Can I be a coach?

FaithForMyFuture · Nov 29, 2017

I started figure skating just before I turned 16. It hasn't been a year since I've started and I'm working on my axel. I really love the sport and have found that I love helping my friends and little kids at the rink improve their moves when I have helpful tips. I plan on competing when my coach deems me ready. I really want to be a coach. Right now my plan is to go to a college with a Major in Kinesiology and a minor in either Sports Management or Dance. My main concern is that even if I study and try my best, I will never have the right amount of experience to be able to help any students, or even get hired in the first place. Does anybody know if my being a skating coach is actually possible?

Ic3Rabbit · Nov 30, 2017

FaithForMyFuture said:
I started figure skating just before I turned 16. It hasn't been a year since I've started and I'm working on my axel. I really love the sport and have found that I love helping my friends and little kids at the rink improve their moves when I have helpful tips. I plan on competing when my coach deems me ready. I really want to be a coach. Right now my plan is to go to a college with a Major in Kinesiology and a minor in either Sports Management or Dance. My main concern is that even if I study and try my best, I will never have the right amount of experience to be able to help any students, or even get hired in the first place. Does anybody know if my being a skating coach is actually possible?

You might in the future be able to coach at the lower levels or adult figure skating, but coaching elite athletes like you see on TV is going to be out for you.

I do encourage you to get that degree in Kinesiology though, you could eventually be a physio for the athletes.

Good luck! :biggrin:

TontoK · Nov 30, 2017

This post raises a question, though.

How does someone become a coach of an elite skater? Is there some sort of qualification process? Does USFSA certify someone as a coach?

In golf, technically anyone can hang up a shingle and be an instructor. But a savvy golfer will seek a USGA professional for instruction.

Drifting off topic: In my younger days, I was a better-than-average amateur golfer, mainly self-taught, picking up tips from friends.

For my birthday one year, my wife gifted me with a set of six lessons from the local pro at my home course. The results showed right away. My first outing after these lessons, I shot my best round by four strokes. So, good quality instruction and coaching definitely makes a difference.

Ic3Rabbit · Nov 30, 2017

TontoK said:
This post raises a question, though.

How does someone become a coach of an elite skater? Is there some sort of qualification process? Does USFSA certify someone as a coach?

In golf, technically anyone can hang up a shingle and be an instructor. But a savvy golfer will seek a USGA professional for instruction.

Drifting off topic: In my younger days, I was a better-than-average amateur golfer, mainly self-taught, picking up tips from friends.

For my birthday one year, my wife gifted me with a set of six lessons from the local pro at my home course. The results showed right away. My first outing after these lessons, I shot my best round by four strokes. So, good quality instruction and coaching definitely makes a difference.

There's a process one goes through and you must have the skill sets for the things you are teaching most of the time (quads can be an exception you don't have to do them to teach those in particular). Anyway, you also must have the rep from your own skating career and the connections and of course the results to get to the top of the coaching world in skating. You also need certifications. PSA is one. This is the short and less specific version of the explanation.

VegMom · Nov 30, 2017

TontoK said:
This post raises a question, though.

How does someone become a coach of an elite skater? Is there some sort of qualification process? Does USFSA certify someone as a coach?

There is coach accreditation through Professional Skaters Association
http://www.skatepsa.com/psa/Ratings.html

Alex D · Nov 30, 2017

Becoming a coach is very dependent on your country and sport.

In theory, you can coach your daughter, it is actually very common in tennis, golf. Some parents never actually did the sport, but they took lessons and seminars to support their kid. Some of the best players in the world had been coached by parents. That being said, the parents do get help, quite often their kid will go to a professional academy, like with the IMG Acadamy at Florida.

So that you coach your kid mostly while on the road. This is quite common for Eastern European athletes, that moved to the US to practice there.

This type of coaching, however, has a downside. You might be able to teach your kid about the technique, fitness, but you will lack the experience from the pro level tour. Experience, that only a former pro athlete will have. What will you tell your athlete, if he or she struggles with nerves?

If we now look at figure skating, then this will apply there too. How will you be able to coach your pupil at worlds, when all that pressure comes down, if you never experienced this situation yourself? This btw. I think is the biggest handicap of Eteri (as seen at the Olympics with Yulia and we see it again this season with her pupils that all of a sudden struggle, even though most athletes would love to have "these" struggles *laughs*).

