Training for U18s resumes on Tuesday November 10th in our usual venue at St Johns primary school at 7pm. We are hoping to welcome back our adult members later in the month.
Thursdays will resume for U18s at 6pm in the Olinda Community Hall from the 12th.
Saturdays resume for U18s at 10:30am on November 14th. Please note that Saturdays are also at St Johns, 494 Whitehorse Rd Mitcham for the rest of the year. 10:30am-12:30pm only.
E-mails have been sent out with full details and our Covid-safe plans. If you haven’t received them, please get in touch with the committee!
Make sure you bring a face mask if you are aged 12+, water bottle, and your own personal kit (either purchased or hired from the club). You also need to sign up via Sign-up Genius.
For your easy reference, here are the documents you need to look at before you come back to fencing, and the links to sign up for sessions.
Please log in about five minutes before your session starts. There will be time allowed for question and answers after each session. Wear comfortable clothes and sports shoes. No fencing blade will be needed, but a tennis ball would be useful.
There will also be worksheets to keep you busy at home between sessions.
Fencing is set to return, but with a few changes to the way things work.
As always, we remain committed to supporting our members and keeping the financial barrier to entry in our sport as low as possible. If you are experiencing financial difficulty, or find anything in the new procedures to be a problem, please talk to us!
Start Dates
Mitcham – Tuesday June 23rd, 7pm-9pm. Nunawading – Saturday June 27th, 10am-12pm Olinda – Term 3 July 16th, TBC
Note that we are starting with holiday timetable. Regular classes resume in Term 3.
Membership Payments
Membership payments will resume from July / Q3. All members are welcome to join the two June sessions at no charge (but remember to tell us you are coming!)
Members who pay annually will be contacted by the treasurer to discuss reimbursement for Q2.
Limits on Class Sizes
Initially we are limited to groups of 10, and a maximum of 20 people in the venue.
We don’t expect this to be an issue during the first few weeks, but to make sure no one is left out in the cold we will be asking fencers to pre-register online. Arrangements for Term 3 will be confirmed closer to time.
We also ask parents not to stay in the venue during classes if possible. Again, we know most of you appreciate the chance to grab a coffee or do some shopping while the kids fence, so this shouldn’t too hard to achieve.
There will social distancing and cleaning procedures, which the coaches will walk you through when you arrive at the venue.
Equipment – No Sharing!
Our biggest change for the post-COVID era is that we can no longer allow sharing of masks, jackets and gloves. It is recommended that all fencers purchase their own complete set of kit. Club masks, jackets and gloves will be made available for hire for those who cannot purchase their own, but sizes and quantity are limited. We will also do our best to source 2nd hand equipment for people.
We will continue to provide chest plates, bodywires, and weapons. They will need to be cleaned after use, by the person who used them. Cleaning supplies and hand sanitiser will be provided.
The coaches kit will be reserved for use by Beginners, and no longer available for casual use. We will only be able to cater for beginners at specified beginner sessions, so that borrowed kit can be monitored and cleaned appropriately. (Sorry, no bring-a-friend days for a while!)
Club Merchandise
Need to update your wardrobe? We are putting in a clothing order, so send in your orders for Hoodies, Jackets, T-shirts etc for delivery at fencing. We also have shiny new water bottles for sale!
Welcome to term 3, and fencing in the Covid-19 era!
Important things to remember: Book you place No equipment sharing! Arrive on time Use the hand sanitiser when you arrive Maintain social distance Stick to your training group – including the bags! Depart promptly at the end of your session Use the sanitiser again on your way out
New Members
We are able to accept beginner members in the following groups: Saturday U12. 9:30-10:30am, starting July 18th. Monday Beginner Class, Teens & Adults. 7pm-8:30, stating July 20th Tuesday U11. 7:30-8:30, starting July 14th.
We are also taking expressions of interest for an U8 class earlier on Tuesdays.
Term 3 Timetable
The timetable is a work in progress, and will be updated depending on numbers enrolled and current restrictions.
Melbourne is returning to Stage 3 lock-down, so no more fencing. At this stage we are looking at 6 weeks break, but as always we shall keep you posted on further developments.
There will no fencing tonight (Tuesday July 7th).
Membership payments are back on hold. You can still order club merchandise for when you return. If you have borrowed club equipment, keep it safe until we return.
All sports facilities are currently closed, and we don’t know how long it will last. Here are some training ideas to keep you in fencing shape while at home.
We are sharing these on our Facebook page, and will add links here as we go.
How are we all going with our enforced rest break? As promised, we’re going to share some stuff with you to help keep you in shape at home.
Today we’ll kick off with some Fencers Edge videos. First, physical conditioning with some balance work!
As some of you know, when you ask the coach what you can practice at home the first thing she says is “Footwork!” Coach has also been known to say that there is no point practicing your footwork badly.
So, before we start footworking, here is a quick review of common
mistakes and how to correct them. You will probably find a lot of this
very familiar as well!
Last one for today, this one courtesy of Gryphon Fencing Club. Think of this as a “my first fencing footwork drill”.
Thursday would normally be epee at Olinda. Here is something fun for the epeeists.
A
bit of upper body work today, with Enrico Di Ciolo – the Italian coach
some of you would have met at the UFC earlier this year. You should be able to get the general idea without understanding Italian 🙂
Welcome to the weekend! We’re using the sunny morning to clean and dry fencing equipment. For you, we present the Beginner Fencing Workout. (Pace yourself, we’ve probably got weeks of this 😉🤺 )
Welcome to week two of training at home! Let’s get those shoulders to loosen up a bit before we start using blades.
Now might also be a good time to think about practice targets. Here is one option, you could add a mask to the top. Alternatively, if you have some big cardboard boxes around you might like to find them before tomorrow.
