How-to: Lose Parents from a Learn to Skate Program

Xanboni had an excellent post last week about how she teaches her ISI Beta classes. I’m not familiar with ISI Beta classes, but I am familiar with what she describes here:

Also, coaches? Please never give a child only “needs improvement” marks. It’s not going to kill you to make a little white lie and tell them they are good at ONE thing. I’ve seen more skaters quit at mid-term because the coach decided to be brutally honest. Really, what’s the point? If worse comes to worse, I’ll write “Alpha review exceptional!” on a struggling skater’s evaluation form. By extension, don’t pass everything, because it confuses the kid and their parent. They think they should now get to move up, and it isn’t true. You can’t drop a kid into the next level when they’ve missed the first five classes (unless you’re using this as a marketing tactic– “oh have him take a few lessons with me, I’ll help him catch up”).

Coaches like these turn off skaters and parents. I’m familiar with this technique. Poor Ice Girl suffered through the first level of swimming lessons for over a year. After that, I just stopped signing her up for the same class over and over. Come on? A year? And she hadn’t learned enough to pass out of the first kiddie level? I never went back.

Disclaimer: I am not talking about Ice Coach’s Learn to Skate where Ice Girl works. Ice Coach runs it well and doesn’t invite lousy teacher to teach for her. Actually, we have several very good Learn to Skate programs in the area. But I’ve seen some practices that irritate parents. Here’s why parents might leave a Learn to Skate program for another:

Don’t take roll. This one’s from me. Ice Girl took her first Basic 1 lesson when she was 8. She passed Basic 1 and went into Basic 2. We were five minutes late for the first class (can’t remember why), but the teacher waved her over and Ice Girl joined the group. No big deal.

Actually, it was a big deal. At the end of the session, Ice Girl came to me and proudly showed me that she had passed…Basic 1. What? She was supposed to be in Basic 2! I was pretty unhappy, I tell you. I approached the skating director who shrugged me off. Oh no, Cookie! I paid for Basic 2! I did not pay for Basic 1 TWICE!

Finally the gal took Ice Girl out on the ice for five minutes, came back to me, and pronounced that Ice Girl was ready for Basic 3.

Look, she might have been ready for Basic 3, but as a parent, as a customer, I paid for Basic 2. I wanted her to have the skills and experience that came with Basic 2! Don’t you people take roll?

The skating director didn’t refund my money, didn’t put her in Basic 2 for free, and we never went back. They lost us. Unfortunately, Ice Girl lost out, too. She loved skating way more than gymnastics and wanted to skate. I wasn’t aware of other programs in town at the time, so she was on the mats and off the ice for three years. It’s really too bad.

Do take roll. Know the kids in your class and even their parents. Making that personal connection will bring students and parents back for the next session.

Don’t talk to other coaches and ignore the students. This one’s from Ice Girl, who teaches Learn to Skate. Figure skating is a pretty small community and most skaters know one another. Many Learn to Skate teachers around my area are teens who skate. That’s fine. What’s not fine is when the Basic 3 teacher stands at the boards with the Basic 5 teacher and they catch up on who’s dating whom while their students chase one another around and interrupt other classes. Parents hate that.

Do focus on your own students. Talk to them, encourage them, and pretend they’re the only ones on the ice.

Don’t allow students to escape. As a spectator, the escape artists amuse me. I love to watch one slip past his teacher and skate at top speed toward the tots class where he can steal all the tots’ toys. Another kid wanders aimlessly into everyone else’s classes like she’s at a buffet. She samples from one class and then wanders off to sample another class. She’s never in her own class, though.

As a spectator, this is pretty funny. As a parent, it’s darn frustrating. Parents want their kids to learn. They don’t want teachers spending their entire time chasing after one kid and ignoring the others. They don’t want these kids hassling other classes so those kids can’t learn.

Do ask an assistant teacher to help you with your strays. After class, talk with the parents. Is a group class really a good fit for their kid? Can their kid handle this kind of group setting?  It’s better to lose the wandering kids’ families than to lose an entire class of Basic 4s who will find a different program for Basic 5.

Don’t allow parents on the ice. This one comes from Ice Girl. Toddler parents think that if they come on the ice with their tot, the kid will respond better and have more confidence. Ice Girl says these parents are wrong. Ever take a kid to daycare and say goodbye to the kid – for 15 minutes? The kid’s in tears for hours because he feels abandoned. However, take a kid to daycare, cheerfully leave him with his daycare provider, wave bye-bye and smile and the kid is O.K. The kid takes his cues from Mom and Dad.

It’s the same way on the ice, Ice Girl said. These parents come out on the ice and the other tots cry for their parents, too. Pretty soon every three-year-old is sniveling and no one cares about picking up rings and dropping them on cones. Wanna ruin a tots class? Invite parents on the ice.

Do encourage parents to be active in the stands. Ask them to give their skater a thumbs up when she does well. It’s O.K. for parents to wave and take pictures, too. Ask them to be happy and positive when they drop the kid off at the rink door so their skater thinks going on the ice will be great fun.

Don’t spend all your time with one student. Ice Girl sometimes has this problem. One time a little kid developed a crush on Ice Girl. He’d flail his arms and fall comically in front of her so she would stop and scoop him up. When she gave more attention to another kid, this little boy would again fall to get her attention.

I have to say that the lovesick kid’s parents and I had a good laugh over it. His mom was totally mystified by his behavior and couldn’t figure out why her son was prat falling in front of Ice Girl. Dad knew, though. He said that his son had a crush on Ice Girl. It was cute.

Do draw the line. From the other parents’ points of view, it was frustrating, so Ice Girl had to be stern with the little kid. She explained that she had to teach the other tots, too. She couldn’t just focus her attention on him.

Parents, have you had problems at Learn to Skate that made you want to leave the program or that made you leave the program? What did you do to resolve the issue? What did the program director or teachers to to help?

Photo credits:
Four Seasons Hotel Implosion: Mozambique – Moments on Flickr.com Creative Commons
Implosion Sequence 4: Cycrolu on Flickr.com Creative Commons