Serious Training facilities in Europe?

just1more · Dec 10, 2017

Hi All,

I'm wondering if anyone knows of any serious Figure Skating training facilities in Europe. My 10 year old daughter skates at the Intermediate level (US rating) and is landing Axels and Double Salchows. We have been going to the US the past year to an Olympic Training Facility in Colorado which offers 6 hours a day, 6 days a week of ice time (for her level alone). They also have a wide variety of specialty coaches (Jumps, spins, harness, choreography, etc.) and off ice offerings (ballet, physical conditioning, etc.) during certain times of the year. It's wonderful and it's a great facility, but when all is said and done, it's a 15 hour trip and airfare is about $1'500 per person. Surely there must be something similar closer to home? Paris, London, Berlin, Amsterdam, etc. are all about an hour or so away (of course you have to add airport wait times, transport to final destination, etc.) and cost under $100 to fly there. That would even make it reasonable for weekends if I could find the ice time and coaches to do so... but an hour on Saturday with a 20 minute lesson wouldn't be practical either. I don't find much on-line. Any thoughts? Do dedicated figure skating training facilities it exist in Europe or is it down to differences in European and American training styles? Our local club doesn't offer private lessons and our time is a bit limited. I've looked in Switzerland. The one school that is somewhat close (2 hours away) is too busy to take us at the moment and only offers a few hours on the weekends anyways. Found a coach willing to take us in Basel but that's 3.5 hours away we're still waiting to hear back as to what type of hours would be available so again but if it's only a couple hours then taking 2-3 hours to get to Paris for 4-6 hours of skating would be more practical.

Thanks in advance...

el henry · Dec 10, 2017

Caveat: I am not a skater or a skating parent, nor do I live in Europe.

Since you mention Switzerland, I am wondering if you have contacted the Palladium de Champéry, which is the location of Stéphane Lambiel’s skating school. I realize Champéry is not the most accessible location in Europe, but they appear to have at least some of the facilities you mention.

Good luck to you and your skater.

just1more · Dec 10, 2017

Thank you for the reply. In fact we often skate in Champery...just not with Lambiel's school...our club uses the facilty during certain times of the year and in fact 2 summers ago we rented a chalet for a month in Champery (it was an overnight camp and my daughter was a bit young)...we also go up there time to time for patches and skate at the same time as Lambiel is there with his students...in fact it's Lambiel's school that I mentioned in my post as being too busy to take us at the moment (or perhaps they prefer higher level skaters...he has some pretty good skaters under hin).. Lol...but yes, I agree...if they can ever find the time for us, it's somewhat our preference...2 hours away isn-t overly close but it's beautiful up there and I sure wouldn-t mind spending my weekends in a chalet.

Thank you for the well wishes and thank you once again for taking the time to reply with your suggestion.

somelikeitpink · Dec 10, 2017

I don't necessarily KNOW this for sure - but I've recently looked a bit into Oberstdorf in Germany. They have quite a big centre there (Savchenko/Massot train there and I'm pretty sure Carolina Kostner?) and seem to offer off ice training as well. Don't know if you looked into that yet though?

double_flip · Dec 10, 2017

The UK isn't terribly well known for its singles program at the moment, but in London you could look at Lea Valley.

somelikeitpink · Dec 10, 2017

double_flip said:
The UK isn't terribly well known for its singles program at the moment, but in London you could look at Lea Valley.

Doesn't currently offer an off ice program though as far as I know - at least at the moment. (skate there occasionally atm)

double_flip · Dec 10, 2017

somelikeitpink said:
Doesn't currently offer an off ice program though as far as I know - at least at the moment. (skate there occasionally atm)[/QUOTE

Thanks for the info. I lived about 10 minutes from Alexandra Palace when I lived in London, so didn't check out Lea Valley. My understanding is that there are international competitors training there, so surprises me a bit there's no off-ice.

somelikeitpink · Dec 10, 2017

double_flip said:
somelikeitpink said:

Doesn't currently offer an off ice program though as far as I know - at least at the moment. (skate there occasionally atm)

Click to expand...