Another aspect to consider is a coaching license. In Germany we have those, without passing them, you can´t work in a figure skating club. You can still coach your daughter and be a part of her life, as we see with Elizabetas mom Pashakan Sultanalieva, who hired Brian Orser. But if you don´t have a child yourself, I am unsure if some stranger would let you coach their kid. I mean, you surely can rent ice time everywhere, but ...
It could very well be, that as a coach, you are not allowed to participate at bigger events, without a license. This is common in soccer.

I do not know the USFA good enough to really give advice there, but if you are skating at a club, maybe just ask there if you could take over a group of young kids? That´s how I started in my sport.

From there on, the club will support you and even if you can not pass the highest level tests, you can always become an adviser or assistant. These usually have no tests, or just very small ones.

Last but not least, always remember that you are responsible for these kids, so only take the job if you are able to provide a secure environment.

jf12 · Nov 30, 2017

FaithForMyFuture said:
My main concern is that even if I study and try my best, I will never have the right amount of experience to be able to help any students, or even get hired in the first place. Does anybody know if my being a skating coach is actually possible?

Your age does not disqualify you to become a good coach. One of my MIF coaches was a ballet dancer, and started skating figures and freestyle in her teens, in the 1950's. She has been one of the go to MIF coaches at one of the biggest rinks in the area, also teaching many elite skaters as kids, before they became elite skaters.

My biggest piece of advice if you want to be a good coach (even if you don't have a goal to teach high level freestyle) is to make sure YOUR coach is an elite coach. My jumps coach is an elite coach who teaches quads - I'm only an adult skater who does doubles - but from his experience I got good technique that makes those jumps pretty easy. Even if you never do a triple yourself, and you're only teaching beginner students, you still don't want to be a coach that allows bad technique on beginning jumps, which will have to be retrained if they ever get to higher doubles and triples.

tstop4me · Nov 30, 2017

FaithForMyFuture said:
I started figure skating just before I turned 16. It hasn't been a year since I've started and I'm working on my axel. I really love the sport and have found that I love helping my friends and little kids at the rink improve their moves when I have helpful tips. I plan on competing when my coach deems me ready. I really want to be a coach. Right now my plan is to go to a college with a Major in Kinesiology and a minor in either Sports Management or Dance. My main concern is that even if I study and try my best, I will never have the right amount of experience to be able to help any students, or even get hired in the first place. Does anybody know if my being a skating coach is actually possible?

It would help if you would clarify your expectations for the level of coaching you wish to pursue.

concorde · Nov 30, 2017

As a skating parent, I see that there are 3 types of coaches. Here is how I would describe them.

The first is the very beginner level coach. These coaches may only know basic level skills but they LOVE skating and their enthusiasm will be transmitted to their students. These coaches seem to get discounted by posters on this board but I think these coaches are key to growing the sport. I can see you fitting into this category very nicely.

The next is the developmental coach. This coach prefers to take the advanced beginner and starts to develop the actual skills. There are a lot of these coaches but it is extremely hard to find a good one. Students stay with these coaches for YEARS so getting a good personality for is key.

And then you have elite level coaches which are the ones you hear about. Most skaters will never the need one of these.

Fyi - there are different rating systems used by the different coaching organizations. One organization rates coaches by the classes the coach takes. Another organization rates coaches based on their students' accomplishments. At our rink, we have one master level coach but I think maybe only one of her students has ever reached Sectionals. A different coach is lower rated but she has coached a student at worlds.

skatespin · Nov 30, 2017

FaithForMyFuture said:
I started figure skating just before I turned 16. It hasn't been a year since I've started and I'm working on my axel. I really love the sport and have found that I love helping my friends and little kids at the rink improve their moves when I have helpful tips. I plan on competing when my coach deems me ready. I really want to be a coach. Right now my plan is to go to a college with a Major in Kinesiology and a minor in either Sports Management or Dance. My main concern is that even if I study and try my best, I will never have the right amount of experience to be able to help any students, or even get hired in the first place. Does anybody know if my being a skating coach is actually possible?

You sure can be a coach!! But you have to be willing to put in the time to improve and pass USFSA tests. Make sure that the coaches teaching you are good so that you learn good technique and are able to progress in a timely manner. Make friends with people at the rink. Make sure the skating director (who is typically in charge of hiring coaches) knows you and likes you. Rinks can be kinda nepotistic. Unless the person wanting to be hired as an outside coach has a lot of credentials or demand for coaches is high, preference will probably be given to people they know who are part of the club, who have been trained by coaches of the rink, possibly even the skating director themselves (who are often coaches).

