Bulletin for the Week of Jan. 4, 2010

1. Happy new year to all fencers and their families! I hope everyone had a good holiday break and is feeling ready to fence again. Welcome to our new Level 1 students who are starting this week. We have 2 new people in Middlebury and 9 in Charlotte. I'm starting to run out of rental equipment (and space!) in Charlotte, but would love a few more newbies in Middlebury, so if any of you Middlebury fencers have friends who are interested, it's not too late for them to join. Make sure to at least skim your trusty VFA Weekly Bulletin each Monday, as there are sometimes important announcements, such as schedule changes. Bulletins are posted on the VFA website as well as e-mailed to club members.

Attention Charlotte fencers: I spoke to the basketball coach just before vacation, and she said that the group which practices on Tues and Thurs this year will be wrapping up at 7 or "a few minutes after" instead of 7:30 as in past years. That's a nice break for us, as it means practice doesn't need to run so late. So let's meet in the hallway outside the gym at 7, and we'll be ready to take the gym and get started the minute basketball ends.

Did you get some new fencing gear for the holidays? Make sure to put your name on everything you own. A lot of equipment looks alike, and you have a much better chance of getting lost stuff returned to you if it's labeled.

Now that winter is here, please make sure not to track snow, water or mud on to the gym floor. Remove boots outside of the gym and change into your fencing shoes. In Charlotte, please bring your boots into the gym with you-don't leave them in the hallway as they will be in the way of the custodian.

If we need to cancel practice due to winter weather, I will send an e-mail using this bulletin list by 4 p.m. for evening practices (or by 1 p.m. for Tuesday afternoon Jr Team practice). If you can not check your e-mail then, please call me and confirm there is practice before driving in bad weather (802-759-2268). Snow days will be made up March 15, 16, 22 and/or 23 as needed.

Don't forget that all winter session fees are due this week, including $5 club dues for Junior Team members and those with still-valid punch cards.

2. It's that time of year again - time for the annual VFA fund drive! Between now and the Middlebury Open on March 6-7, we need to raise most of our operating budget for next season. This money is used for maintaining and replacing club equipment, scholarships for low-income students to take our classes, financial aid for qualified athletes to travel to regional and national competitions and camps, and rewarding our assistant coaches (in the form of modest credits that they can use for fencing expenses). Our goal is to raise $2000+, which we should be able to do easily if everyone pitches in. The majority of our fundraising comes from sponsorships given by local businesses and civic organizations. For a donation of $25-$100 they get an ad in the Middlebury Open program (bigger donation=larger ad) and a listing on the 2010 Champlain Cup t-shirt. This year's t-shirt will be designed by CVFC fencer and professional artist Paul Rossi, and will be unveiled at the Middlebury Open. In the next week or so, I will have sponsorship forms available at practice. Pick up as many as you like and ask your favorite businesses and organizations to sponsor us. The more you ask, the more likely you are to succeed. Sponsorships must be turned in by Feb. 8 in order to make it onto the t-shirt, so get started! Anyone who raises $50+ fences for free in the Middlebury Open. In addition to sponsorships, we always have a raffle. I am looking for a volunteer to coordinate the raffle, and for donations of prizes (good stuff that anyone would want, or fencing-specific prizes are welcome).

3. Coming to your first fencing class this week? Here's what to expect:
a. Wear loose comfortable long pants - no shorts - (sweatpants are ideal), a t-shirt and bring dry sneakers. If you have a choice of sneakers, court shoes (those made for tennis, raquetball, basketball etc) work better than running shoes (which have a wedge shape to the sole). Bringing a water bottle is a good idea.

b. Plan to arrive about 10 minutes early (i.e. at 6:20 in Middlebury or 7 in Charlotte) to sort out your equipment and get ready for class. I have assigned each person a mask and jacket based on the size information you gave me. I will have a printed list of names and equipment assignments. Your mask and jacket may not have the same number (the equipment is not in sets, each item is numbered individually). The masks live in a large camoflauge duffel bag (in case I ever need to hide a bunch of masks in the woods....) and the jackets live in a black duffel bag. Mask numbers are written on the sides and back, jacket numbers inside the collar and on the straps. When you arrive, find your mask and jacket and set them aside somewhere along the edge of the room (or get them in the hallway and hang on to them until the gym is available in Charlotte). Then find any glove that fits your dominant hand (you only need one glove, and you don't need to use the same one each week). The gloves live in a zippered tote bag that lives inside the same duffel as the jackets. Finally, take a foil from the black-and-green bag. Foils with red tape on the handles are for lefties. Foils with yellow tape on the handles are for small children. Foils with no tape on the handles are for righties. Set the glove and foil aside with your other gear. One more piece of equipment for adult and teen women: in the bag with the gloves are some plastic cups called breast protectors. You insert these in the pockets in your jacket lining and they protect you from hard hits to the chest (plus they make you feel like Xena the warrior princess). When you are finished for the evening, please do me a big favor and pack all rental equipment back in its bags (that would be IN the bag - not just near it or on it).

