Retaining low-level skiers

[billski]

Reading a Magic thread, led me to some free thinking (better than no-thinking

I've been doing some "Meet Up" hikes lately, and saw an analog. I noticed that the hikes rated "advanced" trips get about eight hikers. "Intermediate" get about 12 hikers. "Easy" got 35 hikers. Now, if we can map that to skiers, and it's not quite a stretch, we may be onto something here.

We've all gotten the memo. We've all taken some sort of lesson or other. I took a private lesson last year, and the instructor said, "you don't need me, you just need hours on the slopes. The good skiers have hundreds and hundreds of hours. That's how they got good." I had a revaluation, I'm sure others have already thought about this.

Most people, I believe are very under-confident in their ability to progress into that level known as "fun." I argue we need more people our level to ski with. That should not just apply to the intermediate+. It's more important at the below-intermediate. Having a leader who sets the expectation that this is a slow group, and that we wait for each other, could go a long way. For a lot people, it's not all about skiing. It's about skiing AND socializing. Why should you have to bring a posse with you, when you have a hard enough time getting out the door by yourself?

I'm thinking that a guide, that can stick with a low level (somewhere between never-ever and below intermediate) for an entire morning, stick through lunch, ski afternoon might be useful. The guide can keep them out of trouble, take them down trails appropriate for their abilities. It could cause some critical mass to develop. I know with hiking or skiing, once I see the same person once or twice, I look for them again. I know their abilities. For most people, it's not much fun being the only one skiing at your level. Even having a friend at a more advanced level can be uncomfortable, you're holding them back.

The guide should be at no charge to the group. Skiing is expensive, especially if you're not ready to make a $$ discount, you need something to make you stick to it. It's nice that resorts offer a lesson and lift for the day, that gets them going. Its the time on the slopes that is really needed, as my coach said to me.

I've had guides before and found it works out pretty well.

Thoughts?

 

[Hawkshot99]

From my own experience I have found that skiing with people equal or worse than yourself does no good, when it comes to improving personally. I have found that the best way to improve (without a instructor/coach) is to ski with people 1 notch above yourself. This makes it so you have to push yourself a bit to keep up, putting you just slightly out of your comfort zone. The better skier also does not have to wait a bunch so they are happy skiing with them.

I have done this with people that I am better than and was amazed at how quickly we got them to improve, and with people I look up to when skiing.

 

[billski]

From my own experience I have found that skiing with people equal or worse than yourself does no good, when it comes to improving personally. I have found that the best way to improve (without a instructor/coach) is to ski with people 1 notch above yourself. This makes it so you have to push yourself a bit to keep up, putting you just slightly out of your comfort zone. The better skier also does not have to wait a bunch so they are happy skiing with them.

I have done this with people that I am better than and was amazed at how quickly we got them to improve, and with people I look up to when skiing.

I agree. However, my comment is not about skills improvement. It's about getting them to come back. I'm talking about the people who bag it after a couple lessons and a few hours on the slope. It's about getting comfortable, getting them excited enough to come back. Improvement comes later. (I will regret the last sentence, but how else are you going to get them to come back when 84% don't?)

Here are some other techniques.

 

[Nick]

I always try to do everything with people who are better than me ..... and I always ask a lot of questions on the way

Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk 2

 

[JimG.]

From my own experience I have found that skiing with people equal or worse than yourself does no good, when it comes to improving personally. I have found that the best way to improve (without a instructor/coach) is to ski with people 1 notch above yourself. This makes it so you have to push yourself a bit to keep up, putting you just slightly out of your comfort zone. The better skier also does not have to wait a bunch so they are happy skiing with them.

I have done this with people that I am better than and was amazed at how quickly we got them to improve, and with people I look up to when skiing.

But there is a corollary here...I've noticed that when I slow down to help a friend learn new skiing skills, it forces me to go back to the basics which I admit I sometimes either ignore or apply poorly. So often I find that I make "breakthroughs" (or remember things) that help my skiing too. This is how I remembered that it is much better to practice keeping my thighs together than keep my skis together; that simple basic made me not only more two footed in bumps but it also made it look like my skis were glued togther which is what I want in bumps anyway.