These pages contain news and press releases from the Foundation...
The Foundation Council have recently become aware of another fencing competition which has been organised on the same weekend as the Youth Development Series Round 2 (YDS 2) event on 22nd/23rd November.
Update: After many messages of support from fencers, coaches and parents (for which we would like to thank you all) - and searching through the calendar for alternative dates which would not impact on anything else (which is pretty tough), we have decided that the best course of action we can take for the YDS fencers is to go ahead with YDS Round 2 as planned.
Therefore we can confirm that Round 2 will be held on 22nd/23rd November at High School of Glasgow - look for entry forms on the site very soon, and at YDS Round 1 - next week.
We will continue to depend heavily on those people who are kind enough to come along and support us on the weekend and if you haven't already told us you can help out there is still loads of time - click here - all help is as ever most welcome.
Original Posting:
Whilst we welcome any new opportunities for competitive fencing in Scotland, this clash is causing us some concern and looks very likely to impact on the YDS 2 event to at least some degree.
We were unaware of the possibility of another competitionon the date we agreed with Scottish Fencing for YDS 2 and further had actually requested the organiser not to use YDS dates if possible for events this year after a similar clash of a YDS event and a youth steam foil competition last year.
The fact that the date clash has subsequently occurred - and that the organisers did not take one of the many opportunities which have existed since the YDS dates were published in late July to inform the Foundation of the clash is a source of some disappointment to us. We are hoever committed to trying to do the best we can for the affected fencers.
The Foundation operates the YDS on a strictly non-profit making basis and as such is wholly dependent upon the generous support we have enjoyed from coaches, fencers and parents who give up their time to referee and help at the competitions, and also to those schools who provide us with their fantastic facilities at much reduced cost. We simply cannot afford to book venues at commercial rates like Open competitions do.
As a result of the above constraints, the options now open to us are limited - our major area of consideration is that a reduced number of available refereees and helpers might force us to restrict or abandon the competition - though we are working to avoid that if possible and are receiving much appreciated support from Scottish Fencing and from the series main sponsors - Allstar UK.
If we are able to collate a list of sufficient support we hope to be able to confirm that the competition will go ahead as planned by the end of this week (Sun 12th October), so that the fencers - who are our primary concern - are not adversely affected.
If you are able to provide any support or assistance on either day of YDS 2 we would therefore be very grateful if you could inform us using this link, so that we can get the most realistic picture of how impacted YDS 2 might be and factor this into our planning.
The Foundation for Scottish Fencing Council
After a great start to this years Allstar UK Youth Development Series - where we had a massive 121 fencers for Round One - we are delighted to announce that for the second competition in a row we have broken 100 entrants again (102 so far) for this weekends Round Two event in Glasgow!
Entries have officially closed - but if you want to take part you can still do so if you email us.
F4SF
In keeping with our constitution we are obliged to have an AGM every year and last year we held this at YDS 2 in Stirling. This year therefore we are happy to announce this will be held on Sunday 15th February at 12 noon - at the Dundee High School venue of YDS 3.
There are five elected Council positions to be determined and we are happy to receive any nominations for those posts over the next 7 days. We also need to identify some people who are willing to work on planned initiatives for the next 12-18 months or just generally to add their name to the list of volunteers we can call upon to help out.
Please don't be shy, the Foundation needs new blood either in the Council itself or working on planned projects and absolutely everyone has something to offer - remember that none of the current council are fencers after all.
Please send any nominations or offers to volunteer time and brain power to us here.
If you have any items you wish to be discussed at the AGM (we are looking to keep it short so as not to interfere with the YDS itself, but its also an open forum) then pleas esend us an agenda item request here.
The Foundation has recently been approached by 2 well established and operated SF listed clubs who are having a problem sourcing coaches - can you help?
Update!!
We are delighted to advise that the coaching requirement for St Andrews Fencing Club has now been filled after we posted this request here & on our Facebook page and that the club now appears to have secured a new set of coaching services on a long term basis. We are also advised that the request for extra assistance required for the other club is close to being confirmed.
Two great results which support the future of these clubs and safeguard the interests of the fencers - our immense thanks go to all who expressed interest and helped them with this.
