Kids and Fencing

“I’m not a fan of trying to coach anyone under 12. I believe they are better served by doing other sports that are more in line with their current size, coordination, and attention span. Therefore I do not take, or refer to others, children younger than 12.” This was recently posted in the /r/Fencing sub-reddit.… Read more

How to Control a Bout

Some ideas, off the top of my head: Touches occur only when the distance closes between you and the opponent, so the goal is to make sure that distance closes when you want it to and only then. Closing the space can be done either actively (you move towards the opponent) or passively (you allow… Read more

Failing

In every book I’ve read about developing expertise, the author has talked about how important it is to fail in order to ultimately master a skill. To many of usĀ  coaches, that seems counter-intuitive. What’s the role of the coach in student failure? To call attention to those things the student should be trying to… Read more