Musings on Running a Class
First and foremost, instructors have to concern themselves with what could happen, because it is too late if it does happen. Since instructors are liable for everything that happens in the class and in connection with the class, we protect ourselves by thinking about what could happen and attempting to prevent it. This obviously applies to safety but also to the development and overall well-being of our members… and of the class itself.
I have been teaching people to fence since the late 1980s, and in all that time I have seen the same things happen over and over again. One curious phenomenon is the way skills seem to evaporate after even a short break but bad habits last forever. As a result those who want to dive back in after a break usually end up making themselves into worse fencers. This is especially true of individuals who never reached a point where their skills were properly embedded. Fencers who are mindful of this phenomenon generally progress much better than those who are not. It is tempting to want to rush back in, but it is counterproductive in the long run.
Flitting from one topic to another effectively creates breaks of this sort. Some instructors will teach a weapon in one session and another the next, concentrating on ‘cool stuff’ that will supposedly keep the students interested. This approach virtually guarantees slow and ineffective progress accompanied by a great many bad habits. Likewise, rushing ahead to the ‘cool stuff’ does not create good fencers. A seasonally apt analogy might be decorating a Christmas tree. Care should be taken to build a solid trunk and branches, and only then can decorations (in the form of clever techniques and what-if scenarios) be hung. Dashing straight to the point where baubles are hung on a weak framework runs the risk of creating a fabulous compost heap. Some members of a group will keep coming back for this but anyone who wants to be a good fencer will become frustrated.
This is even more true of instructors. I consider myself good enough at smallsword and what I term 'English Military Fencing' - backsword and sabre - to teach them properly in the long term. There are many more areas where I could do a one-off or beginner class but 35 years in I am wise enough to know how much I don't know. I do wonder at the mentality of people who are constantly presenting Cool Thing Of The Week instead of teaching properly. A one-off class on a topic the instructor really knows very little about is pointless at best and could well be counterproductive.
I have been doing this a long time, and I know that the correct approach is structured and careful. This produces better fencers in a shorter time than letting people fiddle about with different weapons and techniques before they have an adequate core skillset. I am also rather critical of students’ freeplay – for exactly the same reasons. Once something has been done a few times under pressure it becomes habit, and if that habit is a bad one it will limit the development of the fencer. It can also be dangerous under some circumstances.
Occasionally someone will try to tell me that my standards are too high and they just want to dabble or get good enough to freeplay then have some fun. I can see their point but this is not good for the well-being of the class and can affect other fencers. At a recent event I was asked to ‘fix’ someone who had become a problem and who stands as an example of what happens when fencers are allowed to do as they please. Having been permitted to freeplay without supervision to far too great a degree, this individual was actually lowering the standard of their class.
The problem in this case was not technical – this fencer is actually very skilled. However, freeplaying without correction can cement bad habits that can and do affect other members of the class. As I have remarked on many occasions: bad fencing drives out good. It is not possible to practice clean, correct fencing against someone who is bodging through any old how. This applies to drills as much as to freeplay. I have heard arguments that if a fencer cannot be bothered to fix their technical issues this is their own business, but that is absolutely not the case. One fencer’s mistakes affect their training partner or opponent, making it difficult to train properly or learn to apply techniques.
Thus I hold everyone to a high technical standard for the benefit of the whole class. It is easy for bad fencers to drag others down, whereas technically good fencing enables others to progress. In short, as fencers we owe it to other members of the class to always be as technically good as we can, and to fence cleanly. As instructors we owe it to those who want to become good fencers to remove as many obstacles as possible.
The individual I mentioned – just to reiterate, this was not one of my own students – had lost sight of the correct goals and treated freeplay as ‘a bit of fun’ in which fun was equated to scoring points by any means necessary. Reckless over-aggression and placing relatively inexperienced opponents under too much pressure permitted hits to be scored quickly, and if this failed the individual in question rarely defended. Instead there would be an uncontrolled attempt at a counter-hit.
Perhaps the worst I saw was a wild and scrappy mess in which the opponent was making panicky actions and counter-hitting in the hope of getting points or something. One exchange ended with both fencers far too close, and as the opponent was in the middle of stepping back to a more suitable measure the fencer in question suddenly launched another highly aggressive flurry of cuts. Despite being sufficiently skilled to win cleanly, this individual was essentially teaching the opponent to panic and to make point-getting expedient actions rather than doing what they had been taught.
