Post by Flamberge on Sept 2, 2005 17:27:01 GMT -6
Another interesting article by our maestro in Schermaonline.com, this time about the pros and cons for student fencers in general and competitive student fencers in particular. It should interest parents, students, and teachers who try to juggle schedules and commitments during the school year.
www.schermaonline.com/scherma/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=335&mode=thread&order=1&thold=0
One often hears that fencing helps improve the scholastic results. This is one of the many reasons put forward in PR campaigns directed to parents and young fencers.
Is this an urban legend or a fact proven from experience of people who have successfully reconciled years and years of school work and fencing activity?
The truth, as always, lies in the middle.
Fencing, like other sports, has the merit to provide hours of entertainment to children and adolescents, and this in and by itself already represents a corroborating reason for improved scholastic results. Generally speaking, children and adolescents when they are happy and satisfied after a healthy entertainment, they tend to approach even studying with more enthusiasm.
Moreover, fencing as a sport with a rather steep initial learning curve, can be considered as one of those maturing factors which teach that every result must be obtained through constant application, dedication, and, why not, also a bit of luck and small dosages of risk to know when and how to tempt it.
This is a valid concept in sport and in school where the outcome of top grades is the result of several and diverse factors. One of these factors, shared with other sports training, is the need to set up a program for oneself in order to reach a certain objective. Another one is the need to "study your opponent" which a fencer and also a student must do. For instance, to know the preferences of a teacher about certain topics, after having observed the teacher's behavior towards other students, helps to foresee the type of questions which are likely to surface when our turn comes. This is the same in fencing where observing a team mate winning or losing against an opponent will help in knowing and better recognizing the strong and weak points.
It is evident that the ability to observe, and even more the desire to observe as developed by the fencer are useful also in school. Furthermore, fencing teaches how to come out honorably even in the most difficult situations: this is not hearsay, but a reality experienced by many.
Fencing helps those who are clumsy, those who are afraid to stumble when all they have to say is their name, and teaches to stay in control even in front of the hardest questions, the most feared tests, and that choking feeling affecting any student who has not studied as much as he should have for a test.
The practice of competing and even the simple daily sparring with the teammates have the effect of maturing the self-control and knowledge of oneself. Obviously, this is not a miraculous cure-it-all, only a valid help which goes hand in hand with a good preparation which only study and bright intellect can guarantee.
However, it is certain that since fencing is an activity which demands attention and precision, it also stimulates the ability to manage emotions, which is always useful to anyone who has to prove that he has studied enough what he needs to know.
Fencing is also the habit to practice. School homework is also practice which will certainly be less boring (and tiring) than the never ending footwork drills one must endure at the club.
There are many more contact points between fencing and studying. Fencing is:
Even though there are good reasons for fencing to complemet, support, and improve the school work, fencing, as for every sport when practiced at a highly competitive level, has problems in becoming a partner in a school system and in the management of time and conflicting schedules.
The commitments, even for children about 10 years old are many and they grow exponentially with the school years. The schedule of a child or young person between 7 and 17 years of age can get quite loaded and complicated. Often schools consider competitive sport as an added and non essential activity for the growth and maturing of the individual.
Advice and suggestions of a general nature will be proposed in the next articles for those who, all the considerations above notwithstanding, try to reconcile competitive sport and academic excellence.
www.schermaonline.com/scherma/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=335&mode=thread&order=1&thold=0
FENCERS OR STUDENTS: THE TRUTH IS IN THE MIDDLE
Part 1
(excerpts from Maestro Bernacchi on Schermaonline.com)
Part 1
(excerpts from Maestro Bernacchi on Schermaonline.com)
One often hears that fencing helps improve the scholastic results. This is one of the many reasons put forward in PR campaigns directed to parents and young fencers.
Is this an urban legend or a fact proven from experience of people who have successfully reconciled years and years of school work and fencing activity?
The truth, as always, lies in the middle.
Fencing, like other sports, has the merit to provide hours of entertainment to children and adolescents, and this in and by itself already represents a corroborating reason for improved scholastic results. Generally speaking, children and adolescents when they are happy and satisfied after a healthy entertainment, they tend to approach even studying with more enthusiasm.
Moreover, fencing as a sport with a rather steep initial learning curve, can be considered as one of those maturing factors which teach that every result must be obtained through constant application, dedication, and, why not, also a bit of luck and small dosages of risk to know when and how to tempt it.
This is a valid concept in sport and in school where the outcome of top grades is the result of several and diverse factors. One of these factors, shared with other sports training, is the need to set up a program for oneself in order to reach a certain objective. Another one is the need to "study your opponent" which a fencer and also a student must do. For instance, to know the preferences of a teacher about certain topics, after having observed the teacher's behavior towards other students, helps to foresee the type of questions which are likely to surface when our turn comes. This is the same in fencing where observing a team mate winning or losing against an opponent will help in knowing and better recognizing the strong and weak points.
It is evident that the ability to observe, and even more the desire to observe as developed by the fencer are useful also in school. Furthermore, fencing teaches how to come out honorably even in the most difficult situations: this is not hearsay, but a reality experienced by many.
Fencing helps those who are clumsy, those who are afraid to stumble when all they have to say is their name, and teaches to stay in control even in front of the hardest questions, the most feared tests, and that choking feeling affecting any student who has not studied as much as he should have for a test.
The practice of competing and even the simple daily sparring with the teammates have the effect of maturing the self-control and knowledge of oneself. Obviously, this is not a miraculous cure-it-all, only a valid help which goes hand in hand with a good preparation which only study and bright intellect can guarantee.
However, it is certain that since fencing is an activity which demands attention and precision, it also stimulates the ability to manage emotions, which is always useful to anyone who has to prove that he has studied enough what he needs to know.
Fencing is also the habit to practice. School homework is also practice which will certainly be less boring (and tiring) than the never ending footwork drills one must endure at the club.
There are many more contact points between fencing and studying. Fencing is:
- relation -- with the teacher, with the team mates
- ability to become part of a group doing a common task
- desire to fill in the accumulated gaps in one's fencing knowledge and to put one's knowledge at the service of the group's accomplishment
- calculation of the average of one's many skills and if necessary, ability to put in place a strategy for a quick rebound even if starting from an unfavorable score
- desire to excel and satisfaction to have beaten a better or older opponent, a tangible proof of one's improvement and progress.
Even though there are good reasons for fencing to complemet, support, and improve the school work, fencing, as for every sport when practiced at a highly competitive level, has problems in becoming a partner in a school system and in the management of time and conflicting schedules.
The commitments, even for children about 10 years old are many and they grow exponentially with the school years. The schedule of a child or young person between 7 and 17 years of age can get quite loaded and complicated. Often schools consider competitive sport as an added and non essential activity for the growth and maturing of the individual.
Advice and suggestions of a general nature will be proposed in the next articles for those who, all the considerations above notwithstanding, try to reconcile competitive sport and academic excellence.