The era will end as a trainer in the screen sport. Roel Verlenden (68), the father of former top fencer Bas Verlen, stops after almost 45 years. At Schermclub Den Bosch he gave a club training for the last time on Thursday evening. “It felt a bit weird.”
The Maître (screen trainer) started in 1981 Schermenvereniging Zaal Verlel in Oss. The club grew into a well -known name in the screen world. “About twenty years later I switched to Papendal and I became a national coach. The club continued for a while, but unfortunately was destroyed. In 2011, the screens was deleted at Papendal, just when we had two world toppers within the swords. Bas was second at the European Championship and World Cup.”
He then went to work in Den Bosch, where the then screen club De Troubadours, together with some former members from the Zaal screen association, continued under the name Schermclub Den Bosch. “In all those years I have had a wonderful time. One time I trained recreational members with love and pleasure, but I also worked with great talents who had the drive to get better constantly.”
Five times the Riddered Knight in the Order of Oranje-Nassau stood at the Olympic Games, four times his son Bas was there as a fencer. “That was of course great to experience, especially with my own son. But I also enjoyed the way to big tournaments. Traveling, the training camps, the many contacts; it was a very nice life.”
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His father was a screen coach and his son a successful fencer. After three generations, the name disappears from the top screens. Or not completely? “I stop as a club trainer, but during the day I still want to give individual lessons in my hometown Goirle when I feel like and I don’t have to completely kick off and I keep a bit of contact. I still find the technical and tactical aspect very interesting. But for example the conditional part there are much better and younger trainers.”
Over the future of the screens in the Netherlands, Verling is partly positive. “The men recently caught a historic second place at the European Championship, which has never been successful before. They just don’t get support from NOC*NSF, for which they have to play a stunt again next month at the World Cup. It is a pity that the boys, for example, have to train together without a good coach. With the right conditions, the Netherlands can run well with the top countries.”
