Interview with Miroslaw Poplawski leading up to the British Academy Summer Coaching Course
Miroslaw will be running a workshop on ‘The Polish Approach to Epee Coaching’ on Wednesday 23rd July as part of the British Academy of Fencing Summer Coaching Course.
Adam Blight
So first of all, tell me something about when you started fencing, and how did you get into that. You lived in Torun in Poland.
Miroslaw Poplawski
Yes, I started when I was 10-year-old, one of the coaches came to school and they did fitness tests. Actually everyone passed and we started fencing. I started with sabre and later changed to epee .
Adam
So fitness was the main criteria for selection then?
Miroslaw
Yes, it was. It seemed like everyone was very fit because everyone qualified. With this beginning when I was young and the training we did, thing were very different than here. There was a lot of fitness and footwork, then after that, we started later with weapons.
Adam
So at what point were weapons introduced to your group of fencers and how many times a week did you train?
Miroslaw
About 6 months before we trained with weapons , we trained 4 times a week. Very different to how things are done in Britain.
Adam
Do you think that that sort of approach adds a different dimension to what you can do as a fencer ultimately?
Miroslaw
What they find is that fencing is a lot about fitness and, speed and if you do have better footwork, you can start to do better lessons, better fencing. It’s like Czajkowski says, to button a coat, you have to get the first button right. Everywhere and around the Europe they’ve been doing things this way. Another thing is selection. Our class was around 30 beginners and every year another 30, and another 30 and after one year there were 10 left maybe and the top fencers were staying. I was usually one of the top ones.
Adam
I think you’ve mentioned before that in Poland the clubs receive funding based on the results of their young fencers.
Miroslaw
Yes, so in the clubs, the most money comes from the juniors. Yes, clubs get funding based on their juniors results and so it’s a big thing to have good juniors. When we were young the competitions cost a lot, but we don’t have to pay anything for competitions or equipment. No in Poland, they have to pay a little bit, maybe 20% or so.
Adam
In terms of your fencing career, you started competing in epee?
Miroslaw
At first in sabre, but eventually epee. I started competing locally. In Poland to compete nationally you have to qualify, like with the BYC, because there are so many fencers they can’t do open events. So it’s quite hard because in the national competition there were only 48 fencers, the best fencers in each weapon. The qualification from the regions gave only a few places, so the qualification the regions was very hard. So when I got through to the national events when I was 16, and also that was the first time I fenced in international events. After that I was up-and-down. Then when I was 21 and finished junior level, my coach, who was the National Team Coach, ask me to help coaching, We had a big group and I and my friend started coaching, my coach was head coach and we were his assistant coaches. In the beginning, they sent us on courses. I did this course, it was a lot of sessions at weekends, and the after that there was a 2 week camp just for coaches ending with exams. It was difficult because at the time I was working and you have to attend every session. In the end was the exam and that wasn’t easy because I think there was about 20 new coaches, different weapons and at least 5 or 6 didn’t pass so they have to do it all again.
Adam
So then, as part of that sort of Coach education, did this include other things, such as strength and conditionings, psychology etc.
Miroslaw
That was all part of it, we did that in the university of Katowice and our tutor was Zbigniew Czajkowski, he covered all the fencing things – tactics, lessons and how to do lessons, how to explain things, how to do blade actions and movement. Also, we had nutrition, psychology, physiology, anatomy ect. as classroom based sessions with the tutors from the university. So for 2 weeks, even Sunday and we start at 8:00am and finish 8:00pm. Very hard work, especially with Czajkowski leading the course, you always had to do everything, he never let you go till it was finished, he was very strict, he had an essentially classical conception of fencing and although you could make variations, there were things he didn’t like. I remember one sabre coach who routinely cut into the guard after actions, as some coaches do, he didn’t like that. He was especially strict, I remember on exams, there were very hard questions about psychology, tactics and so on.
Adam
So, what was the structure of the exams? Then how did that happen? For example, which Academy style exam system, there will be some experienced coaches, observing the fence are giving lessons based on a defined theme or something was there something similar to that with the Polish example system?
Miroslaw
Well, because I was coaching already, I had this exam which didn’t have a practical element. It was more like an interview, you had a few questions face to face with 3 or 4 people. So you have a few questions, for e.g. about psychology, how to coach different personality types and so on. Like, if you’re going to coach this kind of person, what kind of actions can you do or if you are going to give advice at the competition, how are you going to do that. There were many questions, and I think everyone had different questions.
Adam
So in terms of for example, fencing theory. Would you have done classroom sessions based on tactical theory, for example, and maybe these questions would have come into the exam.
Miroslaw
Yes, in the classes we had many big discussions. Like what do you think about this? What do you think about that? Everyone would have their say and at the end Czajkowski would summarise and pass comment.
Adam
We know from Czajkowski’s writings he’s breaking down the tactical structures of fencing in quite a bit of detail, so I imagine a lot of that would have come into the coach education approach.
Miroslaw
Yes, and in the training camps to. There might be 2 o 3 training sessions and in the evening a classroom session on basic theory.
Adam
So for coaching we have this idea of ‘sword in hand’ coaching skills and consideration of ‘blade presentation’ and so on. How would the approach be with that aspect of coaching?
Miroslaw
There was lots of practicing those skills on this course and also on the preceding weekends sessions and also in the club. this was all over a period of about 2 years so a lot of practice, and we did lots of lessons, because we had quite a big group and we helped each other. Maybe we did ask Czajkowski and another teachers, they’d give us advice about what is better, how to do the presentation and so on, depending, on the experience of the fencer and about different types of lessons, technical, tactical and so on.
Adam
And then you’re into your career as a coach within Poland how did that progress?
Miroslaw
When I was younger I was like assistant to my coach who was National Coach for Juniors and Cadets. Very often have to go to competitions, sometimes I would go with him, sometimes stay in the club. That was for a few years and we were very, very successful, we had all the best Juniors and Cadets in the country, especially girls but boys as well. Anyway our head coach decided to take work in Italy. There were 5 coaches, 4 foil and me for epee and we continued getting good results and our Juniors were getting good results in the seniors.
Adam
What kind of international results might some of the fencers you’ve been involved in coaching with have achieved.
Miroslaw
So Renata was twice bronze medallist in European Championships and silver in the World Championships in Mexico. At some points we had all of the Polish team in our club, many, many medals. We had many fencers in the European and World Championships over the years.
Adam
So you came over to Britain then and you have your club in Mansfield, I think that will probably be the first club that you’re involved with or started up and now especially at Nottingham university, which of course is a very strong group of fencers.
Miroslaw
They’re getting very good results, especially the student events. and also in other events, like Grace Uenichi, She was this year in the Junior World Championships and she will soon compete in the Seniors and others to are competing internationally. And also, as you know, I coached Sam Boyle who is now a successful coach.
Adam
This is one things I appreciated as a coach, that quite a few of the fencers I’ve coached, are now coaches, not just coaches but professional coaches doing it as a job. For me, that’s very gratifying. So we’re looking towards our British Academy of Fencing Summer Coaching Course, and you will be doing a workshop, and I hope you’re going to enjoy that, I know we’re really looking forward to this.