I want to be an Ski Instructor

[2ski2moro]

I want to be an ski instructor and I need your input.

For the last few years, I have seen the Weekend Clinic for Prospective Instructors offered at Gore, my home mountain. I have finally gotten up the courage and I signed up for the clinic. I spoke with one of the Clinicians, who told me that they can teach anyone how to teach skiing, but a sense of humor, personality and enthusiasm is what they are looking for. I believe I qualify for that part.

About me: I'm basically retired, so I have weekdays and weekends free, and I plan to be in town for the holidays. Back in the day, I taught the beginners when I ran a ski club for teens, so I have an idea.

My current ski skills are the ability to ski parallel on piste all blues and most blacks. I have a habit of a tiny stem before I start my turn. Another bad habit is that I look too casual when I ski - instructors say I'm not "energetic enough" and my friends say that I look so relaxed. When it gets heavily bumped or chopped up, I slow down, my stance widens, and really look for my next turn.

I'm over 60. I'm overweight. My knees are too old to do big bumps. I don't like to ski trees. I learned to ski in the East so icy conditions are not a problem, but deep, heavy snow is challenging.

I'm doing it for the love of the sport and a chance to be out there with people. I don't expect to make much money, although an equipment discount would be nice.

I wold like to hear from the Diva instructors about your experiences in the beginning.

What can I expect in the clinic?
What kind of skier are they looking for?
PSIA Level 1? What does that involve? is it worth it?
Is there an online resource that I can read before the weekend?

What other advice can you share?

 

[Obrules15]

Go For It! (not an instructor, just excited for you!)

 

[MaineSkiLady]

I know you, I know your skills.
I think you would be great at this.

Type of skier: your personality and communication abilities are the most important. You have the skills.

Check this out:
https://www.thesnowpros.org/news/id...h-guide-for-new-instructors-e-learning-course

And the general website:
https://www.thesnowpros.org/
Eastern division website:
https://www.psia-e.org/
Lots of good information here.

Contact your local ski resort to find out when instructor training classes are held. Good luck!

 

[bounceswoosh]

Subscribing .. I want to be a ski instructor, too! I was going to do it last season, but then I blew out my knee. It's still tetchy this season, and I don't want to use up its resources on teaching rather than skiing. But next season - it's on!

 

[Jilly]

All that MSL states and you will improve your skiing too. They will work that stem out of you.

 

[W8N2SKI]

Looking to the future -- I would never want to teach kids (meaning young kids - teens are fine). Is this even possible? I'm an only child and have no children. The only time I've ever been around kids is when I was one.

 

[Jilly]

I have a written note from my doctor that I cannot pick up over 30lbs. So that gets me out of kid land. I do have a bad shoulder. Also usually the higher your level of certification, you get higher levels of ski teaching. But that doesn't mean that you just might have to take a beginner class every so often. Last year I taught I put 57 beginners through lessons. Most were never-evers. There is such an advancement at that level. They go from walking to sliding down the bunny hill. That is rewarding. But to do a 6 or 8 week class of 8 years old....No thanks either. I'm not in tune with most people under 16!

 

[SkiBam]

The only little kids I will teach are ones I'm related to. Been there, done that with the little ones. No more. Give me adults any day! (Though kids can be really fun and I wouldn't be honest if I didn't say I had some great experiences with some of them.)

 

[2ski2moro]

Thanks, MSL. You made my day.

Hmmmm. I love little kids...as long as they are not crying hysterically when Mom leaves.

One season, I volunteered teaching Down Syndrome pre-teens. It was so fun to see them react positively to compliments. One of my kids even came in first in her race!

I'm getting excited about this.

 

[VickiK]

Go for it, @2ski2moro ! I'll be watching for your posts on this experience, because I've thought about this too, this or volunteering in some capacity, maybe a disabled skier program. It's just that I'm not retired yet. How exciting!

 

[contesstant]

Do it!! You will have access to clinics and all kinds of good stuff that will help you in your OWN skiing. If you end up not liking up, nothing lost, nothing gained, right?

 

[Skier31]

Do it! Explain your preferences and if it is not your thing, you have no obligation. I love the clinics and being part of the community. Enjoy!

 

[Jilly]

Actually a lot of the guys don't want to teach the women. So us teaching them is so much better....

 

[marzNC]

@2ski2moro: certainly no reason not to give the instructor clinic a go. You certainly have good qualifications.

Main reason I'm not that interested is that I live too far from my home mountain and I'm having too much fun traveling for skiing these days. Need to dedicate too many days during the first season to get in the needed training and to make it worthwhile for the ski school. Having observed a instructor training and few PSIA clinics at Massanutten, the instructors who are going for Level 1 or Level 2 clearly get great coaching. my coach is one of the trainers, and there is a very good Examiner on staff too.

