30K/this yr intermdiate skater US, majortraining center tho

$38,000 a year for my Novice Skater. Big Training Center with lots of high level coaching staff.

I am flabbergasted over the amount people are spending..mostly in the US. My brother trained at the best skating clubs with the best coaches and we still didn't end up paying over 30,000. But then again, the conversion to US dollars would put us well over the limit..hehehe

If you would converse your CAD$ into US dollars, you wouldn't be over the limit but well under!


ex.:
30 000$CAD = 22 400$US

So even less!

lol..thats true. But what I was getting at is I'd have to pay 35,000 CAD to only get 22-25,000 American. So if I had a child skating in the states, I'd end up paying even more.

With all this talk about freestyle costs:
My rink here in VA just increased the freestyle rate frm $8.00/ walk on to $12.00/walk on! We just got a new owner who wants to make our rink a training center. The top coaches here are anywhere from $48- $52/ hour!

The contract rate at our rink is $12 an hour. There are some discounts to that - during the school year there's a 10% discount if you contract for a certain amount each session, and during the summer that discount goes to 20%. The walk-on rate is an absurd $18 per hour! That rate only applies to people "off the street", non-contract skaters. It used to apply to us contract skaters as well, until I complained about it at a parents' meeting that rink management held. We contract for as much time as we can reliably make each week, occasionally we can do more, especially when there is a competition or test coming up. It seemed absurd to have to pay such a premium in order to pick up an extra freestyle here and there. I was amazed to find out they'd listened to reason!

The coaches at our rink are more like $90 an hour. We are in Delaware

Who sets the hourly rate for coaches? How can they charge so much, i.e. $90/hr US? Is the cost of training a coach really high which could justify the high fees charged?

Some of the coaches are $30 for 20 min and some are $26 for 20 minutes. I don't know who sets the fees for them. I think they are extremely high

In Canada, the coaches set the fee. They usually base it on what others are charging, but mostly on their coaching level and experience. Some of them add in a little extra for taxes, while others add in a bit to cover medical/dental insurance which they have to purchase themselves. A beginning coach usually charges no more than $9 for 15 min. Most experienced coahces range from $15-20 per 15 min

$90/hour is crazy. The cost of coaching varies regionally, for example if you look on the Ann Arbor website you will see fees ranging from $33/hour up to $60/hour. There are some very well established coaches listed there that you will recognize with fairly reasonable rates.

As for the cost of training to be a coach, I suppose you have to consider the years that they trained and spent money on coaching themselves. Because of the need for figures, I guarantee you those coaches put in way more hours on the ice than any of the skaters today. I suppose we should consider ourselves lucky that we don't have to pay for twice the ice time we do now since we no longer have figures in the picture.

Our coaches set their own fees. They are self-employed and don't enjoy the benefits of being an employee for a company that provides them benefits. Nobody is paying for their health insurance, sick time, vacation time, etc. Coaching is not always as lucrative as it might seem based on an hourly rate. Depending on the rink, there may only be a few hours a day that they are booked solidly earning income. When a student is off for vacation, illness, etc., they are simply out of that expected income.

I don't know what the highest paid coaches make but it is more than $90 an hour. Published rates for 3 coaches at one ice skating summer camp are $40 for 20 minutes. Only the 20 minute rates are listed. They don't come right out and say they charge $120 per hour. These coaches are booked up with no openings for the whole summer so obviously people think they are worth their rate. There are long waiting lists full of people who are hoping for some reason there will be a cancellation and they will be able to slip in.

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Babyskater's Mom

My coach (2x British dance champion) charges $70/hour. He hasn't raised his rates in 2 years.

Don't know how much the other coaches (full-time, coaching being their only income) at my rink charge, but I would expect that the "lead" coaches charge at least as much as my coach does.

Well if your a skater in the Pre Novice level, skating all season is important, but time off is important as well. To many lessons can burn out a skater, they need time to learn to work on there own and create independance on the ice, especially the younger skaters.

A skater who works hard for 15 mins with their coach will have high quality results than a skater who is with a coach for 45mins. A jumping lesson let say, the skater after 15 or 20 mins of jumping is to tired and should have a break from jumping.

Skaters at the Pre Novice level and up, know that double axel is the key to placement on the podium, but after 12 attempts take a break.Coaches seem to push jumps on skaters and injuries are happening to often.

So my bottom line here is, learn to say NO to extra lessons if you feel it is to much on the skater or your pocket book. So many paretns are afraid to say no to their coach , but if you don't, the coach has you hook line and will sink you. I know parents that are in risk of losing their homes over figure skating costs and the skaters are under 13.

Success of a skater is determined by what they put into it !!!

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Don't laugh at me because I can't do it.Smile at me because I tried!!

My own quote.

$65,000 USD last year including all expenses

I'm curious as to what level of skating you are at and what level of success you have achieved for such a high annual expenditure for skating. Sunshine21 posts an annual expense of $38,000 at Novice level at a large training center. I'm wondering if you travel more extensively than the average skater...Does your higher annual expense perhaps include the expense of sectionals and nationals each year, or maybe some International competitions in the mix?
Or is it just that your location dictates a higher expense?

Just curious!

Why do we spend $65,000 a year?

Ice time= $15 per hour
Coaching= $120 per hour???not exactly sure
6 days a week, 5 sessions a day
12 lessons a week
Gym membership: $220
Costumes: $2500
Private ice for choreography=$175-$200 per hour plus coaching fees
Travel=Cost of private jet...anywhere from $1000-$3000 an hour
Rental Cars=$50 a day
Hotels=$120 per night
Competition entry fees= probably around $500 yearly
the list just keeps going....on and on

obviously money isn't an issue with this particular skater as they can afford a private jet.

ok...thanks?

I was thinking...included in that $65,000 cost quote....I didn't include the wear and tear on the cars, price of buying new cars and gasoline...if you consider that a skating cost.
Our rink is about 55 miles away from home so we drive so much!
Our family has designated three of our 8 cars just for skating!

In the spring and fall we use a Cadillac DeVille limousine and a Mercedes S600
In the winter we use a Lincoln Navigator SUV

Since we put so many miles on these cars a year (70,000+ a year) we need to replace them every three years!! Considering that an S600 is $120,000, a Navigator $55,000 and the limousine $65,000, this is a big financial committment. Also, these vehicles are all gas guzzlers so we have to pay absurd amounts for gasoline, insurance costs are extra, luxury and other taxes are extra as well as the cost of a driver. If you consider these numbers, the annual cost of skating is even higher! What an expensive sport!!! If we only knew what we were getting into years ago......

Um, right......

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~Sk8Bunny~
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"I know you can be overwhelmed, and you can be underwhelmed, but can you ever just be whelmed?"

Thanks for your breakdown of expenses....I'm still curious as to your competitive level and whether your competition fees include week long stays at Nationals for example.

Our rink is currently offering only 4 high sessions a day, many skaters average 3 per day, 5 days a week. Our coaching rate is half yours.

You are lucky to have the affluence to go first class all the way. Not all skaters can do that.

I'm assuming Sk8rt that you are the skater in the family, or are you the parent? Is there only one skater in the family? I ask that because your family obviously spends a huge amount of time on skating.....

our family only has one serious skater...thank God!!! another child in our family skates--but not seriously---just recreationally or should I say "for fun". I couldn't imagine have two competitive skaters....

Is it just my perception of the situation... but you really WANT to pay that much for skating?

If you are indeed serious and amazed by the cost of skating, just re-read your post and you will know where to cut expenses...

I might be harsh... but the whole post doesn't look like a real situation to me.

That's maybe because I've know international skaters having great results who were paying much less. Who knows.