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Skiing Lessons Guide

Every skier needs ski lessons from time to time. All the skiers that you see at events such as the Winter Olympics employ coaches to help them improve their skills. Even ski instructors have to take lessons from other ski instructors in order to gain higher qualifications. A good ski instructor can point out things that you can do to improve your technique, even if you are already quite an accomplished skier.

You may well have heard the terms beginner, intermediate, and advanced being bandied about in relation to ski lessons and slopes. Although these terms may seem quite vague, they are really part of a standardised scale, recognised by ski instructors worldwide, which goes from level 1 to level 9. Although there is no examination as such to prove that you have mastered a certain level, all ski lessons and ski slopes are graded using the same scale, and you should have mastered one level before you attempt another.

Every time you sign up for a lesson, you will usually be asked about the level of your last lesson, and when it took place. Instructors use this information to place you in a group class of people of a similar ability, or as a starting point for a private lesson. As a rule of thumb, you can expect to progress through levels one to four with a two or three hour lesson for each level, as long as you do the recommended practice and take the lessons regularly. However, everyone is different, and it may take some skiers longer than others. Your instructor should be able to keep you right, and will advise you when you need to go down or up a level.

If you stick with the ski lessons, you will gradually progress through the levels to be able to ski more demanding runs. Intermediate runs, also known as blue square runs, should only be attempted once you have mastered level four or five of your ski instruction. However, these ratings do vary a little between resorts, and the only way to be sure that a run is safe for your skill level is to ski only on runs that your instructor knows and can recommend.

Ski instructors do not keep putting students into low-level classes in order to make them take more classes. In order to progress to the next level, you must show that you can execute the techniques that you have learned perfectly, and if there is an error in one of your techniques, you will have to re-learn the skill until you have eliminated the error. Your instructor will be trained to spot these errors and know how to correct them. If you can execute the basic techniques perfectly, you will progress through the higher levels a lot more quickly than if you had not got the basics right in the first place.