Travel fees

Most competitive fencing clubs charge a fee to fencers for coaches’ travel, and many require that all fencers traveling to a tournament split all the coaches’ travel expenses among them. At RCFC we try to keep our fees as reasonable as we can. With large numbers of fencers traveling to national tournaments, our travel fee policy helps us cover the substantial costs of sending coaches to national tournaments. The fee is designed to cover at least 50% of our travel expenses.

The standard coaching fee is $100 per event fenced for any tournament involving air travel or an overnight stay for an RCFC coach. For example, if you are fencing Y12 and Y14 foil at a youth NAC, the coaching fee will be $200.

If the expected coaching fees cover at least 50% of the travel expenses, the $100 per event fee will apply. For tournaments where few fencers are attending, the fencers will pay a pro-rated portion of 50% of the coach’s travel costs based on the number of events they are fencing.

For regional events that require minimal hotel stay and no airfare, we will set the coaching fee lower, to cover at least 50% of our travel expenses but not more than 100%.

Travel expenses include airfare, lodging, transportation, and a per diem.

We will be able to give you an idea of the expected coaching fee per fencer by the time of the tournament’s entry deadline. Fencers will be invoiced for their respective coaching fees after the event.

We plan coaches’ travel based on who is preregistered for the tournament as of the regular fee entry deadline. If you need to cancel your registration for one or more events, please let the coaches know as soon as possible. If you cancel your registration after we have booked our travel, we reserve the right to charge the coaching fee for the cancelled event if the cancellation would have affected our travel schedule.

Who gets coaching?

Coaching is mandatory for Youth, Cadet, and Junior fencers at national tournaments.

Coaching is optional for adult fencers. Adult fencers wishing to have a coach accompany them to a NAC or Summer Nationals should make arrangements with their coach in a timely fashion before the event.

Youth, Cadet, and Junior fencers need permission from their coach to attend their first RYC, SYC, ROC, NAC, or Summer Nationals. Fencers should always consult their coach regarding the appropriateness of the tournament and which events to fence before registering for an RYC, SYC, ROC, NAC, or the Summer Nationals.

In general, RCFC will be sending at least one coach to most NACs, Junior Olympics, and Summer Nationals, plus SYCs in the western US if enough fencers are attending. We determine how many coaches will travel to an event based on how many fencers are attending.

Coaching priorities

The coach or coaches will set their coaching priorities for each day’s events. Despite our best efforts, not everyone will get equal time at every tournament. In general, fencers new to a particular level of competition will get more attention in the warm-up and pools. More experienced fencers will get more attention in the DE’s. While the RCFC coaches would like to be with every fencer for every bout, it is not always possible at a large NAC or Summer Nationals. The RCFC coaches are experienced and knowledgeable and will do their absolute best to set priorities in the best interests of our fencers at any given tournament.

When there are both individual and team events happening at the same time, fencers in individual events will usually have priority. We do not charge a coaching fee for team events.

Feel free to talk to any of the coaches if you have any questions.