Robert

After fencing on the Binghamton University varsity sabre team, coached by Paul Pesthy, Rob was accepted in 1972 to the Fencing Master school at the Institut National des Sports (INS) in Paris France. He spent nearly three years earning his Fencing Master credential in all three weapons (sabre, foil, and épée). He is one of only three Americans to ever graduate from the INS. Over his coaching career, his students have been national finalists, national team members, and national champions in all three weapons. Maître Handelman was the head coach for the varsity team at UC Berkeley, taught coaches' clinics for the US Fencing Association at the Olympic training center at Squaw Valley, and training camps for our top junior fencers. He has coached US teams and his students at the Olympic Sports Festivals, World Cup Events, and Junior World Championships. As a coach developer he has organized and taught all three weapons at international clinics in Canada, China, Hungary, and national clinics throughout the U.S. for the USFCA. He developed with Connie Louie the successful SF Youth Fencing sabre program at Halberstadt Fencers’ Club in San Francisco. Rob also had a private practice as a Doctor of Chiropractic specializing in sports injuries from 1983 until he retired from chiropractic in 2010. He served on the USA Fencing Medical Commission for 4 years. He is a co-author of two fencing texts that are both used to train coaches in the US, Canada, England, and Australia, and fencers all over the world - Fencing Sabre: A Practical Training Guide for Coaches, Parents and Young Athletes (2010 & 2015 2nd ed.) and Fencing Foil: A Practical Training Guide for Coaches, Parents and Young Athletes (2015 2nd ed.). For six years Maître Handelman was the chair of the USFCA’s certification and accreditation board. Currently, he is serving as the President of the USFCA and has made the goal to create, develop, and implement a National Coaching Developmental Program (NCDP) for the USA.

8 Courses