Group Lesson Format Question

[Virtualsk8r]

A lot of posters seem to participate in group lessons - and the lessons do not appear to be the LTS kind. Some refer to doing double jumps and axels in their group classes.

Our club is largely competitive, where skaters are drawn from the LTS group classes and into private lessons (or semi-private lesssons) with a club coach. We do have a bridging class where the not-quite-ready-for competitive training skaters fresh out of LTS are given 45 minutes of group coaching once a week. However, few parents and skaters are interested in moving into the more expensive private lesson/3-4times a week mode.

We do have some junior skaters that skate once a week (pre-preliminary etc.) and might do a dutch waltz etc., but the majority of the low level skaters take 2-4 lessons (15 minute lessons) a week and skate 3-4 days a week, while the competitive skaters are 5-6 days a week in daily private lessons.

I am interested in the format that other clubs and countries do - especially in light of the economy. The idea for this question came from reading the thread about clubs and the economy.

Also - do the higher level group skaters take USFSA tests? Dance, moves, or freeskate tests as well? What kind of fees do clubs charge or coaches charge for these lessons?

[Kat12]

The feel I get from the adult "LTS" classes at a lot of clubs is that the class works to the level of the person in the class. How I've experienced it is that the instructor will spend a few minutes with each person in the class--s/he might come critique my spins or back crossovers, then leave me to work on that more while s/he goes on to so-and-so who's working on double toe, then go to the newbie who's working on forward crossovers, etc.

I was surprised to find it is this way for adult classes, but when I think about it, it makes sense to me. Surely there are fewer adult skaters than child skaters, so it makes little sense to try to have classes of different levels that might only have one or two adults in each level, if any at all. Also, for adults it probably works better to have a bit of individualized attention rather than standing there with a whole class where everyone's taught the same thing at the same time and it's assumed you'll all progress at the same rate.

And frankly, I find it beneficial to work with skaters who are both higher and lower level than I am--to get a taste of what I'll be learning in future and remember the advice/instruction given, or hear again advice on stuff I've already worked on. Plus it's inspirational--you can both see where you've headed, and see how far you've come (you might feel you've gotten nowhere until you see a beginner and realize you've progressed after all! At least I do).

And of course it's great for those of us who can't afford a private coach, as well!

[Virtualsk8r]

Are your adult classes offered through a USFSA club or through a private or publicly owned rink ie municipal or city run recreational programs?

Years ago I taught adult classes through a recreational city program and I ran my classes similarly to your description. I usually had about 10-12 in a class and did individual lesson plans for each skater then rotated around for the hour to each skater, after giving them a skill to work on. The all-for-one approach doesn't work for adults. At one point, I also had adults who were working on advanced dances, figures, jumps etc. and gave mini lessons instead of one major group (but then we had the whole ice to use).

My problem with adult group lessons (or teen group lessons) where each adult works at their own speed - is the expectation that a skater can or should be able to accomplish just as much as the skater in a 15-minute private lesson. I found that after a while, adults who were progressing at a great pace initially, were the first to give up when it got tough -- mostly because they expected me to give them more of my time then the rest of the class participants, and the same lesson I would give a private student who was paying a lot more for one-on-one.

[Skate@Delaware]

We have two types of skating programs at my rink:
-LTS
-Academy

The main difference is the level of skating, where LTS is for beginner up to beginning jumps/spins and Academy picks up from there. The skaters are grouped according to ability for the LTS programs, not so much age (although it does tend to run along ages & abilities). Adults who are beginners are put with the children, when they obtain a certain proficiency (1-foot spins, front/back crossovers) they can move into the advanced adult class-it's the only other adult class available).

Academy is for LTS-graduates. Although many of the higher-level LTS kids also take Academy instead of taking privates. It's run in a one-hour block of time, once-per-week (Saturday) and each session consists of dance, freestyle, moves, and another section such as power, jumps or whatever they decide for that week, each "block" is 15 minutes long. For the dance, each group will work on a dance, as a group. For the freestyle, each group will work on spins, although maybe different levels (perhaps group 1 will work on scratch while group 3 works on flying camels). It goes on like that. There may be 3-5 groups, depending on the number of coaches available (and if there are competitions that they are involved in, substitutes fill in, like me).

My rink is ISI and at the end of week 7, testing is held, overseen by the skating director.

I have found with the older children (about 10 years and up) and the adults that peer pressure and some pushing of the abilities is good, but too much (depending on their personality) can be detrimental. A good coach/instructor should spend a few minutes with each student and observe a move and offer constructive criticism/correction then move on to the next student-and make sure to go back and observe that the student has been able to apply the correction. Offering advice and not seeing an end result doesn't do the student any good. Trying to overload the student isn't good-in a 15-minute lesson, maybe no more than 3 things to work on (depending on the pace of the student) would be a goal. If they are extremely difficult and the class is very crowded, perhaps no more than 1-2 things.