F4SF
Original Post
Club 1 - St Andrews Fencing Club is looking for a coach to take over when their interim coaching cover (provided from the University Club) ends in December. They need someone with experience of working with children but versatile enough to coach a mixed group of adults. The club is small and is looking for someone who can help them to grow in size as well as support their existing fencers. This could be a good opportunity for someone who is qualified as a coach who possibly lives in Fife, Perth or Tayside and is looking to work with a motivated group of fencers and supporters who are fighting to keep their club up an running.
Club 2 - Located in the West of Scotland, this club primarily needs someone to support and bring on young novice fencers – currently they are turning away potential club members because they have no-one to coach them. Although the club have been looking for a while via personal contacts and the normal channels, they’ve been unable to secure someone – hence this call to arms!
If you can help with either of these requests – or you know someone who is appropriately qualified and CRB disclosure cleared etc. who could be interested in helping this clubs young fencers into the sport - then please let us know and we will put you in touch with them.
Please be aware also that the Foundation is itself able to sponsor CRB disclosures (standard and enhanced) for the purposes of fencing coaching and supporting activities and provides such other support as we can to get coaches and potential officials “on the fencing ladder”.
This includes the provision of personal coaching kit, running courses and arranging a mentor etc.
We are always here to help - and we also hope you can help these club with their problems.
If you can help then please use the contact link on the left of this page.
So just about 24 hours to YDS Round 3 and we've once again broken 100 entries (106 and still rising...)!
You do just about still have time to get your entry in if you email it to us - (and if you haven't entered already then what are you waiting for??).
Nearly a third of the entries are from Dundee and northwards - which is a great turnout and totally justifies having our first competition outside of the central belt (thanks guys!!).
Forms are here, and you can use this link to email it to us.
We'll see you there :)
Anyone who has helped tidy up after a fencing competition will know of the large volumes of waste generated at the competition.
We therefore started trying to get people to put their plastic bottles in separate bags at the end of last year's YDS. We were better organised at this years event, and are delighted to say we recycled approximately 50% of the waste from YDS1. The plastic bottles go to a recycle scheme, and the plastic bottle tops go to a Central Scotland charity. We will have more "bottles only" bins at this event, and hopefully spread the idea to other events in Scotland. Please do use the "bottles only" bags - it also makes the Janitors at our host schools happy!
This year new FIE rules on target areas have come into force for the FOIL weapon (effectively adding a piece of conductive lame material target area on the mask bib - details are here).
In keeping with the British Fencing implementation guidelines the Foundation are now able to confirm what this means for the YDS Competitions this season and beyond.
This season no foil competitors will be expected or required to use the new foil target area (fencers who already have a new specification bib will not require to use the headwire and can insulate the connectivity tabs on the mask).
From the start of the 2010 season fencers who use a size 5 blade will require also to have a new specification mask bib (this affects u16 and o16 categories only).
There are no current plans to introduce the foil bib target for users of size 0,2,3 weapons and therefore u10, u12 and u14 categories will not need to use bib target area masks.
The Foundation has been successful in several Grant applications in the last 4 years. We have just been successful in receiving funding support for Referee training in 2009 - more details to follow soon!
We are aware that a large number of Clubs across Scotland can benefit from improved / more equipment, and potentially help with developing facilities. The Foundation are only a small group, who are already heavily committed with competitions, and progressing other equipment / training activities. We simply don't have the resources to do fundraising grant applications on behalf of individual clubs, nor is this within our remit as a charity. When we do applications, we aim to focus on requests which will benefit all fencers in Scotland, not specifically an individual club...
Our offer..... please contact us if you would like assistance in finding out who could potentially help you with funding, and for advice on how we have gone about filling out application forms.
They do take time, but hopefully you can learn from our mistakes, and make a difference in your own club!
Just 7 days after YDS 5 Scottish Fencing are holding the u12, u17 and u20 Scottish Championships in Grangemouth. This is the "Blue Riband" event for Youth Fencing and if you do the YDS series there is absolutely no excuse for not being there!
On a rule of thumb basis if you do u10 or u12 Foil then you could do the u12 championship. If you have fought in the u14 - o16 (and are under 17 of course) then you could try the u17's and if you have competed in the u16 and o16 then the u20's is worth trying out.
