Ski Lessons, Need advice

Mekka wrote:If mine had used the word great I would have had to realise he wasn't the nice old man I thought he was! :lol:

:D :D

The last one I had, I'll be going back to so he can get me off piste. I do agree that some instructors are better than others, my 1st spent most of the lesson chatting up the ladeez 8). But the ones after were just awesome! Gave me the confidence to go skiing on my own and to do Black runs.

Then again, it's a two way street, learning anything requires effort and an Instructor can't make you into a better skier, he\she can only tell you where you're going wrong, offer encouragement when you're doing things right and keep you safe. The rest really is up to the learner :)

sm4sh wrote:Iv just been having a look at the ski lessons package that iv got when i go away. They are just standard group lessons. 4 hours a day for 6 days.
I was suprised as i was only expecting a couple of hours per day.
Hope i pick it up easy enough. i wanna be off with my mrs & mate exploring (and trying to ski) :D

What do you do in group lessons. In my head iv got it as a group of people moving up and down the same spot learning to stop and turn.
Do they take you down any of the beginner hills or anything? wouldnt really wanna do them same thing over and over for 6 days :shock:

Sm4sh,
If you're in the total beginner class the ski instructor has to spend time teaching people how to put their skis on and hold their poles etc. And then how to walk around in skis (in a big circle when I did it 40 years ago). After that they usually find a very gentle slope only a few yards long and show people how to ski straight down it, one at a time. At this point a lot of people fall over (sometimes the whole group like dominoes if they're standing close to each other) and the poor instructor has to explain how to get up without taking your skis off. Eventually they get around to showing you how to stop and steer. If everyone manages that okay they progress on to learning how to use the drag lift - which is quite difficult - and lots of people fall off it and miss it etc.

Depending on how fast the group learn, after a couple of days of this sort of thing on the flat and the nursery slopes the instructor may take the group up the mountain on a chair lift (more instruction about how to use this) and down an easy blue run.

I have heard of beginner groups going down a black run at the end of their first week, but I should think most groups don't get further than a blue or possibly easy red.

Falling over all the time and trying to get up is totally knackering, and plenty of people start complaining about the pain in their legs and arms. That's why it's so important to do ski exercises before you go.

It is a really good laugh - especially if you get a fun instructor who does things like make you touch your 'head shoulders knees and toes' while ski-ing down a gentle slope.

But if you learn how to ski on a dry slope/snow dome before you go, you can miss out on the nursery slope and learning how to walk on the flat stage and go straight on to the drag lift and greens/easy blues and then up the mountain. At this point you usually all follow the instructor in a line making 'S' shape snow-plough turns, and then when he/she wants to teach you something new they show you how to do it and then make you do it one by one so that they can give you individual advice.

Some people learn really fast, and others are pretty slow, so some people sometimes get promoted up to a higher group.

Ally

Dmiff wrote:I wonder if someone can help me.
Last year I went on my first ever ski holiday (age 33) and now I have the bug.

I've completed a weeks ski school in Switzerland and I suppose I'd say I'm a very early intermediate, I can control my speed on basic slopes, do snow plough turns and very basic parallel turns.

I have four night so three days skiing booked this month in Sestriere and I'm not sure how best to use that time. A bit of ski school/Half days Private instructor/Full days private instructor, every day or just some of the days, Practice with more experienced friends etc.

My girlfriend who I'm going with is embarrassing good and has offered to spend time helping me on the slopes.

I'd like to learn as much as I can in these three days.

Any advice appreciated.


So have a private lesson each morning and then spend the afternoons practising what I've been taught?

You've already completed a week of group ski school. I'd never recommend a first timer get private lessons - they're just too expensive for such a short space of time, and you need to know you're safe for the remainder while you're unsupervised.

If you have the cash, the idea of private morning lessons and practising in the p.m. sounds ideal to me. You get the more intense tuition, tailored to your needs within the short space of time you have available. In a group ski school over three days you may not see much of a difference.

Practise with friends is fine, but bear in mind that they will have become desensitised to steeper slopes etc, and personally I question others judgement in deciding what I am capable of (and not). Being taken to slopes I was not ready for completely trashed my confidence at one point, and is a bad idea for many other reasons too. On the other hand, if you have done a run with an instructor in the morning you will already know you are safe on it. At the end of the lesson, mine would also say if he thought I shouldn't go down specific ones on my own later and why e.g. because the snow was changing, or simply because he had taken me down an specific route and didn't want me to find myself out of my depth on my own. He'd suggest runs to practise on for the afternoon and what skills to practise.

To give a balance view of group lessons though, they do put you in the group most suited to your skills, and don't hold you stagnant doing the same stuff all the time. My instructor's group did loads of different stuff throughout the week - from balance practise by skiing on one ski to going off piste for their last afternoon.