Thanks for the info. I lived about 10 minutes from Alexandra Palace when I lived in London, so didn't check out Lea Valley. My understanding is that there are international competitors training there, so surprises me a bit there's no off-ice.

I'm there occasionally now because the rink is bigger than my home rink, but I've never seen anything that I would consider close to international happening there. They've got a lot of young skaters and I've seen the odd double and triple but nothing more than that.
I can ask a friend though, she's currently training there, but from what she has told me, theres no offer like that.

just1more · Dec 10, 2017

somelikeitpink said:
I don't necessarily KNOW this for sure - but I've recently looked a bit into Oberstdorf in Germany. They have quite a big centre there (Savchenko/Massot train there and I'm pretty sure Carolina Kostner?) and seem to offer off ice training as well. Don't know if you looked into that yet though?

.

Thank you for the suggestion. Will most certainly look further into it tomorrow.

just1more · Dec 10, 2017

somelikeitpink said:
I don't necessarily KNOW this for sure - but I've recently looked a bit into Oberstdorf in Germany. They have quite a big centre there (Savchenko/Massot train there and I'm pretty sure Carolina Kostner?) and seem to offer off ice training as well. Don't know if you looked into that yet though?

double_flip said:
The UK isn't terribly well known for its singles program at the moment, but in London you could look at Lea Valley.

Thank you once again folks. Happy to find these leads and will follow up on them tomorrow.

Just to be clear on my end...while off ice is a nice add on, ice time and quality coaching takes precedence. If I found a facilty next to heathrow with 5 hours a day ice time and good coaches I'd probably be there every weekend off ice or no off ice.

just1more · Dec 10, 2017

somelikeitpink said:
I don't necessarily KNOW this for sure - but I've recently looked a bit into Oberstdorf in Germany. They have quite a big centre there (Savchenko/Massot train there and I'm pretty sure Carolina Kostner?) and seem to offer off ice training as well. Don't know if you looked into that yet though?

double_flip said:
The UK isn't terribly well known for its singles program at the moment, but in London you could look at Lea Valley.

Curious if either of you are famimiar with Streatham Ice and Leisure Center? Their schedule on-line shows quite a bit of "training" time but there are no coach bios.

double_flip · Dec 10, 2017

just1more said:
Curious if either of you are famimiar with Streatham Ice and Leisure Center? Their schedule on-line shows quite a bit of "training" time but there are no coach bios.

I skated in Streatham and worked with a coach there for a little while. It had a nice atmosphere, but rink wasn't in great shape. I grew up skating in the US and it was not really comparable to the training environments I experienced there (in the North East). Looking at the website, it may have been refurbished since, but I don't know.

Re Lea Valley, it's listed as Graham Newberry's home rink on his ISU bio - he competed in Junior worlds for the UK last year.

Ic3Rabbit · Dec 10, 2017

just1more said:
Hi All,

I'm wondering if anyone knows of any serious Figure Skating training facilities in Europe. My 10 year old daughter skates at the Intermediate level (US rating) and is landing Axels and Double Salchows. We have been going to the US the past year to an Olympic Training Facility in Colorado which offers 6 hours a day, 6 days a week of ice time (for her level alone). They also have a wide variety of specialty coaches (Jumps, spins, harness, choreography, etc.) and off ice offerings (ballet, physical conditioning, etc.) during certain times of the year. It's wonderful and it's a great facility, but when all is said and done, it's a 15 hour trip and airfare is about $1'500 per person. Surely there must be something similar closer to home? Paris, London, Berlin, Amsterdam, etc. are all about an hour or so away (of course you have to add airport wait times, transport to final destination, etc.) and cost under $100 to fly there. That would even make it reasonable for weekends if I could find the ice time and coaches to do so... but an hour on Saturday with a 20 minute lesson wouldn't be practical either. I don't find much on-line. Any thoughts? Do dedicated figure skating training facilities it exist in Europe or is it down to differences in European and American training styles? Our local club doesn't offer private lessons and our time is a bit limited. I've looked in Switzerland. The one school that is somewhat close (2 hours away) is too busy to take us at the moment and only offers a few hours on the weekends anyways. Found a coach willing to take us in Basel but that's 3.5 hours away we're still waiting to hear back as to what type of hours would be available so again but if it's only a couple hours then taking 2-3 hours to get to Paris for 4-6 hours of skating would be more practical.