Remember that you can enter both the u17 and u20 event - they run back to back and all that fencing fitness you've built up at the YDS will be perfect for doing both!!
As ever we will have entry forms for this event at YDS5 (some of you may have picked one up at YDS4 - we certainly handed out quite a few!) - but if you do want to enter you need to be quick - entries close on Monday 20th April.
You can read more here:
u12 Scottish Championships u17/u20 Scottish Championships
Two members of the Foundation Council recently attended a workshop on the optimum ways to make a grant application. Steve Euston, our Support Coordinator, will be at the YDS4, and can pass on copies of the handout from this training.
The handout gives several hints and tips on producing better grant applications, and also provides a full list of potential grant sources. It is hoped that this will provide support, to allow clubs throughout Scotland to bring new funding into fencing.
In response to comments and feedback we received last year, the Foundation embarked on a rebuild and re-platforming of the web site.
What was wrong with the old site?
Well no-one really made any negative comment - but the old site was based on something called "Dragonfly" - and though intended to be easy to update, it was just a little bit too complex for lots of people to easily keep up to date.
It was also quite busy on the screen - we wanted something a bit cleaner, more chunky and easier to grab hold of.
And the new site?
We're still waiting for some feedback, but the new site certainly ticks a lot of the boxes for ease of update, and we hope for friendliness too :)
We now have a few people who are able to keep the site up to date (its much easier) - but are always looking for more.
So what about the old site?
The old site is still running for now - but you'll need to use the url http://www.thefoundationforscottishfencing.org to get to it. We don't expec tthe site to be running for too much longer - once we have moved everything we need from it we'll mothball the old server and work from the http://www.f4sf.org domain only.
Please look around and let us know what you think of the site using the contact link on the left of the screen.
It hardly seems like 5 minutes since we started the 2008 series of the Allstar UK Youth Development series and here we are thinking about the mid-way point already!! Round Three of the Allstar UK sponsored Youth Development Series will be held on 14th/15th February 2009 at The Mayfield Sports Centre/High School of Dundee - details here.
We took a bit of a breath yesterday, but have pulled ourselves together to compile the results from a fantastic weekend of fencing in Dundee.
As ever - much much thanks needs to go out to all who helped us over the weekend - the Dundee FC folks who helped us set up and clear up the event, our fantastic Allstar UK sponsors, our refs (especially Jen and Glen who travelled all the way from Glasgow just to referee on the Saturday) and our new DT team of Caroline and Lorraine.
We are going to go and lie down in a dark room for a while to get our breath back and then we'll be setting off to Stirling in just over a month to do it all again. See you there!!
F4SF
Well another great weekend over - thanks to all who took part and especially thank you on behalf of all the fencers and the Foundation to all the helpers, officials and parents who attended and made it such a great event once again.
With lightning speed (if we sat down we'd fall asleep...) the results are up, as are some photos!! (Look out for the Snowman and Santas who made a flying appearance on Sunday - most peculiar!!)
All you need about Round Two can be found here - rankings will be up in a few days, then we'll be having a quiet lie down till February when we do it all again!!
F4SF
Just 3 days now till YDS4 to be held at St Modans High School in Stirling on the 21st/22nd March - and pretty much all of the entries should now be in - but you still have time for a last minute addition if you are REALLY quick... Forms are here, and if you can't print it out you can always use this link to email it to us.
This weekend is Mothers Day (just a reminder for those of you who have forgotten) and there is surely nothing better as a gift than letting your Mum come along to watch you fence - (she might say she would prefer flowers and breakfast in bed, but that's sooo yesterday...)
We'll see you there :)
Lickety split the results from a fantastic weekend of fencing in Stirling at YDS Round 4 are now up!!
As ever - much much (much) thanks needs to go out to all who helped us over the weekend - all the folks who helped us set up and clear up the event, our fantastic Allstar UK sponsors, our refs and especially Caroline Russell who ran DT on Saturday and Andrew Daykin who did it on Sunday. Without all you guys we wouldn't have a comp at all - so on behalf of the fencers we would like to say how much we appreciate your efforts.