Find out if your rink or other rinks near you have junior coaches (it's possible a rink has something like this but calls it by a different name). From my experience, junior coaches typically start out teaching group classes. Most I know start out in their later teens or 20s. I started at 21 years old after I graduated from college. If my college hadn't been far away, I probably could have started earlier. This is a great opportunity to get a foot in the door and learn how to teach and begin familiarizing yourself with the basic skills levels and the free skate levels. Also it's normal to see them still be practicing as skaters themselves. I even get discounts on ice time. At my rink typically junior coaches after getting 1+ year of experience are allowed to have their own students and teach private lessons to beginners, upon the condition that they complete shadowing of higher level coaches at the rink. It's a pretty good way to become a coach and get coaching experience if you are someone who has not yet passed senior level USFSA tests and have no prior coaching experience. Though to actually be a junior coach they typically (not always) look for someone who has completed a sizable number of tests, so you are not yet qualified to be one, but you certainly could be someday, so if you want to do it work hard and don't give up. You can even have a regular full time job as an adult and do coaching on the side.

Don't listen to this nonsense about people mentioning elite coaches and stuff, that is 1% of the coaching population. If we didn't have coaches all around the world passing their love of the sport on to others, we would have no skaters. And a lot of the great coaches, didn't even have all that successful competitive careers. Teaching ability is often a separate skill. What you want is someone who knows good technique and is good at teaching. There are a few people, like Brian Orser, who are both great coaches and great competitive skaters... it's pretty rare. I personally don't see a need to have a degree that relates to coaching.

JSM · Nov 30, 2017

I agree with the above. We have a former world champion who coaches at the local rinks. A very accomplished skater, and still has amazing skills. But honestly, a terrible, terrible coach.

Being a great skater doesn't always translate to teaching it well. Pursue your degree while getting involved in the learn to skate levels for experience teaching beginner skaters. If you have an aptitude for it, and continue your PSA training and professional development, you may very well be a great coach some day.

No, maybe taking a skater to the Olympics isn't in your future, but that doesn't mean you can't be successful and help skaters of many levels reach their potential.

cl2 · Nov 30, 2017

While technical knowledge of what's being taught (be it skating, ballet, math, etc.) is a necessary to be able to coach, it is not sufficient to be a good coach. One needs knowledge of pedagogy (the study of how learners learn, which will inform how a teacher should teach). There's lots of academic research and literature pedagogy of all kinds of subjects, if you are interested to explore that topic.

Nonetheless, the best way to become a good coach is to actually coach, and learn from the experience. Learn-to-skate is a good way to get that coaching experience.

IMO, because you started skating a bit older, you have the advantage of having a conscious awareness of your own learning process, as opposed to skaters who started early and can't remember the time when they didn't know how to do a crossover. It tends to be a bit easier to teach something for which you remember your own process of learning and overcoming challenges.

Ic3Rabbit · Nov 30, 2017

skatespin said:
You sure can be a coach!! But you have to be willing to put in the time to improve and pass USFSA tests. Make sure that the coaches teaching you are good so that you learn good technique and are able to progress in a timely manner. Make friends with people at the rink. Make sure the skating director (who is typically in charge of hiring coaches) knows you and likes you. Rinks can be kinda nepotistic. Unless the person wanting to be hired as an outside coach has a lot of credentials or demand for coaches is high, preference will probably be given to people they know who are part of the club, who have been trained by coaches of the rink, possibly even the skating director themselves (who are often coaches).

Find out if your rink or other rinks near you have junior coaches (it's possible a rink has something like this but calls it by a different name). From my experience, junior coaches typically start out teaching group classes. Most I know start out in their later teens or 20s. I started at 21 years old after I graduated from college. If my college hadn't been far away, I probably could have started earlier. This is a great opportunity to get a foot in the door and learn how to teach and begin familiarizing yourself with the basic skills levels and the free skate levels. Also it's normal to see them still be practicing as skaters themselves. I even get discounts on ice time. At my rink typically junior coaches after getting 1+ year of experience are allowed to have their own students and teach private lessons to beginners, upon the condition that they complete shadowing of higher level coaches at the rink. It's a pretty good way to become a coach and get coaching experience if you are someone who has not yet passed senior level USFSA tests and have no prior coaching experience. Though to actually be a junior coach they typically (not always) look for someone who has completed a sizable number of tests, so you are not yet qualified to be one, but you certainly could be someday, so if you want to do it work hard and don't give up. You can even have a regular full time job as an adult and do coaching on the side.

