Goodbye to the gag rule

In 2011, I stated that the Professional Skaters Association rules governing so-called "solicitation" were restraint of trade.  This did not make me popular at PSA seminars, where people in this insular industry could not be made to understand the singularity and bizarreness of the anti-soliciting rules.

Turns out the FTC agrees with me.

To review, the PSA had an anti-solicitation rule stating roughly that no PSA member coach can knowingly directly solicit another coach's student, or tamper with a coaching relationship either directly or indirectly. What this meant was that you could not approach a student who was already working with someone else. You had to be careful about talking to the parents and friends of someone else's student. If a student came to you privately about switching coaches, you were supposed to report this to the other coach if the student had not already done so.

Until a few years ago, when USFS and PSA colluded to impose membership on all coaches doing testing or competing, it wasn't even particularly enforceable, because if you weren't a member of PSA it didn't even apply to you. You could be as big a jerk as you wanted, and if you weren't a member, there was no one to report you to.

If you were a PSA member, it still didn't matter, because the unethical coaches ignored it, and the ethical coaches didn't need it.

There are all sorts of nuanced minefields to this. Kid's parent bragging in the stands? Better be prepared that you have told the parents that you do not encourage this. Got a talented kid in class? Don't praise them too much, either to the kid or the parent if someone else is their coach. Parents in arrears with fees? An "ethical" coach is supposed to refuse to take you until you pay up the prior coach. (Even if the other coach has actively encouraged parents to stay in arrears to keep them from leaving.) Kid in your class been taught incorrect technique on a skill? Careful how you tell the kid their technique is wrong-- that's tampering.

Coming from a business and music background, this sounded absolutely insane to me. Imagine if you had a contractor for your house that wasn't doing the job-- by the standards of this rule, if you went to someone else, they would be ethically required to report you to the guy who was messing up.

Further, it didn't stop unethical coaches, it was used to intimidate students and parents (I knew people who quit skating rather than have to tell a coach they wanted to switch) as well as less experienced coaches and made the whole coach switching thing a nightmarish balancing act.

At the urging of the FTC in another industry, the rules have been changed. It is now only considered statutorily (by PSA statute) unethical to solicit a student actively engaged in competition or a test session. I would call this the "don't be an asshole" rule. The new language is here.

Now, what this means is not that there are no more ethics in coaching. It means that the foolishness of expecting parents to know the esoteric ethical constraints of coaching is over.

In other words, now, if you actively solicit another coach's kid in secret, or start telling parents that you would do better, or bragging to them about how great your kids did at regionals, or telling the kids they would get farther faster with you, you're not strictly unethical according to the rewritten PSA definitions.

You're just an asshole.

The good news: coaches no longer have to report a parent (seriously wtf) to the old coach if they come to you about switching (not that anyone ever did this). The whole team-- parent, skater, coach-- no longer has to tiptoe around hoping that the other coach doesn't file an ethics complaint while you navigate the switch.

It means that skaters and coaches no longer have to fear PSA or USFS sanctioned retaliation if a coach decides to be a jerk about it.

Switching coaches will still be an emotional minefield and you still have to do it with a lot of thought and care, keeping the best interest of the skater at the forefront. There are still ethical issues regarding actively approaching someone else's student (seriously-- don't do this).

Try to work out the issues with the original coach.  Talk to the new coach off the premises. Make sure you're paid up. Don't flaunt the change-- no bragging, trashing, or airing of dirty laundry. If you're a coach, always ask someone who comes to you about lessons if they already have a coach, and if so why they want to switch. Give it a week between the final lesson with the old coach and the first lesson with the new one. Keep it friendly with the old coach.

And goodbye to the gag rule. Now we all get to be civilized because it's the right thing to do.

Another soliciting post

Or, can the coach even talk to the parents of someone else's student?

In a word, yes.

And no.

The Professional Skaters Association  does not actually have an official definition of soliciting or tampering. They have examples, and admonishments not to do it, but nowhere in their Tenets of Professionalism can I find an actual definition.

I'll give it a shot-- soliciting is seeking to acquire a student who already has a coach. Tampering is seeking to undermine an existing coaching relationship (in other words, soften 'em up before moving on to soliciting). These are done clandestinely, as opposed to simple promotion or advertising, which are things like this blog, ads in programs, fliers or listing yourself in the PSA directory.

Most of my email comes from parents concerned that a coach is soliciting their child (or flattered that a coach seems to be soliciting their child). They want to know what to do about it.

And frankly, don't do anything about it. Below the rarified air of medal contenders, parents really have no obligations beyond getting the best coach for their child. You are not bound by the ethical considerations of the coaches. While you don't want to be seen to be constantly coach-shopping, there is nothing ethically stopping you, the parent, from talking to anyone, about anything.

No other teaching profession has rules against trying to get students, even someone else's student, and no other teaching profession makes the parents feel like they have to police it.

A coach who engages in the following types of behaviors-- telling other parents/coaches that she'd take on your kids in a heartbeat, constantly telling you how talented your child is, having her parents tell you that your coach is teaching Skill X wrong-- is definitely soliciting or tampering by the PSA non-definition.

A coach who is teaching your child in class and tells you that your child has technique problems is not soliciting or tampering, unless he goes on to say that you should switch coaches. He is also your child's coach and is entitled to an opinion.

And yes, coaches who seek other people's students are obnoxious slime. But here's the thing.

You cannot solicit a skater away from an unwilling parent.  If you don't want to switch coaches, then don't worry about what other coaches and parents are saying. If you are at all susceptible to the talk, then you probably aren't 100% happy with your coach anyway. The reasons for this don't matter. You might think the relationship could be better. You might notice that your coach doesn't have the best skaters (careful with this, there are lots of reasons for it). You might feel more secure with a popular coach, or a "top" coach (no judgement-- these are legitimate reasons to choose a coach).

And if someone is talking behind your coach's back, I would just not get involved unless you really want to switch.