#BFLEARNINGWEEK 2024: THANK YOU

BF held its third iteration of Learning Week between the 30th August and 6th September 2024. The event featured discussions from BF staff members and guest speakers, on topics related to fencing and sport more widely.

We’d like to say a big thank you to everyone that attended this year’s BF Learning Week. 24 sessions were hosted, covering a variety of subjects. The total attendance number was over 550, and we hope that the insights from the week’s events informed your work in your respective role.

Several keynote speakers shared their insights during the week. Laurence Halsted spoke about creating meaningful experiences for young people in sport, followed by a discussion on performance analysis for coaches and fencers from Richard Cheetham MBE. The following day, Dr Jon Rhodes spoke on the subject of staying focused under pressure.

Speakers also highlighted the importance of inclusivity. A session on considerate coaching was led by Navjeet Sira and Daniel Mynott from The Change Foundation, teaching participants how to support neurodiverse fencers. Dr Siraz Natha led a discussion about the simple ways in which clubs and competitions can become more accessible to ethnically diverse communities. BF team members Rick Rodgers and Nathaniel Lewis also hosted discussions on widening BF’s seated fencing participation and what community members can learn from coaching wheelchair fencing, respectively.

Pat Aiyenuro and Richard Berstein shared their experiences of being a Team Manager, and how others could likewise start their journey in this space. Likewise, BF Participation Director Virginia Bailey spoke about the collaboration between fencing clubs and scout groups, and how to increase the number of people fencing on a local level.

The week also included sessions on event licensing for event organisers, managing your BF membership, how Club Welfare Officers can update their information on Sport:80, and how to complete club and competition risk assessments.

From the Commercial side of BF work, participants learned about our educational work as part of the We Are Forging Futures brand, the BF Achievement Awards, and how technology has informed our projects through our partnership with Telescopic.

In the GBR Pathway space, seven sessions were delivered to coaches, parents and fencers. These sessions included GBR Selection, Performance Data, Individual Athlete Development Plans (IADP), and two covering Major Events: one for parents, and the other for athletes and coaches. Athletes were also joined by Ellie Griffiths from UKSI, who discussed the importance of athlete physical and mental health. A full news post on the GBR Pathway sessions will follow.

We’ve received requests for recordings of the sessions. Where possible, we’ll do our best to upload them as soon as we can to our YouTube channel.

If you haven’t already, please make sure to complete the feedback surveys for the sessions that you attended. Doing so helps us to improve future iterations of Learning Week, and it only takes 5 minutes.

To provide general feedback about BF Learning Week, such as what topics you’d like to hear about in future, please click on the blue button below:

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