
including his hypothetical teachers. “I have a father complex,” says Giorgio. “My father overshadowed
everything near him, including me. He was admired and loved throughout Europe.”
The elder Santelli passed on to Giorgio his peculiarly dashing and yet precise style of swordsmanship. In
fencing competitions, it is possible for two opponents to proceed with technical brilliance, scoring points with
faultless accuracy, and yet seem to spectators to be mechanical and lacklustre. Giorgio Santelli is preeminently
a sword fighter out of the pages of Alexandre Dumas. Watching him, people tend to forget the grim
concussions of a fissionable era and hark back to the days of plumed hats and clashing steel.
Not long ago, after dining on his favorite training snack of three cream puffs and a pint of coffee, Santelli
appeared at the New York Athletic Club to exhibit with some other leading metropolitan fencers, both
professional and amateur. He drove there in his elderly station wagon from an office at 165 Spring Street,
where he conducts the United States Fencing Equipment Company, a three-man outfit that makes fine swords
and other fencing gear for colleges, clubs, and sporting-goods stores like Abercrombie & Fitch. Although he
grew up in Europe, Santelli feels keenly the importance of American advertising methods, and he has installed a
heraldic placard in the station wagon. Written in pencil on an old piece of cardboard that dangles from a string
in a back window, it is supposed to announce the existence and location of his company, but the inscription is
badly faded and nothing remains legible except the letters “U.S.” and the “q” and “p” in “Equipment.” Santelli
is one of the breeziest men alive; such trifles leave him undisturbed. On this occasion, he parked his car in a
convenient proscribed zone near the club, took the carrier for his swords, which bears an almost perfect
resemblance to a bull-fiddle bag, and, puffing on a cigarette in a gold holder, walked clanking up to the front
entrance. Perhaps because of the upper-class circumstances of his Budapest childhood, Santelli’s manner is
genially imperious, and functionaries leap to serve him. The club doorman cried, “Good evening, Maestro!,”
swept open the door, and waved him in with a slight bow.
Santelli proceeded upstairs to a dressing room and put on a white canvas jacket and a pair of white canvas
trousers – protective garments heavy enough to stop both thrusts of foil of epee and sabre whacks – and picked
up his wire-mesh mask. Then, carrying this and several swords from his bag, he went into the nearby fencing
room, a large, square chamber with photographs of famous fencers, including Santelli, on the walls and, lying
on the floor, three rectangular mats or fencing strips. Besides the photographs, the decor includes a pair of
nineteenth century French engravings showing duels between women, their breasts uncovered, as was then the
custom for men and women in France. The club’s present fencing master, Odon Niederkirchner, a Hungarian
whom Santelli brought to this country, greeted him with raucous shouts: “Ha, Giorgio – you see your picture?
I take it down tomorrow. You too old to fence. I think I can give you a good licking now.” Santelli, somewhat
embarrassed, murmured an amiable trifle, and selected from among his swords a foil so out of plumb that it
look a little like an old buggy whip – the result of vigorous use. “Giorgio, why all your swords bent?” bellowed
Niederkirchner, a conspicuously extroverted man. “You make swords like that? No wonder you can’t fence.”
A moment later, he confided to a visitor, a fencing ignoramus, that Santelli could equip himself with a yardstick
and defeat nearly anybody fencing today.
The room was filling up, with fencers, dressed in white canvas, and with spectators, who arranged themselves
on benches around the walls. At length, Niederkirchner, holding his mask under one arm, walked to the center
of the room and announced that two members of the Olympic team would exhibit with foils. The spectators
applauded, and Niederkirchner, after executing a sort of military bow, retired to a corner. During the ensuing
match, which was lightning fast, grimly determined, and evenly fought, Santelli sat in a chair tilted against a
wall and slept soundly. He says that coffee and cream puffs tend to have a soporific effect on him, especially in
the tense time before a match. He awoke when the Olympic fencers had finished and Niederkirchner, again in
37
the middle of the room, was saying, “And now a treat for this evening, to be seen with both foil and sabre,
Maestro Giorgio Santelli, former Hungarian sabre champion and Austrian sabre and foil champion, and Captain
Kurt Ettinger, former member of the Austrian Olympic team and holder of many European championships.”
