 Poster: A snowHead
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This isn't a question, it's an account of a recent experience.
4 of us recently spent a week in Sauze d'Oulx - 3 instructors and one not quite beginner. It was a holiday, so we were not there to instruct the beginner, she booked 3hrs x 5 days of group lessons to give the rest of us a chance to go and ski fast for some of each day.
On the first morning all the ski school students were sent to the top of a small slope and asked to ski down , even the complete beginners (which must have been terrifying!), after which they were all assigned to 1 of 4 groups. Our friend, J, had skied once 20 years ago, on a uni trip, and had a few dry slope lessons with us before this trip. She got assigned to the 3rd group, where she was definitely the least experienced, and the most experienced had done 9 holidays.
First day was ok, everyone was finding their legs, J was reasonably happy when we met up for lunch. Second day was a disaster - they'd moved onto red runs (not many blues in Sauze...), she was always last, and she was just in survival mode. Apparently the instructor just asked them to do something, and gave them no feedback at all. She also made no attempt to learn the names of the 8 students, who she was teaching all week. Skiing with J in the afternoon, we could see she had made absolutely no progress, and wasn't going to if she stayed in that group lesson.
J complained to our resort manager, who arranged for the balance of her group payment to be converted to private tuition. She then had private lessons for the rest of the week which were far more successful. She obviously also got a fair amount of tuition from us, but we were very aware that we didn't want to confuse her by potentially contradicting what her Italian instructor was asking her to do, especially since all our teaching has been done on dry slopes.
We were all appalled by the standard of the group tuition, and the fact that the instructor had made no effort to learn people's names - even if I've got a group of 8 people for just one session, I'll do my utmost to get their names right.
The whole thing was a real illustration of the difference in what you can learn in a private vs a group lesson.
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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| karin wrote: |
The whole thing was a real illustration of the difference in what you can learn in a private vs a group lesson. |
A poor experience but it might be as good an illustration as the difference between a good instructor and a poor one as the difference between group and private.
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Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
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@T Bar True.
The group instructor was a young lady in her early 20's, the private was an old timer. However, we weren't convinced that he was great, some of what he was asking our friend to do seemed a little odd, but at least the lesson was within her capabilities, she was getting feedback, and she was enjoying it.
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You need to Login to know who's really who.
You need to Login to know who's really who.
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@T Bar, +1
I recently had a week of group lessons with rob@rar of this parish. Whilst it was quite a small group, we were not all of the same standard as skiers and yet each one of us was thrilled with the tuition and with the results achieved. And he had no problem remembering our names. 
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Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
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@karin,
Well done to all of you for getting her to change. It obviously helped. I do though think that group lessons can work very well particularly at the beginner/early intermediate phase when there can be camaraderie within a group.
Sorry it didn't work for your friend and well done on getting it sorted.
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You'll need to Register first of course.
You'll need to Register first of course.
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@Hurtle,
I'm getting to an age when I can barely remember my children's names.
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@T Bar, 
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@T Bar,
Up to 6 people is easy, 8 is ok, 10 is ok if there is variety, but give me a school group of 12 teenage boys on a dark evening, in mostly dark coats, and all with the same helmet on, and I'm stuffed!
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You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
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@karin,
I have had regular coaching and guiding for the last few decades (like Hurtle I prefer to ignore the whoosh of passing time).
Experiences:
Good coaches in small group
Effing terrible coach in small group
Good coach having a bad day in a small group
Great one to one tuition (thanks Big Sacha, Alaine, and Alex)
Terrible one to one tuition (big mistake using an unknown)
Great guiding - always (thanks Bixio, Nicki and Johannes)
Note guiding is now c700 chf per day.
Last edited by You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net. on Sat 30-03-24 11:31; edited 1 time in total
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| T Bar wrote: |
@Hurtle,
I'm getting to an age when I can barely remember my children's names. |
My kids have been addressed by the cats names in the past!
We had booked a group 3 x half days in Selva one year, me and hubby. The group startes us and two other couples all of us similar level but day a lady was moved up from beginners. We were still doing lots of drills for say 2 but was obvious to us all and her she was a very different level to the rest of us and was struggling even then. She was asking to go back down a group but was told they were too full
Day 3 he take us up on to much longee run ( the one we did as a warmup before lesson). The lady freaked. She completely froze and he spent whole lesson trying to coax her down. We have only done privates since. Odd session or two every now and then. I hope that poor lady wasn't put off for life
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snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
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@valais2, I've had good group coaching too, and some not so good. The good sessions were when the instructors knew me and my skiing from previous sessions, and the not so good was generally when it was someone new. So definitely something to be said for finding someone you like and going back to them, but that's kind of hard for beginners!
@NickyJ, different abilities within the same lesson is always a tricky one. We had a couple of sessions as a family with an instructor about 10 years ago - both our teenage kids and I were instructors or had done instructor training, but my OH hadn't had lessons for years. The poor instructor basically didn't know where to start with my OH and just focussed on the other 3 of us! Fortunately we were fine with that because the main purpose of the sessions was to say whether it was worth one of the kids going off to do Basi 2.
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