Coaches allowed on public ice/ open skate in

twirlingblades said:

May I ask the area you live? Not having ice monitor/rink guards in my experience around the US is not allowed on public sessions. For the rinks I’ve worked at, if even one person is on a public session, you have to have an ice monitor in the vicinity, or you are liable for any injuries.

My home rink is in a huge metropolitan area so our public sessions are super crowded. Lower level skaters/hockey players can have private lessons, but they have to be in the coned off area in the middle. They can do single jumps if room permits, spins, no spirals. We also can’t have hockey pucks, sticks, food/drink, and no “weaving”. People also can’t play their music through the PA system because the music playing on public sessions are played in the front office on a CD. A lot of coaches just use speakers.

We have pretty strict rules but I worked in the rink for 5+ years and never had issues. Our rules are because of how extremely crowded we get.

This is an interesting conversation!

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I live in South Carolina, and my rink is in a Plex center. The staff is usually working in the lobby area and I guess they monitor the other activity areas outside the rink as well. But if there are issues on ice, it's very easy to get staff involved. We've had a couple of public skaters injure themselves recently (no one's fault, just bad falls) and staff responded very quickly.

We also have to sign a waiver, so I guess that covers the injury liability. I do think rink guards would be nice though, but I also think we do pretty well without them.

renla said:

I live in South Carolina, and my rink is in a Plex center. The staff is usually working in the lobby area and I guess they monitor the other activity areas outside the rink as well. But if there are issues on ice, it's very easy to get staff involved. We've had a couple of public skaters injure themselves recently (no one's fault, just bad falls) and staff responded very quickly.

We also have to sign a waiver, so I guess that covers the injury liability. I do think rink guards would be nice though, but I also think we do pretty well without them.

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The "skate at your own risk" disclaimer only clears the rnk of liability if the rink has satisfied basic safety standards. For example, if there is a huge hole in the ice that the rink staff knew about and did not fix or cone off, then a skater broke a bone tripping on it, the rink is liable. Another example, if the rink guard doesn't enforce a posted rule which results in a skater knocking down someone else who then is injured, the rink is liable for the injury (if there is no guard when the rules require a guard, such that rules are not enforced, the rink is also liable). Another example, if the rental skate desk hands put a pair of skates with a broken blade and the broken blade makes the skater fall and get hurt, the rink is liable; this is why our incident reports have to include the specific number of the rental skates that were being worn at the time of a reported fall. Part of the reason for the vagueness of some posted rules, is to protect the rink; we aren't supposed to allow camel spins in public sessions, so no one gets a ripped open face, but it is not written anywhere, so if a face does get ripped, the rink can't be held liable. Every I have broken something it has been due to my own self, but if I ever (while not working) get knocked down and hurt because of a guard refusing to warn intentionally recklace skaters, I will demand a minimum of payment for medical bills.

twirlingblades said:

May I ask the area you live? Not having ice monitor/rink guards in my experience around the US is not allowed on public sessions. For the rinks I’ve worked at, if even one person is on a public session, you have to have an ice monitor in the vicinity, or you are liable for any injuries.

My home rink is in a huge metropolitan area so our public sessions are super crowded. Lower level skaters/hockey players can have private lessons, but they have to be in the coned off area in the middle. They can do single jumps if room permits, spins, no spirals. We also can’t have hockey pucks, sticks, food/drink, and no “weaving”. People also can’t play their music through the PA system because the music playing on public sessions are played in the front office on a CD. A lot of coaches just use speakers.

We have pretty strict rules but I worked in the rink for 5+ years and never had issues. Our rules are because of how extremely crowded we get.

This is an interesting conversation!

Click to expand...

I skate at five municipal rinks in the US. Four of them have skate guards posted most of the time. The last--and most crowded on weekends--often doesn't, because at quieter times they only have one employee around (who'll sit at the front desk), and when there's a line they'll pull the employee who should be the skate guard to work at the front desk too. It's kind of interesting how the times they're most likely to have an accident, they're least likely to have a guard out. Can only wish they were keeping better track of their liability.

