Coach change

[skate5437]

Why is it so hard to change/add a coach?? 

Recently we have a new male coach who moved out to our area. He has had many years of experience and lots of advanced skaters moved over to him. Unfortunately for him, these skaters belonged to the director of the ice rink.

I did not know this and hired him as my daughter's coach after getting an okay from our current coach who did not know anything about what had been going on.

Now he is being accused of soliciting me as a client which was not true at all.  We still have full week worth of lessons with our old coach. New coach is telling me he does not want to teach my kid no more since he will get in trouble. But he is a really good teacher and my kid likes him a lot. What should I do?

[FigureSpins]

I assume that your skater was NOT coached by the skating director.  If so, just send the skating director an email saying that you followed the USFSA/PSA guidelines for changing coaches.  CC your old coach on the message.  Since you cleared it with your current coach in advance and are parting on good terms, there's no issue for your skater.

http://www.skatepsa.com/Proper-Procedures-for-Changin-%20Coaches.htm

However, the new coach IS at fault and could have an ethics complaint filed against him regarding the other skaters.  He should never, ever have agreed to coach without following the guidelines.  He is responsible for verifying that that the current coach is aware of the change and that there are no monetary/other issues.

I'm not sure how experienced the new coach is if he (a) doesn't know the guidelines and (b) he agreed to take on the skating director's skaters without talking to her first.  Doesn't sound like he plays well with others, or perhaps hehas skating experience but not coaching experience.  They don't always go hand-in-hand - not all skaters make great coaches.


It's also possible that you're just caught in a whirlpool.  Perhaps he's lost his coaching privileges due to poaching the skating director's students or he's found an unattached student who is more appealing for the time slot.

[AgnesNitt]

It could also be the skating director is trying to get students back. Some coaches think they own their students, but the students have the right to leave at any time. From the OP email there's no indication the new coach did anything wrong. The students could have informed the skating director and left for the new coach.

According to PSA guidelines

Skating Directors/Program Directors need to be mindful that they do not make decisions that
unfairly benefit themselves, other close associates or family members over other staff members

So if student's want to leave the director, they can. The director cannot use their position to benefit herself by pursuing charges against the new coach.

The Director should provide the coaching staff an atmosphere to resolve any differences they may
have on their own. If differences cannot be resolved, then the director may need to step in and
help the coaches find some common ground on a particular issue.

Since there's no 'differences' between you and the two coaches, the director has no role and should butt out.


The entire 'soliciting' document.
If you haven't read it, you should. Soliciting is fairly clear. In the OP case it doesn't appear that any soliciting happened. What happened to other students isn't the OP's problem.


FigureSpins approach is correct. Send a polite email to the director. If she pressures you, you can always use quotes from the documents above to clarify your case.

My only suggestion is when other parents try to drag you into the conversation that you avoid the gossip and make it clear you have no interest in getting involved.