Why do we buy ski lessons?
Why do we buy ski lessons?
I am sure that most people have had that thought before they pay for their week’s worth of ski lessons, "Do I really need it?", "Is this a waste of money?", "Will it detract from my holiday?”, "I just want to ski with my friends/family", "Is this worth it?" As the total price is gawped at there is a fleeting thought… "I could teach them" or "Lucy is a good skier, she can help me". Luckily for ski instructors like myself, there are enough people who weigh up the odds and then press the confirm button. There is a belief that insists over the nag of the "do-it-myself” attitude - that a good learning experience can be of priceless value to the learner.
However, I think that anyone who has been on a ski holiday has witnessed the impromptu ski lesson conducted by the family friend, or Jonny's Dad. They are usually easy to spot, the advanced skier, who usually has years of experience skiing off-piste, is confidently leading a nervous, but happy novice to a ski area. The novice is grateful for the help and the expert skier is excited to share the sport they love. All begins well and then gradually the expert skier’s voice gets louder and more frantic, "Slow down!", whilst the novice's face contorts into one of fearful concentration. You can feel the confusion and stress that this experience causes for both expert and novice, the expert thinks, "But I know how to ski, why cannot I not express it`?" and the learner thinks, "Is it supposed to be this hard?”.
If you are an expert skier/snowboarder who has found yourself in this situation, it is very understandable. We all want to share the wonderous feeling of sliding down a snowy hillside. Until we are confronted with a learner we do not realise that we cannot express how this feels or describe how it happens. This ability to know how to do something without being able to articulate it effectively has been labelled by scholars as 'knowing-in-action' or 'tacit knowing'. It is the kind of knowing that allows us to do very complex actions such as walking, running or riding a bike, without being able to give an adequate verbal description of the complexity of these movements. For expert skiers 'knowing' how to ski is in the action, "We reveal it by our spontaneous, skilful execution of the performance; and we are characteristically unable to make it verbally explicit" (Donald Schon, 1987).
When expert skiers decide to become ski instructors there is usually a period of time when these skiers doubt everything they have come to believe about their skills. I think any ski or snowboard instructor would testify to how difficult it was to put words to the skilful actions they routinely make without thinking. Learning to become a good sports coach is to learn to communicate elusive actions that defy description into easily understandable, achievable tasks. I have always found the stereotype of the slightly dim sports coach rather laughable, as the intellectual feat it takes to communicate complex actions effectively is something that requires thoughtful and on-going mental skill.
The problem with not knowing how to communicate these actions effectively is that we tend to “give the wrong answers”. I have witnessed many experts help their novice friends unwittingly embed bad habits by giving woefully inadequate instructions like "push your heels out" and "bend your knees". This inadequate communication means that a learners’ natural ability to ski has to contend with barriers that the helpful friend unintentionally put in place. These barriers are the snowsport instructors’ bread and butter. We help overcome and remove these obstacles but actually (and here’s the secret) there is no need for them to be there in the first place. Sometimes we teach people who have never felt the frustration of trying to do something that doesn't work ("go up and down") or have never experienced the fear of being out of control ("I think you're ready for a red run)...they have only experienced the pleasure of sliding and learnt to trust that feeling. These are the people who seem to be 'naturals' at the sport. However, I would suggest that there is the possibility that there are more 'natural' skiers out there than we realise, they just never got the opportunity to perform freely.
This is what a good snowsports teacher/coach will do for a learner. They will use carefully crafted, thoughtful communication to help the learner unlock their natural performance on the skis. They will be on the lookout for any potential barriers and mitigate for them, "You seem to be searching for a lot of control here, let’s go to a shallower slope so you don’t feel anxious about controlling your speed". This is where the value of the snowsports lesson is, this is why it is worth the time, the effort and the cost. Good learning experiences can build a skilful performer who’s love for the sport is contagious...in short, it can create an expert skier.
Lesley Page
BASS Morzine and Les Gets
Lesley is a ski instructor and BASI trainer. She is a PhD student at the University of Edinburgh researching experiential learning within the workplace.