We've got just about a month to the last round of this years YDS to be held at Dollar on 18th/19th April and as you'll see from the rankings its pretty much all to play for in most of the events.
You've got to be in it to win it - so see you there!!
F4SF
The results for YDS Round 5 are now up here, with the final series rankings for 2008/9 here
We would like to express our massive thanks to all those who helped us deliver YDS this year - and as ever to our great and very supportive sponsors, Allstar UK. You guys make it all possible and on behalf of the fencers we are very very grateful indeed.
We're off now for a wee lie down - but watch this space - lots more coming very soon!!
F4SF
Scottish Fencing have today updated the u16 cross-weapon rankings and announced the NIF for the Scottish Secondary Schools - which for this year will be 20. As a result the NIF for all YDS competitions which shall be used for the SF official rankings lists will be 15. This makes the YDS competitions really very worthwhile to enter if you want to attract ranking points.
This has taken a while to get published - however we know how hard it is to create simple to interpret ranking lists for 6 weapons, and you can definitely see where the work has gone since the ranking lists now run for the whole fencing year, and not just till January as they have in the past. This means that there is now much more reason to enter the whole range of Scottish open competitions and YDS events right up till July next year.
The adoption of a full season ranking system is an excellent decision in our opinion and we congratulate Car, Jen, Roy, Caroline and everyone else at Scottish Fencing involved in working out and introducing this rolling ranking approach.
F4SF
Rankings for all weapons after Round One are now up - please click here
There are just a couple of days until the first YDS of the 2009/10 season, but if you have posted your entry and it has not appeared on the web site it might be held up by the postal strike action.
If you have sent your entry in over the past week and don't see youself listed please email us - using the contact form on this site so we know you are coming.
Less than 24 Hours now till YDS 5 - and we are still getting a trickle of entries coming in even now. If you DO want to enter then let us know today please - we are setting up the comp as you read this!!
The final round of the YDS is always interesting and some of the weapon events will literally go down to the last touch to decide who will be the 2009 YDS Champions - so don't miss out.
F4SF
For the first time in YDS history - okay so its not a very long history, but you know what we mean - we have broken over 100 entries for a competition!
YDS Round 1 of the 2008/9 season has received its 101st entry today (Saturday 18th) - and with a week yet to go till the event there is still time to go higher yet...
If you don't have your entry in there is still time - email us to let us know its on the way and we'll add you to the list and if you do so before Wednesday we'll let you in for the normal (and not late entry) rate - how good are we??
Entry form is here
Following a couple of "spillages" and comments from Janitors at previous venues, please can we make 2 requests for YDS3:
- We will be selling hot drinks, but would ask they are not taken into the sports hall. There is a large viewing gallery at the venue.
- Please can parents going in / out the hall ensure they have suitable footwear for a sports venue.
Thank you
We're over halfway now (whew) and the clock is ticking down to YDS4 to be held at St Modans High School in Stirling on the 21st/22nd March - that's just TWO WEEKS from now!! (Have you got your entry in yet???)
You still have plenty of time to get your entry in - and if you haven't entered already then what are you waiting for?? Every event so far has had over 100 entries and it would be great to keep that going. With 4 out of 5 rounds counting in the final rankings its all still to play for - the series isn't decided by any measure.
Forms are here, and if you can't print it out you can always use this link to email it to us.
We'll see you there :)
Are you under 10 - do you fancy trying a sabre comp? We only have one lonely entry for our under 10 mixed sabre this weekend again, and doing sabre on your own is just no fun at all...
If you think you'd like to give this young lady some competition then please let us know urgently...
F4SF
Updated as a "sticky" at the top of our Front page on 21/11/08 by Owen
We have received a request from a fencing parent who is looking for some kit for her two young sons who want to take part in the remaining YDS rounds.
Whilst the Foundation is not in a position to provide kit on an individual basis, we are very heppy to post details of wanted or for sale fencing items. To this end we have put a new section on the site "The Kit Table" -where you can list what you are looking for or might wish to dispose of. This is a free service, and to use it all you need to do is drop us a note using the contact form we have provided for this purpose on our "Contacts Page", letting us know what you want/have and some basic contact details and we'll put people in touch with one another where we can.
F4SF