Why is a flower skating training that costs millions and burns money popular?

Author | Yuan Yue

Editor | Xing Yun

The closing day of Beijing Winter Olympics is the last Sunday of winter vacation. At two o'clock in the afternoon, outside the champion ice rink of Chaoyang Joy City, the scattered ice customers waiting for the venue lined up for more than ten meters. A glass door separates the ice rink from the food area of the shopping mall, and the incandescent lamp in the door shines brightly on the ice rink. The temperature is only MINUS three degrees, but the atmosphere is very warm.

The ice rink is divided into two areas, one for the experiencers to skate, and hundreds of people are crowded to skate on the ice. People are different in age and level, but this does not affect everyone's enthusiasm for learning. There are children who come and go freely on the ice, and adults who are toddlers pushing sliding AIDS. In another area, the ice hockey teenagers of the club are fully armed and violently collide with each other.

The telephone at the front desk keeps ringing, and a staff member is busy apologizing to the queue. The shoes sizes of children and adult women are all rented out, so we have to wait for shoes. Some people in the team complained impatiently. They entered the stadium for 2 minutes, waited for a skater for 2 minutes, and then they were closed.

At this time, in the leisure rinks of Beijing International Trade Center and Colorful City, the heat of ice experience is increasing, and the skating and ice hockey students who want to carry out professional training have no place to skate.

Three girls lie prone on the fence of the champion ice rink and tell Leopard Change that they used to skate and never experienced real ice. After watching the flower skating event in the Winter Olympics, they came together to experience it.

The interest of more young people, especially children, is stimulated. They try to jump into the ice rink to get in touch with flowers, and parents begin to care about this new and niche sport. Are these passions just a flash in the pan of the Winter Olympics effect, or do they mean greater commercial value to be developed? The actual situation behind them needs to be peeled off layer by layer.

1. Song of Ice and Fire

After the opening of the Beijing Winter Olympic Games, ice rinks all over the country suddenly ushered in a surge of people.

Even in the ice rink in the southern city where the climatic conditions are not suitable, it began to be as lively as "going down to jiaozi". A Guangdong parent whose child is learning to skate told Leopard Change, "There is almost no time to skate during the Winter Olympics. First, there are many people who can't skate, and second, they are afraid that the skating will hurt others."

A high-end ice shoe store usually implements a one-to-one reservation system, and most of them are patronized by professional old customers. But recently, young female guests suddenly poured in and bought 1 yuan-3,-yuan entry-level skates out of stock. The boss told Leopard Change that this grand occasion was unprecedented in the past decade. "I don't have time to help old customers with maintenance services."

The popularity of ice rinks is not an "accidental factor". After Beijing's successful bid to host the Winter Olympics in 215, the fire of "driving 3 million people to participate in ice and snow sports" began to spread, and the implementation of policies such as "ice and snow entering the campus" also laid a crowd base for the popularization of ice in China.

among all kinds of ice and snow sports, besides skiing, there are also figure skating events that are most popular among young people. The star effect of many athletes in flower skating brings super popularity to this sport. In 218, in PyeongChang Winter Olympics, Japanese athlete Yuzuru Hanyu successfully defended his Olympic title with a song "Yin and Yang Shi". In that year, China's flower skating audience market experienced exponential growth.

There are more and more children learning flower skating, and "Ice Baby" has become their synonym. In the media reports in the past, the number of elementary exams corresponding to Hua Slip has started to increase sharply in recent years. In 218, there were 1,5 people in chengdu railway station who took the exam, of whom 1, were at the primary level. The original two-day exam time was changed to four days, and the exam time could be scheduled to be 1 am.

The successful hosting of the Beijing Winter Olympics has made the achievements of market cultivation burst out over the years. More and more children yearn for figure skating, and the ice training industry is also affected by the "Winter Olympics flow".

At the beginning of February, the front desk of the champion ice rink reported that the coaching time in that month was all booked up, so we had to wait until March if we wanted to make an appointment. However, a junior coach in Guangdong ice rink delayed his work until 11 pm, "every day his voice is hoarse."

It's about 1 kilometers away from Joy City, near Chaoyang Sports Center of East Fifth Ring Road in Beijing, where many professional ice clubs gather. Among them is Pangqing Tong Jian Ice Art Center, a professional skating club founded by retired world champion Tong Jian.

It's different from the Champion Ice rink. Usually, it only accepts students who make flower skating by appointment. But recently, a lot of new guests have suddenly come to the experience class. A junior coach told Leopard Change that one third of the customers received that day had never been on the ice.