There is a 2016 Ski Diva blog with good info for people considering the idea of becoming an instructor.
So you want to be an instructor

Here are the most interesting threads I found doing a quick look. Some are more relevant to the question than others, but all are related to becoming an instructor.

2015
https://www.theskidiva.com/forums/index.php?threads/motivations-for-becoming-a-ski-instructor.19453/

2014
https://www.theskidiva.com/forums/index.php?threads/instructors-how-did-you-get-started.18349/

2012
https://www.theskidiva.com/forums/index.php?threads/becoming-a-ski-instructor.13829/

2007
https://www.theskidiva.com/forums/i...gs-you-wish-you-knew-before-you-applied.2020/

 

[Skisailor]

You should definitely do it! It's so fun and rewarding - sounds like you already have a taste of that. You sound like the perfect candidate. It's really not necessary to be a hot shot skier. They will just match you to the right student skier level.

Ditto to everything written above. Also, once you have your Level 1, you can officially start training in the "adaptive" track if you are interested in working with skiers who have physical or mental challenges.

 

[Tvan]

I'm very interested in hearing what you decide. Like @VickiK , my retirement plans include something at the mountain... maybe as one of the mountain ambassadors.

 

[nopoleskier]

Do it!! You will do fine and be an asset to Gore!

 

[liquidfeet]

Do it! You won't regret it.

When you show up for work at the very start, tell the person who hired you whether (or not) you want to teach kids all day, every day you show up, and feed them lunch. Many ski schools assign new instructors to the kids' program, and this is what they do because they love to teach kids. It may involve picking up little ones, or not. Ask about this.

But maybe you want to do line-up, which means whoever signs up for a lesson that day gets assigned to an instructor who is standing at line-up, waiting. New instructors who do line-up usually get never-ever groups of adults to teach. This can be very rewarding, or quite frustrating, depending on the terrain your ski school has for first day beginner adults. If you teach line-up, you may have time left over when you aren't teaching to go ski on your own, when business is slow. At the two mountains that I've worked at, the kids' program is never slow. Line-up sometimes is.

If part of why you want to teach is to get free training, and a free pass, then you may want to choose line-up. It may leave you more time to get that training and to ski on your own. But that time will probably be off the clock, so no pay. If you want maximum pay, choosing the kid route might be the better choice because you'll teach more hours. Ask other instructors; they will tell you the score on these things.

Teaching kids and teaching never-ever adults is different. Psychology plays into the difference. Adults are both excited and fearful, because they chose to put out a lot of effort to get on snow for this beginner lesson, and they have high expectations of fun. But they are clueless (example: no goggles and thin gloves on a 10 degree morning), plus they have to go to work on Monday and suddenly fear a broken leg once they move on skis for the first time. They are so thankful once they can turn to a stop and get off the lift without falling!

But then, kids think like kids, not like adults. Monkey see monkey do. Once you figure out how to herd cats, your job will be to make the lesson fun fun fun!

Report back on how this goes. Do it!

 

[ling]

Subscribing .. I want to be a ski instructor, too! I was going to do it last season, but then I blew out my knee. It's still tetchy this season, and I don't want to use up its resources on teaching rather than skiing. But next season - it's on!

Funny you said that.

I thought of becoming an instructor for a few years but “never found the right time”. Then one year I was recovering from an injury. My doc said I could anything I feel like. Except I didn’t feel like skiing hard terrain.

So I decided to ski easy terrain, as a rookie instructor teaching beginners on the bunny slope. Worked out brilliantly.

I ended up teaching more than just beginners. Having to do wedges and stem cristy end up helping me on the fundamentals too. Half way through the season, I forgot my injury and just ski as hard as I did before. Except I skied better, because I work on my basic more that half season, more than probably all my previous years combined.

 

[ling]

Looking to the future -- I would never want to teach kids (meaning young kids - teens are fine). Is this even possible? I'm an only child and have no children. The only time I've ever been around kids is when I was one.

I’m an only child. I have no children.

But I never think twice about teaching kids. I just did. And it turns out I like kids. (despite no prior experience)

One thing about teaching kids, I don’t talk a lot. That’s just not my way. Teaching kids turns out to be a good match. They just follow, and imitate. I quickly learn some tricks and goofy things to livening up the lessons.

The first time I got a $40 tip, plus a request for next weekend, really made me think this teaching hobby of mine may take on a life of its own. Until the mountain screwed it up by telling them I wasn’t working the day they came back, that is.

I’m passed the age. But after those experience, I almost wish I had children of my own. They’re so much fun, in limited dose anyway.