Hi, I'm comparatively new but have been lurking for a while.

I agree with BatikaII - you can learn a lot in 15 minutes. When I first learned to skate 25 yrs. ago in NYC I couldn't afford 30 min. lessons-only Groups, 15 mins. privates and Public sessions. Back then you needed permission from your coach in order to skate FS sessions(!). The skating school director would stand by the window overlooking the rink and if you couldn't at least skate forwards, backwards with the flow of traffic and stop safely, off the ice you went. Learned my first program on a 15 min. lesson(!) with no problem because I had a plan of what I wanted to do in the program even though I was at ISI FS1 level. It was just a matter of laying it out which made it easier and faster for my (then) coach.

15 mins. is, in my opinion, great for beginners-have an idea or a plan of what you'd like to learn/improve before your lesson so when you're with your coach, not time is lost. Same thing goes for programs, no matter what level: have an idea of what you'd like to do in your program before taking your private. If you're not sure of where it should be placed, no problem. Naturally your coach will insert where it should go and believe me, it saves a lot of time if you have your ideas beforehand.

Actually, to be technical, the lesson fee is paid to the coach, but the rink gets a cut off that...

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Cheers,
jazzpants

11-04-2006: Shredded "Pre-Bronze FS for Life" Club Membership card!!!
Silver Moves is the next "Mission Impossible"
(Dare I try for Championship Adult Gold someday???)

Thank you for the support, you guys!!!

Jazz-not everywhere do coaches have to pay some share to the rink! If you teach one LTS class at one of our rinks, you keep your entire lesson fee. At another rink, there is no LTS class requirement, and at a third rink, it's $2 per lesson but waived at the discretion of the skating director (and guess what he does to keep coaches at his rink?)

Geez, I guess it's just my home rink then. The strange thing as far as my home rink is concerned is... the coaches fee is PER DAY, not PER LESSON! My primary coach teaches two days out of the week partly b/c of that. (Much to the chagrin of those who have crazy schedules on the two days that he does teach. And he DOES teach LTS classes regularly.)

Yes, that's the way it is at my rink, too. The coach has to pay a percentage of every lesson fee you pay him/her to the rink, so not all of it goes home with your coach. But yes, if the coach teaches a certain number of classes at the skating school, that fee is waived.

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"You don't have to put an age limit on your dreams." - Dara Torres, 41, after her 2nd medal at the 2008 Olympics

Around here you want ice time, you join the club and buy their ice. Lots of people belong to more than one club to get more ice. I pay a monthly ice fee to the club and a check to the coach. I don't think the coaches have to kick back anything. There is some public freestyle offered by our rink, don't know what the arrangments are for the coaches during that time.

j

At my rink, there seem to be three levels ...

First the rink, which takes responsibility for public sessions, and the rink as a whole. It also controls access to booked sessions, clubs and patches etc, and is part of a national chain.

Second an in-house business (calling itself the international school of skating - ISS) which controls the coaches, patches etc. Patch ice is paid to the coach, public ice at the desk.

Third, clubs. There is one figures/dance club, there are several hockey clubs to cater for ages/gender/objectives. The figures club is supported by the ISS in the form of an allocated coach for the weekly session. All costs are paid to the club.

Public sessions are pretty cheap, most expensive £6/2hrs at weekends. Patch ice is £5/hr. Coaches are £10/30 mins, and are willing to take more than one student and share the cost. That is what I am currently trying to arrange,with lack of finances !

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UK Passport (figure)
Bronze : PASSED 13-Oct-07 Woohoo
Silver: PASSED 08-Dec-07 Yippee
Gold: Backspin PASSED One Foot Spin ____ Toe Loop ____ Programme ____
The impossible is just a journey away ...

Both rinks I skate at have skaters pay for the freestyle time (or public session time, as appropriate). The skater then separately pays the private lesson instructor for lesson time. My coaches both let me pay once per week with each payment covering all lesson time for that week (if any).

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American Waltz... Once, Twice, ???? ...

Q: How many coaches does it take to fix Jen's Dance Intro-3 Problems
A: 5 and counting...

At my main rink:

To be on staff, you have to teach one or more group lessons weekly. The Staff coaches are paid a flat half-hourly fee for each group lesson. We get a "1099 form" for those payments, with no tax monies withheld, at the end of the year.

The skater pays the rink an admission fee for the public/freestyle session for the private lesson.
The skater pays the coach directly for the private lesson.
Coaches do not pay an admission fee for the session if they're teaching.
Coaches do pay a percentage of the private lesson fee to the rink.
Staff coaches pay half the rate of guest coaches.

VARIATIONS:
At the rink which has no skating school, both the student and I pay an admission fee.
The student pays me directly for the lesson and the rink gets no commission. (The admission works out to approximately 10%)

At the Club I teach for, the skaters pay the Club for the freestyle session fee and then pay me directly for the lesson. I'm also a group instructor for this Club, so there's no commission payment. Before I became a group instructor, I volunteered to help whenever I had free time, mostly at competitions and shows. The head pro waived the commission fee because of that volunteer work.

