Who do I pay?

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• Parent Category: Money

When your kid starts, she'll likely be a program run by the skating club that combines ice time and coaching fees. In Canada, many clubs run a program designed by Skate Canada called CanSkate. Once she progresses further, she'll have individual coaching. Some clubs look after all of the administration but in many clubs you pay the club to be on the ice and you pay the coach directly for their coaching time.

As your kid progresses, the number of coaches involved can increase. She'll have her primary coach. If she does dance, she may have a different coach for dance. There will be off-ice coaches for conditioning, ballet, modern dance, etc. and specialist on-ice coaches for spinning, and jumping for example. Then there's the choreographer, and don't forget about about the psychologist to help little sweetums with the mental conditioning necessary to undertake an intense training regimen and compete at a high level. All of this is possible but not necessary so don't get freaked out. Maybe it's necessary if your kid is on the Olympic track but skaters can have a lot of fun learning and competing with only one on-ice coach and some off-ice conditioning help. A lot depends on the skills of your primary coach.