Make Your Private Ski Lesson Count

By now,hopefully you're convinced that a private ski lesson is worth it, especially for intermediate and advanced skiers. I truly believe that even though more expensive that a group lesson or no lesson at all, it's the most bang for your buck and everyone should take at least one lesson every season

Your Ski Instructor Lost Her Magic Wand

A ski instructor can take many days off the time needed to learn a skill, but she can't wave a magic wand and make you a superstar. It takes a lot more than an hour or two to set or unset a deeply-ingrained hapbit. Bad habits take a long time to unset and good habits take even longer to set. Your goal from a private lesson is not so much to come out of it ready to dominate the World Cup, but to have a laundry list of things to work on, so that you can continue to improve after the lesson is over. I usually have the following goals in a private lesson:

• identify what's holding the skier back, whether that be ingrained bad habits or missing skills.
• Get the skier into positions and situations where he can feel the difference between what he's doing habitually and what he would like to be doing habitually.
• Come up with a small set of drills and tools for self-assessment that will help the skier continue to progress outside of class.

In other words, in the course of the lesson, the skier will be shown the destination, given a roadmap, and take the first few steps towards internalizing those new skills, but the journey will be far from over.

It's Your Ski Lesson

A private lesson is usually brief and costly, so you want to make it count. You should expect your instructor to take some time to put together a lesson. Before you hit the slopes, the instructor might ask:

• About your skiing — how long you've been at it, how often you go, what terrain your like and don't like.
• What you want to work on. What your goal is from the lesson.
• If you've had any lessons recently and what you did and didn't like about those lessons.

Questions like that will help the instructor tailor the lesson, though of course she'll have to watch you ski for a while before really getting down to business. Never be afraid to ask questions or suggest changing it up and moving onto something new. A decent ski instructor will have a reason for any drill and a backup plan if it just isn't something you want to work on, for whatever reason. If you don't like the way your ski lesson going, say so immediately. If the instructor isn't grateful for the input, find a new instructor. Not every instructor is good for every student, just like in any type of learning. My favorite teacher and the one who taught me the most in high school was one of the least popular teachers in the school. Sometimes that's just the way it is.

Show Up Ready to Ski

One huge mistake I see people make is starting out their day with a ski lesson. That's appropriate for beginners, of course, but for intermediate and advanced skiers, you really don't want to spend your precious lesson time warming up. This is especially true if it's early in the season or you'll be on unfamiliar rental equipment. Try to get to the ski area a couple of hours before your lesson. Do a little stretching in the lodge, head up the lift. Start with a few warm-up exercises followed by some "sloppy turns" and then a relaxing run. Don't focus on "skiing well" but just on loosening up the muscles and getting a feel for the day's snow. If you have time, take another relaxing run, but you also don't want to show up tired, so don't overdo it. Finally head into the lodge, have a drink of water, visit the bathroom and head out for your lesson, preferably a bit early. That will set you up to make the most of your time.