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Questions & Answers
We’ve put together a list of the most frequently asked questions. We’ve tried to organize them to make them as easy to find as possible. We are continuing to update so if there is anything we missed and you still have questions please feel free to reach out.
General Questions
The Academy maintains the “it takes a village to raise a champion” mentality and our coaches work as equal partners. Where many skating schools and private coaches treat this journey strictly as a business, we treat it as an opportunity to cultivate and guide our athletes to be the best skaters and humans they can be.
Group Training is the main focus of the Academy. We find this international approach is more beneficial to the skater as it creates a competitive yet team-like atmosphere. The Academy coaches offer private lessons, though the main chunk of a skater’s daily work is done in groups of skaters of a similar level with all three of our coaches tending to the group. These are not “group seminars” or “learn to skate classes,” as the skaters will be working just as they would in a private lesson but with three coaches and surrounded by their teammates all hoping to accomplish similar goals.
In terms of our ideals, our coaches have experienced every aspect of the figure skating world, the good and the bad, and our aim is to create a safe place for our skaters to excel and to be lifted up every day by our team and the skaters they share the ice with. Bullying by parents, associates or skaters will not be tolerated and will be met with swift expulsion from our group.
All three of our coaches offer private lessons.
Yes! In fact, the first lesson you book with us is always considered a consultation. That first lesson is how we assess how we can help and determines the best path forward for the skater and our existing clientele. We like to be honest to a fault and will not hold back in our opinions about how we can help and what the skater needs to improve. In figure skating, we understand and have experienced that time is short, so we do not make a habit of wasting anyones time, in that way, consultations are necessary for all prospective students at the Academy.
Group training is a group of athletes of a similar level and skill set, all training at the same time under the watchful eye of our entire coaching team. Our style of group training is essentially a semi-private lesson where details will be worked on, programs will be run through, jumps fixed and technique polished. Three coaches will oversee these sessions so no skater will be left wanting for attention, yet the skater will also be able to form a fierce independence in knowing what is expected of them and working to achieve it without constant corrections. Additional private lessons are encouraged to work on minor details of the athletes technique or to work on new skills. Each of our coaches excels in all areas, but they each have specialities that our skaters would benefit from in group as well as in private lessons.
Training in a group provides a team-like dynamic for the athletes. The skaters will spend every day training with athletes of a similar level and skill set that will push them all to be the best they can be and they will inspire one another. In a sport as individualistic as figure skating, having a team of skaters and coaches supporting you helps immeasurably. A good way to think of the group skaters is like classmates.
Group training is also beneficial financially. The skaters will pay a flat rate for group work and will be overseen by more than one coach essentially offering the skater an opportunity to work with all of our coaches for the price of one.
Just as the skaters work in a group, so to will the coaches. Our coaches will all teach the same techniques and have similar focuses for each skater, of course, personally tailored to the individual. If one coach is traveling for competition, off for personal reasons, or at a different professional endeavor, our skaters will never be left alone because they will receive the same care, instruction and attention from the coaches remaining home.
Standard sessions are 40 minutes at The Skating Club of Wilmington and vary at our partner rinks.
Private lesson times vary by situation. For example, if you are visiting us for one week and want to have an intensive schedule, we are happy to work with you as much as possible, but too much information can be mentally exhausting for the skater and the coach. In normal circumstances, our coaches vary their schedules on private lesson times. Coach Megan & Coach Misha teach a private lesson lasting 20 minutes while Coach Johnny’s minimum is 30 minutes. Coach Johnny prefers to teach between 30 minutes and 1 hour private lessons while Coach Megan & Coach Misha prefer to teach between 20-40 minutes maximizing their availability for the whole group, all day. We always have our client’s well-being in our hearts, so if we determine the skater needs more or less private instruction depending on lagging skills or fatigue or any number of influences on their abilities to do their best, we will be honest in our suggestions for private work.
We have partner rinks that will offer us opportunities to train more skaters from a wider area and at more varied times. Our schedules of availability and our location will always be posted here and on our social media pages. Consistency is key in terms of our schedule and yours, so we will not spread ourselves thin by traveling to different rinks every day.
Additionally, we will travel as a group for seminars and open houses to expose our skaters to different ways of training and to show the rest of the skating community how we do things.
We refer to seminars as seminars and “master classes” or “clinics” as open houses. Seminars are more intensive, offer on and off-ice programs and typically last more than one day. An open house is primarily on-ice work only and typically happens all in one day. We do plan to offer both options soon and will post any news here and on our socials. Sign up for our e-mail list to have direct access to all that information.
Skaters
We certainly do. The Academy has received a lot of international attention already and luckily we offer instruction in several languages. Coach Johnny offers instruction in Russian, elementary French and English, Coach Misha offers instruction in Russian, Ukrainian and English and Coach Megan offers instruction in English. We are all working on our Spanish and Japanese language skills as well. Just like our American clientele, we offer instruction for groups or individual skaters from abroad in private lessons, possibly in our groups and we accept international skaters for short visits.
We accept skaters of all ages, but their skating abilities, level, and ambitions are more important to the Academy than their age.
The Academy accepts skaters of all levels for private lessons and upon our first “trial lesson” will determine if the athlete will fit into one of our groups or if they need more private lessons to prepare them for the more rigorous demands of group work. While there is a place with our coaches for recreational skaters, skaters hoping to test, adult skaters and beginners, the focus of the group work is on skaters hoping to compete. However, our coaches work as partners and ideally, our athletes will train with all three of our coaches privately, regardless of their ambitions, to receive the maximum benefit of working with such a tight-knit group of professionals.
The Academy accepts adult skaters for private lessons and will also be hosting “adult only” seminars and open houses. Often during seminars, adult skaters are placed with the less advanced skaters due to safety concerns, but our aim is to appreciate and applaud our adult clientele with programs designed just for them.
