San Salvador, Tashkent, Budapest, Cairo: these are the four stages that hosted the FIE technical courses for coaches in 2014, for a total of 88 participants coming from 78 different countries. A cycle of courses, from May to November, aimed at refining the technical skills of fencing coaches worldwide. Foil coaches from Pan-Am gathered in San Salvador under the direction of Petru Kuki and Huges Lesseur. Jerzy Konczalski was the reference point for the epee trainers in Tashkent. After the summer, the second wave of the technical courses for coaches saw the direct engagement of 2 FIE Coaches council members: Laszlo Szepesi, assisted by Krisztina Nagy, played home, welcoming the European sabre coaches in Budapest (after having hosted 2 courses in foil respectively in 2009 and 2012), while Octavian Zidaru closed the season in Cairo, coping with an heterogeneous level of epee coaches coming from Africa and Middle East.
A few figures:
49 epee coaches
18 sabre coaches
21 foil coaches
11 women (1 in sabre, 5 in foil, 4 in epee)
The oldest participant was born in 1944, the youngest one in 1996.
Many thanks to:
- El Salvador Fencing Federation
- Uzbekistan Fencing Federation
- Hungarian Fencing Federation
- Egyptian Fencing Federation
For the logistical and technical support provided.
FIE joins ICCE
FIE joins ICCE, the International Council for Coaching Excellence. [http://www.icce.ws/]
The non-profit organization aims at promoting coaching as an internationally accepted profession. FIE official enters the network in 2015.