Private Lessons
Once students start to express interest in competition, it’s time to start thinking about individual lessons. Lessons are a more intense training workout and allow the coach to refine specific techniques and tactics. Coaches usually give lessons during open practice times, or by appointment before or during other classes. Private lessons are offered in foil, saber and epee.
When should I start asking my coach about private lessons?
Since a lesson is like a group class on steroids, our coaches’ opinions unanimously support taking private lessons as soon as you feel ready to advance along faster than the group classes offer, or as soon as you make the decision that you want to be a competitive fencer.
When you take a lesson, the coach is zooming all of their attention onto you: your strengths, weaknesses, style of fencing, good and bad habits, etc. If you get into the habit or regime of taking a private lesson 1-2 times per week, then the coach will be able to measure your success and the development of all of the particular actions which the two of you have been working on. This is a very valuable way to progress quickly and launch your path to collecting medals on the local, regional, super-regional, national, and international levels.
How do I retain what my coach teaches me during the private lessons?
- Videotape your lesson. mom, dad, bro/sis, another fencer can do this easily enough.
- When you get home, write down everything you worked on in your lesson in a journal
- Practice at home some of the routines and actions you did at your lesson
- And most importantly: practice the routines and actions during open fencing when bouting at Cleveland Fencing Academy!
Don’t forget the famous saying: “repetition is the mother of language”, or in the original Russina mother tongue “povtoryenie mat’ uchiniya”. Ask Coach Roman or Coach Eric or anybody else with the last name Guth hanging around the club what this exactly means for fencers!
Duration of the lessons
Lessons are approximately 20 minutes in length depending on frequency, level, and attention span of fencer. The exact length of the lesson is at the coach’s discretion, and is based on factors such as how long it takes the student to warm up and focus, how long the student will last before becoming too tired to execute actions properly, and the intensity level of the lesson. Coaches welcome input from their students on what they want to work on. This can include everything from specific techniques and tactics that they feel need work on to an opponent they want to catch, to competition strategy and long-term goals. Coaches will generally build a foundation of fencing actions and routines on which later and more advanced lessons will be based. Therefore, we encourage setting a weekly lesson schedule to see the most improvement and best results from lessons and training.
Price
Private lesson – $35 (members)/$45 (non-members)
Private family lesson – $35 first kid + $10/ sibling
Cancellations
Lessons can be scheduled individually through our membership system, or we can reserve a regular day and time for you. In either case, if you need to cancel a scheduled lesson, please let us know at least 24 hours in advance. If you cancel with shorter notice or do not show up for your appointment, you will be charged for the lesson.