Last week, I spent some time addressing the high cost of figure skating. This week, I want to propose a solution.
Figure Skating Coaches Should No Longer Operate Like Hairdressers
Ice skating coaches have operated like hairdressers since the early 1900s! Most figure skating teachers are independent contractors.
To get started in the business, those interested in teaching skating first teach some learn-to-skate classes. Through those classes, a private lesson clientele is developed. Once an individual has collected a group of private lesson skating students, he or she essentially runs a small business. To keep working, a coach must continue to draw private lesson students his or her way. It's a constant process.
Ice rinks benefit when successful figure skating coaches work at their facility, but also suffer a financial loss when a high paying skater leaves a certain coach and goes elsewhere to train. To compensate, a rink's management raises fees and ice time costs. In many parts of the U.S., there are not enough figure skaters around to keep more than just a few people working. Figure skating is a tough business to be in.
Monthly or Weekly Fees Could Include All Skating Related Expenses
I have an idea. Why can't ice rinks operate like ballet studios or gymnastics schools?
Perhaps ice arenas could charge a monthly or weekly tuition that would include ice time, private lessons, group lessons, ballet classes, and off-ice training? The more advanced skaters would pay more than those new to figure skating. Families wanting their children to skate would know exactly what things would cost.
Salaries and Guaranteed Income and Benefits for Figure Skating Coaches
Very qualified professionals could be paid a generous salary that would also include benefits such as sick leave, medical insurance, and paid vacations. A skating director could assign equal workloads to the coaches. There would be enough work for every coach on a rink's teaching staff. Teamwork would make a great figure skating training atmosphere.
Change Must Occur
With today's economic concerns, I truly believe that how things are done in our sport must change. If things do not change, many people will just not be able afford our sport, ice rinks will close, and figure skating coaches will be out of work. Actually, some of that has already happened...
Comments
This is what we do in Oberstdorf at the European Figure Skating School. We pay a monthly fee which includes ice (technique, steps and expression), off-ice and gymnastics, ballet and stretch. International students paying more than German Nationals and with a monthly ice fee instead of patches. More advanced students pay more, i.e. Novice pay less than Junior.
It’s still expensive, especially for two daughters but less than private lessons. Groups are 2-4 skaters. We have been pleased with this so far. Possibly it is the future for Figure Skating. Skating Academies, preferably with academic school attached as in Chemnitz or London School of Ballet. Perhaps, for once, Europe is leading the way…
PS Love your articles – always very interesting. Girls loved article about skating with a partner, a week before they did a Pairs try-out.
Janine:
It sounds like Europe is on the right track!
Thanks for reading my articles!
JO ANN
hmm….I always have this question in my mind…why ballet studios or gymnastics schools can have group lessons up to a pretty advanced level but not figure skating.
It’s like after all those basic skill programs if you want to continue figure skating…you HAVE to do private lessons. $$$
This is a GREAT idea Jo Ann! Figure skating is a bit anti social in it’s present form–everyone competing AGAINST each other. The coaches working as a team would be a great model for the skaters to see. Small group lessons would make for a more social setting.It’s more fun and often kids work harder when they are in a small group encouraging each other, laughing together at their failures and celebrating their successes. The coaches wouldn’t be working against each other and they would have security and much less to worry about. This is good for everybody. I would be interested to hear afew coaches’ perspectives on this. Keep up the good thinking! –Pat
You are right JoAnn! I have to add that USFSA has to change the direction figure skating is going in the US. Enormous amounts of money are spent on so many figure skaters every year–Heck every day! This just isn’t ethically or morally acceptable. How many of these skaters are ever going to Nationals, Worlds or the Olympics? A tiny percentage! There are GREAT lessons to be learned in figure skating,– hard work, perseverence, precision, grace. But the price tag is too high and so many of the skaters end up feeling they failed because they couldn’t go on to high level skating. There has to be a way for kids to work hard, learn the lessons and feel successful without spending the family college funds or retirement nest egg. Also, there is so much focus on the skaters themselves and so little opportunity to use skating to do something for the community, raise money for charity through entertainment or just bring joy to others through beautiful skating. All the focus is on competition. Remember, like Kathy Casey said, “Winning isn’t normal.” Only one can win. And that one might not even have worked the hardest. We’ve got to find the JOY of SKATING again and find a way to keep that alive in the kids.
–Concerned skating parent.
Hi “concerned skating parent”, I am 100% with you.
Unless we are as rich as kings and queens, the 10s of thousands of dollars we spent each year must have coming from somewhere like our 529 or 401k account. IMO it is totally IRRESPONSIBLE to spend that much of $ on figure skating or ANY sport activities. Calling it unethical or immoral is absolutely right!