According to the staff of Wanyu Fangfei, another ice training institution, the working hours of course consultants changed from 8 hours to 12 hours during the Winter Olympics, and the amount of consultation was 1 times that of the original. "The Winter Olympics effect has brought about an increase in the flow of ice training, but how to turn experiential customers into long-term learning members is what we are most concerned about at present".

at 4: 3 in the afternoon, the queue outside the champion ice rink dispersed. When the ice-breaking time is over, the noisy ice rink is quiet, and in the melodious light music, the teenagers' flower skating special session begins.

Two coaches and a dozen children skated in two circles on the ice. Children have different postures. Some people stand on the ice with one leg and spread their arms like swallows. Some people bend their bodies into a semicircle and spin on the ice, just like flowers blooming in white snow.

An athlete once said optimistically, "If children can watch a high-quality game at home, maybe in 15 or 2 years, they will be the one standing in the ice rink." At this moment, among the children dancing on the ice, will there be the next Han Cong and Sui Wenjing standing on the Olympic podium?

However, it is not easy to train a flower skater.

2. How much does Hua Hua burn?

On February 1th, the Capital Gymnasium ushered in the eye-catching battle of the Beijing Winter Olympics. At the beginning of the men's freestyle single skating competition in figure skating, Yuzuru Hanyu jumped around Axel, the highest limit of mankind, to the music of "With Heaven and Earth". Although he fell off the ice, his attitude of constantly challenging himself won him more applause.

The day after the competition, facing the cold wind of Beijing's winter, at 7: a.m., before a shopping mall in Haidian District opened, Lin Ying waited at the elevator door of the mall with her ten-year-old daughter Jingjing. They are one of the earliest customers in this shopping mall every day, in order to start an hour and a half flower skating course at the ice rink here.

Six years ago, Jingjing watched a Disney show on ice and told her mother that she wanted to learn skating. So she got a pair of blue skates as a gift for her fourth birthday. Wearing a skirt covered with rhinestones, standing in the white ice rink and dancing, this is the highlight moment that my daughter yearns for.

for the arrival of this moment, parents have invested regardless of the cost. But most people don't expect their children to take the road of vocational training.

Lin Ying has calculated an account. The price of one-to-many private lessons per class is 33 yuan, and each class is only 3 minutes. Generally, children spend one and a half hours on the ice every day, and the light class fee is nearly 1, yuan a day. Usually, children come four times a week, and they come to training every day in winter and summer vacations, which is four or five thousand yuan a week. This does not include the children's land lessons and dance lessons. This year, Lin Ying bought another 3, yuan prepaid card here.

Jingjing is now trying to conquer Axel's two-and-a-half-week jump, which is nicknamed "Million Jump" in the industry, meaning that it will cost at least one million yuan from the start to the completion of two-and-a-half weeks.

in addition to expensive class fees, equipment is also a consumption. It costs one or two thousand yuan to buy a daily training suit. If you take part in the competition and grade examination, you need to customize the competition suit according to the performance. At first, Lin Ying bought it on Taobao. Later, she went to a professional flower-slip clothing studio for customization, and the cost rose to about 4, yuan. Jingjing had five or six pieces of clothes like this.

A blue dress recently made to order is a copy of the same model of Russian flower-skating star Kbao. It is filled with Swarovski rhinestones and made of the lightest yarn. This is Jingjing's favorite performance dress, which is only worn in major competitions.

A perfect flower-skating performance must be blessed with beautiful clothes full of rhinestones. The expensiveness of floral slip clothing is closely related to the design difficulty and material. The clothing itself is an interpretation of the performance connotation, and every detail such as size and material affects the players' play. The most expensive clothing made by Yu Sheng Jie Xuan's royal designer is worth about 3, RMB.

besides clothes, you should also buy skates. Flower skating is a kind of childlike skill. Most children start to learn from kindergarten. With the continuous development of their bodies, skates are basically changed every year. Jingjing has five pairs of skates, and the most expensive pair cost more than 1, yuan.

After learning a certain degree, you must constantly take the grade test and participate in competitions. After five years, Jingjing has learned Grade 7 and participated in five domestic and international competitions. Every time a foreign competition takes place, parents have to pay for the coach's accommodation and transportation, as well as special dance choreography expenses. According to the price list of Chaoyang Joy City Champion Ice rink, a new program is arranged to participate in the competition, ranging from children's group to adult group, with the cost ranging from 15 yuan to 6 yuan.

