Lesson Fees

[Joe biebel]

Originally Posted by D+F+P=Hadouken!

If the best epee coach in the country, charges $X for a lesson, then I don't think a lesser coach should ever charge as much, or even close. Its ridiculous for a scrub coach to charge $25 a lesson, when a better coach does not charge that much more.

Then again, lesson prices are determined by the law of supply and demand, not by the law of charge what you're worth in comparison to the best.

If the best coach in the country wants to charge too little for a lesson, how does that make it inappropriate for a "scrub" coach to charge more? The best coach in the country is clearly not very good at business or really does it for "the love of the game",. That is all well and good, but perhaps, short-sighted. It is important to fencing that more people become teachers, masters or instructors. The more money there is in the sport (take a half-hour tennis lesson some time) the more it will grow. While I'm all for quality over quantity, we will need to have some quantity before quality can be established. Quantity will follow the dollars. Also, there may be a lot of people, with perfectly good money, that wish to become as good as thay can, that will never be standing on the podium (except to pass out awards) at any significant tournament. Nevertheless, they are an important (paying) part of the infrastructure, that allows a coach to be gainfully employed while developing the real talent. If an instructor/coach/master never developes champions, yet brings more people into the sport that improve the infrastructure, money flow, etc., I say they deserve to make a good living.

[lindajdunn]

We pay membership fees to rent space and thus the membership fees do not include lessons. More, lessons are available at about 30 different locations (I kid you not) and thus the coaches are traveling quite a bit. Lessons are $20 for 20 minutes.

As the program becomes better established, it may become possible to have a real salle. If that happens, I expect to see a change in the fee structure.

[RITFencing]

I've had lessons from various coaches over the years, and what I find is that they range from 20 to 30 minutes in length and cost 20 to 30 dollars each. For those of us without higher math skills, that's about a dollar a minute.

[Mr Epee]

Originally Posted by Joe biebel

If the best coach in the country wants to charge too little for a lesson, how does that make it inappropriate for a "scrub" coach to charge more? The best coach in the country is clearly not very good at business or really does it for "the love of the game",. That is all well and good, but perhaps, short-sighted. It is important to fencing that more people become teachers, masters or instructors. The more money there is in the sport (take a half-hour tennis lesson some time) the more it will grow. While I'm all for quality over quantity, we will need to have some quantity before quality can be established. Quantity will follow the dollars. Also, there may be a lot of people, with perfectly good money, that wish to become as good as thay can, that will never be standing on the podium (except to pass out awards) at any significant tournament. Nevertheless, they are an important (paying) part of the infrastructure, that allows a coach to be gainfully employed while developing the real talent. If an instructor/coach/master never developes champions, yet brings more people into the sport that improve the infrastructure, money flow, etc., I say they deserve to make a good living.

Excellently put!

Gold Star.

[sabreur]

I've posted this before, but...

I belong to two clubs, and pay about $25/month to each of them. Lessons are included. I take one lesson a week at each club--lessons vary in length from 10 -30 minutes--typically they are 15-20 minutes at my competitive club, and 20-30 minutes at my other club. If I was able to train more often, I'd be able to take more lessons--I could be taking four lessons a week if I was able to get to the clubs that often.

Both of my coaches are certified masters--one Ukrainian, one Hungarian. They are employees of the club, and are paid about $25/hour, I think. Contrary to popular opinion, clubs in Germany do NOT receive a lot of support from the state--both clubs train in school gyms that have hard-wired scoring machines/lights on the walls--we pay the city to rent the hall, although the amount is fairly nominal. If we have fencers who qualify for regional or national rankings, the club gets a certain amount of money from the federation, but it isn't that much.

MR

[oiuyt]

Originally Posted by sabreur

<financials snipped>

So you consume ~80 minutes of coaching time/week at each club. And (directly) pay for an hour's worth of coach time. Your membership fees don't even fully cover the direct cost to the club of the lessons that you're taking. Even leaving aside all other expenses that the club has, there has to be additional funding coming in from SOMEWHERE (perhaps other members that don't consume as much of the club resources, perhaps outside funding, perhaps a combination).

-B

[Morion]

I pay $100 per month lessons included. Of course there is no set schedule so some weeks I get no lessons other weeks I might get 2 (class is twice per week). No set length for lessons either.

[sabreur]

Originally Posted by oiuyt

So you consume ~80 minutes of coaching time/week at each club. And (directly) pay for an hour's worth of coach time. Your membership fees don't even fully cover the direct cost to the club of the lessons that you're taking. Even leaving aside all other expenses that the club has, there has to be additional funding coming in from SOMEWHERE (perhaps other members that don't consume as much of the club resources, perhaps outside funding, perhaps a combination).

-B

No--I consume between 30-40 minutes of coaching time a week. I could consume as much as 80 if I trained four times a week, rather than twice.

But German clubs have a lot more members than they do active fencers--both of my clubs have four or five times as many members as they do active fencers. Germans like to join clubs, and tend to continue to belong to them after their competitive lives are over.

There are also a fair number of folks who choose not to take lessons....

MR