Elite Small Group Policy & Community Standards
(2025–2026 Season)
What Are Small Group Training Sessions?
Elite small group sessions are high-intensity training opportunities led by our Olympians and elite coaches. These sessions are available exclusively to students enrolled in the Elite Program and are designed to group students by national and/or regional rankings, with gender occasionally factored in. Group sizes typically range from 2–8 students to ensure maximum repetitions, personalized feedback, and focused development against similarly skilled peers. Small group sessions are 40-50 minutes long and should not exceed 50 minutes.
These sessions are a powerful supplement to regular group and elite classes—not a replacement.
In these sessions, students work on middle drills, advanced footwork, and higher-level strategy and tactics. The goal is to sharpen the specific skills being developed in private lessons through targeted repetitions in a high-feedback environment.
🔹 Eligibility & Structure
Small Group training
Eligibility: Small group sessions are available only to students who are enrolled in the Elite Program and who are actively attending at least three elite group classes per week and taking 2 private lessons per week.
By Invitation
Small group training will be by invitation only but you can indicate if you would like to participate. If you are not assigned a grouping for the start of the seaon, but indicate you are open to this training, we may create new groups as the season goes on.
What's New this Season:
Assignments:
Small group sessions will be assigned at the start of the season by Olympic Silver Medalist and Team USA Men’s Saber Director Tim Morehouse in consultation with the coaching staff. He will ensure groupings reflect the club’s values of community, efficient use of resources and space, and alignment by peer level—based on national/regional rankings and ratings.
We will also take a student’s main private lesson coach into account when forming groups where it makes sense, but groupings will not necessarily include that coach. The primary goal is to create the most effective training environment for all athletes.
Groupings may be adjusted mid-season depending on how national/regional/ratings change over the season.
Number of Sessions:
Students may attend a maximum of two small group sessions per week, and no more than one session with the same instructor.
Students must not skip regular group classes on any days they are doing small groups. If you cannot attend the group class, then you cannot attend small group. Any student who skips class after a small group may be removed from small group eligibility.
Location of Small Groups
While we will generally consider a student’s home base club, our priority is creating the most effective training pairings. If you are flexible and open to traveling to other TMFC locations for small groups, please let us know.
🛡️ One Club, One Community (The Spirit and Culture of the Club)
It is vital that Tim Morehouse Fencing Club feels like one unified team — regardless of program level, lesson schedule, or coach affiliation. Every athlete and family should feel valued, included, and supported.
To ensure that the benefits of small group training are preserved and positively impact the entire community, the following rules will apply for the upcoming season:
Regardless of intention, no student at the club should:
- Feel that they need to join a specific small group to have access to fence or train with certain peers or coaches. (That is why small group sessions won't be held during group class times and all students in small-groups must particiapte in group classes to continue to be eligible.)
- Be given the impression that students receive more or less attention in class or at tournaments based on whether they take private lessons with the coach leading the class or a coach covering a pod or matches.
- We’ve updated our small group policies to address some of these concerns that came from this past season. If you have any questions or feedback, please don’t hesitate to reach out. If any of these circumstances becomes a problem, we reserve the right to pause or end the small group training sessions during the season.