Biggest problem in coaching group lessons: the parents!

I love coaching skating. It’s generally a stress free job, especially when you get those picture-perfect sets of students that want to skate, are eager to listen, remain focused, try and try again, and consistently have a great attitude.

I substitute taught at another ice rink on Saturday afternoon and it was so stress free since all of the students I taught were just those kinds of students.

A fellow journalism student recently interviewed me to do a profile on my involvement in figure skating, and I was reflecting on the interview and considering the questions that I weren’t asked. Of course all the usual questions were asked such as what I liked about coaching… but not what I find to be the more interesting questions: What do I dislike about coaching?

The elements and circumstances that I dislike most about coaching generally all boil down to the parents, and especially are rampant in the first few levels of group figure skating lessons:

• Parents who are consistently late, causing the skaters to be late to class. One student has been 10-15 minutes late to her class almost every week for over a year now. Since the classes are 30-minutes long, she’s missing out on a lot of key instruction that is hindering her progress. There are many students who often trickle in 5-10 minutes late, and it’s rather distracting to the instructor, the other students, and the child who is late.

• Parents, and kids, who come to the rink unprepared. No gloves. No tissue in the pockets if the kids have a cold. No socks. No properly warm but flexible and functional jacket or other layering. Advanced figure skaters who forget proper clothes and show up in stiff jeans and unsecure tank tops and wonder why they can’t comfortably execute and any advanced moves.

• Kids who consistently do not want to be in class, and the parents who either aren’t noticing, listening or caring. I’ve had kids that will complain each week that they do not want to be there but will continue to skate for months. Since such complaints normally occur in the levels that take place in the second of three 30-minute blocks of classes, it’s difficult to address the parents about this issue.

• Parents who do not motivate or allow their kids ample time to practice their elements, and do not understand why their child is not progressing. Students have an hour of time to practice outside of their classes, and many of the students who struggle are those who only arrive to the rink immediately before class, and leave immediately after. Or, their children consistently just play. Coaches are busy instructing other classes and cannot encourage and enforce practice habits. All students need to find a balance of play time and practice time on the remaining one hour of ice that is provided in their lesson fees.

• Children who do not know the difference between their right and left. I can understand this in the pre-school classes, but this is a common occurance in classes with students as old as 10 unaware of the difference of right and left. Sometimes I will have a class where half of the students consistently are clueless as to which foot is their right and their left. I understand that some children may have learning disabilities that I am not aware of, where they may struggle with remembering such things or focusing on my instruction. However, I assume that those conditions are not so widespread, and I wonder if parents and kindegarten/early elementary grades are not inforcing such basic essential skills as knowing your left from your right.

To the parents that arrive with their children on time, prepared for class, dressed properly for class, motivate good practice and play balance, take a healthy interest in their kids progress and concerns, and instill an overall good behavior, attitude, and character in their children: I thank you.  It allows me to do my job of instructing my classes go much more smoothly.

My only other big annoynce as a group instructor is rental skates distributed to students that are in poor condition. Even the best skaters will struggle with poor equipment such as broken laces, broken down skate boots and unsharp blades.

Most other problems I do not find to be that significant in frequence or in the big picture. I can forgive the problems that are often arrise from simple miscommunication or lack of being informed, since those are often quickly corrected and minor.

~ by rochelleonice on March 17, 2008.