c. Class will always start with a warm-up - a moment of breathing and focussing, a game to get everyone loosened up, and a set of exercises to increase your flexibility, strength and balance. The next thing we will do is footwork exercises, as the most important thing in fencing is how you move your body (what you do with the blade is secondary to this). Often, these are done without equipment on, but sometimes I will ask you to get dressed in your gear at this point. The final part of class is the bladework drills. Here, we will teach new moves or new combinations, and you will practice them with a partner. We rotate partners often, so that you get used to fencing with people of all shapes and styles. For most bladework drills, we will divide into groups - Level 1 foil, Level 2 foil and Level 2 epee, and each group will be given a different set of drills. Drills require that you take turns with your partner playing the role of the coach or leader (the person who gets hit) and of the student (the person who does the hitting). It is important that you pay attention to both aspects of the drill when it is being taught so that you can be a good leader, and that you let your partner hit you when it is her turn to do so.

d. I have a several advanced students who help me teach. They are experienced competitors, either adults or teenage members of my Junior Team program, who enjoy sharing their knowledge with beginners. Please use them as a resource - ask them questions and pay attention when they correct your technique.

e. Class will end with you saluting your classmates and instructors to thank them for working with you. Then the real fun begins! By the second week, you will be ready to play a game that introduces you to some limited improvisation, and by the third week, you will learn the rules of foil and be ready to fence your first real bouts. I encourage you to stay after class and fence bouts with other club members. Don't worry about the score (in fact, I encourage you not to keep score most of the time), just try to apply the techniques you are learning against real opponents. Whether you can stay for just 5 minutes after class or all the way until closing time (9 p.m. in Middlebury, 9:30 in Charlotte), please do try to stay for a while and not just go home when the organized class ends.

f. If you're still around at closing time, we have a club tradition called "Five Minutes of Glory". We end each practice by doing a set of strength building exercises together followed by a relaxation and visualization exercise. Beginners are very welcome to join us for that - it requires no special fencing skill beyond what you will learn in the very first class. So if increasing your fitness is one of your motivations in taking up fencing, or if your goal is to eventually fence competitively, consider participating in Five Minutes of Glory.

g. If you are ever sick, out of town, etc and have to miss a class, I am happy to come in a few minutes early the following week to give you a quick catch up. Just remind me by email that you want to do that.

h. Finally, one of the best ways to become a good fencer is to watch good fencers. There are often experienced fencers around the club bouting with eachother on Monday and Tuesday nights, and they don't mind your watching them and asking them questions. It's also interesting to attend a few tournaments as a spectator (and it may help you work up your nerve to participate in a tournament or two by the end of the season). The first tournament of the winter is the Foil-Epee Doubles in Hanover on Jan 17 (see below for more info) and there is one in Essex Jct on Feb 7. Spectators are welcome free of charge.

4. Time to sign up for the first Champlain Cup tournament of 2010! Register now for the Foil-Epee Doubles and E Meet, coming up Sunday Jan. 17 at Hanover High School in Hanover, NH. If you sign up by Jan. 12, you will save $10 on your entry fees and greatly help the meet managers plan the tournament.
Event schedule:
9:30 a.m. Foil-Epee Doubles. Enter with a partner-one foilist and one epeeist per team (no switching roles once under way). For each match-up with another team, a coin toss will determine which fencer goes first. The first pair fence to 5 points. Their team-mates then take over the existing score and fence until one team has 10 points (so you can score more than 5 points to come from behind and win). This event is a fun annual tradition in the Green Mt Division. You may partner with anyone you like (partners don't need to be members of the same club, the same age group or gender). You get a $2 discount on your entry fees if your partner is your parent, child, sibling or spouse.
12 p.m. E Foil.
2 p.m. E Epee.
E events are restricted to fencers rated E or unrated. These events are a great opportunity for rookie competitors to enjoy fencing against other less experienced competitors without having to contend with the big guns, and for intermediate competitors to try to earn a D or E rating. If you started fencing fairly recently and are thinking about entering your first competition, this would be a great choice. Loaner equipment (including electric) is available free of charge to any VFA members who need to borrow it, as long as you sign up by Jan. 12. If you are not yet a member of the USFA, you will need to join in order to participate in this and future tournaments. Dues are $60 per season (August through July, so the sooner you join, the more use you'll get from your membership). You can join on-line or at the tournament.
All events in this tournament are restricted to fencers born 1996 or earlier.

To register: go to www.askfred.net/Events/whoIsComing.php?tournament_id=10399 and click on "preregister". If you have never used AskFred before, you will need to enter information about yourself in the database (list your club at Vermont Fencing Alliance and division as Green Mt and rating as U or unrated unless you know you have a different rating). If you have already used AskFred, your information will be stored there and signing up is quick and easy. To sign up for the team event, have one partner do it for the team. When you click on "preregister" you will see a small link above the regular preregistration form that says "Looking for team events?". Click on that to get the form for team registration. There is room to enter up to 4 people on a team. Just leave the last 2 blank.

Directions to the venue can be found on AskFred (see link above).
Refs will be needed for E Foil. If you are not fencing in either E event and are capable of reffing E Foil, please contact Amanda Granizo(Todd.A.Mackenzie@Hitchcock.org) and volunteer. Do the GMD and it's developing fencers a valuable service, and earn some entry fee coupons for yourself.