Club requirements for private lessons

[sk8lady]

I suspect some of you are probably tired of the endless soap opera of me and my club...but I was just notified that the club has decided that anyone coaching private lessons on club ice, including Basic Skills ice, must be a USFS Category B coach. This is not just for students going to comps or tests--this is ALL students, including Level 1 Basic Skills kids wanting a 20 minute "booster" lesson.

I did Cat B this year because I had one student who was thinking about testing, but she lost her job and it now appears she won't be able to have lessons, let alone test. The other local coaches have never been Cat B.

Is this typical? What kind of requirements does your club have for giving private lessons?

[AgnesNitt]

Any way you can use the fact you're the only coach qualified to their standards to shake them down to be more adult friendly?

[techskater]

According to USFS, coaches on CLUB ICE need to be at least CAT B.  If it's general rink FS ice, that is different.

[Isk8NYC]

According to USFS, coaches on CLUB ICE need to be at least CAT B.  If it's general rink FS ice, that is different.

Where is that documented? 

The CER requirements' charts only apply to competition situations.  They say the rink/club can set their own guidelines for lessons.

The FAQ's only refer to the Coaching Registration requirement, not CER, in relation to Club-sanctioned activities, including club ice:
http://www.usfigureskating.org/content.asp?menu=coaches&id=381

[Query]

You should thank club officers for giving you a monopoly! They might think twice about their actions when they understood.

If coaches feel strongly about this change, as the other coaches must, they should organize their students to complain to those officers.

Could said students convince club officers to consult local coaches and judges on policy changes?

[sk8lady]

I'm the only local coach qualified to those standards--there are two coaches who travel here from other rinks. They give most of the private lessons, since by the time I have coached for two hours straight my neuromas are crippling--I usually have trouble walking to the benches to take my skates off, so I am limited to an hour of Basic Skills and two private students. The other coaches have been allowed to coach on the extended Basic Skills ice until this year as long as they have a coaching card and liability insurance. Even with that there were at least 4 kids who wound up taking lessons on public skating ice last year, which is really a misery (and not all that safe, IMHO).

[sk8lady]

Where is that documented? 

The CER requirements' charts only apply to competition situations.  They say the rink/club can set their own guidelines for lessons.

The FAQ's only refer to the Coaching Registration requirement, not CER, in relation to Club-sanctioned activities, including club ice:
http://www.usfigureskating.org/content.asp?menu=coaches&id=381

Aha...now I see what probably happened. Someone in the club looked at the FAQs, saw the "club sanctioned activities" phrase, and thought it referred to the CER as well as the coaching registration. When I tried to talk to the skating director, she kept saying "sanctioned activities" over and over, as in, "Well, you need a sanction to have a Basic Skills competition, so you must not be able to coach on club ice if you are not a Cat B coach." They must not have reviewed the chart. I sent it to her but I'm not sure she is able to open attachments on her electronic device.

I had never seen the FAQs before...thanks for the link!

[Isk8NYC]

That's interesting - I wonder if that's what Techskater meant, though?  S/he seemed confident that there is something official in writing that calls for CER-A/B on Club Ice. I did a lot of research on Registrations/CER over the summer because the documents seem to contradict each other in places, so I think that would have caught my eye.  If it's buried somewhere ina  USFSA document, it needs to be brought to light.  I'm sure there are a lot of LTS-only coaches who are not registered or CER-compliant.


While you're discussing the difference between Coaches Registration and CER Compliance, you have to also explain the difference between the Coaches Registration and the Basic Skills Instructor Registration.  They're mutually exclusive, but there are two different lists the Club would have to check to verify a coach's compliance.

For the record, there is a CER-C curriculum available for free.  IMO, all Basic Skills coaches should take the CER-C courses if they haven't completed CER-A / -B.  It's optional, free and you get PSA credits for it.  More importantly, it's a good way to learn about the Basic Skills curriculum and managing classes/customers.

There's a discussion about CER-C in the Coaches Lounge.

[sk8lady]

Our club does require that all coaches have at least CER-C. They actually gave me a bit of a hard time when I qualified as Cat B because the courses were not what they required for Basic Skills coaches, and because you can't print up the CER certificates on a Mac. I eventually convinced them to accept a transcript which indicated the courses I took, the scores I got, and that I was a Cat B coach, along with the emails I got from PSA saying I had taken the courses.

[techskater]

That's interesting - I wonder if that's what Techskater meant, though?  S/he seemed confident that there is something official in writing that calls for CER-A/B on Club Ice. I did a lot of research on Registrations/CER over the summer because the documents seem to contradict each other in places, so I think that would have caught my eye.  If it's buried somewhere ina  USFSA document, it needs to be brought to light.  I'm sure there are a lot of LTS-only coaches who are not registered or CER-compliant.

Many clubs read the requirements this way and are enforcing it as such - I've heard of several clubs where they are requiring CAT B because they are considering it a sanctioned event. 

[Skittl1321]

I am pretty sure our club requires B to coach on club ice.  LTS only coaches can't coach there (but most of them don't give privates, and I think most of them didn't even do the background check that is now required...)