Group Ski Lessons

An insiders's view of what's involved with running group ski lessons

By Clark Williams

"It can go smoothly or it can be as effective as herding cats.  How do you decide who goes in which group? "

Skiing is expensive. Throw a lesson on top of it all and you’re spending a bunch of bucks. Private lessons can run you more then your lift ticket, that’s why group lessons are a popular alternative. However group lessons are not without their challenges. One of the most significant factors here is the fact that skiers are rather individualistic. They come in all sizes, ages, genders, athletic abilities etc. They also have different reasons for taking lessons. Obviously most want to become better skiers, however many are young kids that are shanghaied by their parents and forced into an hour and a half lesson so that the parents can go do whatever they can do in an hour and a half (I really don’t want to know what that is. I just let myself believe that it has something to do with skiing).

Organizing lessons at lineup time can be a rather hectic process especially on a very busy holiday weekend. There are people showing up in all states from the eager, to the very nervous, to the crying, and that can be just one student or many instructors. At my mountain we have different gathering locations for different skill levels. From beginner to expert (there are very few expert and those few are usually not experts, but at lineup we have to go by what the student says). They all have to be sorted out in about 10 minutes and sent on their way. Usually the groups are not very large and we try to keep them to eight or less, but this isn’t always possible. I have heard stories about a semi-unexpected busload of people showing up with some deal that gets them a rental, a lift ticket, and a lesson. Surprise.  Instructors can be fairly creative when it comes to lesson planning, but when you have 20 or more beginners (never-evers) lined up on the side of the beginners trail you as well as everybody else, are going to have a very long 1 ½ hour lesson.

Every lineup rendezvous spot has a supervisor (person with a clipboard), and it is their job to gather up all the students and instructors, match them up and get them on their way quickly, so that no one is complaining about not getting their full lesson time (it goes without saying that the instructors rarely complain about not getting the full lesson time). There are a few rules (more like guidelines (OK there are some really vague concepts)) for creating a group, one of the major criteria is age, or lack thereof. Kids generally do better with other kids, however there is a limit as to the age spread. You can’t put the precious 5 year old in with the soon to be hormonally challenged 13 year old.  No one will be happy there. It should be noted that 75% to 85% of students are 14 years of age or younger so the grouping can get tricky. The age thing can also be a factor for the big people as well, it’s just not as easy to tell their age and you certainly can’t ask. As far as gender goes,  like kind seems to work best, not that you can’t mix it up, but sometimes if they are strangers it can end up being distracting. As much as the supervisors like to make groups functional, they still have to work with what shows up. Sometimes it’s a gazillion guests and 2 ½ instructors, and two of those showed up late from their previous lesson, that’s when things get creative. If you end up with a group with an age spread of 13 to undisclosed you can have a challenging hour and a half. I should mention here that it is possible to have a good lesson with a very diverse group if they are all there because of their love of skiing and/or they just want to have fun. 

If they are there because their boyfriend/girlfriend, soon to be ex-husband, entire family, buddies, or some sort of social club, wants them to try skiing, it can be another matter.

So here you are with an eclectic group of 6 or more (sometimes many more) and you have to keep them happy and learning for the next 1 ½ hours. The first thing you have to do after the introductions and the schmoozing is to assess everybody's skiing. This is so that you can find a common basis for a lesson. You want everybody to learn something useful, as well as have a good time while learning. The tried and true way of doing this is to have a “ski off”. That is, to have everyone ski one at a time from a point up the mountain down to the instructor, so that he/she can evaluate their ski style (or lack thereof). Nobody likes doing this. I can tell you from my days as a student as well as the time I spend in training clinics, this is a nerve wracking and not necessarily accurate method. First of all there is the pressure of doing your best in about 2 ½ turns in front of everybody else, and then you get to watch the rest of the group make your skiing look like something a chicken with a broken leg would do. This is supposed to be fun. However given the constraints of time the “ski off” is standard practice. After everybody has done their 2 ½ turns you now must come up with something that will improve everybody’s skiing. The exercises for this must be something that they can all do, despite the fact that two of them are just doing power wedges one almost went into the woods and another one looks as terrified as a virgin about to be thrown into a volcano. You also don’t want anyone to feel like a complete klutz and as I said before it should be fun.  Not an insignificant challenge. You start this off by first saying nice things about everybody’s skiing and then you make a suggestion that might make their skiing better and therefore more fun. Once you have explained the exercise you have to demonstrate it. If you screw up the demo two things might happen; first they may be so confused they really don’t have any idea what they are supposed to be doing, or they will laugh and point, at which time you will have lost all credibility. You can try laughing it off or say things like “that’s the way not to do it” but most skiers are not dumb (snowboarders are another story) so you make the best of it or try another exercise. I have spent a lot of time with group lessons as both a student and as an instructor, despite all the challenges they can be productive for most students, especially if they really want to learn, and the cost is significantly less then a private lesson. And they can be a lot of fun.