Thanks in advance...

Not Switzerland but close enough, Courchevel, France: It's one of the places that Mishin's skaters train and there is a decent skating school there. Choreographer Benoît Richaud works out of there as well.

There are some in Italy, such as IceLab in Bergamo: Franca Bianconi coaches Marchei/Hotarek there among others like Matteo Rizzo.

Also in nearby Milan are several dance schools that include training sites like Agora for Cappellini/Lanotte (when they aren't in Canton MI), and coaches Paola Mezzadri.
Also in Milan area there is Barbara Fusar-Poli and Stefano Caruso run ice dance school which includes athletes like Komatsubara/Koleto.

Turnhout in Belgium is also a choice; the likes of Jorik and sister Loena Hendrickx train there part of the season they are not training in above mentioned Obertsdorf, GER. They also spend time training in Eindhoven, NED so there may be a skating program there you can look into.

I hope this was helpful! :biggrin:

just1more · Dec 11, 2017

Ic3Rabbit said:
Not Switzerland but close enough, Courchevel, France: It's one of the places that Mishin's skaters train and there is a decent skating school there. Choreographer Benoît Richaud works out of there as well.

There are some in Italy, such as IceLab in Bergamo: Franca Bianconi coaches Marchei/Hotarek there among others like Matteo Rizzo.

Also in nearby Milan are several dance schools that include training sites like Agora for Cappellini/Lanotte (when they aren't in Canton MI), and coaches Paola Mezzadri.
Also in Milan area there is Barbara Fusar-Poli and Stefano Caruso run ice dance school which includes athletes like Komatsubara/Koleto.

Turnhout in Belgium is also a choice; the likes of Jorik and sister Loena Hendrickx train there part of the season they are not training in above mentioned Obertsdorf, GER. They also spend time training in Eindhoven, NED so there may be a skating program there you can look into.

I hope this was helpful!

Thank you for all that great info. Certainly gives me a great starting point to look into things further.. I most certainly appreciate you taking your time to do so. I think we're going to return to Colorado for the winter break and try out a couple of these options over the shorter breaks. Couple things in London look interesting as well... Quite happy I found this site. Thank you (and everyone else) once again.

somelikeitpink · Dec 11, 2017

Do let us know if possible what you finally figure out. As I’ll relocate soon, and Austria isn’t exactly known for being a figure skating country I’ll need to figure out places to go to inbetween

Alex D · Dec 11, 2017

just1more said:
Hi All,

I'm wondering if anyone knows of any serious Figure Skating training facilities in Europe. My 10 year old daughter skates at the Intermediate level (US rating) and is landing Axels and Double Salchows. We have been going to the US the past year to an Olympic Training Facility in Colorado which offers 6 hours a day, 6 days a week of ice time (for her level alone). They also have a wide variety of specialty coaches (Jumps, spins, harness, choreography, etc.) and off ice offerings (ballet, physical conditioning, etc.) during certain times of the year. It's wonderful and it's a great facility, but when all is said and done, it's a 15 hour trip and airfare is about $1'500 per person. Surely there must be something similar closer to home? Paris, London, Berlin, Amsterdam, etc. are all about an hour or so away (of course you have to add airport wait times, transport to final destination, etc.) and cost under $100 to fly there. That would even make it reasonable for weekends if I could find the ice time and coaches to do so... but an hour on Saturday with a 20 minute lesson wouldn't be practical either. I don't find much on-line. Any thoughts? Do dedicated figure skating training facilities it exist in Europe or is it down to differences in European and American training styles? Our local club doesn't offer private lessons and our time is a bit limited. I've looked in Switzerland. The one school that is somewhat close (2 hours away) is too busy to take us at the moment and only offers a few hours on the weekends anyways. Found a coach willing to take us in Basel but that's 3.5 hours away we're still waiting to hear back as to what type of hours would be available so again but if it's only a couple hours then taking 2-3 hours to get to Paris for 4-6 hours of skating would be more practical.

