Coaches not getting paid for LTS and having to teach a certain number of hours in lieu of private lesson commission.

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HA--no chance!!

Yeah right. That's funny.

In teaching group classes, I make more than twice as much as my monthly pro fee. That'd be a rip off!

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- Ashley

I suppose the merits vs drawbacks would depend on:
1. How many hours do you have to "give"? Is the hourly requirement somehow based on how many private students each coach has?
2. What is your commission system -- percentage? flat fee?
3. Other bennies? Free ice? discounted ice?
4. Do they cram too many bodies into each class? too many classes at once trying to share the ice?
5. What about instructors who teach only groups?

I have a situation at one rink where the pay rate for groups is below the going rate and the "commission" system drives me bonkers. Instead of collecting commission we must pay for our ice. This translates to a commission ranging from 8% to 40% depending on the session (FS or PS) and how many students you are able to schedule on that particular session.

This is the second time in a year that they have gone after us for more money. *Removed - I do want to keep working there* We don't know yet how many hours we will have to teach group for free, but someone is doing averages - starting very conveniently for them, in Sept 07. Of course, everyone knows that May thru August are the low income months, so they are certain to not average those in. *More venting removed.*

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Really, I am suprised. I always expected the summer months would be busier for coaches. Since the kids are out of school I figured they would pick up extra days. As well since parents arent paying "daycare" or "tuition" i thought they would invest the extra money into the kids skating and help keep them busy. I was just suprised to hear that.

It's slower because many rinks close for the summer, thus there is less ice time. Also, less students enroll in LTS and some skaters take breaks and don't skate during the summer. Plus with vacations and other things that happen during the summer months, the ice is always less busy during the summer months...which I happen to love, but when you are thinking about it from an economic point of view, it is a more difficult time...

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Skating Dreams

"All your life you are told the things you cannot do. All your life they will say you're not good enough or strong enough or talented enough; they will say you're the wrong height or the wrong weight or the wrong type to play this or be this or achieve this. THEY WILL TELL YOU NO, a thousand times no, until all the no's become meaningless. All your life they will tell you no, quite firmly and very quickly. AND YOU WILL TELL THEM YES." --Nike

The first rink I taught at talked briefly about trying this (new management had taken over and they were at least peripherally discussing changes to lots of things) but nothing ever came of it. I haven't had enough coffee to do the math yet, but it seems like you'd have to have a very high private lesson commission and a very low hourly rate for LTS for coaches not to lose quite a bit of money on this.

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Shae-Lynn and Victor: We knew you were champions, and on 3/28/03 the whole WORLD found out! Thank you for twelve wonderful years!

I know of a rink that req's 1 or 2 free classes (don't recall which) in lieu of commission.

IMO, unless you are coaching competitors or serious rec skaters who skate year-round, summer is a bummer. LtS enrollment takes a nosedive.

Kay

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I don't know of any rinks that require FREE group lessons from their coaches in lieu of commissions. That's just begging for coaches to poach group lesson students for privates.

I know of one rink that followed a successful roller-skating format of charging a flat coaches' entrance fee per freestyle or public session in lieu of commission. It made their accounting much easier.

In the summer, you're also competing against other sports, like softball, baseball, and soccer. Those leagues start in April or May, which is why you have a lot of skaters who "take the summer off." Parents want the weekends free, so the Sat/Sun skaters also stop.

Skating Schools have to revamp the LTS schedule in the summer; the rink can't just keep offering the same evening/weekend class times.

Instead of a one day/week for eight weeks, they should change to a three days/week for two weeks during the day. (Or something similar that works for them.)

I worked at a rink where they also added daily public sessions and held the classes during that session. You can't do that during the regular season - there are too many skaters.

Introducing new policies that take away from coaches' revenues with an "effective immediately" message tells me the skating program is probably in financial trouble and has been for some time. They should be clearing enough money during the height of the season to "coast" through the lean times. That's just good financial planning. Maybe the energy costs are killing them?

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It really depends on where you are. In Arizona the rinks are full in the summer (duh!) and LTS ran great guns too.

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Gordon Zaft
http://sk8rboi.blogspot.com
School figures are skating's equivalent of the Latin Mass.

Our rink pays very little for teaching LTS classes in comparision to our our private lesson rates. However, we are only required to teach three classes per week. That can be a little as 1.5 hours per week to be on staff. If you are not on staff, it is $20 per month guest coach fee or $2.50 per freestyle session you teach.

This is true....I have always lived in cold weather places where in the summer, you spend as much time outdoors as possible because once winter hits, you spend too much time inside!!

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Skating Dreams

"All your life you are told the things you cannot do. All your life they will say you're not good enough or strong enough or talented enough; they will say you're the wrong height or the wrong weight or the wrong type to play this or be this or achieve this. THEY WILL TELL YOU NO, a thousand times no, until all the no's become meaningless. All your life they will tell you no, quite firmly and very quickly. AND YOU WILL TELL THEM YES." --Nike