Does anyone understand ProAm rules?

[Query]

Someone I know told me they didn't want to coach much because they would lose the ability to be the "Am" half in competitions.

Does anyone here understand ProAm rules well enough to know if they are right?

And if there is a such thing as too much coaching - can they coach at all?

I get the general idea. One partner is supposed to be a pro (coach), and the other is supposed to be an amateur skater.

I THINK eligibility is the same thing as "amateur" status, but might be wrong in this specific context. As near as I can tell from trying to understand the USFSA rulebook (sigh - it does not contain "pro-am", "pro/am" or "ProAm"), coaching doesn't affect eligibility, as long as you follow various rules.

Incidentally, at one point USFSA offered prize money for pro-am competitions. Still true? Can the "Am" half collect some of the prize money?

[Isk8NYC]

I think all pro-am competitions are now for ice dancing, mainly because the freeskate competitions died out in the early 2000's.  That's something the ISU and Scott Hamilton are trying to resurrect through next year's proposed international competition series.  (ICE)

Here's a current local Pro-Am competition: http://www.pickenproam.com/
The couples are to be composed of an eligible skater (amateur) and a coach (professional)

"The term coach is defined as a person (eligible or ineligible) who receives direct financial
benefit for instruction or partnering in ice dance. New this year, eligible skaters who teach free
skating or Moves in the Field and not ice dance will be considered “an eligible skater” for this
competition."

Lake Placid includes Pro-Am events in their dance competitions, as does Peninsula FSC: http://peninsulaskatingclub.org/pages/page.php?pageid=13

Check out the announcements for the rules. 

I don't know of any competitions that have prize money any more, other than the big-ticket elite, international events.  Someone on an ice dancing forum would know better.

[MadMac]

The Ed Picken Pro-Am Dance competition was, I believe, the first of the pro-ams. The original definition of a coach (or Pro) was "a person (eligible or ineligible) who receives direct financial benefit for teaching figure skating."  That was later modified to allow anyone who taught only group lessons to still be considered an "amateur" under the rules of the competition.  I suspect this may be what the OPs friend is referring to. 

Hooray for the new rule!!! It's about time!  The old rule prevented me from entering the competition with my dance coach even though I was only a bronze-presilver dancer. No way was I a dance pro!! but I had several private basic skills-level students which, by their definition, made me a pro.

[Query]

Oh! Didn't occur to me that the rules might be from individual competitions, not the USFSA or ISU.

I guess that makes sense. On a National or International level, coaches who haven't competed for a few years, say Frank Carrol or Michelle Kwan, even if they kept their eligible status, probably wouldn't be seriously able to compete with the best current generation eligible skaters any more. But within local club competitions, the professional coaches are usually going to be way better than almost all the students who don't coach.

But if a National level competitive ice dancer who hadn't coached ice dance yet chose to enter such a competition as an Am they could blow the others away. Is there a tacit understanding that extremely good ice skaters aren't supposed to enter pro-am competitions as Ams? Is that true of extremely good skaters entering Adult Nationals too?

There is another fuzzy line. If a student hires a coach, who is to say the student isn't learning skills applicable to ice dance?

[Query]

There must be a lot of ice dancers who love to compete, but don't have a partner other than their coach, so they have trouble going to normal club and regional competitions. So they compete ProAm.

But like the mentioned skater, if they want to coach, they can't coach ice dance, which for many is their strongest skill.

So they have trouble finding students, or charging competitive rates. Imagine the coach bio: "I've tested and competed USFSA Gold and ISU International level Ice Dance - but I can't teach you that. I can teach you the first few levels of LTS." Not the most effective ad!

There could be a competitive outlet for such skaters, dancing with their coaches, that helps rather than hurts their ability to make a living, or the ability of students to take ice dance lessons from them.

Maybe some of those skaters should suggest to the ISI that it could profitably provide such an outlet, if the USFSA won't...

Of course, I could be missing something important again.

[Skittl1321]

I've never heard of a ProAm competition- so I doubt it is keeping that many people from making money as a coach!

I've always thought something like this would be nice for pairs.  I'd love to give that a try- but would not trust a skater at my level to skate with me