Woods Journal

I would not classify myself as a very experienced skier. However, I am beginning to learn my way around the slopes. Even knowing this, it has been wonderful and humbling to introduce my girlfriend to the sport. I had forgotten how much more often one spends in or on the snow when starting versus floating over top of it, as a skier should. Skiing is widely considered a challenging sport. Unlike baseball, football or any other sport centered around the movement of a projectile, not just anyone can put on skis and hope to get to the bottom of the hill in a graceful manner without some amount of practice.

Skiing successfully not only requires the development of muscles previously unknown to the participant, but balance, coordination and, above all, practice. Beyond the simple "pizza" and "french fry" quips of advice, there is little a person can be given to immediately improve their potential as a skier. The first steps require a person to learn their own body and to make many mistakes. After that, once the prospective skier gets their feet under them, literally in many cases, then the real learning can begin. This is the place I now find myself. I can make it to the bottom of the slope most of the time without issue. However, my girlfriend slows me down as we try to stick together, and she finds herself on the ground more often than not. Each fall she makes reminds me of the days when I too spent the majority of my time on the slopes "eating snow," and on my butt.

In many pursuits, especially in the outdoors, a person who is just starting often finds themselves woefully out of their depth. This great chasm of knowledge between the experienced and the beginner can be overwhelming. This is especially true when a beginner is dating someone who has spent their entire life committing to outdoor pursuits. As the experienced one in the relationship, I am learning that patience goes a long way. When one is passionate about something, just hearing that someone else is interested in that something can cause one to let the floodgates of information pour over the unsuspecting victim. That person may now feel as if they are not cut out for the given activity.

Sometimes this overflow of advice and information can fully discourage a person from even pursuing that activity at all. Even worse, the person with the experience can get frustrated at the inexperienced one. When this happens, it is easy for the person of experience to lash out at the learner, as they know how the thing should be done. It is far too easy to take for granted the long hard-fought process from learner to learned. When this happens, in any pursuit, it behooves the teacher to step back and realize that they too started at the bottom. It may also be important to note that the teacher was likely without the benefit of an instructor criticizing every little mistake that he or she made. For me, this realization was humbling and made me a better teacher, the new perspective made me a better learner and both these improvements made me a better skier.

Reach John at [email protected].