SABRE SQUAD Scotland

Professon Philip Carson

BA(Hons), MBA (Henley), Dip.BAF, Dip.ITEC, AAI, Sports Coach UK

Diploma Foil Diploma Sabre Diploma Epee

Coaching philosophy
After years of hard work and once you have mastered technique, tactics,
speed, distance, timing and emotions, fencing is simply a matter of avoiding being hit and hitting your opponent before they hit you.

Fencing History
I was introduced to fencing by George Hansen, one of my PE teachers at Liberton High School in around 1977. There were only two sabres in the school and one of them had a broken blade! But he somehow manged to show me the basics. There was never a lot of money around in our house, but I did manage on a couple of occasions to get to Meadowbank Sports Centre to watch Prof. Bert Bracewell in action with some great fencers, including Donnie McKenzie, Stan Stoodley and Sean Walton.

It wasn't until I went to Aberdeen University that I began to fence more regularly, initially coached by Dougie Grant and in my second year, Neil Brown. The North Section was a great place to fence at that time, with John Fleck coaching a continuous flow of left handed talent at Dingwall Academy (Ali Urquhart, Conrad Chin, Robin Gray) and some great enthusiastic support from fencers and sponsors, especially Chris Douglas.

By the end of my second year I was beginning to make my mark on Scottish Opens and decided to take a year out to concentrate on my sport. I worked in Edinburgh in an Italian restaurant at night and trained with Derek Titherage during the day. Usually on his stone patio at the back of his house. Great times. But once I'd earned enough I went to Hungary and trained alongside the Hungarian national team being coached by Peter Frohlich. One thing was made clear was the difference in quality and quantity of training. Incredible.

On arriving back in the UK I made a number of finals in Scottish and GB Opens and won the British U20 putting out Kirk Xavier in the final. I was selected for the 1986 Commonwealth Championships in a team alongside Bob Elliot, Bob Jamieson and Richard Gardiner. I made 9th place, which was the highest placed Scot, but was very pleased with my performance, winning all my bouts against the England Team who included Mark Hall and giving the Banos brothers a run for their money in the Canada match. I spent the week in a camper van in the car park of Sophia Gardens with Neil Brown and Howard Shirley, eating pasta and tuna off a primus stove. Luxury!

I decided to put university on hold and got a job in London. I continued my fencing until the tutorship of Alf Simmonds and Bela Imrigi. But despite a couple of outings with the British Team, a nagging knee problem slowed me down considerably and as my job took off, marriage and family brought new responsibilities. But it wasn't long before I was helping out at clubs, initially in Dagenham in Essex and then later at the Polytechnic Club in London with Jim Philbin. 

It was in 1995, just after I finished my first degree at Westminster University, that I decide to qualify as a coach. I attended the BAF Autumn course which was being directed by Bob Bales with now Prof. Neil Brown leading on the sabre. Neil asked me to give a warm up lesson to a fellow coach pupil, one Peter Wright. Neil stopped the lesson and got Bob Bales over. At the end of the warm up lesson, they informed me that I was doing the Diploma syllabus that week - which I passed - and still might be the fastest pass of a BAF diploma exam ever!

On the course I met up with Lance Larsen who at that time was coaching at The City Fencing Club, just around the corner from where I was working. When I started helping out at City I was coaching one or two people on a Wednesday night in the City. But it wasn't long before the Alex Jablonwski, the club chairman, began to see the potential with two coaches to expand the clubs ambitions. By the time I left the club in 2010 there were around 70 members and associates, with my sabreurs fencing every night of the week and competing regularly. I helped Tim Gadaski start up the London Fencing Club which, last time I checked, now runs 14 classes each week in various venues around London. I also helped the local authority set up and develop COLSPAN (City of London Sports and Physical Activity Network). I coached a number of individuals into the top 10 of the UK rankings including Tonya Cheatham and Helen Fairhead, which for me was a great achievement considering that all of us had full time full on jobs and this was a part time effort. I also made a good contribution to national teams, including world cadet team members Vicky and Becky Carson, Georgia Yates and Laura HunterThomas. And it was great fun taking a complete beginner from scratch through to the Australian Senior Team in Mark Oakes.

Probably my most memorable achievement was coaching the Scottish Women's Sabre Team to Gold medal at the 2006 Commonwealth Fencing Championships. Scotland faced a strong England Team. Robynne Stenner went on first for Scotland and took the score to 5-3. Then Car Stevenson, who had taken a bronze in the individual, played a great leg to move Scotland to 10-6 ahead. Next was Becky Carson against the England no.1. Becky had an average individual event and was moody and unhappy with her perfomrance. This was one of the few times where I played the emotional card with a heavy speech along the lines of "you might be letting yourself down, you might even let your coach down - but this is no time to let your team down and certainly no time to let down your country!" Becky won her leg to zero and with the score now at 15-6, England fell apart. That was one great party afterwards!

In the last ten years I've travelled a lot and observed some of the truly great sabre coaches. Vladimir Diachenko, Mike Matthews, Vladimir Naslimov, Peter Frohlich, Ed Korfanty have all been hugely influential on the way I coach and think about the game. I think it is true what they say, once you qualify from the BAF or similar and earn a professorship, you are qualified to start to learn how to coach. And I count myself lucky to have stood on the shoulders of these giants of sabre and learned from them. That said, there is still a lot to do.

In 2010 I moved back to Scotland, handing the keys to the City Fencing Club Sabre Squad to James Williams. With about 5 more years of a career to go, or put another way, 5 more years to develop my coaching to a good enough level, I set about helping out at Edinburgh Fencing Club, Edinburgh University and West Fife Fencing Club and to take on a more active role in youth development and coaching the UK School Games Team. I was very lucky to be supported by these clubs, especially by Ken and Lorraine Rose at West Fife and Donnie McKenzie and Stan Stoodley at Edinburgh FC. And great to see other coaching initiatives of some substance from the Fencing Fun team of Sean Walton and Keith Cook.

At the end of my first year back in Scotland I was approached by Strathallan School to assist them in setting up a fencing academy. This is a very exciting project and the hope is that by this time next year, Strathallan will be the only school in Scotland to have a full time fencing facility, PE programme and excellence pathway.