The spectators, most of them fencing aficionados of the metropolitan area, clapped loudly, and there was a stir
of interest all along the benches, much as there used to be in the Senate galleries when the dynamic Huey Long
arose to speak.
There was apparent in both Santelli’s and Ettinger’s manner, when they approached each other on the center
strip, a dimension that had been lacking in the previous match. For one thing, their facial expressions indicated
that they considered what they were doing a solemn and hallowed rite, the most important on earth, the motive
force of their existence. Santelli, who, at fifty-five, is an extraordinary physical specimen – over six feet tall,
broad-shouldered, slim-waisted, and with powerful legs – saluted Ettinger by raising his foil to a perpendicular
position, lowering it to the horizontal, and then raising it again. Ettinger returned the salute. Then (as did his
opponent) Santelli saluted the audience and the judges, of whom there were three. Touches in modern fencing
are extremely hard to detect; during a formal match the judges (normally, there are five, including the head
judge, usually called the “director”) slowly circle the fencers, trying to watch every inch of both target areas. In
some localities, a colored powder is applied to the points of the weapons, and there is currently coming into use
an electrical system of recording touches by means of buzzing noises and lights when the points find their mark.
At the cry of “En garde!,” Santelli and Ettinger assumed the basic stance of fencing - the right arm and the blade
thrust forward, the left arm raised in an arc behind the head to provide a counter-balance, the right foot pointing
toward the opponent, the left foot turned out at an angle of ninety degrees, and the knees slightly bent. The
director called sharply “Allez!,” and the match was on. Most neophytes watching championship fencing for the
first time are struck by the shrill violence of the action. Despite the foppish attitudes often seen in paintings,
fencing is no sport for the timid or the weak. Santelli scored his first touch with a “forward jump and lunge”
that carried him several feet off the floor and would have done credit to a kangaroo. He and Ettinger
accompanied both their thrusts and their parries with loud, almost hysterical shouts, verbally spurring
themselves on to greater heights. Ettinger’s exclamations were largely of Teutonic origin, while Santelli
covered a neat range of French, Hungarian, Italian, and American trivialities, such as “Helas!,” “Hayra!,”
“Toccato!,” and “So!”
With his unique combination of athletic genius and verve, Santelli flashed in and out of Ettinger’s guard and,
while being touched twice, scored five touches, the requisite number to win a match. There were several fouls,
which invoked no penalty but temporarily halted the bout. Ettinger scored his second touch after parrying a
compound attack, or series of feints, by Santelli, and then making a quick lunge, the most effective form of
advance, with the sword arm extended full length, the right knee bent at an angle of ninety degrees, and the left
leg in a straight line behind. In modern fencing, a competitor under attack is not allowed to attack himself until
he has parried and thus earned the “right of way.” The most important part of the director’s job is to deliver the
final verdict on touches. In the old days, an epee touch on, say, a kneecap or an ear was apt to cause as much
dismay as one more centrally located, but the current code offers a strict target zone. For men, the legitimate
geography includes the trunk from the top of the collar to the groin line in front, and in the rear a somewhat
shortened area that exempts the seat. In the case of women, the lower limit, fore and aft, is the hipbone line.
The rules for epee fencing have taken a couple of odd departures from those governing foils: First, there is no
matter of “right of way,” which often gives rise to the chin-to-chin deadlocks so cherished in movie houses;
second (and as an outgrowth of the foregoing), simultaneous touches were, until a recent change in the rules,
scored against each opponent, so that a series of such touches could end with defeat for both parties. A wellknown Frenchman once lost an Olympic match in this way. For reasons best known to himself, he chose
thereafter to describe his experience by saying simply, “I was defeated.” Then, if asked (as he always was) “By
whom?,” he replied, “Nobody,” and walked off with an inscrutable look.
38
After a short breather, since they had been skipping about with galvanic nimbleness for upward of fifteen
minutes, Santelli and Ettinger exhibited with sabres, their best weapons. The audience was noisily edified by
the different technique involved. Fencing with the foil and epee is built around the several ways to parry and
thrust; fencing with a sabre, a blade that has two cutting edges besides a point, adds a whole catalogue of
transverse whacks to the action. Santelli, it appeared instantly, had come into his own. His eyes took on a
forbidding incandescence, his impeccable mustache quivered with violence, and his limbs were transformed
into a sort of windmill of destruction. In 1924, before coming to this country, Santelli fought a celebrated sabre
duel with one Adolfo Cotronei, on whom he performed a job of surgery that is still admired in sporting Europe.
