THREE CHEERS to the Task Force for recommending that USA Fencing enshrine Y10 and Y12 events as part of the national competition schedule!

This recommendation by the Task Force puts to bed a multi-year discussion at USA Fencing on whether to eliminate youth competition at the national level in line with the recommended practices of the American Development Model for youth sports.

The USA Fencing Board is expected to approve the recommendations of the Task Force at its Board Meeting on February 16, 2023 at 9pm (ET) in Denver.

You can access the Board Agenda for the meeting HERE and the public link to join the video conference is set out below:

https://us02web.zoom.us/j/83051665193?pwd=SG11Qks4VndLVmNUSHhCWDMzdXV5QT09

Passcode: 227461

How the Task Force Was Formed

The Task Force was formed as a result of Donald Alperstein’s motion at the October 30, 2022 Board meeting for a Task Force to “consider the advisability and propriety of conducting Y10 and Y12 events at national tournaments, with the report of its findings and recommendations to be delivered no later than the Board’s Winter Meeting in February 2023….”

Prior to Donald Alperstein’s proposal, there had been strong and somewhat emotional movement within segments of the fencing community to eliminate youth competition at the national level for a variety of reasons including bringing USA Fencing practices for youth fencers in line with the American Development Model, anecdotal observations that parents and coaches of youth fencers misbehaved more at national tournaments compared to parents and coaches of older fencers, and the need to make room for Division 2 and 3 national events which were eliminated in the 2022/2023 season.

We owe Mr. Alperstein a big thank you for initiating the formation of a Task Force comprised of experts to collect and professionally and systematically evaluate the data and make reasoned recommendations based on that data on whether it is appropriate to eliminate youth events at national tournaments.

Read FP’s article “Task Force to Consider Elimination of Y10 and Y12 Events at National Tournaments” covering the October 2022 proposal.

Who was on the task force?

The members of the Task Force (formally know as the Y8-Y10-Y12 Review Group) comprised a group of qualified professionals able to evaluate evidence and make informed decisions:

Jennifer Oldham – Coach, Forge Fencing

Greg Massialas OLY – Coach, M Team Fencing

Dr Kristin Van Hook MD – Fencing Parent & Pediatric Pulmonologist at Oschner Center for Children

Dr Ekaterina Hossny DO – Fencing Parent & Psychiatrist – NYC Health & Hospitals.

Dr Mark Lavallee MD – Sports Medicine Lead, U. Penn. Medical Center & Dir. Sports Med – USA Wgt., former Team Physician, University of Notre Dame.

Dr Robert Parisien MD – Orthopedic Surgeon, Mt Sinai & Team Physician, US Ski Snowboard

Dr Ina Hartzanova PsyD – Clinical Psychologist, Representative – USA Fencing Youth Development RT.

Dr Peggy Chin DC – Director of Sports Medicine, USA Fencing

Dr John Anderson PhD – Center for Sports Psychology.

Phil Andrews – Chief Executive Officer, USA Fencing

Brandon Rochelle – Chair, USA Fencing Tournament Committee

Brad Suchorski – Director of Membership, Service & Growth, USA Fencing.

Dr Suzie Riewald PhD – Education Manager, USA Fencing

Tom Farrey – Executive Director – Aspen Institute, Program for Sport & Society also participated but did not wish to be listed as a member of the group

The Data Evaluated by the Task Force is Illuminating

The Task Force evaluated the data and drew conclusions about the importance of youth fencing for the overall development of the fencing ecosystem.

Current Member Age Groups

FP looks at this set of data and evaluates it from an additional perspective, that of the impact on revenues to USA Fencing and the clubs.

USA Fencing’s membership is heavily concentrated within members aged between 8 and 18 with peak membership at age 14. Based on the chart below, here’s how the age groups add up:

• Fencers between ages 8 and 17 add up to 17,642 fencers (11,222 men and 6,420 women)

• Fencers between ages 8 and 12 add up to 7,988 fencers (5,109 men and 2,879 women)

• Post-college adult fencers between ages 23 to 30 add up to a total of 1,622 fencers (1,162 men and 460 women)

The youth fencers aged between 8 and 12 outnumber post-college adult fencers by a ratio of 5 to 1, and minor aged fencers aged between 8 and 17 outnumber post-college adult fencers by a ratio of 11 to 1.

Youth fencers aged 8 to 12 form about 45% of minor aged fencers at USA Fencing.

These numbers are very compelling that youth fencers aged between 8 and 12 are crucial to USA Fencing’s financial health. As many of you may already know, membership fees, and NAC fees form the bulk of USA Fencing’s revenues, while regional tournament fees help to support the fencing clubs.

Any reduction in the ability of youth fencers to compete at national tournaments would likely have a knock-on effect on regional tournaments participation, leading to an overall negative impact on the long term financial health of USA Fencing and the clubs. The lost revenues would be irreplaceable and greatly impact USA Fencing’s ability to support Team USA adequately.

Youth fencing has been one of USA Fencing’s most successful programs and has grown from strength to strength over the years. USA Fencing needs to keep building on it.