Thanks in advance...

Did you consider sending your child on an international school, that offers accomondation for your kid + tutor lessons like in school? In Germany we have Oberstdorf, I do know that many athletes love it. You have a lot of ice time, obviously good coaches, a great chance to learn another language + let your child grow up with others of the same age.

I do not know if this is something you would consider, or find interesting. It would, however, help you with the costs as you no longer need to bring your daughter, as she can stay at the school. Since you are not German, covering the costs might work different, as your daughter won´t fall under the "Sporthilfe", which is like a helping hand, financially for german top athletes, talents.

[email protected]

This is their email, you can write them tell them what you expect and they might be able to make you an offer. That being said, school year won´t be over before February, so it won´t be immediately.

http://hochschule-ansbach-medien.pageflow.io/frank-und-notka#32834

A video of the school, it´s in German but at least pictures say more than words at times.

Here is another video of Chiara, she is a figure skater and talks about how she has about three hours of ice time each day, school and sport well combined and so on.

http://hochschule-ansbach-medien.pageflow.io/frank-und-notka#32856

If you have any questions or need something translated, let me know. I won´t reply immediately though, but if I know you have questions I might check here more often.

just1more · Jan 13, 2018

Hi all,

Just wanted to give a quick follow up. We ended spending the winter holidays back in Colorado but will try out the coaches/facilities at Lee Valley in London for 9 days during our February vacation. It seems as if they offer plenty of ice time and have a nice variety of specialty coaches. A couple of the coaches have offered off ice as well. I'm told they have a harness coach, which is nice. Either way, we'll give it a shot and see how it goes. If it's as great as we hope, we'll do April there as well...but I'd still like to check out some of the places you folks mentioned in France, Belgium and Germany at some point as well. I'm pretty sure we're going to stick with Colorado for the summer sessions as we have a nice working relationship with the team over there. So thanks again for all your advice. I'll follow up and give you my thoughts after we're done in London in late February.

just1more · Jan 13, 2018

Alex D said:
Did you consider sending your child on an international school, that offers accomondation for your kid + tutor lessons like in school? In Germany we have Oberstdorf, I do know that many athletes love it. You have a lot of ice time, obviously good coaches, a great chance to learn another language + let your child grow up with others of the same age.

I do not know if this is something you would consider, or find interesting. It would, however, help you with the costs as you no longer need to bring your daughter, as she can stay at the school. Since you are not German, covering the costs might work different, as your daughter won´t fall under the "Sporthilfe", which is like a helping hand, financially for german top athletes, talents.

[email protected]

This is their email, you can write them tell them what you expect and they might be able to make you an offer. That being said, school year won´t be over before February, so it won´t be immediately.

http://hochschule-ansbach-medien.pageflow.io/frank-und-notka#32834

A video of the school, it´s in German but at least pictures say more than words at times.

Here is another video of Chiara, she is a figure skater and talks about how she has about three hours of ice time each day, school and sport well combined and so on.

http://hochschule-ansbach-medien.pageflow.io/frank-und-notka#32856

If you have any questions or need something translated, let me know. I won´t reply immediately though, but if I know you have questions I might check here more often.

Thank you for the suggestion...Honestly, I never considered boarding my children and most likely wouldn't want to go that route. While I do understand that there might be certain advantages in doing so, I enjoy being around my children as much as possible. Our school school system here in Switzerland is pretty decent and I don't particularly have any issues with the academics. My older daughter studies at the conservatory here as well...so again...thank you for the suggestion but I don't think it's something we would opt for.

Serious Training facilities in Europe?

just1more

el henry

Go have some cake. And come back with jollity.

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Ic3Rabbit

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