Watching him fence with the sabre, one can understand his victory. It is no discredit to Ettinger, a masterly
fencer, to say that Santelli dominated the scene. His cries alone would have unhorsed an ordinary fencer. The
permissable target in sabre fencing is the entire upper body, including the arms and the head. Santelli’s first
touch was accomplished by means of a left-cheek whack, similar to the one that provided Cotronei with a scar
that he prizes to this day. There seemed to be no way for Ettinger to parry the blow; at the moment of delivery,
Santelli was somewhat above his opponent, having left the floor in a forward leap, and was moving through the
air like a rocket. Experts find it difficult to analyze Santelli’s genius with the sabre. There are younger men,
and a few older ones, who can beat him occasionally, but none can ever count on performing the trick twice in a
row. And even in defeat Santelli seems to spectators to have won easily; his magnificent presence casts an
evocative spell, recalling all the romantic duellists of fiction and history.
Perhaps the principal attribute that lifts Santelli above the merely talented is the imponderable quality of spirit.
In the annals of sports, a few athletes reach immortality by an exuberance, or an awareness of glamour, or a
suppressed excitement, that transcends their actual performance, and Santelli is one of these. A well-known
woman fencer, asked to define Santelli’s gift, said, “Giorgio just looks like a fencer. He throws you off. You
think that anything looking that perfect is apt to be false, like a library full of two-dimensional books. And then
when he guesses every move you plan, and executes each simple stroke so flawlessly, you finally realize the
truth - he’s come to look like a fencer because he is a fencer. The two things sort of go together.”
Santelli’s high spirits have always been a source of pleasure to his friends. When, some months ago, he left for
Helsinki with his Olympic fencers, it was a foregone conclusion that he would keep the group morale high, and
he did. None of his trips with the American Olympic teams have proved dull. In 1928, for example, soon after
he immigrated here, he established himself as the most frolicsome member of the ship’s companyand became
the object of a number of trifling jokes. A Miss Roach had been assigned to the teams as nurse, but she was
finding her job uphill work, since ailments are not conspicuous in a gathering of professional huskies. The
woman, middle-aged and conscientious, was growing a little neurotic when several athletes - two fencers, a pole
vaulter, and a performer on the side horse - informed her that Santelli had a terrible cold and high fever. “He’s
just a poor, ignorant Italian,” they said to Miss Roach. “He doesn’t believe in pills - only the native herbs and
incantations.” The voyage was improved for everybody when Miss Roach took to shadowing Santelli - falling
in step with him on deck, slipping into an adjacent deck chair, ogling him in the dining room. Santelli’s
gallantry has always been exceptional, and he responded politely, feeling that the nurse had fallen victim to a
romantic seizure. Miss Roach finally cornered Santelli in her stateroom and managed to take his temperature,
which was normal. Then he noticed his teammates peering through the windows and, divining the situation,
sympathetically told the nurse that he had a sore throat and that his right ankle was twisted. She applied
unguents happily. During the rest of the trip, Santelli called at her quarters several times a day, ridden with
indeterminate complaints. When he last saw her, Miss Roach, flushed with triumph, was writing an exhaustive
report on (as she said) “the most complex single case in my entire professional career.”
Among the Olympic contestants and officials, Santelli is one of the best-known figures of the past few decades.
39
The newspaper artist Feg Murray, aboard the American Olympic ship in 1928, dashed off for his syndicate a
cartoon that showed Santelli wearing a raffish beret, with the caption: “George Santelli, fencing coach and the
most colorful and peppiest man on the ship.” Santelli’s peppy ways make him an eager participant in all forms
of tourist horseplay; he enjoys exploiting for his teammates the recreational potential of the Europe that he
knows so well. Oddly, it was a lack of recreational potential that ended his marriage to the Baroness Gizella
Buskas, who, as a young wife, followed Santelli to this country not long after he arrived, in 1924. Accustomed
to European court life, the Baroness found the social activities of their limited acquaintance in New York dull;
she returned to Hungary in 1932 and got a divorce. Santelli has a daughter, Donatella, by that marriage, who is
married to a Hungarian businessman and lives in Brazil. In 1933, he was married again, to Miss Louise St.
