Horse riding, ice skating and dancing for a 12 year old in Zurich...

Sports and Hobbies
1
Yes, my little 12 year old girl has expensive tastes.

Ideally she would like to do street dancing (apparently , you don't do this in our street ) and wondered if someone knew of an English speaking instructor in and around Zurich.

Same for ice skating...Same for Horse riding. (I would want her to learn the full stable management and grooming work too)

We are in the 8008 area, and she would have to travel unaccompanied.

All tips/advice gratefully received.

2
Ice skating is seasonal - Dolder Ice Rink has lessons on Wednesday afternoons (sport day) and I was told it's maybe 200-300 chf for the 'season'. She'd have to learn how to get there on public transport on the Dolder Bahn from Romerhof, or I think there is a bus... it's seasonal, so you'll have to wait until the winter...

Horseriding I am sure there are lots around the edges of Zurich, but our daughter is going to try a beginner week in the Easter holidays at Sood-Oberleimbach. It's from 9-12 each morning, and the lessons cost 320chf for the week I think... it's cheaper than the weekly group or private lessons.

We got gear from friendly EF members, and the only thing she needs to get started is some decent shoes...

Street Dancing, I don't know, but the kids at our school are doing 'Hip Hop' - is that the same thing ? It seems to be trendy, I can ask my husband and daughter to find out from the kids at school...

I don't know about lessons in English, but we've pretty much found that there's always at least one person who has enough English to communicate the essentials, and otherwise, the kids learn very quickly...

Is your daughter going to the local school or an english-speaking school ? I am sure her school community would have better contacts (and the locals seem to know where to get things much cheaper than the 'expats')...

3
Sorry, can't help on street dancing, but would be glad to provide info on other aspects of dancing.

For ice skating, is the girl already a skater? If so, has she been training competitively? If competitive figure or syncronized skating is what you are look for, than you will find Zurich very dissapointing. There is a seasonal outdoor rink at the Dolder and there are instructors there who provide private lessons. There is also at least one syncronized skating team that practices there. However, the ice condition is pretty pathetic (well, imagine a very thin layer of ice not entirely even and being outdoor!). It's far from away from being ideal for any type of figure skating training. Depending on what she's looking for, she might need to travel furhter outside of Zurich to have a suitable indoor ice rink. Of course, if she's just looking for occasional recreating skating, then Dodler might serve the purpose.

4
not sure if you all have the same thing in zurich, but here in lausanne we have something called 'sport passion' for all the school kids. basically you sign them up, it's free (except for certain sports like skiing, kayaking, etc) and beginning in sept they try a new sport on wednesdays for about 5 weeks and then switch to the next one. of course it's in the language of the area (german for you) but it gives the kids a chance to try different sports and see what they like and don't like after a good amount of time for each sport.

i know it's not exactly what you are looking for, but it may be a good experience if it is offered near you.

5
One good thing about the Swiss is that they value sport for kids (and adults). Kidswise, suggest you go here http://www.stadt-zuerich.ch/ssd/de/i...rienkurse.html , you may still be within deadline for the summer semester.

I have sent my 10 year old who spoke little german to a course right at the beginning of our stay and was quite happy, we now receive the brochure every semester and pick a couple of sports sessions every time. Cheap, cheerful, opportunity to learn some german.

Not the US model , of course (all organized via schools OR private tutors/courses over there, as I experienced)

I hope this helps.

6
Thanks, but am really looking for weekly lessons. I might well enroll her in one of the courses below though. Thanks for the link.

7
there are plenty of horse riding stables around Oetwil am See and/or Greifensee...probably to far off for you/her though

8
Zurich has "Schulsport". This classes run for one semester (or more) and training is once a week. You pay nothing or else very little. I did a lot of those when I was little (Judo, swimming, athletics, rowing etc.). I loved it! They are usually run by the "Verein" and their instructors and you can afterwards switch to that "Verein" if you have found something that you want to practise more than once a week. You are actually just in time for the registration for the summer (deadline for registration is 21 of March)!

The classes can be found in the attached pdf http://www.stadt-zuerich.ch/content/...20Sommer11.pdf and registration has to be done with this pdf http://www.stadt-zuerich.ch/content/...20Sommer11.pdf

Regarding horse riding there is a class (Feriensportkurs) that lasts one week (every day) for beginners where they also learn how to handle horses, clean them etc. It's in the pdf for Ferienkurse http://www.stadt-zuerich.ch/content/...ruehling11.pdf

and you should be looking at

Umgang mit dem Pferd.

There is also a class for Street dance

eine Choreografie zu mitreissender Musik ein. Zusammen wollen wir Spass haben und Fortschritte erzielen.

Let me know by PM if you need help with German!