Coach issue - What to do?

[kimmee4]

I am trying to figure out how to handle this situation. DD takes a lesson with a young coach. She is around 21. She is very nice and DD likes her a lot. Last week during her private lesson, I noticed one of the senior club ice skaters kept coming up to dd's coach and chatting, chatting , chatting during dd lesson time. After speaking with DD, it appears they were just talking about old friends , ect and dd definetly felt like the coach was not paying as much attention to her skating a. I just do not understand why a teenage senior club member would think its ok to try to socialize with a coach while she is coaching and call me crazy but why couldn't DD coach tell the girl she would talk with her later.:roll:

So, I am thinking of saying nothing this time but if it happens again I might ask the coach to "please ask you friend to catch up with you before or after my dd 's lesson ". Does that sound reasonable?

[Kim to the Max]

So, I am thinking of saying nothing this time but if it happens again I might ask the coach to "please ask you friend to catch up with you before or after my dd 's lesson ". Does that sound reasonable?

My own opinion on this is that you are paying for that time and your DD deserves (for her own skating improvement), her coach's attention.

I would approach the coach about what you are seeing and tell her what your perceptions are. What you think is happening, may not be the reality, but one of the things that I always tell my staff members is that perception becomes reality.

Good Luck!

[kander]

I am trying to figure out how to handle this situation. DD takes a lesson with a young coach. She is around 21. She is very nice and DD likes her a lot. Last week during her private lesson, I noticed one of the senior club ice skaters kept coming up to dd's coach and chatting, chatting , chatting during dd lesson time. After speaking with DD, it appears they were just talking about old friends , ect and dd definetly felt like the coach was not paying as much attention to her skating a. I just do not understand why a teenage senior club member would think its ok to try to socialize with a coach while she is coaching and call me crazy but why couldn't DD coach tell the girl she would talk with her later.:roll:

So, I am thinking of saying nothing this time but if it happens again I might ask the coach to "please ask you friend to catch up with you before or after my dd 's lesson ". Does that sound reasonable?

Does the coach make up for it by going longer on the lesson? My coach frequently talks to other people, but he always makes the lesson longer. In the long run I usually get more than a sessions worth.

Kevin

[katz in boots]

Hmm, difficult. My coach is particularly good at making it clear she is busy and not to be disturbed during lessons, so it particularly annoys me when my coach takes time out of my lesson to instruct someone else, whether she makes up the time afterwards or not. She knows I'm annoyed too.

If is is a one-off occurence, I wouldn't say anything, but if it is ongoing, or regular, then I agree you should tackle her about it, especially if time isn't added to the lesson to make up for it.

[jskater49]

Absoulutely the next time it happens, talk to her THAT day, after the lesson, polite, calm, but firm...and mention that it happend before and you let it go but that you think lesson time should be spent on the lesson.

I would not go along with the "she makes it up later" - it's still wasting your duaghter's time while she's just standing there and the coach is chatting with someone else.\

If she's young she may even be shy about asking her friends to stop talking to her...I know my own DD might have trouble with this, so be nice about it and you can even say "I know you don't want to be rude to your friends, but if you point out you are in a lesson I'm sure they will understand."

j

[sk8lady]

If she's young she may even be shy about asking her friends to stop talking to her...I know my own DD might have trouble with this, so be nice about it and you can even say "I know you don't want to be rude to your friends, but if you point out you are in a lesson I'm sure they will understand."

j

Absolutely...when my coach was skating director, other skaters used to come up to her all the time during my lesson to ask questions, either about the session or about their own skating. Sometimes they would even ask her to watch them do jumps. I finally got to the point where I started saying, "Excuse me, but I'm having a lesson and you need to talk to Coach later." My coach thanked me after I did this the first time--she didn't feel comfortable getting into a conflict with one of her own students!

[Pgh.Coach]

If is is a one-off occurence, I wouldn't say anything, but if it is ongoing, or regular, then I agree you should tackle her about it, especially if time isn't added to the lesson to make up for it.

Agreed.

Since you're daughter's coach is "very nice", as you put it, perhaps she felt uncomfortable saying something to her friend. Still, she needs to put her foot down and explain that she is on lesson--and catch up with her friend later.