Joseph, from whom he is now separated. They have a son, John Christopher, called Nino, who goes to school
in New York. Santelli is ambitious that Nino shall be a fencer in the tradition of his sword-bearing forebears;
father and son practice together several hours each week. At eleven, Nino is not yet Olympic calibre, but
Santelli thinks that he will be in two or three years.
Santelli keeps a bachelor apartment at 125 Christopher Street. The decor is a peculiar but attractive meeting of
the New World and the Old, being built around some modern furniture that Santelli made in his spare time, and
on which repose many photographs of the gay years in Hungary. The most prominent decorative feature of his
abode is a rather splendid life-size portrait of him, done by a Hungarian-American artist and recently presented
to him by members of his class at the Salle Santelli. The picture shows the Maestro in full fight rig, minus the
mask, and has the family crest in the upper left corner. Santelli regards the hundred or so clients of his salle
d’armes as his children, and though he now has an assistant, Eddie Lucia, he takes personal charge of all
classes. These are the good moments, when he can throw off the vexations of the commercial world and merely
concentrate on fencing for its own sake. Set against them are the times in his Spring Street office when he tries
to make the business go.
As a merchant, says his secretary, Betty Desousis, Santelli is among the most exasperating men on earth.
Nearly anybody can come in with a hard-luck story and walk out with an armload of free foils. “I find it
difficult to haggle with people who have the esprit for fencing,” he says in explanation. Miss Desousis watches
him like a hawk. The other day, a man arrived from an out-of-town fencing club and had opened his mouth to
address her when Santelli, covered with grime, sweat, and the annoyances of trade, burst out of a back room
with a shout of greeting. The two men embraced, and the visitor said, “I understand the sabre blades are a
dollar apiece?”
“To be sure!” cried Santelli. “Now we go down and have some coffee.”
The inexorable tones of Miss Desousis rose above the hubbub. “In Italy,” she said. “We buy sabre blades for a
dollar apiece in Italy. We sell them here at a profit.”
As Santelli writhed in embarrassment and expostulated “No, No!,” the buyer shrugged and then said, “I pay
your price. Naturally.” Miss Desousis simply nodded, with the look of having gone over the road many times
before.
The company does a gross annual business of about fifty thousand dollars. It is Santelli’s task to take the blades
- foils, epees, sabres, which he buys in Italy and France - and fit them with aluminum or steel guards, wooden
handles, and the threaded pommels, or metal knobs, that constitute the tops of the hilts and hold the swords
together. The final, subtle balancing of the weapons so as to make them swords of professional worth is an art
at which he perhaps has no peer. But his actual interest in disassembled swords is remarkably slight;
40
“I am a performer, not a mechanic.”
He feels the surge of excitement only when facing an opponent on a strip. This trait has prevented Santelli from
rising very high financially. Even in the matter of tutoring fees, he is steadily suspect in Miss Dedousis’ eyes.
The Salle’s normal charge for a thirty-five minute fencing lesson is three dollars, but the proprietor has been
known to lower the price to fifty cents, or waive it altogether, for especially rapturous indigents.
Despite his antipathy to commerce, Santelli probably has as good a time as anybody in New York. His
disposition is such that irritations have only a superficial bite, a momentary sting, and then the over-all
pleasantness of his lot reestablishes his mental balance. In the course of an average week, besides engaging in
tutelage and the wrestle at the manufactory, he keeps on the move, visiting and exhibiting at the fencing centers
of the metropolitan area - the New York Athletic Club, the Fencers Club, the French Y.M.C.A., the 7th
Regiment Armory, Columbia University, Trinity School, and others. With his blazing American loyalty, he
continually tries to beguile away Europe’s best fencers for teaching spots here. He was much gratified lately
when he installed Hungary’s Lajos Csiszar as head fencing coach at the University of Pennsylvania. Santelli is
a well-known and popular figure around American universities; he has had a profound influence on the
promotion of the sport in colleges. Each year, he makes the presentation of awards at the Intercollegiate
Women’s Fencing Association Tournament. It is an occasion enjoyed by everybody, his speech being
punctuated by entertaining lapses of his geniunely atrocious memory. As a rule, he forgets two to six names people he knows intimately - but the ladies cheerfully volunteer their identity and think none the worse of him.
