Good advices, tips and hints

Bagground

This guide of training games and exercises, have been developed in collaboration with the Danish Fencing Federations Child- and Youth Committee. When writing his advices Marting had been coach for children for a year in Hellerup Fencing Club, training two teams starting team with an average of 14 participating children per team on each training evening, with the children being between 7 and 14 years of age. They were two coaches for each team.

Since children love to play, it has been our plan from the beginning to let sport, especially the initial warm up, be integrated as games. We have thus rarely made common, conventional warm up, as this seems to most children unusually dull and need not be nearly as relevant as for adult athletes.

For some children are warming the Games the funniest part of the training, since Fencing may seem difficult and also is an individual sport where you must learn to accept his defeat in addition to bruising. For the youngest children can be the first time, these things perceived, and in the school of life, these experiences occur - but in small doses at a time.

The more serious approach to fencing sport, I have left to continue the club’s teams, where children can continue once a fun and slower habituation to the sport will hopefully have created a curiosity, interest, concentration and patience to work more seriously with fencing. In children start the team is the most for fun.

When I started training, I had very little experience with teaching children in sports. I had a need for inspiration. I had coaches and a fencing master to give me ideas and found a few manuals on child training and child play. Thanks to everyone and let me immediately confess that I have cut and copied the most, and even invented games or complement other games suffered.

When I have a bad memory and not good to work without planning, there was a natural need for me to write games and activities down. It is these games, I now pass on to inspire you to even train children in fencing.

Most of the games I have tested during the weekly training children in a fencing club. Actually, we have succeeded in getting a very varied program each time. The same play is rarely played more than twice. Children, however, right conservatives and would like to play the same game over and over again, so this degree of variability is strictly speaking not always necessary. In my teaching, we have 2 hours available on a training evening, which is used approx. 50 minutes of heating alloy, 15 min. the legwork (usually with alloy elements), followed by 10 min. pause, after which in the last 45 minutes. fencing under supervision and given lessons.

Planning

As they say in the Defense: "Not event the greatest luck can surpas a good plan."

As a coach you are most comfortable with your teaching, if you have pre-planned how to teach each lessons. After a while as a coach, it takes a little time to organize a training session. This can, for example be done while going to the training site.

It is difficult to achieve a goal without a plan. Your authority as coach compromised, if everything is just up to the children themselves and you seem desperate. This does perhaps not so much during heating, but it could impact the legwork, technique training and lessons.

If you are alone on training, it is even more important to you in advance you have made clear what should be done on training days when you do not have anyone to support you .

During the planning it will often be relevant to consider who it is you have to do? In general terms: Remember, these are children. More specifically, it may be wise to ask themselves the following questions before the election on preferences for a specific game: What is the age composition? What can children physically implement?. What can they keep the mental? What children think is funny? Think about when you were a child, perhaps it would now seem boring to play ettagfat or low g?tteleg, but then it was fun. Who are role models in the squad - besides yourself? What child has special problems.? How is the team behavior and socially?

The play must appeal to as many participants as possible. All must be active with. The game must be easy to organize. The number of rules, variations of the game and the physical difficulty should be adapted to children’s age and should make different demands on participants. The game should have some variations. The game will be dominated sport, but this need not always involve a very physical activity. It may also be a game for example. supports concentration - and coordination skills.

Keep the time frame so that I have time for legwork, and fencing lessons. Impetus also time to just talk and general information on fencing. When is it rally, Who is good, how repair a weapon, what is cool, can real Zorro fencing, etc.?

Presentation of activities

Put yourself centrally so that all can see and hear you. Be sure to create a quiet moment, so you do not need to say things several times. Ultimately it may be necessary to clarify that you will not start talking until there is quiet. You can also get the children to sit down, so they have no reason for running around.

Speak loudly and clearly. Start by presenting the name of the exercise, which often can set your imagination in the process among participants, and locate any on a background history of the game (it may well be far out in the woods, because it arouses amusement), compare the possible. with other activities.

Explain legens rules as clear and simple as possible. Some rules may be helpful in wait to explain (clarify) when the game first started. Inferior may be needed to make additional rules. When the activity is driven through a few times, one can also usefully come with the additional rules or build variations on the game.

Make sure that the majority has understood the rules before I start the game. Many rules can best be explained through demonstration, so the eye will produce.

Be sure also to be as consistent as possible in enforcing rules of the game during play, but do not hesitate to admit that you have not seen an infringement tion and therefore can not do anything about it.

The role of the coach

As a coach you must create atmosphere, the activities of the time, have an overview, intervene, alter the activity, assist participants, instruct and monitor the sporting elements and ensure that legens frames and rules.

If you have surplus, so stay even with the activity. Usually seemed the children that this is funny - though not always the teams play, unless I have two coaches. Understand that exploit your strengths and abilities wisely and sparingly in some cases, if you participate in the fun.

Control

It is you who is the coach, not the kids. Be consistent. The children must accept that it is you who organizes training and sets the ground rules. In general children’s play is often also rules, but no one authority that controls compliance. Since the activity is often limited in time and have a purpose (sport) and, among other things so different from normal play, we need some leadership from the train’s side. It is not a school but a fencing school and the framework is like in a gym hours at school. Usually accepts the eagles this control without the problems arise. Within this framework, both you and the kids have fun.

Of course you can play it as children suggests, if it fits into your program. But the children are also to gain new experiences and, as a child proposes is not always what another child will or can play. It is useless example. not to enter a proposal to play basketball, where half of the children do not feel like or too small. However, we may well create polls about what needs to change and prioritize calls so that only plays one in five minutes and then do the other in five minutes.

I usually make it clear to children that the proposal could be made before or after training, but not during training, for which I have my program. Some days we take as a "day off" where the children provides training.

Improvise and adapt

Improvise and customize the games. Maybe the rules or elements of the Games can be omitted or added. It depends on which children you are dealing with. Use your imagination. If you have not the necessary paraphernalia, maybe something else can be used.

Even the funniest game die after a time although children may well play the same game long and often without the need the variation that adults require. Be aware when the game stops to be fun, and the all the time have the next activity in mind, ready to be used.

Hits and flops

Hits and flops is actually a component of basic sentence "Improvise and Adapt". It is important to have a large variety of games and activities that you can use from . If one game does not work with your group group of children, you can proceed with the next without going to a standstill if you have many activities to draw on. When planning your training, it is a good idea that you installs a number of activities that you know are safe hits with the kids. If you have a large repertoire, you can quickly find a fun game from you of bag of games if a game fail and thereby get the group together again. It provides security, soon to able to get a hit out of the bag.

Do not accept that some children in advance says that a game sounds boring. If they’ve never tried your game, then they can only comment on games when they’ve tried them. Do not reluctant to emphasize this to the kids. If a majority of the children do not want to play a game already tried, then you must find a second game, or compromise with them: Now we are first playing x-exercise and then y-game afterwards.

Props

In our selection of games we have tried to take into account that a fencing club rarely has a large selection of props such as balls, cones and hulahop rings why many otherwise excellent games, which require such remedies are retained. Most Games this book requires only a few props beyond what is naturally found in a fencing club.