Your private coach (and perhaps one day, your team of coaches) is key to many of your successes as a skater. Keep these in mind as you select a coach:
- Shop around and make sure you know what you’re getting yourself (and your parents) into.
- Once you are with a coach, that coach is Head Coach (sometimes called Primary Coach)–you are with that coach and he/she makes decisions in the best interests of the skater.
- The Head Coach may enlist Second Coaches and Specialty Coaches to work with that skater who will focus in on choreography, jumps, spins, etc., particularly if this skater is a serious competitor. In effect, you have a Team of Coaches (like an actor’s entourage…hair, makeup, lunch, etc.)
USFS has a whole page of things parents should consider in choosing the coach for the child. And of course, the child has a say in this, too–they’re the ones taking lessons!