Sometime during his speech, he mentions his favorite statistics - that America now has upward of eleven
thousand competitive fencers and that the history of the sport here has recorded no casualties from overexertion.
“Because fencing is done in short spurts, with rests in between, it may be continued safely into old age,” he
says.
“I personally can recommend it to keep the body trim and supple.”
Applause is usually forthcoming here; no woman in her right mind could dispute the romantic aspect of Santelli,
the physical man.
Fencing is also a social sport, with numerous post-mortem soirees. Santelli’s evenings are as full as his days.
In addition to the friends of his professional life, he sees a few emigres from his old Hungarian circle - Count
Antal Szapary, the sons of the industrialist Manfred Weiss, and several more, who maintain a certain racial
identity in their adopted country.
Position:
41
ASSISTANT MEN & WOMEN’S FENCING COACH
THE UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA, PHILADELPHIA, PA.
Position Summary:
The position will primarily focus on coaching Penn’s high level epee squads including: giving
individual lessons; conditioning; footwork; tactics and strategy. During competition this coach is
required to motivate team members, exhibit strong leadership, and be accomplished in intense
strip coaching. It would be a plus if the applicant can also train high level foilists. The applicant
is required to be able to maintain and repair all weapons. The applicant will be also responsible
for assisting the Head Fencing Coach with all aspects of the fencing program’s management. In
addition to coaching duties, some recruiting responsibilities, office administration and basic
computer skills are involved. The ability to advise team members is essential. All work is
performed under the Head Coach’s general supervision and the position reports directly to the
Head Coach.
Principal Position Responsibilities/Duties:
1. Primarily responsible for coaching the men and women’s epee squad; giving private lessons,
teaching technique drills and tactics training. Also responsible for assisting the Head Coach with
all group training including footwork, blade work, tactics and drills. Travel for both competition
and recruiting is required.(60% of time)
2. Maintain all fencing equipment and repair all weapons. (15% of time)
3. Counsel and advise student athletes. (5%)
4. Equipment/Office administration. (5%)
5. Recruiting, alumni and fund raising functions. (5%)
6. Compliance with and knowledge of NCAA/Ivy League rules and regulations (5%)
7.Responsible for all Penn summer camp including coaching and administrations and other duties
and responsibilities as assigned. (5%)
Duties:
The position will primarily focus on coaching Penn’s high level epee squads including: giving
individual lessons; conditioning; footwork; tactics and strategy. During competition this coach is
required to motivate team members, exhibit strong leadership, and be accomplished in intense
strip coaching. It would be a plus if the applicant can also train high level foilists. The applicant
is required to be able to maintain and repair all weapons. The applicant will be also responsible
for assisting the Head Fencing Coach with all aspects of the fencing program’s management. In
addition to coaching duties, some recruiting responsibilities, office administration and basic
computer skills are involved. The ability to advise team members is essential. All work is
performed under the Head Coach’s general supervision and reports directly to the Head Coach.
Qualifications:
A bachelors Degree is required. At least 5-6 years experience successfully coaching elite fencers
at the national level--international level preferred. At the minimum have coached and trained
2-3 truly elite national or international athletes. Strong leadership, communication and
organizational skills are required. Also the candidate must be able to motivate student-athletes
to achieve high levels of success in the Ivy League and USFA Division I competitions. Ability and
willingness to work evenings/weekends/holidays as required.
42
The Lasting Value of a Good Coach,
By Steve Horan
A good coach can influence an athlete for a lifetime
Coaching is one of the greatest vocations to which anyone can aspire. Regardless of
whether they are paid or a volunteer, full-time or part-time, coaches have the opportunity to
elevate young people in a lasting way. This opportunity is grounded in the educational value of
sports, and the distinctive role of the coach as teacher, leader, and role model. What coaches do
with this opportunity will determine their impact on their athletes and their value as a coach.
