is a professional at the highest level and well known and respected in the fencing community among other clubs, coach- es and fencers. Each of the coaches had at least Master Degree up to Ph.D. They are highly professional and really passionate about teaching kids fencing! How is the ethnic mix in your school? Do you welcome all? We are very diversified fencing academy and welcome all. We have about 50% girls and 50% boys. AFM has students of many different ethnic backgrounds, and the ethnic mix really reflects a true diversity of the Silicon Valley, with at least 60% of non caucasian students, coming from such countries as China, India, Japan, Iran and many more. Do you think an ambitious student can be helped to move forward faster? We we wrote before our program is very individualized, based on the skill and needs of every fencer. This in particular means that more ambitious students progress faster and we would really encourage their individual progress. Any message to our readers? Fencing is a unique sport that does not have any particu- lar requirement for the physical qualities of the athlete, unlike many other sports, like gymnastics, basketball, swimming and others. One can be tall or short, fast or slow, slim or chubby. As long as they learn how to tactically and strategically outsmart their opponents, play on the strengths and downplay on their weaknesses, they have a good chance to win. Often fencing is called physical chess, since you really need to think few steps ahead of your opponent. Fencing appeals a lot to the thinking kids, who are very smart and creative and who did not find their spark in a team sport or individual “performance” sport. Also, fencing is the best sport to help you with the college application (see a detailed article about that here: http://acad- emyoffencingmasters.com/blog/college-fencing-child-break- down-college-acceptance-statistics/). Fencing placed a lot of high schoolers into top colleges, including Ivy League, oftentimes with a full ride. Interestingly, fencing is the safest sport out there (http://academyoffencingmasters.com/blog/is-fencing- safe/) If your child does not find any interest in any sport, try fencing - the best sport you can find for your child from many perspectives, as stated above, and a lifelong sport as well.
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What is your Child/Teacher Ratio? The ratio is important in the beginner stage where we need to pay close attention to the fencers. We try to be in the ratio of 1 to 6 at this stage. Can you explain a little bit about method of training? What is your overall Philosophy? Our coaches came from Russia with a very rich back- ground in fundamental training of athletes. They raised fencers at every level of national teams, from cadet, juniors to seniors, and the results of current students show this. We put a lot of emphasis to fundamentals, will not cut cor- ners. Everything is very planned ahead of time to the very lit- tle details. We try to combine two things - first of all, this must be very joyful experience for the kids and second, at the same time we ensure they get the best fencing education. It depends on the level. The beginners start with one time a week on Saturdays and go thru 4 consecutive weeks with this introductory program. If they liked it and want to continue, the join Intermediate class where they train twice a week for 1 hour. Every student then evaluated periodically and based on individual progress after some period of time they might move to the next level, which we call Advanced level. Advanced class meets 3 times a week for 1.5hours each. And the highest level is competitive program where they train 4 hours a week for about 2 hours and also take at least 1 private lesson. At some point we would recommend kids at the Intermediate level attend some local competition. We are huge believers in competitions for kids. Without going to competi- tions kids usually loose their interest in sport and eventually quit. Competition gives them sense of what they are doing, why they are doing it, gives them real sense of accomplishment and pride. What kind of background do you expect from your teachers? All our coaches are renowned coaches that have national and international level champions among their students. They trained the best and we expect nothing short of it. Every coach What is the typical schedule for a child? Do you take kids to compe- titions?
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