Don't listen to this nonsense about people mentioning elite coaches and stuff, that is 1% of the coaching population. If we didn't have coaches all around the world passing their love of the sport on to others, we would have no skaters. And a lot of the great coaches, didn't even have all that successful competitive careers. Teaching ability is often a separate skill. What you want is someone who knows good technique and is good at teaching. There are a few people, like Brian Orser, who are both great coaches and great competitive skaters... it's pretty rare. I personally don't see a need to have a degree that relates to coaching.

What was said was not nonsense. Yes there is a small amount that make it in elite coaching and need certs for that. And I was making it known that teaching at that level is rare because many people come to these forums and expect or ask if they can skate or whatever someday at the elite level and 99% of the time its a no. So I wasn't about getting this persons hopes up just in case.

I told them that yes they could possibly coach and encouraged them.

Just pointed out that elite was more than likely out of question.

Also, for different levels there are coaching certs.

So please don't call it nonsense.

skatespin · Nov 30, 2017

Ic3Rabbit said:
What was said was not nonsense. Yes there is a small amount that make it in elite coaching and need certs for that. And I was making it known that teaching at that level is rare because many people come to these forums and expect or ask if they can skate or whatever someday at the elite level and 99% of the time its a no. So I wasn't about getting this persons hopes up just in case.

I told them that yes they could possibly coach and encouraged them.

Just pointed out that elite was more than likely out of question.

Also, for different levels there are coaching certs.

So please don't call it nonsense.

I was not referring to any of your comments. It was something different that I saw, I don't disagree with what you wrote.

NanaPat · Nov 30, 2017

Some coaches of elite skaters were not elite skaters themselves. Examples: Katelyn Osmond's coach Ravia Walia, Rohene Ward, maybe Kori Ade.

Ic3Rabbit · Nov 30, 2017

NanaPat said:
Some coaches of elite skaters were not elite skaters themselves. Examples: Katelyn Osmond's coach Ravia Walia, Rohene Ward, maybe Kori Ade.

What?! Ravi was 1995 Canadian Mens Bronze Medalist, Rohene is a more a choreographer not exactly a coach(either way he's 2004 PR National Champ and competed in the US at Nationals for years before that).

NanaPat · Nov 30, 2017

Ic3Rabbit said:
What?! Ravi was 1995 Canadian Mens Bronze Medalist, Rohene is a more a choreographer not exactly a coach(either way he's 2004 PR National Champ and competed in the US at Nationals for years before that).

Look at Ravi's international results: best result was 10th at a GP and he never went to worlds. I guess it depends on your definition of elite; maybe I should have said top-tier international (as in skaters who are top-10 at worlds or qualify for GPF).

I didn't mean to disrespect him but just point out that sometimes a coach's students have more success than the coach had.

gkelly · Nov 30, 2017

It depends how you define "elite."

Walia and Ward competed at their nationals at senior level and occasionally internationally. Didn't Walia medal at Canadians one year? (Looked it up -- yes, he was 3rd in 1995)

I don't know what Ade's competitive background was.

I think if you want to coach elite skaters you should at least have passed your senior tests (or competed at senior level in a country that doesn't require tests). And also bring something else to the table if you don't have international competition experience yourself.

But there are very few elite skaters in the world to begin with. Even coaches who were strong competitors themselves and have studied skating technique and biomechanics and pedagogical techniques and principles of choreography, for example, might never get a student who is sufficiently talented and committed (with sufficient financial and other resources) to reach elite levels.

Most coaches -- even those who have international medals of their own -- mostly teach students at lower and middle levels, or junior and senior level skaters who do not compete internationally or even nationally.

If you want to coach competitive skaters below elite levels, in the US you should have at least your senior Moves in the Field test and double jumps with strong technique, and be able to teach those skills to skaters with a variety of learning styles, as mentioned above.

If you want to focus on beginners, then how you relate to the students is most important, but ability to teach good technique for beginning skills will definitely help your career.

