Paying Private Coaches on Retainer?

[Boo Boo]

Does anyone here pay their coach a "retainer" for private lessons? (i.e. a fixed amount a month, or similar, rather than per hour of coaching supplied).

If so, why do you do this?

I am curious how common this practice is and what extra benefits people get paying by retainer rather than per hour.

Boo

[Zilverzmurfen]

Does anyone here pay their coach a "retainer" for private lessons? (i.e. a fixed amount a month, or similar, rather than per hour of coaching supplied).

No.

Our Maître is employed by our club, thus private lessons are included in my club fee. (I usually take one lesson per week, more if I'm having a competition coming up.)

We don't have the tradition here in Sweden to pay extra for lessons. Coaches and maîtres are either employed or in other ways engaged by the clubs -- it is their job to teach their students.

[Pauli]

Our club doesn't have a coach employed. Though, we can ask for private sessions with the coaches that assist us in our trainings. Though, just for approx 15 minutes. If I wish to train outside the official training lessons, then this is considered as private lesson and I pay an hourly fee.

Which is what I do. But then I do have the coach for myself and it allows a more intense and undisturbed lesson. Which I am ready to pay extra for.

[sabreur]

The system in Germany works the same way it does in Sweden, as ZZ described. When we were preparing for Nationals, we'd have extra Saturday sessions with one of my Masters--we did pay him separately for those sessions.

MR

[Allen Evans]

Coaches in some clubs are paid a salary for their work, and their lesson load can vary from month to month during the season. The clubs that pay their coaches a salary, however, usually charge their students/members a per lesson fee (either as an individual item or as a fixed number of lessons per month).

A retainer agreement between an individual student and coach strikes me as not very practical.

[RebelFencer]

I pay my coach a fixed amount per month for unlimited lessons, which saves me a couple hundred dollars a month.

[KD5MDK]

No.

Our Maître is employed by our club, thus private lessons are included in my club fee. (I usually take one lesson per week, more if I'm having a competition coming up.)

We don't have the tradition here in Sweden to pay extra for lessons. Coaches and maîtres are either employed or in other ways engaged by the clubs -- it is their job to teach their students.

My club has three coaches and two instructors. Each coach is on duty one day per week, and gives lessons covered by our dues on that day. In the preparation time for important team competitions, that is scheduled for the selected team members.

If you want to take a lesson with a coach not on their scheduled day, you pay a fee.

[Purple Fencer]

I onjly have a couple of students, myself...the girl is on a set schedule of onc e a week, but every so often she has to skip one day. The guy will take a lesson, then we will set the next one depending on our schedules...sometimes he's 2 days in row, other times once a week. I get paid on an individual lesson basis.

I DID have one student who payed (her idea) $200 per week...an hour lesson for each of the 4 days I was in the shop...but it never quite worked out...she had a kid to deal with and eventuall;y her job transferred her to Florida...a shame...she was REALLY quick on the uptake.

[lovetofence]

My club has three coaches and two instructors. Each coach is on duty one day per week, and gives lessons covered by our dues on that day. In the preparation time for important team competitions, that is scheduled for the selected team members.

If you want to take a lesson with a coach not on their scheduled day, you pay a fee.

Interesting, what are your dues if I may ask?

[KD5MDK]

$100/semester.

[hello?]

What do you pay (or don't pay) for your coach to attend competitions?

[RebelFencer]

My coach just has me pay for all his expenses: Food, Travel, Hotel. Which is really cool of him.

[Purple Fencer]

Hmmm...the only times I've coached was when I happened to be vendoring at the same event...but if Kelsey wanted me to go and coach her at a differfent venue, I don't think I'm really good enough to warrant charging a fee to go...I'd do it just to help her out.

[Cerian]

For me it's worked differently with different coaches. One, you either pay per lesson or for a set of lessons (say, 4.) The other, you pay a monthly fee for his specific coaching program and get a number of lessons based on how much you pay.

[Moses]

Pour moi:

Monthly fee for the club + fees for each lesson voucher, with discounts for buying in bulk.

Competitions: 1 fee per event (like, Junior M/F and Open amount to two fees). Plus air travel, gas (if the location is a neigboring state but we're not taking air), hotel and sometimes food.

It comes out to quite a bit of $.

-Da Mose