Your sense of humour may vary, but lots of ideas here, and the key point that you can make up your own drills! He’s using a foil, but you can use an epee or sabre just as easily
Something a little different today. Let’s talk about Tempo. Then you can start playing with it in your basic footwork drills!
Today we have some more physical training exercises, this time from the London Fencing Club.
And let’s add some variety to your attack drills!
Time to share something from closer to home, this one from Sydney Sabre.
Something fun to watch on a wet weekend.
There’s no way around it, the key to consistency and control is lots and lots of repetition.
The
“slide, jump, lunge”, which I learned as “half jump, lunge”, probably
short for “half-step, jump, lunge”, which is what it actually is. Whatever you call it, it’s particularly handy for short people, which is why I use it too much.
Have a happy and safe Easter everyone!
Since we’re all staying home, let’s talk about Feints.
For those who questioned the inclusion of bouncing in the Footwork of Doom sessions, let’s see some sabreurs bounce.
Speaking of the Footwork of Doom sessions, this is where we stole it from:
You can all have some fun with this one. Drill starts 30 seconds in.
As with all these notices, this is subject to change depending on current circumstances, etc.
Training is now cancelled until further notice. All sports clubs and facilities have been asked to close, so we are no longer able to fence. Normal training will resume when we are allowed to do so.
All Training during the school holidays is cancelled. Public activities including This Girl Can and Active April are cancelled.
The club committee will assess the situation at the end of the school holidays and advise members with regard to Term 2 training.
Risk Reduction
Practice good hygiene. Wash your hands regularly, we have soap&water in the bathrooms, and hand sanitiser on the admin table. Bring your own if you can.
You do not need to shake hands. At the end of matches simply salute.
We will be avoiding warm-up games and activities that involve close contact.
Shared equipment is probably the greatest transmission risk at fencing, so we need to ensure one person to one set of kit per clean. We will do our best to provide this for those who need it, but it means our capacity to bring in new members is significantly reduced.
So, now is a really good time to buy your own kit. Especially masks and gloves. We will facilitate orders for term 2 – check for e-mail on the subject.
Please make sure you only pick up your mask to fence with, pay attention.
If you are sick please stay home. We will try to arrange make-up sessions/lessons for you when you are well.
It’s time to start fencing again, here is what you have to look forward to in Term 1. Make sure you affiliate with Fencing Victoria before your first fencing session: FV Registration Form
Mitcham training resumes at 7pm on Tuesday January 21st. We’re on school holiday timetable for the January sessions, which means we make it up as we go along.
Normal classes resume from February 4th. 5pm – U9 Swordplay. New, earlier timeslot! 7pm – U13 Sabre Squad, and Senior Sabre Squad Training starts.
Nunawading training resumes on February 2nd. The first session back will include some goal-setting activities for the year ahead.
More Information If you take a look under News & Events, you’ll find we now have a calendar on this website! You’ll be able to see that we have a Referee Workshop scheduled for Feb 29th!
We have also started putting information into the members-only section of this website. Create an account for yourself, and you’ll be able to check the recommended competitions for the year by age group!
Hard to believe, but as fencing equipment all needs to be imported, you need to be ordering your christmas presents in October if you want to be sure of getting them in time!
To facilitate equipment purchase by members, Lisa is willing to collate and submit orders. However you are still welcome to speak directly to our local importer fencingimports.com.au or otherwise make your own arrangements.
To order, give Lisa your wishlist either at training or e-mail coach@whitehorsechevaliers.org.au Payment is due when the equipment arrives, you will be invoiced directly by Fencing Imports Australia. Some items will require measurements. You can get size charts and use a tape measure at training if you wish. Orders need to be with Lisa no later than October 17th.
Cheap Masks and Lame’s
If enough people are interested, we can order in bulk and obtain some electric sabre masks and lame’s at a significant discount. Please note the following:
The masks are 350N. These are not suitable for Category 1 competitions. They are fine for club use, B-grades, U13 etc.
The mask bib and lame’ fabric is probably not stainless steel. They will have a shorter lifespan than more expensive masks (2-3 years if you look after them. They are cheap for a reason.)
Those Options By Price (depends on exchange rate, etc):
Electric Sabre Mask: $65-$70 Electric Sabre Lame’: $90-$110 Both a mask and a lame’, for $160-$180 total
If you are interested in the bulk order, please let Lisa know ASAP, October 15th at the latest.
Finally, don’t forget we still have $20 body wires for both epee and sabre available! Jenny is looking after those, ask her to bring some to training for you if you want them.
If you are a school fencer who is not already affiliated with Fencing Victoria, please use this link to register: Registration Form
Teams consist of three fencers + optional reserve (total of 4 members)
Teams will be registered with the DT by coaches – entries due Thursday 5th September.
No entry fee will be charged for this event.
Sabre Fencing Equipment will be provided at the venue.
Individual fencers must affiliate with Fencing Victoria prior to the competition. Use the Registration Form to affiliate if you are a new school fencer and this is likely to be your only competition for the year.
No fee will be charged to school sabre
fencers.
Roll Call: 1pm
Fencers should arrive at the venue by 12:30pm to check teams and sort out equipment.
Location:
STATE
FENCING CENTRE
MELWAYS:
Map 2A Ref E8
1st Floor,
204-206 Arden Street, North Melbourne
Parking: Parking is available around the venue, but there are restrictions at
various times – please read the parking signs. Please also note that
U-turns are not permitted in Arden Street (single white line).
Public transport:
– by train closest station is North Melbourne. 10 minute walk down Laurens Street
– by tram
closest stop is No 15 on Abbotsford Street on route 57. 5 minute walk down Arden Street
This event is part of the Sabre Schools Project run by Whitehorse Chevaliers Fencing Club, with funding provided by the Victorian Government and support from Fencing Victoria.
