Edinburgh Fencing Club has coaches with a wealth of experience, coaching fencers in all weapons, all ages, and all levels.

All coaches are fully trained and registered with our governing body, British Fencing, and are therefore required to have valid PVG, Emergency First Aid and Safeguarding and Protecting Children certification in addition to their coaching qualification. You can access the current register of coaches on the British Fencing website.

  • The Youth Classes are coached by Don McKenzie and Naomi Farmer.
  • The Beginners Plastic Class is run by Andy Alderman or Paul Neil-MacLachlan.
  • All the above coaches as well as Gavin McMenemy, Stan Stoodley and Alex McLeod are also available for private lessons.

For any questions or to book private lessons, please get in touch with the individual coaches.

Andy Alderman

Andy is a former international fencer himself, now holding the title of fencing Professor with a level 5 Diploma in all 3 weapons from the British Academy of Fencing.

Andy was a member of the coaching staff for the Scottish team at the 2010, 2014 and 2018 Senior Commonwealth Championships, as well as the 2012, 2015 and 2018 Junior and Cadet Commonwealth Champs, and the Senior Home Nations from 2004 to 20017.

Andy has coached Scottish and British champions, at both senior and age group levels and many commonwealth medallists, many of whom have also represented Great Britain at Junior, Cadet and Senior level. 

Naomi Farmer

Naomi has been fencing for over 25 years and believes that every part of fencing training can be fun – even footwork! She uses a TGFU (Teaching Games for Understanding) approach to help her fencers explore the game of fencing. Bringing a fresh enthusiasm to our youth sabre classes, she works hard to make them enjoyable for children of all ages and abilities. She also works with both children and adults on a one-to-one basis.

Naomi has been part of the Scottish Fencing coaching team at events including the Cadet Commonwealth Championships and the Youth Home Nations, and is the lead weapon coach for sabre for the Scottish Youth Pathways Squad. She holds a Level 3 sabre coaching qualification from Scottish Fencing and a Cert.H.E. in Sports, Fitness and Management from the Open University.

Don McKenzie

Don is a former international fencer who represented Great Britain in two Olympics and was Commonwealth Gold medallist and British Champion.

Don completed his International Fencing Master’s Diploma in 2004 and has Coached successful Foilists up to Senior GB International standard. A current GB Athlete Development Programme Coach and Head of Performance (Women’s Fencing) for Edinburgh University, he continues to travel internationally to develop his Coaching skills.

Since Coaching his Daughter, a former GB International, Don has concentrated most of his efforts on Women’s Foil, and has pupils in numerous age-groups.

Gavin McMenemy

Gavin is a multi-award-winning coach who has been involved in fencing for around 25 years. He coaches a wide range of fencers from youth to veteran level who have represented Scotland and Great Britain. His fencers have won numerous medals and he coaches members of the Great British Cadet and Junior teams.
He’s also worked with pentathletes, one of whom was selected to join TeamGB last year. He co-hosts a popular fencing podcast and provides audio commentary on fencing for the French Fencing Federation.

Gavin was the recipient of the Scottish Fencing Crosnier Quaich for coaching in 2019.

Paul Neil-MacLachlan

Paul gained the International Diploma Masters qualification from Semmelweis University Budapest in 2002. Ex Scottish Internationalist he has coached Scottish, British, Commonwealth and World Cup medallists over many years. Many of his fencers representing Great Britain at Cadet, Junior and Senior level at several World Championships.

Paul is best known for his achievements as an epee coach but more recently has majored in foil with notable success.

He is currently President of EFC and a Coach Educator for SF.

Stan Stoodley

Stan has been coaching for over 20 years and enjoys teaching a wide range of ages and all gender identities. In 2019 he successfully completed his International FIE Coaching Diploma in Budapest Hungary.

A former Scottish Senior Foil Champion and Commonwealth Games Team Member Stan currently coaches the Scottish Youth Pathways Squad and is a Coach Educator for Scottish Fencing.

Stan is president of Scottish Fencing, Scotland’s governing body for this sport.