Ski turn initiation, Sliding or carving

ofc ski lessons give a boost in skill;some don't take lessons (or enough lessons) because they can't afford to

iiimmm wrote:ofc ski lessons give a boost in skill;some don't take lessons (or enough lessons) because they can't afford to

Then you are a danger to yourself and others 8)

I don't think lessons always help. Sometimes they can even make you worse - it depends on the teacher.

I had lessons last week, two group lessons each day with a different instructor and group. I found my morning instructor very confusing - I don't think any of us really understood what he was talking about, and he was very critical. He never said when we'd improved, he just started criticizing us for something else, and we were left wondering whether we'd actually fixed the problem or whether he'd just got bored going on about it. The only way I profited from the lessons was by ski-ing in the group following the instructor, not from anything he said. But I nearly had a crisis of confidence at one point and felt like going back to the beginners classes (these were advanced performance lessons), or just missing his lessons.

My afternoon instructor, however, was really good. He soon picked up on what I was bad at and made me work on my problems all week and I ski much better now, thanks to him. And my afternoon instructor couldn't speak any English (I was ski-ing in the French ski class) and I have only limited French, yet he knew what I meant, and he helped me lots with my ski-ing.

As far as learning techniques go, it seems that I do very well with the relaxed, jokey sort of instructors (my afternoon one) and very badly with the critical over-serious sort (my morning one) who kept testing us and made me nervous and my ski-ing completely went to pieces. I need to be relaxed, feel safe, and ski in a friendly sort of atmosphere in order to ski well and learn.

I also think it helps me a great deal if I understand the theory before I have the lesson, because then I know what it is that the instructors are trying to teach me - otherwise expressions like 'relax the legs', 'feel the snow' etc. don't really mean much to me.

Ally

AllyG wrote:I don't think lessons always help. Sometimes they can even make you worse - it depends on the teacher.

I had lessons last week, two group lessons each day with a different instructor and group. I found my morning instructor very confusing - I don't think any of us really understood what he was talking about, and he was very critical. He never said when we'd improved, he just started criticizing us for something else, and we were left wondering whether we'd actually fixed the problem or whether he'd just got bored going on about it. The only way I profited from the lessons was by ski-ing in the group following the instructor, not from anything he said. But I nearly had a crisis of confidence at one point and felt like going back to the beginners classes (these were advanced performance lessons), or just missing his lessons.

My afternoon instructor, however, was really good. He soon picked up on what I was bad at and made me work on my problems all week and I ski much better now, thanks to him. And my afternoon instructor couldn't speak any English (I was ski-ing in the French ski class) and I have only limited French, yet he knew what I meant, and he helped me lots with my ski-ing.

As far as learning techniques go, it seems that I do very well with the relaxed, jokey sort of instructors (my afternoon one) and very badly with the critical over-serious sort (my morning one) who kept testing us and made me nervous and my ski-ing completely went to pieces. I need to be relaxed, feel safe, and ski in a friendly sort of atmosphere in order to ski well and learn.

I also think it helps me a great deal if I understand the theory before I have the lesson, because then I know what it is that the instructors are trying to teach me - otherwise expressions like 'relax the legs', 'feel the snow' etc. don't really mean much to me.

Ally

Always book a female instructor in my experience they make the best instructors :wink:

Ian Wickham wrote:

Always book a female instructor in my experience they make the best instructors :wink:

On that we do agree

trencher

Ian,
With group lessons I don't think there is any choice of instructor (unless of course there are two identical groups). As it was they had amalgamated several of the performance groups together because they didn't have enough people for each group, so that although I was supposed to be in a slalom lesson and my daughter in an off piste lesson, we were in the same lesson with 3 French people who'd been put into the English speaking lesson, plus several other English people.

Ally

Trencher wrote:

Ian Wickham wrote:

Always book a female instructor in my experience they make the best instructors :wink:

On that we do agree

trencher

Bloody hell my son ...... I'm going for a lay down in a darkened room :lol:

AllyG wrote:Ian,
With group lessons I don't think there is any choice of instructor (unless of course there are two identical groups). As it was they had amalgamated several of the performance groups together because they didn't have enough people for each group, so that although I was supposed to be in a slalom lesson and my daughter in an off piste lesson, we were in the same lesson with 3 French people who'd been put into the English speaking lesson, plus several other English people.

Ally

I take your point ...... but demand Ally you're paying your hard earned cash, get the best, on one occasion many years ago my wife was put into a higher class to me, I don't know to this day how she managed it :wink: but she did, within two days she dropped down because my Instructor "Female" was top draw, and she also had her own hip flask which contained her Grandfather's home made Genepi. :lol: