How To Handle Large Chess Clubs

Hello this is Coach Paul Swaney - Think Ahead on chesskid.com. Being greeted at the door on the first day of chess class by a sea of children who are all eager and excited to participate in the school chess club can be overwhelming to say the least.

Chess clubs across the world start up at the beginning of the school year, sometimes with coaches who have experience, but also many of those where it could be their first class. The goal of this article is to offer up some tips to coaches to help using available resources, and the demands of the different skill levels in your class.

In several schools chess is the most popular after-school activity. I have personally run several clubs of 50-100 students as the only coach! Sink or swim!!! I had to adjust quickly. While it is ideal to have more than one coach to serve large clubs, sometimes this is not possible for many reasons.

After years and years of running clubs I have borrowed and have come up with my own ideas to meet these large club demands. Below is a beginning short list to hopefully help those coaches who are in charge of running large clubs.

1.) Communicate with the school, and (even more important) the school PTA. I always organize a sit-down meeting with the school PTA to go over details of how I try to organize the club. It is also critical that you listen to the PTA's suggestions and recommendations. Chances are they are in charge of all the after-school activities, and will know what works best for the school.

2.) PTA chess-club-appointed chairs are one of the best resources for a school chess club. I have been fortunate to have great parents in my chess clubs step up and handle administrative duties such as registration and rosters. These chess club chairs also organize a parent volunteer list for those families who have children enrolled in the chess club. My large clubs always have two or three parent volunteers on deck to handle sign-in, restroom breaks, snacks, sign-out, and even some crowd control. This enables me focus on coaching, teaching, interacting with the students, and answering chess questions.

3.) High-school volunteers! At my one elementary school, I have been there for so many years that the students I first worked with when I started are now in high school! Some of these students need service hours to do some volunteer work. They come to my club once a week and offer assistance to the club where they themselves learned to play chess. Many of them are strong chess players and help mentor the beginners in their first steps with chess.

In part two of this article I will present specific ways that I differentiate and meet the demands of all the different skill levels in the chess club. It is important to keep each individual student in mind when running a large chess club. The goal is always to have all the students walking away feeling they have learned something while enjoying the process. Till next time…