I've only skated at one US rink on a public session and there wasn't a rink guard. There was a guy looking after the cash desk and skate rental who had sight of the rink so I asked him what was / wasn't allowed and because there were only 3 people on the rink he said anything I wanted.

There is one rink in town where it is 100% allowed for coaches to give lessons during public sessions. But it's not allowed at the other two rinks. And the rink that it's allowed on is only for beginner skaters. They do not do full on freestyle skating.

We have been to many rinks where the rules are lax and they allow freestyle elements to be skated during public sessions. Some mark out the center of the rink for figure skaters and others let the figure skaters take over the whole rink. But of course, certain elements are still not allowed (backwards spiral, camel spin, etc).

I have been to one rink while on vacation that did not have a rink guard. I complained and said it was unsafe. They brushed off my concerns.

My current ice rink (Germany) only has a rink guard when there's a lot of people —and even then she's only guarding access and exit, mainly.
There are forbidden elements but if you're careful no one brushes you off.
There are classes in public ice —they actually divide the rink in 1/3 class 2/3 public ice (at the same price as normal public ice, which is kind of unfair). I have not seen private coaching on public ice, though, and since I don't speak German it's difficult to ask :/

In my rink in Madrid there are no skating guards but the people at the office keep an eye on the skaters and there are some birthday-coaches (as in they guide usually around 10-15 children due to birthdays etc) pretty much always on the public sessions. They do have authority to the rest of the public.
They keep the central circle for classes and if there's no classes for figure skaters. And there are lots of forbidden moves, some even quite silly —any kind of jumps and spins outside the circle, holding hands more than two people (and actually once I was holding hands with a friend and got called off too), any kind of lift, any kind of spiral, etc. Usually they're more lax with usual costumers but when they have a bad day... :noshake:
It's also the only rink I've been in where they change direction after 1:30 hours. I find that quite helpful. And, less honorably, the only rink I know where they pass the Zamboni without using water, so they more or less level the snow but leave all the amazing, awesome holes. Guess that's what happens when you want to skate in Spain /sighs
(As an interesting data point: it was the main rink of Javier Fernández when he trained in Spain. He's kind of the pink unicorn piloting and landing an UFO that no one deserves)

All the rules you mention are for things that do pose real risks, hence they are not silly. When people skate in chains, they obstruct the path of other skaters, if one person in the chain falls, others can also get ulled down or trip over the one who fell, and all sorts of bad things can happen. As far as spirals go, you have obviously never seen someone's face get cut by a skate blade of someone raising a foot at the same level as the faces of other skaters.

Mussique said:

(As an interesting data point: it was the main rink of Javier Fernández when he trained in Spain. He's kind of the pink unicorn piloting and landing an UFO that no one deserves)

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I think Javi would be an excellent soccer player if he hadn't fell in love with skating. He is naturally athletic.
And I am sooo happy that he did skating coz I wouldn't have watched men's skating until him.

treesprite said:

All the rules you mention are for things that do pose real risks, hence they are not silly. When people skate in chains, they obstruct the path of other skaters, if one person in the chain falls, others can also get ulled down or trip over the one who fell, and all sorts of bad things can happen. As far as spirals go, you have obviously never seen someone's face get cut by a skate blade of someone raising a foot at the same level as the faces of other skaters.

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Well, you're a bit quick to assume what I have or haven't seen or experienced.
In my rink, though, they're super arbitrary on what they admit depending on if they like the person or not. And frankly, doing crossovers with my friend on a day with around twenty other people tops... /Sigh. Trust me, I know the difference of that vs a chain.
I do know which moves are dangerous. And in what circumstances they're dangerous. And I do know they're much too strict with the rules when they feel like it. It's not like we do triples on an overcrowded rink —and the fun part is, some people do doubles in an overcrowded rink and they don't get called off.

It's interesting to see how the rules change rink to rink, though.