The Educational Value of Sports
Sports provide a distinctive classroom for educating young people. For one thing, sports require
a wide range of personal competencies. Successful athletes need not only athletic ability, but
also healthy lifestyles, positive character, self direction, teamwork, and leadership. For another
thing, sports provide immediate and public feedback on performance. It is hard to think of
anywhere else in society where young people get to apply such a diverse array of skills in such a
public setting. That's why organized sport is perhaps the most powerful vehicle we have for
teaching young people positive competitive values in a team environment. We do not always live
up to that potential, but the potential is still there.
The Power of a Coach
Coaches hold tremendous power over young people. Coaches are teachers, leaders, mentors,
and role models. Coaches decide who plays, where they play, and how much they
play. Coaches also decide who gets taught, what they get taught, and how they get taught. It is
hard to think of anyone in society, outside of parents and the media, who holds this much power
over young people. Some coaches use this power to lift kids up. Other coaches use this power
to tear kids down. Anyone who has been around youth sports has seen both kinds of coaches.
This is why athletes and parents value good coaches so much.
The Value of a Good Coach
Good coaches use their power to elevate their athletes. They coach everyone on the team, not
just a chosen few. They care about their athletes as people, not just performers. They relate to
their athletes with trust and respect. They want their athletes to do well, and they will do
anything they can to help their athletes reach the next level. They show idealism, enthusiasm,
determination, dedication, concern, compassion, and a love of the game. They, like their
athletes, make mistakes. But they always try to do their best for their athletes.
The value of good coaches is reflected in their athletes. Most former athletes can tell stories
about how a good coach changed their life. The stories are not about how a coach taught the
pick and roll, hit and run, breast stroke, open-field block, or scissor kick. They are about lessons
learned in character, self direction, teamwork, and leadership. Or about how a coach helped
them change their self-image from someone who 'couldn't' to someone who 'could.' The stories
usually involve a coach who was not perfect, but truly cared.
If you have had a good coach in your life, or in your child's life, today is a good day to say a
simple 'thanks.' That's all a good coach needs to keep teaching those positive life lessons that
change so many lives.
This article was from PositiveSports.net, the online home of the Positive Sports Project. The mission of the
Positive Sports Project is to help people promote positive youth development through sports.
All content is grounded in extensive research on what works in athletic performance, positive youth
development, team building, and leadership. Steve Horan, PhD, is the Project Director.
43
Stanford Fencing Legends Fund Created by Anonymous Alumnus!
The Stanford Fencing Association announced that an anonymous alumnus has stepped
forward to initiate a $100,000 donation towards a permanent endowment, The Stanford
Fencing Legends Fund. The anonymous alumnus donation was inspired by Jimi Jung’s
generous 1.25 million dollar pledge for the preservation of the 119 year old Stanford
Varsity Fencing program.
The Fencing Legends Fund will honor four Stanford Fencing Legends: George Domolky,
Jean Perhem Helliwell, Sherry Posthumus and Zoran Tulum.
George Domolky (’59) left the University of Budapest following political unrest in the
1950s and came to Stanford where he continued to fence saber,
helping the team achieve a winning season in 1958. He participated
in the 1958 US National Saber Team Championship and placed
fourth in the finals for the 1959 US Nationals Saber Individual
Championship. George graduated from Stanford University with
both a bachelor and masters in Economics and received his MBA
from the University of California at Berkeley. Currently a Senior Vice
President at Fidelity, George continues his interest in and support of
the Stanford Varsity Fencing Program.
Jean Perhem Helliwell (’47), a member of the
Stanford Fencing team between 1940 and 1942, joined Stanford Fencing as
the Senior Cardinal Varsity fencing coach in 1964. She was the first woman
to be a fencing coach at Stanford, and also the first to coach for both the
men's and women's teams. Long recognized as one of the leading fencing
authorities on the west coast, she was also an academic advisor for over
thirteen years. Her co-ed coaching paved the way for the merging of
Stanford's men's and women's athletic programs between 1974 and 1975.
In 1982, she retired after 18 years of service. She passed away on May
1st, 2001.
