Tournament Coaching Policy
Cleveland Fencing Academy will announce the list of local, regional and national tournaments in the season in which the coaching will be offered in advance. All of these tournaments have cut off dates or numbers of entry caps for registering, so please sign up as quickly as possible. For all CFA competitive members who will register for those tournaments the strip coaching is mandatory.
Who Is Eligible?
Your coach will let you know when you are ready to start competing at the club, local, regional and national levels respectively. Competing usually begins after about 6 months in class. A student may be signed up for more than one event per competition.This is often encouraged to get the fencers prepared for the next level when aged out of the current age group. The coaching is mandatory for your age category event and optional for other categories.
Payment Policy:
CFA will download the list of CFA students registered for a certain tournament from the USFA website on the last day of the event registration set up by the organizers (regular registration not late registration) and will go by that list when determining the travel plans and scheduling for the coach(es).
The coaches expenses for travel are split evenly among all participating families (not students) registered for the tournament before the tournament begins.
There is an additional coaching fee per event per student, payable immediately after the registration deadline. If less than 5 fencing families are signed up there is a $400 cap imposed for the 1st student in the family and $250 cap for each additional one in total expenses charged by CFA for coach’s travel and strip coaching fees. If you have registered for several events and would like to opt out of strip coaching for some of them you need to inform CFA about that before the registration deadline otherwise we assume that you want to get strip coaching for all events you signed up for.
No refund will be given if a fencer withdraws after the registration closes. Travel fee is to be paid in full in the event of late withdrawal. Strip coaching fees will be refunded at 50% if withdrawal occurred at least 7 days prior to the event.
For details on what events your fencer should sign up for strip coaching please speak with your coach in advance
How Strip Coaching Works At a Competition
Arrival at the event
The designated coach may provide guidance to fencers/parents in terms of registration, equipment check, armory, equipment/gear purchasing from the vendors, when applicable.
The coach will set up the club banner, help locate clubmates, build team spirit before the event, and offer guidance for warm-up.
Strip coaching will be provided during the first round of the tournament (pools) as well as the second round (direct elimination).
Coaching during the pools
Once the competition begins, strip coaches will try and distribute their time equally amongst all fencers signed up for coaching.
Parents must text the strip coach (once only) when the student is “on the deck” to fence (a common name for the referees to announce who is fencing the next bout on the strip).
CFA establishes a parent’s chat before each tournament through which team CFA communicates. When permitted (by the organizers), the coach will provide advice in short statements and demonstrative actions before, during and after the bouts.
Break
Strip coaches will check in with each fencer during the break, between pools and direct elimination bouts.
In general, the fencers should gather around the club’s banner during this break, where they will meet with their coach.
Direct Elimination
The coach may directly speak and provide advice to the fencer during their two, 1-minute breaks, in the direct elimination bouts.
The coach may or may not have the opportunity to stay with one student for the entire duration of the bout, when there are others to be helped.
There will be no coaching when club students are competing against each other.
CFA members are to receive strip coaching only from CFA coaches.
When two clubmates fence at the same time on two different strips or part of the venue, the coach must choose which fencer to help; in general, they will go to the fencer who has the most chances, need, or level of importance to win that bout and move forward to the next step of the competition. It seems unfair for those new to the competition, but you’ll understand later on when you’ll gain more experience and you’ll find yourself in this situation.
Clubmates should be supportive of each other in any circumstances, show team spirit, and be respectful of those younger, or having lower ratings.
Strip Coaching Fees
Cleveland Fencing Academy has determined the following rates for coaches’ compensation for 2023-2024 season. These rates are per fencer per event and may be adjusted at the beginning of each season year:
Free coaching for all tournaments held at CFA’s facility. Any CFA event (like an RYC / SYC, etc) held outside our facility will be treated like a local tournament for coaching fees.
For local* divisional tournaments: $30 per event.
For local RYC/SYC/NAC: $50 per event.
For in-state Ohio (more than 1 hr driving distance) RYC tournaments, Detroit and Pittsburgh included: $60 per event, $40 per each additional event per fencer. All room, travel and board expenses** for the coach to be divided by the number of participating families.
For all in-state Ohio SYC/NAC and out-of-state RYC, SYC and NAC tournaments: $80 per event, $50 per each additional event per fencer. All room, travel and board expenses for the coach to be divided by the number of participating families.
For any tournament which requires a coach’s participation for more than 3 days, such as the US Nationals: an extra $100 fee per day is added to the final bill to be divided among all participating families.
The coach’s responsibilities are to be guiding and assisting students during and between the bouts. The coach will be at the venue from the start of the event until the last CFA participant is eliminated.
*All tournaments within 1 hr driving distance from Cleveland are considered local.
**At actual cost but not to exceed the cost of the venue recommended by the tournament organizer. Mileage reimbursement per current IRS guidelines. Board – $50/coach per day.
Resourses
For more information about strip coaching and additional insight from other fencing club’s point of view, please read this article from the AFM blog.
We highly recommend that parents new to fencing subscribe to their blog, in order to learn more about fencing.
In this article, they cover how to communicate with your coach, and better understand how you can be helped, and here the author has some advice for the fencing parents.
This page on the CFA website is a guide for the parents new to fencing, including information about the parental role in the fencer’s development, and a short explanation about the tournament gear your fencers would need.
Here are the answers to some FAQ as well as the Resources page on the CFA website which cover all you need to know to start being a competitive fencer, starting with the age eligibility for different competitions, the competitions descriptions, links to the registration page on the USFA website, and much more.