In spring 2014 an initiative provisionally named the Club Movement Project was developed with blessing of the International Fencing Federation (FIE) President. It was further rebranded and presented as the Club Movement Initiative (CMI) under the auspices of the FIE.
The CMI is aimed at benefitting the fencing sport community in general, as well as individual athletes, coaches and referees. The main purpose is to generate a boost to reshape (or even revise) the existing development system and to take it to a completely different level.
The CMI’s strategic goal is to identify the most prominent fencing locations, and use them as leverage to facilitate the development of top-tier athletes, coaches and referees; enabling them to benefit from better programmes.
The team running the project includes a group of FIE Sport Department specialists (Director – Dr. Krisztian Kulcsar) and the CMI Coordinator (Mr. Rodion Plitukhin).
The CMI team is studying the infrastructure and the best coaching and training practices of the leading National Federations in order to select the most effective ones and then to integrate them into a newly created global network that will provide productive management and transfer of practical knowledge.
Based on the results of research, the FIE will establish a network of up to 10 locations. All of them will be used as training and educational facilities for the benefit of Global fencing development.
So far, the tripartite “Memoranda of Understanding” – FIE+NF+Club – have been signed in Germany, Russia, USA, France and Italy. They have created the basic foundations for cooperation between the FIE, the corresponding National Federations and the Clubs/Centres.
A consulting body – the “Clubs Council” – will be created shortly after the CMI network is formalised in order to coordinate its work and to maximize return on investment.
The major costs of the CMI are assumed by the FIE while the National Federations and Clubs of the network will guarantee infrastructure, access to their talent equity and effective participation by their relevant staff.
Towards the end of this year 4-week long, custom tailored training courses for coaches will hosted by the Fencers Club in New York (www.fencersclub.org) and by Tauberbischofsheim Fencing Club (www.fechtentbb.de) - both renowned for their high performance and state-of-the-art facilities (the latter is the home club of the IOC President Mr. Thomas Bach).