The youngest daughter had her skating lesson yesterday as usual and afterwards the coach invited her to an extended off-ice session of stretches and skills practice (jumping, twisting, spins, lunges etc). When they’d finished, the coach suggested her rapid improvement indicated it might be time to extend her coaching and practice sessions to develop her skills further and faster.
She has a busy little life for an 8 year old and the only time she has available for more sessions is early mornings… so it looks as if I’ll be up and out even earlier. The sessions *start* at 6:00 a.m. and there is a journey of 30 mins minimum… so we need to be ready to leave home at 5:00 a.m….. to which I just say… erk!! We’ll need to keep a close eye on her and monitor her sleep hours to make sure she rests properly!!
Obviously there is extra expense involved. The lessons are $35 each, rink entry $12, tolls $9, plus petrol plus something to eat (before and/or after)… so we might say between $60 and $70 each time. We do this three times a week already… looks like we’ll be shelling out around $250 a week for a sport which doesn’t bring in the really big bucks even for the most skillful! And that’s ignoring skates which can cost upwards of $1,000 a pair… and outfits that she grows out of within weeks. Lord this is going to be a strain!! There is one girl called Zara who skates at the early morning practice sessions six days as week. She really is pretty good… but her father is also her coach so their costs are a lot less!! For us that would mean an outlay of up to $500 a week!
Agghhh….!!! Even with just 3 coaching sessions and the rest of them as ‘self-motivated practice’ we’d be stretched!! I wonder if we could buy an ice-rink somewhere?? 😀
Geez…. why couldn’t she be a talented tennis player… or a golfer?? She could make millions for herself!!
Still, she’s happy and that’s what it’s all about in the end. We’d like her to get as far as she wants and make the most of what she’s got. Who cares about money really (ok… don’t answer that!) . 🙂
The Eclectic Interweb 