Just a vent but I am sure some of you will have opinions about this.

In fact if you saw my thread about the coach fundraising for her daughter you will know who I am referring to.

Anyway the other night in the figure skating session she was practising with her daughter and playing a tape recorder with some really awful music. However she was playing it at such a volume it was drowning out the music of anyone who had their program music playing over the speaker system. Our speaker system is pretty bad so you can't hear you music very well when you play it anyway. But whenever someone was trying to do their program she had her's turned up so that the skater couldn't hear it. Most of us were getting pretty angry with her and even one of the mild mannered coaches was getting really annoyed too. And to top it off, she kept getting in the way of anyone who was running through their program!!

I put my music on later to do my program and just as the daughter was skating backwards in a spiral towards me when I was going for a loop I screamed out "Excuse me" which I got a reply "Well we are doing a lesson". I was kind of waiting for her to say something to me afterwards but she didn't. But generally the person who has their music on (the speakers) has the right of way. But if she had said something to me, I was not in the mood to be nice and regardless of her being a professional, I would not hesitate in saying what I thought.

The mild mannered coach said he is going to say something to her off the ice later in the privacy of the coaches room. But this coach, as well as her fundraising, is just peeving everyone off by her rude and inconsiderate behaviour. I used to like this coach, but now I just don't want anything to do with her. She really is losing friends quickly.

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And so it goes.... what is it with coaches? There are times I'd like to knock some heads together in our pros' room.... and I know quite well that it's not all one-sided, there are faults on both sides. The atmosphere can get extraordinarily unpleasant at times - I refuse utterly to take sides, or to be drawn into any comments, but others are more partisan. Drives me nuts, plus it means I can't take lessons from X, which I'd like to do occasionally, since she and my present coach are totally unable to work together, and I would want to keep some lessons with him! Deep, deep sigh!

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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!

Aussie Willy, we all have seen problems with coaches but this one is just too much. Can't everyone at the rink get together and put in a formal complaint to management? This woman obviously doesn't care a damn what other people think about her or have a shred of manners. I could suggest another way of getting rid of her but it's not politically correct




.

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The best whisper is a click

Hi Lynney!

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MEL
Absolute Skating

This sounds like a situation for club officials. If that sound system is that weak, no one should be playing other music sources withou headphones. Really, the coach shouldn't be coaching her own daughter anyways.

Clubs can be quite lily livered and most skaters do not want to get involved. Ice is expensive and hard to come by and few want to risk being denied it. As rude and unethical as this coach is, you may have an even longer haul ahead of you than you anticipate. Been there, done that.

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Hi hunney, I AM still alive ..... honest

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The best whisper is a click

Well, if she was playing her daughter's music with a boombox AND they were in a lesson, running through her program, then she sort of had right of way. Right of way rules:

1) Running a program, in a lesson
2) Running a program
3) In a lesson
4) On your own

Although SOME rinks will say that if you are in a lesson of any kind, you have right of way over someone doing a program not in a lesson, I've skated on freestyle sessions in such rinks. Of course it's debatable because she was playing the music in a boombox and not over the speaker, so who ultimately had right of way is not going to be clear. But if she was skating in a backwards spiral, you could have just set up your loop around it, there's a hundred ways to move a jump over just a tiny bit to go around someone. It's not about ego trips or "BUT I HAD RIGHT OF WAY!!!" it's about keeping everybody safe and often the worst accidents happen when a stubborn skater is not capable of just letting it go and being the bigger person and letting the other person in front of them even if they technically shouldn't have to, or have been cut off by that person 100's of times before. She was going backwards, in a spiral, not looking where she was going, you saw her coming. Reason would say you should move for the safety of all involved. It sounds from all the frustration you are feeling that you would be better off skating at a different rink if you can find a way to do so, or at least not on the sessions where this coach and daughter are practicing. Is that at all possible? I know you're probably thinking "why should *I* leave, she's the unsufferable one!" and to that, again, it's about just being the bigger person. You're not gonna win this fight, it seems the club isn't interested in kicking her out, so don't let all this crap ruin your skating and put all this extra stress on you. Is there ANY way to avoid being on the ice with them? I hope there is. There's some other kids at my rink who always manage to get in my way even when I clearly have the right of way, and it does annoy me, but half the time I move my set ups so I let them go, or I just don't jump, and the other half, I'll speed up to make sure I set up long enough ahead so they see that they can't do it too. That gets silly though, and you stop focusing on yourself, so mostly I try to skate at times I know they won't be there cause I'm not gonna win this. Good luck with the whole ordeal.

The thing is, though, that having your music on ALL of the time whether it be on the rink system or your own portable system is out of order. I can completely understand Aussie Willy's frustration. Why SHOULD she move rinks, it's not just her that's complaining here, the rude coach is very much in the minority. It really is about time that the club/rink management did something about her.

Sometimes you HAVE to stand up to these people. There were a couple of girls at my rink who wouldn't yield to anyone. One day I was doing my program, in a lesson, with music on. I was going backwards and she skated straight into me. She's the one that hit the deck and didn't try and cut me up after that! I didn't do it on purpose but it sure solved the problem. Another kid was also known for barging through everyone (had her music on a lot too), I was in a lesson doing spins. She was charging around the rink jumping everywhere and on everyone. My coach was stood nearby and the girl actually jumped INTO her despite the fact that she MUST have seen her, she spiked her in the calf with her blade. The girl didn't even apologise and her coach just shrugged her shoulders and said "kids eh?". If the coaches don't instill discipline then there's no wonder we get the skating brats

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The best whisper is a click

Basically the rules for our rink are:

- If you have your music on the speaker system you have the right of way
- Coaches doing a lesson take precedence over those who want to put their music on but are not doing a lesson
- Coaches using a tape player on the ice do not have precedence over others doing a program over the sound system

I am happy to let a coach put their student's music on if they are doing a lesson. However there have been times when you have your music in the queue for about 20 minutes because coaches keep jumping in front of you. As some one who doesn't have a coach this can be incredibly frustrating and a few times I had to say to a coach can I at least have a chance to put my music on because I have been waiting for .....

But like I said, this coach continually was playing her music so loud that it was drowning out everyone elses, even those doing a lesson and practising their program in that lesson. It was just bad manners, pure and simple. I don't care that she is a coach.

As for the issue of a quiet sound system - that is another issue for another day.

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