Never Evers

Teaching the First Timers

By Clark Williams

 What motivates people to come out and give skiing a try is as varied as the people themselves. One of the most frequent reasons is the desire to be with someone that already skis. Be it a S.O. or offspring or just friends, whoever it is they are important enough for the never-evers to be here, usually with more then a modicum of trepidation, and you have one hour to make them lifetime skiers. As an instructor, often the first thing you have to help these folks learn is to conquer that trepidation, also known as fear, so that they can move on to the fun stuff. That fear seems to be the result of natural instinct. Instinct is a good thing that runs through all of us and helps keep us from doing real stupid things like falling down hill. The concept that sliding downhill for fun is something that fades from our consciousness early in life, at least for most people. Somewhere during the lesson you have to get your students to cross that line from fear to thrill.  If you can do that they will have fun and you will have done most of your job.

One of the most motivated of these folks is the mother with skiing children. Skiing is probably a significant portion of the kid’s life and she wants to be a part of that. She doesn’t need to know how to do inverteds in the park, just feel comfortable enough to get to the park so she can watch the fruit of her loins hurling themselves off all sorts of manmade obstacles. On second thought maybe you should suggest that the whole family meet somewhere else. In order to help her to cross that fear/thrill line you have to deal with that instinct thing. Mothers have spent a lot of time and effort keeping their little charges from doing things that defy logic as well as instinct, such as jumping off the garage with a towel tied around their neck. I never got to try that, my mother was too quick. Every time I went for the ladder she beat me to it, I had to settle for the coffee table, not much of a thrill. Dealing with that comfort level thing is a delicate process, because you often have to get people to cross that line before they can move forward. Basically it requires equal measures of trust and motivation. Like I said above everybody comes with their own motivation that can be fueled, but you have to develop their trust in you. One way to do that is to keep the dialogue flowing, providing lots of feedback and encouragement.The high school jock may be used to being yelled at for motivation, but moms not so much. Let her tell you how she is feeling, but don’t let it stop the flow of the lesson. You have to be the teacher, keep things moving so there isn’t that much time to worry. Asking her how she feels, is she warm, how are her boots fitting etc. are all good ways to keep the dialogue flowing without telling her that the grip she has on her poles is probably going to reshape the handles. If you could see through her gloves you would see her very white knuckles. That kind of tension makes if difficult to do anything, such as learning, staying warm and having fun. A little distracting dialogue while she is concentrating on a not so risky task (although she may not see it that way) could make it all the easier for her. Help her keep her eye on the prize, skiing with her family.

The first chairlift ride can be a trying time for newbies, time to think and catch their breath and worry about where the lift is going to end and how to get off once it does. Anyone who has seen Warren Miller’s movies knows what it’s like for first timers to deal with exiting their first lift ride. With a little instruction and encouragement you can keep the flailing to a minimum and alleviate one of the more daunting tasks filling your student’s busy mind. That along with visions of horrible collisions with various objects such as lift towers, other skiers, the ground and of course the instructor. Although instructors seem to develop a strong instinct for these sort of issues. I think it is a Darwinian thing. Steering your charge away from immovable, and sometimes breakable objects (read, Instructor) is a valuable skill. Sometime it is as simple as getting your student to look in the direction of the turn, or where they want to go (no I don’t mean into the nice warm lodge).Other times it’s a grab and yank sort of thing, which requires great tact, (careful what you grab and yank) most of the time they will be grateful for the intervention. If it does come to the grab/yank try to keep it light, with a smile or laugh and keep the lesson moving. Sometimes the less time to ponder the better. There are several common things first timers do that can hamper their learning. Whether you’re teaching the short ski method, or the wedge method almost every first timer will spend a great deal of time looking down at the tips of their skis. Just like when you first learned to drive a car, looking down the hood and trying to line it up with the shoulder of the road. For this you can do things like skiing in front of them (forward or backward) tell them to try to follow you. They will have to look up at least some of the time to see where you are. Another trend is the one turn run. They have managed one turn or should I say half a turn and are now heading straight down the fall line. For this the grab/yank technique is useful, but be sure to explain what happened and why. This is a good opportunity to emphasize the importance of controlling speed through turn shape. One of the first things beginning skiers want to know is how to stop. This is the time to reinforce the turn shape issue, which will also motivate them to master the turn. Once they can turn right and left well enough to ski to a stop they’re off and running.