Sometimes, people try to cram too much stuff into a group lesson, focusing on quantity instead of quality, and the student's skating is what suffers in the end. The best lessons I've had have focused on only a few things but in a complete way (edges and position of arms/shoulders in a 20 minute lesson got me further than cramming in 5 different things).

[sarahspins]

The feel I get from the adult "LTS" classes at a lot of clubs is that the class works to the level of the person in the class.

That's exactly how it works at my rink.. there are the beginning Adult LTS classes, but then freestyle or workshop is pretty much "anything goes" according to the level of the skaters.. the ones I've attended, the pros either ask what we want to do, or they suggest something that is beneficial for everyone (power stroking, etc). Enrollment is typically low in these classes (count the skaters on one hand kind of low), and they usually get the whole ice surface. It still works out good for the pro teaching the class.. they make more money teaching the class with only a few skaters than doing a similar length private lesson.

If I was still doing doubles I could work on them in those classes.. unless I wanted to use the harness. That has to be a private lesson on freestyle ice.

The only problem is that the adult group lessons fall at odd times during the week. The MIF class falls at mid-morning for example... after morning freestyles but before the adult freestyle that follows. I presume that this was previously unused ice time.. so it works out for everyone. It's similar with the classes on Saturdays. They're at an oddly early time compared to other group lessons.

[Skittl1321]

Our group lessons are offered by the rink who uses the USFS learn to skate program. The club is in no way related to group lessons.

Group lessons offered are Snowplow 1 and 2/3, Basic 1-8, Freestyle, and Adult. Adult and Freestyle are just "general" levels. We teach whatever skaters show up at the level that they are at. Basic 1-8 are seperate classes, and snowplow is kind of informally done as snowplow 1 (first time) and snowplow 2/3 (can skate). When kids finish snowplow they go to Basic 1, not Basic 2 as USFS suggests. When tots have a natural ability to skating I talk with their parents and ask them if they'd rather have fun/games, or learn true skating. If they want skating over games, we move them to the Basics classes.

For freestyle- for a very long time we had 1 freestyle class. It ranged from "I just passed Basic 8, and well actually I don't remember any of the skills and don't know which edge is which" to working on an axel. Now, we have 2 freestyle classes on Tuesday one "low" and one "high". The "high" class is working up to double loop- I think, and the low class is working up to salchow. However, the high class has a few people who aren't ready for doubles, but are older teens (and me an adult) who can do higher level (pre-juvish) moves, working on change foot spins, and can understand advanced instruction. We just do the single of their double jump.

On Saturday there are 3 freestyle classes- low (some of whom actually never took the Basic classes- they are just with their coach), medium (true FS 1-3 as USFS defines) and "axel plus"- which, obviously you need an axel to be in. These classes are extremely full- at least 8 per class.

Saturday also has a specialty class with about 15 students- all these kids seem to be private students of the coach, and he does whatever he wants with them. But it's run through the rink.

I'd say 80-90% of freestyle students take 1 or 2 private lessons a week, usually with the coach they take group class from. The axel plus/high freestyle teacher is a former international competitior, the high freestyle teacher a lower-level Nationals medalist, and the other freestyle coach a well known adult competitor. People sign their kids up for these lessons for more time with the coaches without having to pay for privates.

If my freestyle coach changed, I'd stop LTS.

[Audryb]

At my rink we have Snowplow Sam, regular usfsa Basic 8, usfsa Freestyle 1-6 all as separate classes that teach the elements that are meant to be taught at each level. If enrollment is light, sometimes they'll combine two or three of the Freestyle levels into one class.

We also have Adult Basic skills, in which they do teach the Adult 1-4 elements, but often due to low enrollment it isn't broken down into 4 separate classes. Also, they're much less strict about teaching the elements in exactly the right order, and making you "pass" everything in one level before moving on to stuff in the next level. You do have to pass all the skills before you move onto the freestyle 1-6 levels, but adults who move to those levels go into the same classes with the kids. When I was in Adult Basic skills, none of the other people in the class were taking private lessons, but when I moved into the Freestyle levels, I'd say most of the kids in the classes were also taking privates.

The rink also offers 3 Adult Coffee club type classes: Low, High, and Dance. These are much less structured. Basically if you're just starting out you go to the low coffee club and the coach works with each student at their level. Once you're got decent back crossovers and are starting to spin, you go to the high coffee club for freestyle, or the ice dance coffee club (or both). Again, the instructors work with you at whatever your level and the range in the class can vary significantly. During the summer they also have an evening "happy hour" class for all levels (even men in hockey skates are allowed as long as they're interested in learning stroking and turns and not tearing the place up)

As far as higher level group classes, there is an early morning "Advanced Edge" class that requires, I think, Juvenile moves, and there are other periodic moves/ edge classes for other levels. I don't think I've ever seen an advanced freestyle class for students who are actually beyond the elements that are taught in the usfsa Freestyle levels.