Follow me!

That’s what ski instructors usually tell their clients, and that must work… to a point. Yesterday, as we were skiing with our group of friends, I offered to have some individuals directly ski behind my ski tails to help them negotiate a few dicey sections of the mountain. It never failed to work as the person following me ended up mimicking perfectly all my turns, and without much thinking, came down the hard stretches of the hill without even noticing its challenge. Because she’s too independent and also because I’m her spouse, my wife won’t follow me like these individuals, but if she had, skiing would have been a lot easier for her as it would have removed one of the toughest decision skiers need to make; namely, where to make the next turn. That’s right, choosing the perfect line is the key to good skiing and this is why when students follow their instructors, it’s not only super-easy, it becomes addictive and if they can afford it, indispensable. This brings me to my next thought. French ski instructors have always focused on form and skiing technique and paid lip service to pedagogy, while most of their North American counterparts can’t ski but are pretty good at understanding and teaching the most obscure aspect of skiing technique. Who keeps clients forever? The French; simply because they don’t tell their secrets and exploit their clients’ addiction by asking them to follow religiously, getting them to repeat their business into half- or full-day private lessons for as long as they life or can ski, while the vast majority of American instructors are so boring to their students that they only get hired a few couple of times. Now, do you follow me?