I sent this to Tim today. It's very general and vague, but it's
mostly just a heads up of what I'm willing and intending to do.

***


Tim,

Hopefully the move has gone as smoothly as possible. As we briefly
discussed previously, I am happy to participate as a coach in
Bladepoint Fencing, both for individual lessons and teaching
programme classes. This is how I envision it working.

Beginner's classes:
As I understand, you want to offer two 4-week beginner's classes,
running for an hour on Saturdays, starting each month. Students can
then continue from these classes into a program or as recreational
fencers or however they like. If you want me to teach a set of these
classes, I would be amenable. My general philosophy of a beginner's
class is to give a very general introduction to fencing overall,
primarily the concepts of footwork and right of way. To my way of
thinking, these fundamentals are most easily taught with a foil, but
I would present at least one session on each of the other weapons as
part of any beginner's course. Furthermore, at the end of these
sessions, I intend to suggest to students that they proceed with any
weapon they like. This is mostly out of an old belief that
specialisation in one weapon is a decision for more experienced
fencers; I realise I'm now the only person in the world who thinks
this way.

In any case, the next beginner's class starts in June. If you want me
to start teaching that one, I'm available.

Foil and Epee Programmes:
Another role I see for myself is to provide a training programme for
foilists and epeeists who train at the academy. I am happy to work
with Paul and other experienced fencers to put something together.
Over the next few months I will have the time to teach myself, but
after semester starts again in August I will probably have to dial
back to giving only a few group and individual lessons. By that time,
however, I would hope to have things at a point where other senior
fencers can do much of the teaching, particularly in the group
lessons. We can work out the details of fees and other financial
matters at another point, but I am agreeable in general to providing
group and individual instruction for both foil and epee.

Recreational Fencers:
I think it is important to codify exactly what is and is not
available to general clubmembers, as we have already discussed. For
instance, I consider that short general footwork sessions are
fundamental to any fencing club, and therefore should be open to all,
even `recreational' fencers. It is precisely the sort of thing that
helps cement club unity and promote a general commitment to the sport
among all clubmembers. Perhaps if every training night, for instance,
had general footwork from 6:30-6:45 or 7:00, open to all clubmembers.
The benefits of belonging to a programme then come from the extended
training sessions, particularly the group drills and bladework
sessions. I also think it is important that there be a method by
which non-fencers can come and try the sport a little – if someone
has a friend who would like to try it for a night without necessarily
signing up for any classes sight unseen, then there must be a way for
them to just pay a floor fee and try it for an evening.

I think that's more or less it for now. We can work out financial
details at another time in person. If you want more precise details
of how and what exactly I plan on teaching in terms of group drills
and sessions, I can elaborate, or I can just get those who were in
Alex's epee programme together over the next couple of weeks and get
started.

Aron