If it is your first time on the ice, or you’ve taken a long break from the ice, The Skating Club of Wilmington, our main rink, offers Learn to Skate programs and a speciality bridge program every Wednesday and Sunday that take you from your first steps on the ice (Learn to Skate), to learning more advanced skills and finding which discipline of figure skating you hope to pursue (Bridge) and finally ending at a place where you are ready for private lessons or group training with the Academy. The Academy will be represented by our coaches during Learn to Skate and Bridge to get to know the skaters from the start and teach the basics of our technique so they have the best possible base to move through the beginning levels quicker and to arrive at the Academy already prepared with our basics.
Our coaches offer private lessons to beginners but participating in Learn to Skate and Bridge is encouraged as partner programs to our methods.
Yes. While we prefer our skaters to use our technique as their only technique, we do accept skaters with an existing head coach. The only prerequisite is that the skater is responsible to notify their coach that they are coming to work at the Academy and offer the Academy phone number to their head coach should their head coach have concerns or questions. The Johnny Weir Skating Academy sees student poaching as a disgraceful practice in figure skating and will never be involved with it. If a skater seeks us out on their own accord, that is their prerogative and we are happy to assist any skater seeking our help, but the skater must be honest with their existing coaching team before moving to us or coming to work with us part-time. We believe in clean transitions between coaches so much, that will ask to be put in contact with your coach to be sure they know what is happening if we don’t already have contact with them. We also ask any new sign-ups who their current team is to protect our integrity as a team.
We will offer weekly in-person or telephone status updates on your skaters progress and upcoming schedules. Having a well organized and scheduled skater is crucial to their success and parents and guardians are extremely important to that process. Our team will also rely on our parents and guardians as extended team members, to help us continue the rhythm of the Academy when our skaters are at home, at school or at play enforcing lifestyle choices that will enhance our athletes performances.
Specialties
We offer advice on warm-ups, off-ice strength training, cool downs, dance training and the like, and anything we do not teach, we have a professional partner who will be able to help.Figure skaters have different needs than many people and even other athletes, and it is important to work with professionals who understand that. As the Academy continues to grow and the groups are in full swing, we will have required off-ice warm ups and cool downs with a professional before and after every session.
Our coaching team is a one stop shop for every element you will need to succeed. We teach everything from skating skills and spins, to triple axels and quads.
We have a harness specialist who will help our skaters in private lesson format and at times on group-ice. Coach Misha is also available for private harness lessons.
We have a vast network of professionals who know how to work with figure skaters. Our goal is to bring in a different professionals from different arts, backgrounds and realms of expertise weekly to offer instruction to our whole team as a special treat. We have physical therapists, doctors, nutritionists, mental wellness professionals, strength trainers, pilates instructors, dance coaches and ballet instructors who have offered to assist our team.
Competitions and Testing
The Academy will offer private choreography lessons to build programs. We do encourage all our skaters to be a part of the decision making process in terms of their art form. We want our athletes to choose their music, design or have input on their costumes, and have input in their choreography. Creating a perfect program is a group effort.For our full-time students who would enjoy a different perspective choreographically, our coaches have contact and friendships with the best choreographers in the world who have offered to visit our group in Delaware, or to host us at their rinks.
We offer test preparation in private lesson format. The Skating Club of Wilmington offers test sessions monthly and upon our first lesson, we will determine what our goals are in terms of level and testing for you/your skater.
While we run a competitive track academy, we understand that we represent our skaters at the boards and our skaters represent us on the ice and will not push a skater to compete, who is not yet ready to compete. Our goal is that a skater sees competition as a necessary stepping stone in their career and not a scary monster at the end of a dark tunnel. Our skaters should only enter events when they have a chance to be victorious with a good performance, so if they are not ready we will not advise them to compete and take every step to prepare them to compete.
With that said, we will advise our skaters who are ready, to compete at select competitions that will enhance their careers, and we will run in-house mock competitions monthly, in full costume, with six minute warm-ups and at times with judges so they can still prepare mentally for the rigors of competition.
We will prepare skaters for both competitive tracks but will encourage them to compete on the IJS track.
Finances
With frugality in mind, we have priced the group affordably and you have the benefit of training with all three of our coaches, for the price of one. Consistency is key with the group so we do require a minimum commitment to hold your/your skater’s place in the group. Please inquire by phone or e-mail for our pricing.
The Academy can not offer financial assistance to anyone at this time. Our goal as an inclusive community is to seek out financial partnerships, crowd sharing opportunities, and sponsorships that will offer our group a chance to open our doors to people who never thought they’d ever take the ice. This will allow us to support initiatives welcoming skaters of all financial and social backgrounds and simply to promote healthy living through physical activity and sport.
Ice time fees vary. At our home rink of The Skating Club of Wilmington, ice packages are available as well as a la carte payment for individual sessions. Prices here are more affordable than most other rinks in the mid-Atlantic area by a considerable amount. Further pricing incentives are available for skaters who choose to become members of The Skating Club of Wilmington as members receive discounted ice fees.
Private lesson prices vary within our group of coaches and always depend on the length of the lesson. We will best advise how much time we need with you/your skater, but ultimately you are the boss and we take your lead. Please inquire via phone or e-mail for individual pricing.
Yes. You can be refunded if you cancel 48 hours before the seminar.
welcome to
Johnny Weir Skating Academy
At the Johnny Weir Skating Academy, we believe that every skater has the potential to achieve their goals in a competitive atmosphere that values teamwork and self-expression, whether that goas is riveting millions at the olympics or landing their first double jump. Our elite team of coaches provides private and group training as well as seminars and open houses to help our students of all levels be the best athelete and artist they can be.
