Post by Flamberge on Sept 2, 2005 20:40:10 GMT -6
Here is Part 2, dedicated in particular to the parents.
www.schermaonline.com/scherma/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=336&mode=thread&order=1&thold=0
Variety is what is important.
It's always better to expose the child to a variety of motional and life experiences even though this may be quite taxing in terms of economics and logistics. Furthermore, one should debunk the widespread myth that to succeed in fencing one should practice only this sport.
In fact the opposite is true. It is advisable to divide the number of weekly hours dedicated to sport activities with other sports, like swimming and fencing, or volleyball and fencing, etc. This is good because it helps to grow in an equilibrated way, broadens the athletic base of the fencer, expands the knowledge of the sport, and makes training less boring.
Time will come when choices must be made, but this must be the right time, a natural choice, not an imposed one. The only reason for a choice must be the enthusiasm shown by the child, young boy or girl, for one of the sports to push him eventually (because of time restrictions) to abandon the other sports, not his good results, or the push by the coach, or the family desire to concentrate him a priori in one single activity.
Even in case one must choose because of cost or commuting logistics (this is especially true for families with more children involved in different sports and locations), it will always be better to leave to the child to make a choice, not the coach.
Ditto for other activities. Sport should not be the only extracurricular activity next to school in a rigid binary system. Music lessons, other complementary and educational pursuits, scouting, working groups, art, and everything else which is age appropriate, are not an obstacle to the growth of a sportsman in general and a good fencer in particular.
By spending few hours in different activities one will reduce the total number of hours dedicated to fencing training, but will enjoy a more intensive and pleasurable training in the gym rather then spending entire exhausting afternoons convinced that quantity = quality while waiting to finally do something different.
Lastly we must remind the parents (at least some of them) that school activities do not have a logical relation with sport activities. What counts is the growth of the child as a whole. A bad grade in biology must never be correlated with an extra afternoon spent at the club, nor the poor result of a tournament with too much homework or a test at school.
One will recover a bad grade in biology only by studying more biology, not by quitting the sport for a while, whether this is a choice or a convenient deterrent for a poor student. To inject this type of cause-effect relation shifts the focus away from the real problem, i.e., the ability to organize one's own time, which must be taught, even if it is not easy.
The ability to organize and properly structure one's time is the subject that connects school and sport. Too often this is taken for granted, but in fact it should be the most important subject.
Note: The author has been able to reconcile scholastic duties and extracurricular interests of a student-athlete.
www.schermaonline.com/scherma/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=336&mode=thread&order=1&thold=0
FOR THE PARENTS OF YOUNG FENCERS
(Maestro Bernacchi)
Part 2
(Maestro Bernacchi)
Part 2
Variety is what is important.
It's always better to expose the child to a variety of motional and life experiences even though this may be quite taxing in terms of economics and logistics. Furthermore, one should debunk the widespread myth that to succeed in fencing one should practice only this sport.
In fact the opposite is true. It is advisable to divide the number of weekly hours dedicated to sport activities with other sports, like swimming and fencing, or volleyball and fencing, etc. This is good because it helps to grow in an equilibrated way, broadens the athletic base of the fencer, expands the knowledge of the sport, and makes training less boring.
Time will come when choices must be made, but this must be the right time, a natural choice, not an imposed one. The only reason for a choice must be the enthusiasm shown by the child, young boy or girl, for one of the sports to push him eventually (because of time restrictions) to abandon the other sports, not his good results, or the push by the coach, or the family desire to concentrate him a priori in one single activity.
Even in case one must choose because of cost or commuting logistics (this is especially true for families with more children involved in different sports and locations), it will always be better to leave to the child to make a choice, not the coach.
Ditto for other activities. Sport should not be the only extracurricular activity next to school in a rigid binary system. Music lessons, other complementary and educational pursuits, scouting, working groups, art, and everything else which is age appropriate, are not an obstacle to the growth of a sportsman in general and a good fencer in particular.
By spending few hours in different activities one will reduce the total number of hours dedicated to fencing training, but will enjoy a more intensive and pleasurable training in the gym rather then spending entire exhausting afternoons convinced that quantity = quality while waiting to finally do something different.
Lastly we must remind the parents (at least some of them) that school activities do not have a logical relation with sport activities. What counts is the growth of the child as a whole. A bad grade in biology must never be correlated with an extra afternoon spent at the club, nor the poor result of a tournament with too much homework or a test at school.
One will recover a bad grade in biology only by studying more biology, not by quitting the sport for a while, whether this is a choice or a convenient deterrent for a poor student. To inject this type of cause-effect relation shifts the focus away from the real problem, i.e., the ability to organize one's own time, which must be taught, even if it is not easy.
The ability to organize and properly structure one's time is the subject that connects school and sport. Too often this is taken for granted, but in fact it should be the most important subject.
Note: The author has been able to reconcile scholastic duties and extracurricular interests of a student-athlete.