Armband Program

Introduction:

As the CFF moves towards its transition to the Competency Based Education and Training (CBET) model of coaching training and sport delivery, we are putting into place an instructional stream. This stream will develop fencers with; strong technical knowledge, good tactical observation skills and, through this, a capacity for adaptation, and a more complete general knowledge of fencing (which will lead to better fencers, coaches, and officials).

The program is divided into five separate, but related, performance factors; technical, tactical, rules, refereeing, and at the higher levels coaching. Though the actual competence in each of these performance factors is important, it is the delivery of the information that is of greater importance. This document will delineate the actual armband program, an outline of the exam procedure for the levels, the minimum time spent preparing for each level, and a short discussion on age categories. The actual delivery of the program information will be related to the coaches in short workshops directly following the CFF’s “Selection Circuit Events”.

Exam procedure:

Before speaking of the exam procedure itself, note must be made of the following. It is required to have the fencers demonstrate these skills in two different contexts;
1) within the regular practice of the club,;
2) within the context of a “formal” exam.
These two contexts assure the acquisition of the skills under different conditions. The club environment will allow the coach to assess the ease with which the fencer is able to demonstrate the skills in a comfortable, non-”threatening”, environment. The exam environment will allow the coach to assess the fencer’s ability to perform these skills in a more “pressured” environment (likened, somewhat, to when a coach asks a fencer to perform a certain action on the piste). Education theory has shown these to be quite different aspects of the total acquisition of skills.

For the first two levels (yellow and orange) the club coach is responsible for the exams. Each of the five streams is tested and given a ranking as follows: acquired, being acquire, not acquired (or 3, 2, 1). To be promoted to the next level, a fencer must attain a minimum of two “acquired” marks (3’s) and no “not acquired” marks (1’s). For the next two levels (green and bleu), the assessment process must include the club coach and one other coach (preferably from another club, or at minimum one from the same club who is not directly coaching the fencer)1. In this case each coach will use the same scale as above and the average of the two rankings will constitute the final assessed mark. The club coach must present the marks for the club environment assessment to the second examining coach.

The final two levels (brown and black), will be assessed at the regional training camps hosted by the CFF. For purposes of this assessment the examining board will consist of three coaches, one of who must be the senior camp coach, in the given weapon. The personal coach can be present at the exam but cannot participate in the examining process. The personal coach must submit the “club environment” assessment to the senior camp coach prior to the board exam. At these levels a more stringent marking scheme is to be used. The fencers will be assessed along a scale between 0 and 10 (for each of the performance factors), and must not receive a mark lower than 5 in any of these to be promoted to the next level.

As the fencers progress through the armband levels, s/he must demonstrate a progression through the stages of skill development. The first table below gives you an outline of the stages, the second table shows you the progression through these stages.