@Mike King is making an excellent point that I haven't seen made in this kind of discussion before. He's right.There are all sorts of reasons clients hire a ski instructor. Not all of them are solely about learning.
....It takes a community to serve a community.
....That demo team member is not a match for some, maybe most, of our clients. That 18yo gap student isn't a match for others. But putting those folk in with the right clients can create great experiences for everyone -- client and instructor alike.
I was a ski club member back in the past, before I became a ski instructor. One year I signed up for an adult seasonal program along with a number of my cohorts in the club. For eight weeks we had a 3-hour morning lesson on Sundays with the same instructor. I took this course in order to build new skills. I assumed that the others in my group also wanted to build new skills. I came to wonder about this as the eight weeks went by.
I found the instruction wishy-washy, without any focus. It was not clear what kind of benefit was supposed to result from the things our instructor had us do. He did not explain how to work the skill required by any drill into our personal skiing. No one received personal feedback on how successfully they were doing those drills. We'd get a good demo (he was a PSIA LIII), then get our chance to try the drill. Our one chance. Then we'd ski around a bit and stop, at which point he'd tell an entertaining story to add interest to the morning's skiing. Then another drill. Rinse and repeat all morning long. A string of drills, once chance at each, followed by a story.
When our group gathered back at the club on Sunday afternoons for drinks and food, I liked to ask them, one at a time, what they had learned that day. "A lot" was the general sentiment. No one, not even once, was able to explain what they learned that day about how to make a turn, start a turn, get grip on snow, end a turn, shape a turn, choose a line, choose a speed or lane width, or anything, anything, specific about how their skiing might change as a result of the time we spent with our instructor. Just vague praise for how much they were learning.
My clubmates were clearly very happy with the instruction. Their expectations for the lessons were being met. Mine weren't. Either I was the only one wanting to improve my skiing, or they were delusional.
Mike is not specifically referring to situations like this unique one since he is speaking in generalities, but I'm sure my experience fits in some way.
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