Diamond Blade Fencing is a sports business which provides fencing classes to schools and youth clubs around London. With 12+ schools and youth clubs, we aim to give an equal opportunity to the next generation of athletes. Our vision for the future is simple, raise the participation levels of athletes in the sport plus give the next generation another option at making a sporting career for themselves. In order to raise the level of participants, the sessions held in schools and youth clubs is one of the biggest routes at giving the opportunities to the students. These classes consist of fencing games and an introduction into the sport. Learning about the footwork and blade skills, children learn the fundamentals before tackling their peers in combat. From this, the students can take their skills to the next level and sign up to one of our competitive clubs in Hampstead and Finchley. We closely monitor the number of students who do sign up in order to see where we can raise our level of engagement in each school. Once the students are joined up with the competitive clubs, our next aim is to provide the best level of training resembling that of an elite athlete giving a great insight to what is to come for the young talents. With a number of competitions in the fencing calendar, we sign up the students to multiple events with the goal of bringing home medals. The funding will support the club by making sure everyone involved has an equal opportunity to compete at a national level, as well as provide a wider case of options for the community to get involved. Building the community is very important to us and we believe the funding will help this happen.
Target Audience
We work with children at a grassroots level. our target audience is children between 6-18 years, male and female. As a result of this we do have an adults fencing club which parents can sign up for also.
Key Dates and Timings
Our club sessions run every Saturday from 2pm - 4pm. We are looking at running an easter camp also for the kids to really focus on improving their abilities as well as having fun throughout the easter break. We will also look at running multiple events during half terms and the summer holidays. These can be the best times for our sponsor to have a big impact.
Specific Opportunity Details
At Diamond Blade we have 4 competitive clubs in the areas Finchley, Hampstead and Knightsbridge. Two of these are beginners classes for those who are looking to kick start their fencing journey, and two clubs are for those who want to take their skills even further with higher quality coaching which includes fitness and technical drills plus one to one fencing lessons. This gives us the opportunity to help the students gain confidence and to compete at a national level.
The coaches we work with are former and current fencing athletes with over 5 years experience at an international level. These coaches provide great classes to the students in order to have a high engagement as well as helping them raise their game session by session. With these coaches, our vision can become a reality. As fencing is an elitist sport, we aim to give an equal opportunity to all of the youth including disadvantaged children. This is a strong moral Diamond Blade treasure and aims to keep throughout the years. Working with youth clubs in the past,
Our aims for the coming year/season include:
Increase the number of schools and youth clubs we provide fencing classes too.
Have a consistent turnover of students signing up to the competitive clubs from the schools and youth clubs.
Increase the days of training possible for the students to better their game.
Regularly enter students into national competitions in the hopes of the athletes receiving the call up to the National Team.
Become more of an established competitive club in the UK being a hub for children in the community to better their abilities.
Features and Benefits
Brand exposure and marketing
By offering a variety of promotional opportunities, we can provide great avenues to getting exposure and engagement for your business.Logo promotion through kit sponsorship is a great way to gain engagement during competitions and events. Digital promotion allows us to reach a wider audience creating adverts/shoutouts to place on our website and social media platforms. Events Promotion allows us to create unique experiences for the local communities allowing your business to be the main sponsor of future outreach programs and other workshops.
Corporate social responsibility
By fulfilling these corporate responsibilities, we can leverage sponsorship partnerships as a vehicle for positive social change, community development and the advancement of values on and off the piste.Our alignment of values is very important moving forward. Diamond Blade holds its values highly when it comes to equal opportunities to all future talents. We believe this is most important especially for local communities as some do not have the same accessibility as others. In order for this to happen we believe community engagement is key, offering charitable initiatives and youth development programs for all.Transparency is important for our connection moving forward into the future. Diamond Blades aims and needs are always clear with the intention to help the youth and help promote our sponsored business to the best of our ability. The development of the youth is a fundamental part of sport in general, however through our sports clubs we also look to invest in our coaching to raise the levels of training sessions, training camps, and positive social behaviour among the young athletes.
Corporate events/involvement
We would like to offer our services to your company by running corporate social events. This will give a good understanding as to what we do at the club, as well as giving you the chance to try something new. The sessions would consist of team bonding games, fencing exercises and competitive matches to see who has mastered the sport best.We also run an adult fencing club which we are happy to invite you too for free! It would be a pleasure having members from your business joining our adults fencing club taking the step into the fencing world. As well as the adult club, we would be happy to host any children from parents of the business into our classes also. As we have mentioned, it is our vision to give every youth a chance at giving fencing a go. Not only with the intention of becoming a better athlete, but also to learn life skills along the way.
Other Partners
N/A
Investment
£15,000
Other Info
The funding will help us purchase equipment and kit for new members joining the club also for those who can not afford to purchase kit of their own. The funding will also go towards hall hire, ensuring we always have a space for the young talents to train and work, as well as the coaches, giving them more chances of sharing their experiences with the children at the same time, earning enough to help cover their competition expenses.