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I just got back from my group lesson, and they are raising the price from £40 to £60 a term. I know previously I did say it was too cheap, but a 50% increase is really bad. Maybe I am being cynical, but I can't help think it is because it has become more popular, so they are thinking they will make more out of it. They are giving you a load of free crap, but thats not the point. After the first lot of free crap you wont want it!

This has now made private lessons a lot more comparable with group ones, which I have a feeling I may well sort out next term if I can as I think it is bad they have upped it that much. £5.00 to £7.50 a lesson just like that! Swines!!!!!!

Thanks for all your replies... BatikatII especially, your post was very informative.

I do think that if I can arrange it, I'd like to have a 15 min. lesson, about half an hour of practice and then 15 mins again, because what I see too much of is coaches just watching students practice things over and over again... wasting money.

I think that if you have a good coach, then even when you're not paying them, if they see you are doing something completely wrong, they might just shout out something like "bend your knees" or something... i don't think that a GREAT coach would be someone who completely ignored you outside the lesson. (unless they were teaching someone else in which case it's ok)

anyway, I won't be getting a coach for quite a while - autumn will be private group lessons until I reach gold, then when i start the 1-10 after gold, then I'll (hopefully) get private lessons.

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I don't think that's fair to expect that because most coaches are teaching on the ice, they are rarely just hanging around.

That said, in my old club we had one coach. And nobody was immune -if you were doing something she didn't like she would correct you and yell at you if you were not working. ANd she was always calling me over as an example of how not to do something

Lol! I've often said to my coaches they should create a book or DVD on 'how not to skate' featuring me.

If a coach was forever finding the time to correct random skaters around the rink, I would seriously wonder whether a) he/she was actually an alien with eyes in the back of his/her head or b) how much attention he/she was paying to her own pupils in their lessons.

That said, I think it's kinda good when coaches seem to be aware of what you're doing outside the lesson; if they spot a major fault it means they can try and correct it ASAP.

S xxx

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There is a very fine line between "hobby" and "mental illness"

Didn't you know that coaches do have eyes in the backs of their heads!!!!!
Even today, mine commented on what I'd been practicing first thing. I don't think they would correct anyone though, not unless they're getting paid.

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Level one Field Moves......PASSED 05.06.08
Level one Free dance.....PASSED 02.10.08

GOALS FOR 2009

• Level One Compulsary dances.......PASSED 19.02.09
• Level One Elements.....................PASSED 10.07.09
• Level Two Free dance.................PASSED 19.02.09
• Level One Free...........................
• Level Two compulsory dances.......

Loving it, Loving it, Loving it!!!!!

Also, what I like about private lessons is that it is focused on you. If they constantly were correcting the others then it would be some sort of weird group lesson. It is fine to notice and then mention in your lesson, and coaches DO notice everything, but not in someone elses!

If someone falls over during practice in the coned off area, she does check they are ok and that's about it. After all it is you that's paying her. I like it that way. I'm not sure I would be happy if the lesson kept getting interupted by someone else.

My rink rarely has freestyle only ice time (this is done only the week or so before competitions and of course the prices are also pegged much higher accordingly) , all lessons (even pairs and dance ) are done on public ice. At least the last time our pair team went through their program on public ice, most of the public skaters actually stopped at the boards to stare .... which was a lucky thing for their own safety lol.... (and this doesnt happen all the time...)

Anyways the paying style here is different, the money goes to the rink and the coaches are paid proportionately to how much we pay, but the rink takes their cut and the coaches have no say about how much they are paid, aka they cannot negotiate with us a separate fee. The rink sets it.

In this way, the lesson and ice time fee is combined together and hence if you pay for lessons you don't have to pay separately for the ice on that day. However, obviously that amount is quite substaintially higher than *our* "normal" practise fees and mind you all of this is on public ice. I pay $280 ++ SGD for 2 and 1/2 hours of lessons. (which (if i didn't count wrongly) works out to about 9 pounds per 15 minutes) Practise fees come with unlimited time on public session and is about 4 pounds per day. (sometimes I don't know if its a gift or a curse that we aren't forced to do freestyle in more expensive freestyle only sessions, on the other hand, fighting with the crowd on bad ice isn't very nice either...)

I save money by taking long breaks from lessons between sets of 5 weeks... and just practise on my own

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~
Tidesong

At our rink the cost of 1 LTS group session is actually £0.25 cheaper than the cost of public skating session immediately after. The only catch is that you have to sign for 8 weeks.

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My other car is a Zamboni

Ha ha sceptique, the same applies to my rink ...

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UK Passport (figure)
Bronze : PASSED 13-Oct-07 Woohoo
Silver: PASSED 08-Dec-07 Yippee
Gold: Backspin PASSED One Foot Spin ____ Toe Loop ____ Programme ____
The impossible is just a journey away ...

No doubt.
This is the only way to turn casual users into the addicts....

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My other car is a Zamboni

Most Thursdays, our rink is open all day from 10 am to 3:45pm, all for just £3.50 if you use a punch card.
My 15 min lesson is £7 - well worth it to me, and plenty can be learned in that time (especially for a beginner, like me)

Is this the rink you are running, or the one you actually train at?! Incidentally, your input on this might be valuable, breaking down the costs of the ice time and why it's such an expense to us.

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Mrs Redboots
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I love my computer because my friends live in it!
Ice dancers have lovely big curves!