And, regardless as to whether your coach is adding extra time to the lesson to make up for her chattiness, you are still paying for your coach to coach your daughter. Any time she's wasting outside of coaching is still time wasted. If you're comfortable paying for her to stand out there and chat for minutes on end to her friends then that's your prerogative, but it's not at all unreasonable for you to flat out (yet politely) mention something to her. It's your daughter's time and your money afterall.

[Kay]

As a side note to this discussion, for any coaches reading this hoping to find a solution, I have one coach that circumvents this problem in general by moving around the ice a lot. People generally approach coaches when they are at the side of the boards, especially people not wearing skates (ie parents of other students, non-skating friends, etc.) My coach is constantly moving, even at a slow glide, around the perimeter of the rink (not in the middle, don't worry, he doesn't get in the way of other skaters!). It he stops, he chooses areas that are away from common chat-spots (entrance to ice, hockey player boxes) and instead chooses areas like behind the goal crease by the end of the ice, or between the blue line and the end of the ice.

Bottom line?
Stationary coaches = easy targets to talk to.

Because he is moving, it's harder for other students to track him down, and then they feel a sense hurry in communicating whatever it is (ie giving him a cheque) because he doesn't slow down and linger. It makes me feel like he is more devoted to focusing on me (which he definitely is! he is a great coach!)and watching me the entire time. Also, I don't have to skate all the way back to him, he's normally ready at hand, which decreases the down time in the lesson, and gives it a better flow.


As for your situation, handle it gently because if you upset your coach, you may damage the good relationship your skater and coach have.

If it happens again, as others have suggested, I would advise your skater to broach the issue with them. Since she is a young coach, hearing it from her student will likely make her want to change to be a better coach, as opposed to feeling "parented" by you, which may generate negative feelings.

[Pgh.Coach]

Bottom line?
Stationary coaches = easy targets to talk to.

Right on!

The coaches that are always B.S.-ing one another are those who either sit/stand in the hockey boxes or stand frozen alongside the boards. (Stick around long enough and you'd be surprised at some of the the conversations you'll hear: husbands, kids, money woes, rink cattiness, etc.) Not only does this practice encourage sometimes unneccesary conversation but it does not make the most effective coaching method. :roll:

[singerskates]

Right on!

The coaches that are always B.S.-ing one another are those who either sit/stand in the hockey boxes or stand frozen alongside the boards. (Stick around long enough and you'd be surprised at some of the the conversations you'll hear: husbands, kids, money woes, rink cattiness, etc.) Not only does this practice encourage sometimes unneccesary conversation but it does not make the most effective coaching method. :roll:

I had this happen to me when I had a coach who was the same age as me. The said coach is now a past coach. She was going through a really rough time in her life but if she wanted to chat about it, it should have been off of the ice and not during lesson time. I lost a few years of training this way as so did her other students. Eventually most of her students moved on to other coaches. And yes she stayed by the boards and penalty box when she was chatting. I was new to skating then and just let her chat with me about her problems. If I had known know what I know, I would have changed coaches much sooner than I did and I would have gotten much further in my skating than I am at the present. It seemed like she wasn't ever watching what I was doing on the ice and I was learning on my own yet I was paying for her to talk to me about her troubles. Talk about backwards.

My current coach always moves around the ice with me and with his other skating students while in lesson. A matter a fact, sometimes we have little contests to see how much we can improve an element ie. sitspin revs centering, toe loop height and presentation. My coach also has a one track mind on skating, so much so that when I told him that I wouldn't be back on the ice after competing for a week and half to go on my 25th Wedding Anniversary trip, it totally blew his mind and so he ended up calling my cell phone long distance to see if I was going to be at the rink and find out how my competition had gone. LOL If it isn't about skating with my coach, it's in one ear and out the other.

[rudi]

So, I am thinking of saying nothing this time but if it happens again I might ask the coach to "please ask you friend to catch up with you before or after my dd 's lesson ". Does that sound reasonable?

I didn't read the other replies yet, but, yes, I think this is what I would do as well.

Lessons are expensive. You are paying for the coaching time, not for your coach to chat and go on with her friends.

[Pgh.Coach]

It seemed like she wasn't ever watching what I was doing on the ice and I was learning on my own yet I was paying for her to talk to me about her troubles. Talk about backwards.

Sounds as if you should've been charging her for these little psychiatric sessions! :lol: