Signs that your next lesson is going to be a hard one

[Monique]

Couch potatoes? An instructor told me he sometimes gets a teen who obviously never ever exercised. The kid's parents expect the instructor to have their offspring perform because ... well. They are paying good money for the private lesson.

I think a lot of people strangely believe that skiing isn't physical because it's downhill ...

 

[LiquidFeet]

It's going to be a difficult lesson...
when you are introducing the concept of uphill ski and downhill ski....
and you ask the students in your never-ever group of adults which way is uphill....
and one of them says "How can you tell, it's all so white?"

 

[Monique]

and you ask the students in your never-ever group of adults which way is uphill....
and one of them says "How can you tell, it's all so white?"

To be fair, on a bunny hill, it IS hard to tell which way is uphill!

 

[LiquidFeet]

It's going to be a difficult lesson when you introduce upper-lower body separation with skis off to a group of people who ski square and bank their turns...
and one student who is having difficulty doing bowties and walking with toes pointing to the side while upper body faces more downhill...
says with anger and frustration "My last instructor told me to relax and stop thinking, and my skiing improved."

 

[LiquidFeet]

It's going to be a difficult lesson when you are working with a cautious intermediate to get her out of the waaay-baack seat...
and she says that in the past when she has gotten her weight "forward" over the fronts of her skis she goes faster, loses control, and falls.

 

[LiquidFeet]

It's going to be a difficult lesson when you are told you have a 2-hour private with a 4 year old....
and this 4 year old has never skied...
the parents are skiers and want to ski with their son after the lesson...
and as the first 20m minutes goes by you realize this kid is very, very attention deficit...
100 more minutes to go.

 

[LiquidFeet]

It's going to be a difficult lesson when your 16 year old student (Emily) in a private 1 hour lesson...
which is supposed to help her gain control over her turns (according to Mom)...
stops in the middle of the trail on your first run down the bunny hill, sits down on the snow...
and repeats over and over very loudly, wailing, "I want my Mommy, I want my Mommy, I want my Mommy."

Would someone start a thread about how you know it's going to be a good lesson now?

 

[Tricia]

When she shows up in a Birka and her husband won't leave her side,

 

[Carl Kuck]

Oh you meant for the instructor. I was actually going to you for starting a thread on vice-versa.

When your instructor is a DECL (division education clinic leader) and you know you're just going to get worked... (Not that that's a bad thing, IMO...)

 

[T-Square]

When you take a break with the never ever little girl who has

• flatly stated she wants to be back at the hotel swimming
• has already thrown a full blown throw yourself down on the snow kicking and screaming hissy fit
• has yelled at you screaming take these damn things off my feet

Then her dad walks up and says, "Are you scared yet?"

It was another hour and a half of pure hell.

Another instructor had her the next day and had even more problems. Later We both looked at the ski school director and told her if that kid came back next year we refused to take her.

 

[Erik Timmerman]

When she shows up in a Birka and her husband won't leave her side,

I had one like that except that it wasn't their husbands it was their minders who followed us everywhere on foot.

 

[Philpug]

To be fair, on a bunny hill, it IS hard to tell which way is uphill!

Not to a never ever. I remember my first time on a snowboard, I was quickly reminded how steep a green trail was.

 

[Monique]

Not to a never ever. I remember my first time on a snowboard, I was quickly reminded how steep a green trail was.

Yeah, that's true. I rode up the lift over very flat beginner territory with a group of boarders who'd just started that day and taken a lesson. They were saying, wow, can you believe we got down that?? It was cool seeing them so excited. Hooked!

 

[Jilly]

Not to a never ever. I remember my first time on a snowboard, I was quickly reminded how steep a green trail was.

Been there done that too! I really thought I was going to be hood ornament on the cars parked up against the slope. I have a lesson tonight with my dragonboat team captain. This should be fun. Her BF wants her to learn how to ski.

 

[mdf]

The first time I skied the trees in Honeycomb Canyon at Solitude down to the valley floor return trail, I did not have a very good mental map of the area. I had to pull out my GPS to figure out which way to go on the trail to get back to the base.

 

[bbinder]

When she shows up in a Birka and her husband won't leave her side,

and their bodyguard has an uzi

 

[surfsnowgirl]

When you have a bunch of first timer adults that seem to have no core strength whatsoever and keep falling down like Agador in the Birdcage

 

[David Chaus]

When you have a big heavy never-ever kid, who after week 6 still has no core strength, cannot get himself off the snow and keeps falling down. I think I hurt my back a little working with him, and I had to split my class and hand the other kids over to another instructor to work with him.

 

[Erik Timmerman]

It's going to be a difficult lesson when your 16 year old student (Emily) in a private 1 hour lesson...
which is supposed to help her gain control over her turns (according to Mom)...
stops in the middle of the trail on your first run down the bunny hill, sits down on the snow...
and repeats over and over very loudly, wailing, "I want my Mommy, I want my Mommy, I want my Mommy."

Would someone start a thread about how you know it's going to be a good lesson now?

10 years ago she would probably have been delivered in a stroller. Or has she outgrown that yet.

Hey guys, not looking to be mean-spirited or a downer. I was thinking of a "You Might Be a Redneck" type list. If we didn't like this, we wouldn't be doing it.

 

[surfsnowgirl]

It's true I love, love, love doing this but 2 weeks ago I was put in as a fill in for the adventurers all day little kids and it almost did me in. This is my second year as an instructor so I'm still learning and know there will always be good and bad days. However, I still remember how I felt when I went over to pick up the kids for my assignment and I asked how long 90 minutes (usual lesson duration) and Leonce's response was no all day. Insert psycho theme music during the shower scene. It actually was ok and there were many highlights but there were some low points too. Grateful they give us assistants to help with the taking off/putting on jackets, bathroom breaks and that kind of stuff but still. Waahh. I am grateful that I made it all this time without getting this assignment and I was merely a fill in but still it made for a challenging day.

Now please may I go back to my regularly scheduled programming of 1, 2 or 3 hour private lessons with the occasional 90 minute group lesson mixed in.