Winning a Nationals, Worlds or the Olympics Champions only means they are Champions among those whose parents are rich enough (or crazy enough to empty their retirement account) to afford this sport.
Like tennis in the mid-19th century, only the rich and upper class people can afford it. I hope one day figure skating can become today’s tennis, anyone who love the sport and willing to work hard can enjoy it without their parents worrying about it financially.
I totally agree with everything you wrote about. And I think most everyone would agree, as has already been shown in the comments. It’s time to make a change because skating is going to suffer here in the states unless something is done to remedy this situation. And it’s not fair that only the very rich can allow their children to participate. It’s a beautiful sport that everyone should be allowed to enjoy. Your ideas are brilliant and now if there could just be a way to push it forward.
Thanks!
Jo Ann –
This is so right on. I was just having this “discussion” the other day with a rink owner… My daughter is unable to get any makeup classes equivalent to her advanced classes and I was told that it is not the rinks problem it’s the coaches problem…. seems odd when the rink is being paid for classes separate and apart from the coach.
I think it is really going to take some re-education of the rink owners. Owners need to understand how their relationships with coaches, skaters and parents can actually be good be beneficial for everyone and look beyond the current month’s balance sheet.
I have wondered about this for years! Why is there not a monthly fee for classes, ice, lessons, off-ice training, etc? I grew up in the world of dance. The more advanced one became, the more lessons were required. Also . . . the more lessons one took, the better the price per hour. I have two kids who figure skate. Neither one will be a national champion, but they love it! I barely make my monthly bills because skating is so expensive, but I don’t want to cheat my girls of the opportunity to skate, to compete, and to challenge themselves. It is not about results; it is about participation! I think rink sponsored, comprehensive skating programs would attract more skaters to the ice. More skaters = more profit = more students continuing to skate = more recruiting . . . the possibilities are endless! Team efforts would build better programs and yield better results in the competitive ranks too. AND . . . it would be a lot more fun!
Perhaps if more events were offered, more of our skaters could make it to the National or International level. Many medals are earned by multitudes of athletes in gymnastics, swimming, et al. Yet Figure Skating Officials refuse to think outside the box.
Here in Nottingham, UK, all of the symptoms and consequences that you describe apply too. The result is that the rink goes for the cheaper, less qualified coaches. Keen parents and adult skaters alike, are being short-changed. Higher level coaches have left in numbers over the past few years. I’m not saying that all of the lower-qualified and less experienced coaches are bad by any means, they do their best. There are still excellent Gold level coaches too although not so many now. The lack of experience “on the coal face” on such a scale is bound to tell though and naturally, it does. In an environment of economic difficulty, the attraction to cost-cutting can be readily understood but IMHO it’s “killing the goose that lays the golden eggs” and defeating the object of a thriving rink and skating community. Diluting the pool of expertise in this way is such a shame and selling off the attraction with the family silver.
My two penn’orth!
you are so right jo ann!! I can’t even afford figure skaitng lessons and i bet you your daughter annabelle schneider fariss agrees with me too!! i am now 11 years old ans i wanted to be a figure skater along time and i LOVE LOVE LOVE to skate!! I object! this is not fair!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
This happened at a rink I skate at. There is no ice dedicated to figure skating at all. It’s now all hockey with a few publics sprinkled in. The current reality at the rink reminds me of how much I really enjoyed Ice Castle in Lake Arrowhead, CA, all figure skating all the time and not a hockey board in sight!!!
Although the idea of a monthly fee has merit and a school like gymnastics and dance has its parallels, Ice Skating already has ISI and USFS Basic Skills and Synchro as options to keep in skating. Singles, Pairs, Dance operate best on a one to one basis. Some group teaching works but the competitions are not based on groups unless you opt for the “team” events. How do the USFS Clubs factor in this financial equation as you have to be an “individual” member? Coaches of competence have to pay in the neighborhood of $400.00 to be qualified to do testing, competitions and Regionals and above. Who will pay for that in a group situation. Where is the “choice” of coaches? Why has so much of the World (Europea, Asia, Russia, etc.) come to the US for our style of skating insruction and icetime? ….Just some thoughts
Finally, someone is talking sense in this sport. I was a competitive skater back in the early 80s and my mom and I figured out that she spent 5K/year on skating (probably 15-20 hours per week). That translates into major bucks in today’s money!
I am back at it now and I am spending just as much on ice time (2-3 hours per week) and coaching (30 minutes per week) as I am on my son’s gymnastics (he is a competitive gymnast, he works out 12-15 hours a week and has several coaches with him and his team ALL THE TIME). They work out as a team, but they get plenty of individual attention. There is no reason that skating can’t be the same way!