Sherry Posthumus served Stanford Fencing for 25 years
as coach and Assistant Athletic Director. A vital driving
force in the fencing world, Sherry represented the United
States as the team leader of three Olympic Teams (1988,
1992, and 1996) and managed senior and junior World
Championship and Pan-American Teams. She was the
first woman Olympic team leader in the history of the
sport and a member of the US Olympic Committee. She
was named NCAA Women’s Coach of the Year and
chaired the NCAA National Fencing Committee. She died
December, 2007, and was inducted into the United States
Fencing Association Hall of Fame in July, 2009.
44
Zoran Tulum has been a fencer for over 40 years and a coach for 27
years. A winner of the Yugoslavian National Championships, he
coached at Harvard University for 2 years then became head coach
at Stanford University for 12 years. Zoran has coached many
champions for both US National and Olympic teams and was coach
for the US Olympic team in 1996. Zoran founded and is head coach
at Zeta Fencing Studio (ZFS) in Massachusetts. In the last ten
years, ZFS fencers have won four national titles and accumulated
over thirty medals at national championship events. Congratulations
to the four honorees!
Stanford Fencing coaches and the Stanford Fencing Association are grateful
to the anonymous Stanford alumnus donor and hope his gift will inspire
others to add to the endowment so that the 119-year-old fencing program
can continue for generations to come.
The Stanford Varsity Fencing Program has been a sport at Stanford
University for the past 119 years. Stanford ranks with the top fencing
schools in the country and its highly competitive collegiate fencing program
has produced Olympians, members of world championship teams, national
champions, all-Americans and NCAA champions and medalists. Stanford
fencing has a rich and decorated history. For more information, go to:
http://www.gostanford.com/sports/c-fenc/stan-c-fenc-body.html.
About the Stanford Fencing Association.* An organization for fencers
associated with Stanford University and their supporters, past, present and
future, the Stanford Fencing Association was created as an extension of the
“Save Stanford Fencing Campaign” to promote and support fencing, a
tradition at Stanford University since 1891.
*For more information, go to:
http://www.stanfordfencingassociation.com
http://www.savestanfordfencing.com
45
United States Fencing Coaches Association
2010 National Coaches Conference &
Annual General Meeting
July 30 - August 1, 2010
Hosted by Louisville Fencing Center
Louisville, Kentucky
Presenting Coaches
Maestro Ed Korfanty
US National Women Saber Coach
Maestro Leslaw Stawicki
US National Wheelchair Fencing Coach
Olympian Mariel Zagunis
Two-time Olympic Gold Medalist and World Champion
Coach David Littell
1988 Olympian, Former Haverford College Head Coach
Maestro Abdel Salem
1984 Olympian, Air Force Academy Head Coach
Current USFCA President
Coach Tom Strzalkowski
1996 Olympian, Air Force Academy
Maestro Amgad Khazbak
Former Head Coach, Egyptian National Team
46
Conference Schedule:*
Coaches should be prepared with full coaching gear. The seminars will be active as the
presenters plan to engage coaches to practice techniques.
Thursday (7/29): Evening
6:00 – 8:00 PM: Mandatory Training Class for Board Examiners - CAB/Chair Rob Handelman
Friday (7/30): Seminars:
9:00 AM – 11:30 AM: Morning Seminar: Coach David Littell (Foil)
11:30 AM – 12:30 PM: Lunch
12:30 PM – 1:30 PM: Afternoon Seminar: Dr. James White (Fencing Exercise Physiology
Research)
1:30 PM – 5:00 PM: Afternoon Seminar: Coach Amgad Khazbak (Foil)
6:00 PM – 8:00 PM: Practical Examinations - CAB
Saturday (7/31): Seminars:
9:00 AM – 12:30 PM (with break) Morning Seminar: Coach Ed Korfanty & Mariel Zagunis
(Saber)
1:00 PM – 2:30 PM: Annual General Meeting & Luncheon - Hampton Inn Louisville Downtown –
Lewis Suite
3:00 PM – 5:30 PM: Afternoon Seminar: Coach Leslaw Stawicki (Wheelchair Fencing) 6:30 PM –
8:30 PM: Practical Examinations – CAB
Sunday (8/1): Seminars:
9:00 AM – 11:00 AM: Morning Seminar: Coach Abdel Salem (Epee)
11:00 AM – 12:30 PM: Morning Seminar: Coach Tom Strzalkowski (Saber) and Peter Bouchard
(Refereeing)
12:30 AM – 1:30 PM: Lunch
1:30 PM – 3:00 PM: Conclusion of Conference Activities: CAB Practical Examinations, Group
Picture
Certificates
*Schedule is subject to modification if deemed necessary. Please check back for updates.