This exercise in ego could have a great many results, all of them bad. Denied the opportunity to try to use correct technique, the opponent was developing habits of counter-hitting and making clumsy, desperate actions. As I remarked above, once this happens a few times it becomes habit. These wild exchanges resulted in hard hitting, which can result in a fencer developing the habit of flinching rather than simply dealing with the attack, or of launching reckless counter-actions. This can have consequences for other opponents or training partners.
I… intervened… and I am pleased to say that at the end of the event I witnessed a bout between the same two fencers which bordered upon the epic. Clean, skilled and a brilliant showcase of what their instructor had been teaching. There was nothing wrong with their skillset; they had simply developed habits of freeplaying in a counterproductive manner. However much ‘fun’ this might have been it was bad for the class overall.
This was, I think, an oversight on the part of a distracted instructor who thought the students could be trusted to look after themselves. The effect on the overall standard of the class would be significant even if there was no safety issue, and in my opinion it was only a matter of time before something went badly wrong. The instructor would have been held liable in that event. Whatever we may think of that, it is how the world works.
I have seen the effect of accepting a low standard can have on a class. It is hard to comprehend why certain videos were published, especially with triumphant and grandiose titles, when they were of students incompetently flailing at one another. This suggests a worrying level of delusion on the part of the instructor, and makes our art as a whole look bad. Similarly, I have witnessed an exchange between two opponents (I cannot bring myself to say ‘fencers’, and again these were not associated with our class) who had been clumsily swiping at one another until someone got hit more or less by accident. The scene was embarrassingly bad, yet I overheard both congratulating one another on their clever tactics and brilliant final attack. They seemed to sincerely believe this was good fencing, and their instructor did not put them right on that score.
We, as instructors, have a duty to be worthy of our students. This means being as good as we can be at the technique, and being realistic about what we know and what we do not know. The latter also helps avoid making a fool of yourself. Striking poses and pulling faces might fool or even impress the beginners, but anyone with relevant experience will see right through you. I have witnessed this upon showing a promotional video to someone who has never touched a sword. Their immediate response was 'these guys really aren't very good'. And yet despite the fact this was apparent to a non-fencer, the video was made as a promotion for the class. A complete beginner might be impressed, but experienced fencers can see the reality - incompetents pretending to be fencing instructors. The only question for me is: do they know how bad they are? If so they are deliberately misleading potential students. If not they are deluding themselves. Both are dangerous.
I have been teaching people to fence since the late 1980s, and in all that time I have seen the same things happen over and over again. One curious phenomenon is the way skills seem to evaporate after even a short break but bad habits last forever. As a result those who want to dive back in after a break usually end up making themselves into worse fencers. This is especially true of individuals who never reached a point where their skills were properly embedded. Fencers who are mindful of this phenomenon generally progress much better than those who are not. It is tempting to want to rush back in, but it is counterproductive in the long run.
Flitting from one topic to another effectively creates breaks of this sort. Some instructors will teach a weapon in one session and another the next, concentrating on ‘cool stuff’ that will supposedly keep the students interested. This approach virtually guarantees slow and ineffective progress accompanied by a great many bad habits. Likewise, rushing ahead to the ‘cool stuff’ does not create good fencers. A seasonally apt analogy might be decorating a Christmas tree. Care should be taken to build a solid trunk and branches, and only then can decorations (in the form of clever techniques and what-if scenarios) be hung. Dashing straight to the point where baubles are hung on a weak framework runs the risk of creating a fabulous compost heap. Some members of a group will keep coming back for this but anyone who wants to be a good fencer will become frustrated.
This is even more true of instructors. I consider myself good enough at smallsword and what I term 'English Military Fencing' - backsword and sabre - to teach them properly in the long term. There are many more areas where I could do a one-off or beginner class but 35 years in I am wise enough to know how much I don't know. I do wonder at the mentality of people who are constantly presenting Cool Thing Of The Week instead of teaching properly. A one-off class on a topic the instructor really knows very little about is pointless at best and could well be counterproductive.
I have been doing this a long time, and I know that the correct approach is structured and careful. This produces better fencers in a shorter time than letting people fiddle about with different weapons and techniques before they have an adequate core skillset. I am also rather critical of students’ freeplay – for exactly the same reasons. Once something has been done a few times under pressure it becomes habit, and if that habit is a bad one it will limit the development of the fencer. It can also be dangerous under some circumstances.
