Our Curriculum
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CURRICULUM
New Amsterdam Fencing Academy provides a comprehensive training program in the sport of fencing. From recreational fencers to national competitors, from pre-schoolers with their foam swords to teens on their high-school team and beyond, the focus at NAFA is on learning, growth, fitness, confidence and mastery.
At NAFA, we stress the four complimentary elements in training a fencer: Group work (footwork and conditioning), individual lessons, practice bouting, and competitions.
Group classes form the core of our program. Here, students become familiar with the fundamental movements and prerequisites of competitive fencing. The emphasis is on coordination, fitness, and basic fencing skills – a strong foundation upon which to build.
As part of our progressive curriculum, NAFA fencers earn patches to signify their level within the club. Students must pass increasingly demanding tests that assess fencing knowledge and abilities in order to move up. This system, modeled on the top fencing schools in France, motivates students to achieve more, bolsters their confidence, and better prepares them to eventually compete in the sport.
After passing their first two tests and reaching level “C”, students are eligible for private lessons. This traditional master/apprentice format, the history of which goes back to Renaissance Europe, provides a critical element of the young fencer’s training as well as establishes a solid, long-term mentor relationship with the coach, a springboard for future competitive success.
In addition to physical fitness, fencing has been proven to improve mental agility, most notably in math and spatial skills.
According to Swordsmen 101.com:
Dueling with any one of the three types of fencing swords, whether the lightweight foil, the epee or the thrashing saber, can actually improve math skills. Fencing improves a perception of geometric shapes– one literally “draws” in the air with the sword– and a type of “if/then” logic, explained Dr. John Heil, a sports psychologist and the chairman of the Sports Science, Safety and Technology Committee for the U.S. Fencing Association.
Read the entire article at: http://www.swordsmen101.com/
New York City’s top High Schools, including Stuyvesant, Bronx Science, and Hunter College offer competitive fencing programs, and the Speyer Legacy School for gifted young learners has made this sport of “physical chess” a mandatory part of their curriculum.
Fencing is an ideal enrichment activity for the energetic child, as well as the thoughtful one, the social one and the shy one, as it simultaneously engages the physical and the intellectual, offering multiple challenges and growing progressively more complex, yet always in step with the student’s own development.
