Thursday 1 December 2011

PaFF 4 is fast approaching

The competition is on this Saturday (the 3rd of December).

 Venue:  Kirkliston Leisure Centre
 Here's a map to Kirkliston Leisure Centre:  http://tinyurl.com/kirklistonFromM9

 Check in Time: 11:30am until 11:45am

 Pick-up/Collection time: 3:45pm

 Price: £7.50 per child

 Please make sure your child brings:

  • grippy indoor shoes with non-marking soles;
  • ankle-length trousers that allow the knees full freedom to bend and straighten  (track suit trousers are ideal)
  • a fleecey sweatshirt with NO front pockets (school uniform sweatshirts are ideal)
  • a spare t-shirt, also to wear as protection

 It's also a good idea to bring a bottle of water, and snacks - the children will be fighting hard!
We do run a small tuck shop, and there is a vending machine at the centre.

 For the children:
 We run the competition to give them the chance to meet other young  fencers and to let them fight as many bouts as possible.  Everyone in the competition will get a full afternoon's fencing – there are no elimination rounds.  We have "buzzer" swords for the older children, and the final round..

 The competition is been carefully designed so that the children end up matched against a group of other children of very similar ability.  We split them into groups of six fencers in the final round - each group
 has its own winner's trophy, silver and bronze medals, and certificates of achievement.

 There are also medals and a trophy to be won for the best technique.

Tuck Shop:
 We also have a small, reasonably-priced tuck shop running - we sell non-fizzy drinks, and a few snacks, such as bananas, cereal bars and biscuits, - so the children can keep their blood sugar and fluid levels up.

If you are available to man the tuck shop for a while as part of a rota, please do let us know.  Often we are too busy refereeing and match-booking to run the tuck shop effectively.


 For the parents:
 If you want to stay and watch for the afternoon, you're very welcome - we have a viewing gallery with a great view over the hall.

 Equally, if you want to take advantage of an afternoon of freedom,
 you're also very welcome!

Any help you can give us is greatly appreciated, e.g. laying down the tape to mark out the fencing strips, or pulling up the tape at the end, and general clear-up, etc.  One of the mums and one of the dads have even volunteered to referee!

About how the day runs:
We get all the children to check-in, by 11:45am at the latest.  Once all the children have registered, we then work out who will fight who in Round 1.

We mark out the fencing pistes (the court of play) with black-and-yellow tape, we give the children a short warm-up, take some group photographs, and then the fighting begins just after noon.

The children will have five fights each in Round 1, and then another five fights in Round 2.

By then, we know who is fencing at what level, and so we group the children into sets of the six most closely-matched fencers.

Their five fights in Round 3 then decides who wins a trophy or a medal.

How to get to Kirkliston Leisure Centre


For a map and directions to Kirkliston Leisure Centre, go to http://tinyurl.com/kirklistonFromM9

The First Bus no. 38 goes from Haymarket to the leisure centre.