They've Got to Want to Learn

In the Bumps

You can't teach if they don't want to learn

On Sunday, they didn't need me at the ski area, so I decided to hang out and ski a short bump run over and over. From the chair, I was watching a guy do the same thing. He was the classic long-time skier who would benefit from a lesson, but would never take one. The more I watched, the more I wanted to give him some help.

He was doing fine in the bumps, but his cadence was too slow to really ski them smoothly. I could see all the classic causes — a slight shoulder throw, an exaggerated up/down movement in his upper body, what my friend Jim calls The Old 1-2, meaning starting the turn with a slight stem, then bring the other ski over to match. All of those things get you down a hill, but they all slow down movement and add instability. In the bumps, that's a killer, because eventually, you can't turn as fast as the bumps are coming at you.

I starting thinking over exercises and progressions and my brilliant lesson plan to help him out. Eventually, we synched up and were on the lift together. I started chatting, found out he was a local, what he did for work, had a nice conversation. The first time he made some negative comment about his skiing, I bit my tongue. We took a bunch of quick runs together. He's a great guy, good company, interesting.

The second time he made some disparaging remark about his skiing, I said casually, "I could give you a few ideas for making the bumps easier."

"Nah. I've been skiing this way for 40 years. It's probably too late for me."

Maybe, but in my experience, that isn't really true. New habits can be taught and they can make skiing less work and more fun, but there's nothing to be gained of course and a new friendship to be lost. The only student who is unteachable is the one who genuinely doesn't want to learn. It's hard for me to relate to that and it's hard for me to see someone having less fun than they could have. But that's projecting my values onto that person.