Reasons Coaches leave a rink

[AgnesNitt]

Some times coaches leave--even disappear. Here's some I've heard of (sometimes from news articles, other times from coach gossip) 

1. The rink raises its commission or changes some other financial requirements
2. The rink changes its coaching requirements (e.g. the rink used to allow non-PSA coaches, then changes to PSA required)
3. Sexual harassment
4. Criminal behavior (e.g. embezzlement from a club fund, or criminal acts of other kinds)
5. The skating director and the coach don't get along
6. A new rink opens, or an old rink changes its policies
7. A rink no longer allows guest coaches
8. Divorces, children, move to another location, age
9. Lack of freestyle time


Any more?

[Bill_S]

Personality clashes between two or more coaches?

Careless behavior that may endanger other skaters?

Not up to a new coaching level desired at the rink?

[techskater]

A coach moves

[Neverdull44]

Life is greener at another rink?

[fsk8r]

Aren't they the same as why any of us move jobs?

[Query]

I'm not a coach, unless you count the volunteer thing.

Nonetheless, I think the reasons are pretty predictable. If a rink takes good care of its coaches, and has enough potential students and sessions, they can keep most of their coaches.

But:

One of my former coaches said coaches also tend to move to rinks that have enough potential students and appropriate sessions to make a better living. If the popularity of a rink changes, or the session schedule changes, that is a good reason to move.

I know of one rink that enticed a coach of elite skaters to agree to teach only there. In exchange, the rink created a lot of appropriate sessions, and did a number of other things to benefit the coach. Likewise, one person told me that Delaware and later Detroit attracted large numbers of elite skaters, by systematically doing similar things.

One of my former coaches said the front desk at one rink pushed skaters to take lessons from the figure skating director, and that the figure skating director sometimes poached students from other coaches. That coach didn't leave the rink altogether, but was still unhappy.

One of my former coaches moved close to one rink, and started teaching only there. Traffic jams have gotten really bad in the DC area, other coaches who used to float around many rinks, gave that up. Likewise I gave up on one coach because the coach's preferred rinks took many hours to drive to or from in bad traffic.

Two of my former coaches were seriously annoyed that a rink kept changing its schedules. In one case, sessions would be canceled at the last minute because someone (like a hockey team) rented the time slot. In another case, they kept changing available session times, month to month, which forced the coach (who had a lot of students) to continually reschedule lesson slots.

Some local rinks don't take very good care of the ice. I don't know any coaches that moved for that, though some of the hockey and Synchro teams try to practice elsewhere, even when the bad ice is at the home rink, but some of the coaches' students might prefer to take lessons at other rinks.

There was a period of time when Russia experienced a major economic downturn. A lot of their coaches and skaters moved elsewhere.

In other words, a lot of reasons.

[Doubletoe]

Politics.  For example, at a rink where I used to skate, several coaches accused other coaches of conspiring to poach students.  That led to a rift between the two groups of coaches and several coaches left the rink to work somewhere else.

[Kitten23]

I heard a rumor that one coach left because of a pending lawsuit from a parent due to incompetence.  The child got hurt because the coach wasn't qualified to teach at that level.

Is it true?  Who knows, but the coach is gone; left the sport totally.

[pegasus99]

Hm... all the more reason to make sure your coach is rated and carries insurance!! Go PSA!!