Your thoughts on ski clinics.

[ski diva]

I've been contacted by a ski company wondering what women look for in ski clinics. So, I thought I'd put it out there to get your thoughts. If you've taken a clinic before, what'd you like about it? What'd you dislike? Is there something you'd like to see in a clinic that you haven't seen before? Something that you wish would go away? In short, what does it take to make a clinic top notch?

 

[abc]

what women look for in ski clinics

Mine is no difference from what men look for in ski clinics, to improve skiing.

If you've taken a clinic before, what'd you like about it? What'd you dislike?

Like: my skiing improved at the end of it. Or some exercise that improves my skiing down the line.

Dislike: talk, talk, more talk.

In short, what does it take to make a clinic top notch?

An instructor who can spot my defficiency right away and came up with a perfect drill to correct it in no time!

 

[marzNC]

One reason I decided to give the NASTC Diva clinic a try was that the instruction was only in the morning. Being an older skier, I liked the idea of not having to concentrate as much after lunch. Gave me a chance to practice or just take it easy depending on how I felt and snow conditions.

For the Diva clinic at north Tahoe we were at three different ski areas. While that was fun, I think I'd rather stay at one place if the focus is on the clinic. All those places were new to me, so there was a little extra effort involved with figuring out logistics. Of course, would be different if I were returning to an area and knew the ski areas already.

Other considerations are size of group, and number of days. Be nice to have the option of adding an additional day AFTER the first day. Of course want the most experienced instructors possible.

 

[marymack]

I haven't had a chance to attend a women's specific clinic but from what I've seen advertised online I like the idea of specifically assigning women instructors to the group. I don't have kids, but I've seen programs that offer discounted child care for women participating and I would think that would be very convenient. As for the actual instruction, I'm not sure how much of it is instructor vs. the dynamics of the group but in the lessons I've taken, it always seems like there is more camaraderie and less competition (perceived or actual) when it has worked out to be girls only than in mixed group lessons. I think that is an important thing to stress when planning a women's only clinic.
Finally, I think this would be any good instructor, but if possible, since us girls tend to get colder faster, perhaps choosing terrain that may be more protected from wind (especially if there will be a lot of stopping/demonstrating) could be very important.

 

[vickie]

Some comments from a previous discussion here.

 

[Jilly]

I really liked the way Roxy worked last year. So much I'm going back. Women instructors, low student to instructor ratio and just enough push to learn. Because the ratio is low, you got a lot individual attention about your assessment and development. I came away with so much information and just the right things to work on.

So like abc says - knowledgeable instructors who can asset the problem and come up with the right solution.

And add in some fun, prizes are always welcome and food, you're good to go.

 

[segacs]

I've never attended a women's-specific clinic. As far as I know, there aren't any at the local ski hills here. I like the idea of it though, and if someone were to offer a women's clinic around here on a weekend, I'd probably give it a try.

 

[Skier31]

• Technical instruction and efficient use of time
• Well matched groups
• Great instructors (not necessarily big name instructors but passionate, techincally competent instructors) who are willing to give the group what they need not necessarily cater to egos.
• Reasonably priced
• FUN!

 

[skibum4ever]

As abc said, more skiing and less standing around talking. Some talk is necessary in a clinic, but some can be saved for chairlift rides.

 

[bounceswoosh]

#1: Female instructors, but only if they're amazing. I love skiing with my male instructors, and I learn a ton, but there's something about seeing a woman huck a cliff - especially if she looks a bit like me, ie, not dainty - or shred a steep line that makes me think, hey, she's a woman and she can do it - surely I can do it, too! It's faulty logic, but it really does inspire me. It makes it feel possible in a way that seeing men ski the same way never does. (Obviously this applies mostly to higher-level skiing clinics where these things are in reach - I do remember one class when I was not terribly high level and the instructor, a male, was throwing 360s at every opportunity while having us practice carving drills on blues and greens. It was really annoying.)

Other comments:

Video review is awesome. Not just capturing video, but then reviewing each person's skiing as a group.

I like the fact that the Dirt Series (women's mountain biking clinics) asks: if you don't fit perfectly into one group or another, would you rather be in the more moderate or the more challenging group?

I almost feel like ski lessons require a personality review ahead of time. The best technical instruction requires dropping down to easier terrain, which can be frustrating for someone who just plopped down $$$$. On the other hand, some people have good technical skills, but need tactics for steeps, trees etc. (These can still benefit from easier terrain, but the connection is more obvious in the actual terrain.) And then there are people who have all of that, but they need the confidence to actually use all that when it gets to intimidating terrain.

 

[abc]

I almost feel like ski lessons require a personality review ahead of time. The best technical instruction requires dropping down to easier terrain, which can be frustrating for someone who just plopped down $$$$. On the other hand, some people have good technical skills, but need tactics for steeps, trees etc. (These can still benefit from easier terrain, but the connection is more obvious in the actual terrain.) And then there are people who have all of that, but they need the confidence to actually use all that when it gets to intimidating terrain.

Excellent point!

I'm one who tend to ski in terrain over my head a lot. So I do just fine in unisex lessons. I can see, on the other hand, there are more women who could benefit from the latter mention above. This is a more uniquely women specific issue. (though some men have similar)

Once I took a sea kayak forward stroke clinic. We spend all day fine tuning the detail (angle, placement) of one single stroke, until everyone seems to be paddling in perfect movement (video taped). At the end of the clinic, we had a race! (video taped again) On the tape, we could see almost all of us reverted back to our old usual during the race! A lot less "perfect" than the movement we all thought we perfected! In the "heat of the battle", all the technical flaws shows up glaringly!!!

