St Anton - Group v Private lessons / Instructor recommendations

A snowHead

Hi, apologies if this has been asked many times before, sure it has but couldn't find it!.

I'm going to St Anton end of the month and have been looking at lessons. I recently did a plough to parallel day course at the MK indoor and also been to my local dry slop coaching sessions and would say my standard is at ‘level 5’.

In resort a '2 hour private lesson' and the '3 day morning (4 hour a day) group ski school' are about the same price. Any advice or view on which would be better or the pros and cons ?

Thanks!

A snowHead

I think you'd learn more by spending more time in front of a good instructor. However, more time in front of a poor instructor is more hours of wasted opportunity. Private lessons are good for working on one thing, group lessons are better for all round development, unless you can afford the same amount of time in a private lesson as you can in a group.

Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?

I'm with @rob@rar on this one. If you have a particular issue what needs looking at, then a private session would be better, otherwise go for the group lessons. The ski school should also take you on the runs/pistes that are appropriate for your ability and this is an excellent way of finding where those runs are...

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We've just come back from a trip, my wife is a blue run skier happy to potter down the mountain but has not improved in the last few years.The previous few trips before this one she always had group lessons and found herself struggling to keep up in one group but not really learning anything in the group below. This trip she decided to have 3 2hr private lessons and it made the world of difference, having someone who actually concentrates on her weaknesses and then work on the drills to improve has made a massive difference, by the 3rd day she was skiing red runs for the first time without having a nervous breakdown and for the following few days was much happier on the mountain.

Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.

My experience is that 2 hours of private equals more development than a day in a group. Private means every moment focused on your skiing and your specific needs. For every 60 minutes you spend in a group lesson, you probably benefit from about 10 of those minutes. The other 50 minutes are spent waiting while everyone else takes their turn trying each exercise or while some numpty has fallen over, or practicing things that you have already mastered.

Either option can lump you with a bad instructor, but with a group, you have no control over which instructor you get. With private, you can get recommendations and specify who you get.

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My experience: in the early days, group lessons are great. Lots of supervised time, someone to navigate appropriate terrain for you and a peer group to share the experience with. In the middle, private lessons are great. You know you have specific things holding you back which you need help on, but the rest of the time you can safely practice unsupervised. Later on, group lessons become great again. Each marginal improvement is hard-won and you're no longer making dramatic progress within a single lesson. You know what you're supposed to be doing but you need an external view to coach you into getting that consistently. Spending extended time in a group of your peers (this is the hard bit ime) under the supervision of the right instructor/coach helps you get better.

You absolutely can get control over who's instructing you in a group lesson but you need to put a bit of research in and potentially choose a trip specifically based upon the instruction available.

Then you can post your own questions or snow reports...

@francium., Good choice.

@Rusco, Group lessons may end up as a 'follow me' exercise without the necessary focus and time spent on specific individual weaknesses and specific drill exercises for individual improvement. Dialing back to the beginning/basics may be required for some individuals which clearly can't be accommodated in a group class or they'd be a riot!

If you have no legacy problems, group lessons can be a great way to generally improve, meet new people and enjoy your skiing. They definitely can put a purpose into your days skiing and you'll hopefully improve and have a good time on snow. It can be quite inspiring following / having an 'expert' around encouraging you!

If you do have a legacy ski problem - depending upon the issue as it could be bio-mechanical (stability / mobility), basic stance or even confidence issues etc, these conditions may need working on regularly and is probably unrealistic to expect / hope a private lesson to 'fix' there and then on the resort hill.

With so much expense and so much expectation of thrilling skiing when away, go in the best 'condition' you can. In other words, try to sort out 'legacy issues' at home first and be as consistent / persistent with remedial actions as possible for permanent / positive progress. snowHead

After all it is free

My wife and I were on our first ski holiday this Jan, we'd done a few day lessons at the chillfactore so could parallel turn but had never seen a mountain.

We did 3 x morning lessons with a great instructor and while we learned a lot there was a lot of hanging about with falls and one lad having issues with the lifts. The 4th day we had a private lesson with the same instructor and it was completely different, we went all over the place, down closed unpisted runs, learned how to carve and got my wife flying down a section that had given her trouble since a fall on the ice on the first day.

We're off for our second ski holiday at the end of March Twisted Evil

IMO Group lessons should ideally have 6 people.....8 at the very most....and unless the other people in the class are at a very similar standard and you have a decent, preferably native English speaking instructor, you are much better with a Private lesson/s.

*Ski* the Net with snowHeads

Not the best person to comment as I've only done one block of group lessons...however I would caveat the "you spend most the time by watching others". For me it was good to be able to watch others ski and listen to what the instructor was pointing out to them. It also taught me to look more at what people do right and wrong, then think about how I did it. But that partly depends on what level you're at, I was in a group of reasonable skiers who would have different strengths. When we were carving on piste I felt that I was holding my own, but when we were in bumps I recognised that everyone else was better, which gave me the motivation to improve. I think that if I'd been in private lessons I'd have been quicker to get downhearted that I couldn't succeed.

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Might be worth editing the thread title to include the resort if you are after recommendations from people. If you have only ever skied in a snowdome/on a dry slope and not on a mountain before, I'd be more inclined towards the group lessons as you would get to see more of the mountain and where to go than in a limited time private. Get in touch with some of the ski schools in St Anton, see what they offer.

You know it makes sense.

Private lessons excellent for concentrating on one particular thing - but they are very intensive. Lessons with a small group (up to about 6) of about the same standard are not only more sociable, but enable you to learn off others especially if the instructor is commenting as your friends come down. That means you should not be at the back of the group all the time - but a good instructor will normally see that the order is shuffled during the lessons, IME.

Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:

At the level you describe, I'd go for group lessons. Pretty much for the reasons achilles and Sitter state: more social, see more of the mountain, you might even find some ski buddies for the afternoons.

A snowHead

Group lessons.

A snowHead

Many thanks for the replies. I've also edited the title as suggested.

I have some limited resort sking experience but this was mostly 15+ years ago.

So it looks like group lessons are the favourite suggestion but both have their merits.

Help!!

St Anton - Group v Private lessons / Instructor recommendations

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