As we all know, flower skating not only burns money, but also costs parents. Parents spend a lot of time and energy, which is the necessity of "Ice Baby". Lin Ying is a full-time mother who can accompany her daughter to learn flower skating wholeheartedly. She is a driver, logistics support and psychologist on her daughter's slippery road. In the "ice baby" family like Jingjing, there are many stay-at-home mothers like Lin Ying.

flower slip is recognized as difficult to learn. Every jump means tens of thousands of falls. Jingjing's knees are bruised all the year round, and it is common to break the skin. She would cry out for pain, but she never wanted to give up. She likes this feeling, putting on skates, just like a flying bird. Every time you successfully unlock a new action, the sense of accomplishment is unparalleled.

Behind these are regular studies that can't be interrupted. Flower skating training pays attention to muscle memory. Once classes are suspended, the level will drop, and the previous hard work will be wasted.

What makes Lin Ying feel gratified is the change that Hua Slippery has brought to Jingjing, and the hard training has exercised her willpower and anti-frustration ability. Ten-year-old Jingjing has passed Grade 7 and won the championship in a national club league.

3. Two major problems behind the high cost

The cost of flower slip constitutes a huge threshold. Even for families with considerable economic income, they need to measure again and again before they dare to invest.

Swallow, who is studying at the Champion Ice rink, is just 8 years old this year. She has been in the skating school for one year and has passed the second grade. Mom usually needs to go to work and can only practice with her children after work. In this ice rink, flower skating courses are usually bought from 1 classes, and the cost is between 1,8 yuan and 3, yuan depending on the level of coaches. It is calculated that each class will cost 36 yuan. Two or three times a week of training, it is difficult for children to have a better breakthrough. Mother Swallow believes that it is the high class fees that limit the amount of training for children.

Mother Swallow is puzzled. "Compared with children who start to learn at the age of four or five, my daughter is not dominant in age. If I continue to go to school, it means spending more money and longer time. Even if I devote everything, can I guarantee that my child will not give up halfway? You can only take one step at a time. "

Yu Fei, CEO of Wanyu Fangfei, told Leopard Change that the high cost of flower skating is inseparable from the huge investment in the ice rink. Ice rink is an industry that emphasizes assets and cash flow. It needs continuous investment, and venue and coach fees account for the bulk of the rink expenditure.

It is understood that the capital investment of a newly-built ice rink is more than 1 million yuan, and since most commercial ice rinks are indoors, it is basically anti-season ice making in winter and summer, and the annual electricity bill of a standard ice rink is more than 2 million yuan, which makes the investment return period of ice rink very long.

At present, many ice training institutions choose to rent or rebuild the ice rink to reduce expenses. However, even if it is leased, it is not a small investment. According to a person in charge of an ice rink organization, the rent of an ice rink located on the fourth ring road in Beijing is as high as 5 million.

Yu Fei said frankly, "At present, there are two main factors that restrict the development of ice rink. First, the venue is extremely scarce, and it is difficult to find a compliant physical education land in the city. Second, the growth rate of coaches is far behind the market demand. This is also one of the reasons why the price of flower slip remains high. "

In a report released by the Beijing Winter Olympics Organizing Committee, by the beginning of 221, there were 654 standard ice rinks in China, an increase of 317% compared with 215. Although the growth rate is extremely fast, the average number of such standard ice rinks is still scarce in every city.

Especially in the south, there is no city with more than 1 ice rinks at present.

After the Beijing Winter Olympics, the demand for ice training in the southern market surged, but the speed of ice rink construction was far behind. In Wanyu Fangfei's next plan, the focus of market expansion is Shanghai, Hangzhou and Chongqing. Yu Fei believes that these three cities have great market potential and few ice rinks. There are 5 ice training institutions in Beijing, and the market space is saturated. "The future of ice training is in the south."

"The most inconvenient thing to learn flower skating in Guangzhou is the venue." The mother of a flower skating girl told Leopard Change that the ice rinks in Guangzhou are all commercial, with small venues and many individual guests. It is often necessary to block a part of the ice rink for the ice hockey team. The only big ice rink has poor ice quality. The most obvious example is that when my daughter went out to take the grade exam, she found that the children in Guangzhou obviously skated much slower, and they couldn't skate at the big ice rink.

Because there are too many individual guests in the ice rink, children often find a person slipping by when they want to take off, and they have to start the newly prepared action again. Sometimes I can't find a place to take off after five or six laps. During the epidemic, the grading test was changed to an online test. The mother could only take her children to Shenzhen to find a video of the ice rink. "I especially hope that Guangzhou can have a standard venue to attract more professional coaches to join."

professional coaches are also scarce. According to a report of "Research on Going to Sea in Yuanchuan", there are only more than 4 coaches with professional team background in figure skating, but there are 7 ice rinks. The extreme scarcity of coaches also makes the training price slippery.