 

[callmijane]

I would like for them to be on weekends :-( A lot of mountains have clinics on Tuesday afternoons, that sort of thing... I work a M-F 7-4 job- there's no way I can make it to that. I am very excited to see that Wolf Creek has 4 women's clinics and they are all on Saturday this year! As soon as my foot is healed enough to ski, I'm in.

 

[Pequenita]

Once I took a sea kayak forward stroke clinic. We spend all day fine tuning the detail (angle, placement) of one single stroke, until everyone seems to be paddling in perfect movement (video taped). At the end of the clinic, we had a race! (video taped again) On the tape, we could see almost all of us reverted back to our old usual during the race! A lot less "perfect" than the movement we all thought we perfected! In the "heat of the battle", all the technical flaws shows up glaringly!!!

This seems like it would be super valuable. And humbling.

 

[Christy]

I don't know if this is specific to women's clinics, but here's my beef: pick a time for the clinic to start and stick to it. The dawdling that has occured when I've taken women's clinics has been exasperating. First day of Roxy is slow--they give you a time to come but you get there and everyone's just eating muffins. I loved the NASTC clinic in Tahoe that MarzNC mentioned but good god, I'd never seen anything like how long it took everyone to get ready (including the instructors). People brought their stuff in boot bags, took ages to unpack, "who has sunscreen?" "does anyone need chapstick?" etc etc. I show up at the lodge suited up and ready to go at the designated time and it drives me nuts that others don't.

I also like a half day clinic. I am fit but consecutive full days of instruction that's taking me thorough more intense terrain than I'm used to is just tiring.

 

[Lilywhite]

Great topic. I have not done a women specific clinic (yet), one thing that I would certainly query before booking would be the level the class is aimed at and who/how is that assessed ?
I have had a weeks worth of mixed group of lessons once a year since I started skiing and have found that when people are asked to state their level that men seem to think they are a level higher than they are and women tend to self assess lower than they are, which is fine if the instructors pick it up quick enough to rearrange groups before splitting up on the pistes. You get a lot less out of a group situation when you are either the best or the worst in a group.
If your better than most then you get little input from the instructor, if your worst then you feel too pressured to do well because your constantly holding everybody else up.

 

[abc]

This seems like it would be super valuable. And humbling.

It was.

I was a bit shocked when, a few weeks later I was in a club trip with a bunch of quite experienced paddlers, including a couple of BCU coaches. One of them asked me to lead off. And as I paddled away, he joked "now let's follow April as she demonstrate the perfect forward stroke"! I was embarrassed of course. But also realized that was $200 well spend. I'm still not the fastest paddler but I know I'll be in good position to paddle into my retirement without worry much about kayaking related injuries.

As for the reverting to bad habit, it wasn't quite as shocking though. We were warned we were likely to revert back to our usual to some degree. And sure we all did, to varying degree.

Sorry for the drift...

 

[RachelV]

It's hard to have discussions about this stuff without dropping all kinds of stereotypes, but what I love about skiing with women is that you can get pushed to ski harder stuff without things devolving into being really competitive. Generally, in my experience, guys push each other through peer pressure and competition, whereas women push each other in ways that are much more subtle and directly encouraging. So my favorite part of women's ski clinics is pushing my limits without feeling like I've gotten pulled in to some kind of crazy testosterone battle or whatever.

 

[Jilly]

RachelV is so right. That was one of the comments about Roxy. 2 of the women in my group were locals. They wouldn't have skied some of the stuff we were into because the "boys" would have been pushing too hard and they would hot have liked it. The guys or them. They felt so much better about it. And I'd have to add that I feel the same way skiing with SkiBam than with some of our guy friends when we're in the trees.

And I do have to agree with Christy about the readiness of the group. I'm ready to go when I hit the lodge. I knew there were be "opening remarks". But lets get it together ladies!

Roxy had us assess our abilities based on the WB ski school levels. From that we were again divided into sub levels at a ski off. I did ask mountainxtc about the levels and we decided where I should be based on what I wanted to accomplished. That could also have been done that first morning as there were lots of instructors to help with that.

 

[Pequenita]

And I do have to agree with Christy about the readiness of the group. I'm ready to go when I hit the lodge. I knew there were be "opening remarks". But lets get it together ladies!

So, what I've been thinking about a lot because I'm thinking about offering it as a yoga teacher, is the "appropriateness" (not sure it's the right word) for having a pre-ski yoga session. On the one hand, I know that there are yoga skeptics, and it could make it even slower to get out the gate in the morning. On the other hand, it means that everyone is starting in base layers when getting ready to ski (but yes, we're all different paces when it comes to getting ready), so theoretically, there shouldn't be a huge discrepancy between when person 1 is ready to ski and person 6.

What do you all think about aprés ski activities in clinics, be it drinks or going over videos or other forms of pampering? How much togetherness is too much?

 

[Jilly]

Pequenita - we do a yoga session before and after a day of paddling at paddling clinics I've been too. They were great.

Apres - I did like the apres with Roxy. I'm not a beer drinker, so they did offer a glass of wine instead. We had munchies too. What would have been nice was a little more interaction with the other participants. We all sat together after the day in our own little groups. Nothing wrong with that, but I was wondering how the other Diva's had enjoyed their day too. And it was crowded. But that weekend was their busiest one all year.