Conference Registration
Fees for USFCA Members:
Full Conference Registration - USFCA Member Rate: $200
Single Day - Friday, 7/30 - USFCA Member Rate: $100
Single Day - Sat, 7/31 - USFCA Member Rate: $100
Single Day - Sun, 8/1 - USFCA Member Rate: $100
Fees for Non-Members:
Full Conference Registration - Non-Member Rate: $240
Single Day - Friday, 7/30 - Non-Member Rate: $120
Single Day - Sat, 7/31 - Non-member Rate: $120
Single Day - Sun, 8/1 - Non-member Rate: $120
Late Fees apply after 7/23/10 - Add $20
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Pre-registration procedures:
1.
2.
3.
Please pre-register (RSVP) your name on AskFRED:
http://askfred.net/Clinics/Prereg/prereg.php?clinic_id=11624
Then register and pay on-line here at http://www.usfca.org.
To Register on-line:
You need to have a website login user ID and password to use the on-line registration
process. You do not need to be a current member of the USFCA - only a registered
website user. Go to www.usfca.org. On the left of the Home webpage, click "Register" and
follow the procedures. After you are able to log onto the website, go to "News/Events" on
the top menu. You will find "2010 Conference Registration". Scroll down and select
conference options and follow the procedures for registering on-line.
Contacts for Conference Related Information:
USFCA Conference Committee
Coach John Krauss – [email protected] – 207-974-8461 (cell) or 207-469-8936 (home office)
Coach Elsayed Emera –[email protected] - 309-868-2736 (cell)
Venue:
Louisville Fencing Center
1401 Muhammad Ali Boulevard
Louisville, KY 40123
(502) 540-5004
www.louisvillefencing.org
Contact at LFC (for local information):
Coach Orion Bazzell
[email protected]
Host Hotel:
Hampton Inn Louisville Downtown
101 East Jefferson Street, Louisville, Kentucky, USA 40202
Tel: 1-502-585-2200 Fax: 1-502-584-5657
www.hamptoninndowntownlouisville.com
Host Hotel Accommodations:
The hotel offers a number of features and amenities including:
·
Complimentary Hot Breakfast Buffet
·
Complimentary High Speed Internet Access, Wireless is available in our Meeting
Rooms and Lobby Areas
·
Complimentary Parking
·
Complimentary Shuttle to the Airport and within a 8-Block Radius of the Hotel
·
Indoor Pool
·
Fitness Center
·
Five Meeting Rooms
·
Free local, calling card and 800# calls
·
Business Center
·
Lobby Bar
·
Hilton Honors Points
·
The hotel is within walking distance of Waterfront Park, Slugger Field, Fourth Street
Live and all major attractions. We are located l block from all major interstates and
are within a few blocks of many restaurants, both casual and upscale.
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Rooms:
Rate: $104/night (Single or Double). Room rates are subject to all applicable taxes (currently
15.01%). Individuals will be responsible for their own room, tax, and incidental charges. The
reservation deadline for this contracted group rate is July 1, 2010. Any reservation made after
the deadline date, the rate will reflect the host hotel’s standard rate. Check in time: Beginning at
3:00 PM Check out time: 12 NOON.
Reservations:
Individual reservations may be made by calling the Hotel directly at 502-585-2200 or Toll Free
at 800-HAMPTON. For individuals to receive the established Group rate, they must identify
themselves as members of the Group initially when making the reservation. All reservations
must be received by the Groups deadline date: July 1, 2010 and guaranteed with a credit card.
After receipt of a guaranteed reservation, upon request the Hotel will forward guestroom
confirmations to each individual.
Making reservations Online:
Go to www.louisvilledowntown.hamptoninn.com.
Enter check in and out dates under Special Accounts: Group/Convention.
Enter: USF – the room types and rate will appear.
An online version of the USFCA newsletter is available on
http://pointinline.blogspot.com
This blogspot is maintained by Associate Editor Mary Annavedder
Submissions Welcome!
Be sure to share your writing, photography and news with other members!
Email submissions to:
[email protected]