What is good or bad in a ski lesson?

[marzNC]

As folks get ready for the Southern Hemisphere season, I'm reviewing my notes about the lessons I had in the 2025-26 season. Worked with my favorite instructor at Wolf Creek in Dec and Feb, and with my long time instructor at Alta in April. All the lessons included at least one friend who I've done lessons with before. Given the snow conditions, a focus this season was carving. One lesson in Feb at Wolf Creek was more about guided skiing off-piste because there was fresh snow.

My Alta instructor, Arthur, used "lab teaching runs" again. As he did in Jan 2025 when I had an afternoon lesson with a few other advanced Divas during Diva West 2025. The first lesson was with two older advanced men I know well. The one who is my age, pushing 70, is a classmate at North Country School (junior boarding school) in Lake Placid, NY where we went to middle school. The second lesson was with my local friend, JF, who learned to ski when her kids were doing ski school at our home mountain, Massanutten in northern VA.

A Lab Run means working on a better understanding of fundamentals by experience. For example, Arthur asked the question: "what ski has more weight during a turn?" He didn't want an answer before we made some turns. He wanted us to pay attention during the turns and FEEL the difference before answering the question. In the follow up discussion, he spent a bit of time clarifying terminology. My classmate was saying "downhill" or "uphill" when describing which ski. His initial ski lessons were on straight skis at back in the 1960s. Arthur wanted him to switch to "inside" or "outside."

Doing a Lab Run with JF was a very different experience. She's a solid intermediate at this point, but after her kids were too busy with school for long weekend ski trips to Massanutten, usually her only skiing is a late season week at Alta. Arthur has been teaching her for several years with a "do this" or "follow me" approach more appropriate for an advanced beginner/intermediate. I've done a couple of lessons with her working with him but it's been a few years. He started taking her on a groomed black in good snow a couple seasons ago. It was very interesting to be able to observe how he worked to get her to pay attention to a specific part of a turn. Took a bit longer than with my advanced friends, but it did make a difference in the long run. It was a 3-hour lesson in good spring conditions.

 

[BlizzardBabe]

This is apropos. My best lesson all season was with a Level 3 instructor in Snowshoe WV. He spent the prior 10 seasons teaching in Aspen.

He diagnosed that I was not putting enough weight on my outside ski and was using my inside ski too much in steering the turn. Easy fix once I realized (and felt) that I was doing it.

he also gave me a good mental exercise. Rather than thinking of shortening the inside leg, imagine that you are actually pulling it up to “unlengthen” it. That visual/psychological trick really resonated with me.

 

[Trailside Trixie]

I've had a few amazing ski lessons. A good ski lesson for me is one what triggers a lightbulb to go on...

Best ski lessons

2 in canada; one where the instructor took my ski poles away. I was mad at her at the time. I to this day still ski without them at times. When I taught I would ski without them, then also with adaptive. Now I work with ski patrol it's proven even more useful there. My oher great lesson in canada was where we side and pivot slipped for the whole 2 hours. I was initially like we're really doing this for the whole lesson but side and pivot slipping are now paramount to my skiing and will be super useful if I ever go full patrol and need to navigate a sled.

Other key lesosns were with Jen brown who now teaches at Jiminy, she helped changed my skiing as her teaching style works for me. She skis behind you and just sees things. Lessons with her are loaded with aha and lightbulb moments. Jen has gotten me i

Then there's Dr. Chrissy Semler who's skied with me many times at magic. She's a sports psychologist and skier who knows all about the mental aspect of skiing and has been crucial to the aha moments to the success of many skiers.

A successful lesson is all about reaching the skier and accomplishing a goal and making them feel good about the day.

 

[Trailside Trixie]

I realized I never my thought with jen brown above. All ski clinics are now measured to jen. 7 weeks with Jen will get you skiing on all terrain, bumps, steeps, groomers, trees even in the terrain park. She even got me down a double black and much of it was side slip, stop, side slip, stop, keep your eyes on me Kim..... before I knew it i was 1/3 of the way down the trail. Then I was like hell I've got this.

I took a butternut clinic last season. This was where I first met jen. While it was fun to ski with my friends i realized all we did for 7 weeks was ski thr same groomed trail every week. One time downspout had bumps with 2 narrow groomed passes on it. I wanted to do it but the instructor wouldn't take us down it. Back to freewheeler we went. I'm like what did I pay $500 for... we've done nothing in 7 weeks. Thr other girls were for with status quo but I wasn't. I now understand why Shawn didn't come back to this one and only goes to Jiminy for jen. I'm now in that camp.

 

[GladeDuchess]

I've only done but a few lessons, but paramount is an instructor who asks what I want to learn or improve on. I'm no expert in most aspects of skiing, and could improve upon a right many areas, but sometimes I know what I want to focus on to improve physically, but also to get the mental boost of knowing I can do that one thing better.

I sort of prefer a show and tell method. If I want to improve on something, let me follow the instructor and try to mirror what they are doing. Then switch around and watch me attempt to do it and offer some feedback till I'm getting the hang of it.

I also loved the quirky but spot on descriptions of Becky Braids at Magic Mountain, whom also works with Dr. Chrissy Semler. She described how we get used to feeling comfortable with our bad habits. Doing something new feels weird and we sometimes resist the weird feeling. She was spot on, and when I started turning correctly it felt weird. Like my legs were in an odd position to me, and I could feel the skis doing the work, not me forcing them or a controlled skid.

I think it all worked, as I entered this season terrified of steeps on a hard packed trail. I ended up doing Bronco Buster at Saddleback at the end of the season on a day of just straight up ice, not even hard pack. Just one slow turn after the other, not falling or stopping. : )

 

[marzNC]

Doing something new feels weird and we sometimes always resist the weird feeling.

Fixed it for you.

When I first started taking lessons at my home mountain over a dozen years ago, Walter (very experienced and older Level 3) told me it would take 1-2 seasons to get rid of the worst of my bad habits. I learned to ski as a young teen on straight skis during two winters in upstate NY. Didn't ski at all for about ten years after that. When I got back on skis, they still had a straight edge design and well over my head in length. After a couple of seasons working with Walter a few times, my stance was better but not really optimal yet even on a groomer. That probably took another 2-3 years since I was averaging 15 days on snow back then.

Even after another decade of lessons, skiing 50+ days in recent years, and becoming a solid advanced skier, old habits creep in on steeper terrain or snow conditions that require thinking about technique.

 

[BlizzardBabe]

I'm planning to retire next year, so maybe I'll finally have enough time on the hill to fix those lingering straight ski habits. I'm shooting for 75 - 100 days. I'm looking forward to those quiet mid-week turns.