Age at which current members first joined USA fencing

The chart below shows that the most popular age at which fencers first become USA Fencing members is age 10. Overall, the most popular ages at which fencers become members are 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 and 13. These appear to be the prime ages at which kids take up fencing as a sport.

Nurturing these new youth members and getting them to become long term fencers must be a major goal for USA Fencing. Those who love sports know that the biggest part of the fun is the competition, take that away and the interest subsides quickly.

And so, the Task Force responded strongly to this data by recommending that youth competition be preserved and in fact enhanced.

Age at First National and Regional Competition

The 2 charts below look almost identical. The most popular age at which fencers first compete regionally and nationally is age 10. In fact, 8 and 9 year old fencers are also an active group of competitors in regional and national events.

Dropping out of Fencing

The chart below shows that there is a certain amount of “I am trying out the sport” behavior from youth fencers who drop fencing as a sport after a couple of years, but many more of them stick with fencing through high school. This is a healthy and natural phenomenon for any sport.

KEY Task Force Recommendations for Youth Events (Y8/Y10/Y12)

As its name implies, the Y8-Y10-Y12 Review Group, the Task Force went far beyond assessing the viability of youth events at national tournaments, it also delved into overall improvement for the youth fencing development program.

Enshrine Y10 and Y12 in the National Events Calendar

By far the most important recommendation is the one to enshrine Y10 and Y12 events in the national calendar. The March Youth NAC is saved!

The Task Force’s recommendation is based on data that “appears to support that Y10-Y12 is a critical part of the USA Fencing ecosystem and development system.”

Require Multi Activity Participation as a pre-condition to national tournament competition

To compete at the national level, youth fencers should be required to participate once a week in another activity or sport.

According to the Task Force, “At this early age, Fencing should be a fun, active part of life and while competition is a necessary element of skill acquisition in this sport, it should not be the sole specialist activity of an individual. Such activities should be balanced with Fencing, and have at least one weekly participation, while the Fencing sport is recommended to be kept at 3 sessions per week.”

We applaud the sentiment behind this recommendation, however, enforcing its requirements may be quite challenging and require resources that USA Fencing does not yet have. There is also an element of infringement on parental choice, even if that choice of a single activity at such a young age is somewhat misguided.

Perhaps, strong recommendations and persuasion directed at parents of youth fencers as part of an educational program would work just as well.

Formalize regional and local competition for Y8

The Task Force takes the protection of youth competition a step further and recommends that Y8 events be “formalized as a regional level competition age group, with associated education being made available on the appropriate competitive training for this age group (see later recommendation).”

significantly expand education for coaches, referees, parents and athletes

We are in complete agreement with the Task Force that “The key in these educational efforts is to set reasonable expectations for all parties and ensure that the pursuit of Fencing at these ages is firstly about fun and enjoyable experiences for the Fencer in order that we may retain the Fencer for years to come.”

The Task Force makes 4 important recommendations on education:

• “…it is vital that all major stakeholders (Parents, Coaches and Referees) receive appropriate and engaging education opportunities…..The inclusion of Parents, Coaches and Referees as linked but distinct groups is vital to the success of a youth development program since these three groups significantly influence each other.”

• “…it is key to educate Parents, Coaches and Referees on injury prevention, strength and conditioning, nutrition, mental health, competition planning, benefits of multi-sport and cross-training, as well as guidelines for parents new to the sport. In particular, significant attention should be given to ensuring the strong mental health of the athlete.”

• “It is also essential to create age specific Referee Education, for training on how to facilitate a fun, engaging environment for athletes while they are competing on the street.”

• “..education and messaging to clubs in the age groups 0-6, 7-9, 10-14 and 15+ on the stages of development they should be, generally, expecting at those age groups.”

The one strange recommendation

Endorse an existing Board recommendation for multi-sport membership

While playing multiple sports is a great idea for young kids, we do not need the USA Fencing Board’s intervention into choice of sports.

Apparently, the USA Fencing Board is exploring multi-sport memberships with sister sports that provide common development opportunities such as Archery.

While cross-training is always a good thing, why archery??? Why not soccer, why not basketball, why not golf, why not tennis, why not squash, why not swimming? These are all common sports pursued by kids of all genders under the age of 12.

Archery is also not a popular sport at the college level and is only offered at the varsity level by 21 colleges in total in the whole country.

Most kids have access to a range of youth sports within their own communities at very reasonable costs. They should be free to pursue those activities at their family’s discretion.

While the bargain of a multi-sport membership will have its appeal when there is a coincidence of interest, it should always be just an option for families.

Conclusion

Thank you Task Force members, you did an excellent job!

The Task Force did very well in taking into account the current thinking on stress reduction in youth sports and balancing that with the preservation of the strong competitive developmental pathways now in place that have produced so many international fencing medals at all levels in recent years.

Education of the key stakeholders, coaches, referees and parents in youth fencing is also critical, and we applaud the education recommendations made by the Task Force.

And thank you Donald Alperstein for setting the Task Force in motion.

The Complete Report is available with the Board Meeting Agenda as Appendix C which you can find HERE