Alex D · Dec 1, 2017

skatespin said:
Don't listen to this nonsense about people mentioning elite coaches and stuff, that is 1% of the coaching population. If we didn't have coaches all around the world passing their love of the sport on to others, we would have no skaters. And a lot of the great coaches, didn't even have all that successful competitive careers. Teaching ability is often a separate skill. What you want is someone who knows good technique and is good at teaching. There are a few people, like Brian Orser, who are both great coaches and great competitive skaters... it's pretty rare. I personally don't see a need to have a degree that relates to coaching.

The forum in general, is more discouraging than encouraging in general, which is something I noticed multiple times in threads like these.
No matter if its about becoming a skater, coach or just random stuff, it is often seen as not doable and impossible, which is quite confusing if we consider that this a US based forum and I always thought that Americans believe in the free and that you can achieve everything if you just try hard enough.

This aside,

there are a couple of requirements for coaching, but they depend on your sport and country / federation. Without a lisence you are not taken in a club, national federation, Germany is very strict there, not sure about the US. What everyone so far forgets however, is the entry level. Every coach in the world, starts with the kiddie coaching and moves up from there. For kiddie coaching, you usually don´t need a lisence, as there are more kids than coaches. To do so, the OP just has to ask in the local club, if he can take one of those groups and then he will see if its actually fun for him, if he is a good coach or not.

It is a bit silly to talk about worlds and stuff, as he has not coached anything yet and will start at the lowest tier possible anyways. What happens from there, is all about his determination and personal skill.

The negativity sometimes kills threads, which is sad I think.

Sam L · Dec 1, 2017

skatespin said:
You sure can be a coach!! But you have to be willing to put in the time to improve and pass USFSA tests. Make sure that the coaches teaching you are good so that you learn good technique and are able to progress in a timely manner. Make friends with people at the rink. Make sure the skating director (who is typically in charge of hiring coaches) knows you and likes you. Rinks can be kinda nepotistic. Unless the person wanting to be hired as an outside coach has a lot of credentials or demand for coaches is high, preference will probably be given to people they know who are part of the club, who have been trained by coaches of the rink, possibly even the skating director themselves (who are often coaches).

Find out if your rink or other rinks near you have junior coaches (it's possible a rink has something like this but calls it by a different name). From my experience, junior coaches typically start out teaching group classes. Most I know start out in their later teens or 20s. I started at 21 years old after I graduated from college. If my college hadn't been far away, I probably could have started earlier. This is a great opportunity to get a foot in the door and learn how to teach and begin familiarizing yourself with the basic skills levels and the free skate levels. Also it's normal to see them still be practicing as skaters themselves. I even get discounts on ice time. At my rink typically junior coaches after getting 1+ year of experience are allowed to have their own students and teach private lessons to beginners, upon the condition that they complete shadowing of higher level coaches at the rink. It's a pretty good way to become a coach and get coaching experience if you are someone who has not yet passed senior level USFSA tests and have no prior coaching experience. Though to actually be a junior coach they typically (not always) look for someone who has completed a sizable number of tests, so you are not yet qualified to be one, but you certainly could be someday, so if you want to do it work hard and don't give up. You can even have a regular full time job as an adult and do coaching on the side.

Don't listen to this nonsense about people mentioning elite coaches and stuff, that is 1% of the coaching population. If we didn't have coaches all around the world passing their love of the sport on to others, we would have no skaters. And a lot of the great coaches, didn't even have all that successful competitive careers. Teaching ability is often a separate skill. What you want is someone who knows good technique and is good at teaching. There are a few people, like Brian Orser, who are both great coaches and great competitive skaters... it's pretty rare. I personally don't see a need to have a degree that relates to coaching.

I'll say one thing. Usually, and this is found in many sports, those who are good at doing a sport don't usually make great coaches and vice versa. Coaching is a completely different skill to doing it because you need to be able to look at what someone's doing and give constructive feedback so that they can improve and they need to understand that people are different and that they learn in different ways. Elite athletes usually don't have that ability because they have done it and can only see from their perspective only.

Can I be a coach?

FaithForMyFuture

Ic3Rabbit

Former Elite, now Pro. ⛸️

TontoK

Hot Tonto

Ic3Rabbit

Former Elite, now Pro. ⛸️

VegMom

Alex D

jf12

tstop4me

concorde

skatespin

JSM

cl2

Ic3Rabbit

Former Elite, now Pro. ⛸️

skatespin

NanaPat

Ic3Rabbit

Former Elite, now Pro. ⛸️

NanaPat

gkelly

Alex D

Sam L

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