Occasionally someone will try to tell me that my standards are too high and they just want to dabble or get good enough to freeplay then have some fun. I can see their point but this is not good for the well-being of the class and can affect other fencers. At a recent event I was asked to ‘fix’ someone who had become a problem and who stands as an example of what happens when fencers are allowed to do as they please. Having been permitted to freeplay without supervision to far too great a degree, this individual was actually lowering the standard of their class.
The problem in this case was not technical – this fencer is actually very skilled. However, freeplaying without correction can cement bad habits that can and do affect other members of the class. As I have remarked on many occasions: bad fencing drives out good. It is not possible to practice clean, correct fencing against someone who is bodging through any old how. This applies to drills as much as to freeplay. I have heard arguments that if a fencer cannot be bothered to fix their technical issues this is their own business, but that is absolutely not the case. One fencer’s mistakes affect their training partner or opponent, making it difficult to train properly or learn to apply techniques.
Thus I hold everyone to a high technical standard for the benefit of the whole class. It is easy for bad fencers to drag others down, whereas technically good fencing enables others to progress. In short, as fencers we owe it to other members of the class to always be as technically good as we can, and to fence cleanly. As instructors we owe it to those who want to become good fencers to remove as many obstacles as possible.
The individual I mentioned – just to reiterate, this was not one of my own students – had lost sight of the correct goals and treated freeplay as ‘a bit of fun’ in which fun was equated to scoring points by any means necessary. Reckless over-aggression and placing relatively inexperienced opponents under too much pressure permitted hits to be scored quickly, and if this failed the individual in question rarely defended. Instead there would be an uncontrolled attempt at a counter-hit.
Perhaps the worst I saw was a wild and scrappy mess in which the opponent was making panicky actions and counter-hitting in the hope of getting points or something. One exchange ended with both fencers far too close, and as the opponent was in the middle of stepping back to a more suitable measure the fencer in question suddenly launched another highly aggressive flurry of cuts. Despite being sufficiently skilled to win cleanly, this individual was essentially teaching the opponent to panic and to make point-getting expedient actions rather than doing what they had been taught.
This exercise in ego could have a great many results, all of them bad. Denied the opportunity to try to use correct technique, the opponent was developing habits of counter-hitting and making clumsy, desperate actions. As I remarked above, once this happens a few times it becomes habit. These wild exchanges resulted in hard hitting, which can result in a fencer developing the habit of flinching rather than simply dealing with the attack, or of launching reckless counter-actions. This can have consequences for other opponents or training partners.
I… intervened… and I am pleased to say that at the end of the event I witnessed a bout between the same two fencers which bordered upon the epic. Clean, skilled and a brilliant showcase of what their instructor had been teaching. There was nothing wrong with their skillset; they had simply developed habits of freeplaying in a counterproductive manner. However much ‘fun’ this might have been it was bad for the class overall.
This was, I think, an oversight on the part of a distracted instructor who thought the students could be trusted to look after themselves. The effect on the overall standard of the class would be significant even if there was no safety issue, and in my opinion it was only a matter of time before something went badly wrong. The instructor would have been held liable in that event. Whatever we may think of that, it is how the world works.
I have seen the effect of accepting a low standard can have on a class. It is hard to comprehend why certain videos were published, especially with triumphant and grandiose titles, when they were of students incompetently flailing at one another. This suggests a worrying level of delusion on the part of the instructor, and makes our art as a whole look bad. Similarly, I have witnessed an exchange between two opponents (I cannot bring myself to say ‘fencers’, and again these were not associated with our class) who had been clumsily swiping at one another until someone got hit more or less by accident. The scene was embarrassingly bad, yet I overheard both congratulating one another on their clever tactics and brilliant final attack. They seemed to sincerely believe this was good fencing, and their instructor did not put them right on that score.
We, as instructors, have a duty to be worthy of our students. This means being as good as we can be at the technique, and being realistic about what we know and what we do not know. The latter also helps avoid making a fool of yourself. Striking poses and pulling faces might fool or even impress the beginners, but anyone with relevant experience will see right through you. I have witnessed this upon showing a promotional video to someone who has never touched a sword. Their immediate response was 'these guys really aren't very good'. And yet despite the fact this was apparent to a non-fencer, the video was made as a promotion for the class. A complete beginner might be impressed, but experienced fencers can see the reality - incompetents pretending to be fencing instructors. The only question for me is: do they know how bad they are? If so they are deliberately misleading potential students. If not they are deluding themselves. Both are dangerous.
