# Teaching my girlfriend.



## KIRKWOOD-$LUT

fallen leaf is the best, trust me
reasom why, pushes all the good snow away,lol


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## Mysticfalcon

I learned pretty quick and I was taught by a class of 3rd graders. They had me get up traverse on my heel edge then flop down roll over and traverse on my toe. After a very short while I was sick of floping on the ground so I started making turns. Oh and they made me go right to the top of the mountain so I had to strap in the first time on a blue. The best way to learn is to be forced to learn quickly. Oh and you need an army of little kids to show you wassup. (disclaimer: This is not for everyone I was already a good skiier)


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## kri$han

I've managed to teach my little cousin, but the lil duke's like 13, so he's fearless and he catches onto anything physical very quickly. I had the bugger carving in three days!!!...haha, that was awesome.

while trying to teach my other buddies, though... no such luck. They do catch on, and they're learning more slowly, but they feel more pressured, liek they're holding me back... even when I reassure them that its "ok that I'm waiting", they still feel guilty, and that mental mind block doesn't help them to learn.

make sure ur girl understands that ur not bothered to teach her, and yeah, whenever someone asks me to teach, I make sure they're 100% comfortable with falling leaf before trying to link turns. Almost at a point where falling leaf is boring to them, and they start linking turns on their own.


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## Guest

A piece of advice (because I am learning with my boyfriend) be very supportive and try not to get frustrated. Snowboarding for the first couple times is a downer because you can't just get it in one day. If she becomes very negative, very frustrated, and very down, do as much as you can to be a positive force.


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## BiggerThanYours

falling leaf was the first thing i learned when my bf tought me. You just need to find what she is comfortable doing to learn her point of balance. Girls are a little tougher to teach than boys, take your time, dont get mad at her for being slow. and if shes really,really difficult to teach get a lesson for her. Dont dump her with the intructor, go with them and take the lesson together, and let the intructor worry about teaching her the skills.


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## laz167

Like every1 said take your time and be nice,im teaching my GF how to link her S-turns and it could be frustrating at times.So she's gonna take a lesson next week,whne at Stratton and Im gonna join her for support.


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## Guest

you're a brave man. My wife and I are going snowboarding in a few weeks here, I've been at it for a while and she's never been. I told her this exactly, "honey, you're getting lessons, I think me trying to teach you would be bad for our marriage." And she agreed.


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## BiggerThanYours

if your marriage can survive a day of you teaching your wife to snowboard, you can survive anything!


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## Guest

Ah yes, we could survive it...but could and want to are two different things. Basically the two of us are entirely too competitive for it. That and my wife knows how much I love this and has told me she doesn't want to keep me from seeing the whole mountain. Now, once her lesson is over I will go a few runs with her here and there and give her some pointers.


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## Guest

that's exactly what I wanted. much appreciated Snowolf.


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## PaoloSmythe

i reckon you give her each of wolfie's lesson plan and then go do your own thing for 20 -30 minutes (for a few runs etc...)

go back to her, check her style, heap on the positive reaffirmation and if good to go, teach her the next step and then repeat.

she'll suffer no pressure from you watching and nor will she have to worry about curtailing your enjoyment of the trip.

the best of both worlds.

however, the moment she starts balling her eyes out or swearing at you, bail and get her lessons


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## Guest

I am teaching my girl now, we went out for a late night session last Saturday, her first time boarding, and she refused to take a lesson, she is a little shy. So I took on the task of teaching her since I used to be an instructor, and used a system almost identical to Wolf's and had her up and riding within a few hours. She figured out heal side turns right away and took a couple tries to figure out toe side turns, but had her riding down the hill by the end of the night. Just be real patient and keep telling her how good she is doing. If she's like my girl,she will keep saying go do what you want or I quit, just don't let them. Something my girl died laughing at and made her enjoy it a little more was me unstrapping and helping her, plus doing front flips down the hill made her chuckle, it didn't turn out well for me though.


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## neednsnow

Always know what monster you are dealing with. I took my girl to Whiteface, last year. We had done blues and greens in the poconos two weeks before and she did fine. First run (I was an idiot and wasn't thinking) we took the gondola to the top to slow into the blues. She shut-down 10 mins into the ride. We walked down the mtn to the next chair lift and they sent us down the lift. That was the only time I ever rode a chair DOWN the mtn. 

I suggest starting on a decent green. Something with a little bit of grade, flat greens are more frustrating! But once you are strapped-in there is a better chance that you can focus on the boarding piece and not the pain-in-the-ass getting on and off the lift (which still gives me fits, 9 years and many double-blacks later)

Promote the smile and tell jokes....she'll have fun and learn all the while. Also, promise her she will be on her ass the majority of the time.


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## Guest

Unnecessary. I'm not trying to to push her through this, she wants it. I would never force someone to snowboard, or take someone that "just wants to try it once." We went up friday and had a great time. she's got heelside garlands down pat, but she's having some trouble on her toes. she's finding it difficult to deal with the whole not being able to see where she's going when she's on her toes. she's also much more afraid to fall backwards. anything you tell your students to help them with that? other than that, she had a great time. she tells me all she can think about it snowboarding, and she wants to link turns so bad. she never whined, never got frustraded (outwardly anyways) and she kept getting up. I was very impressed and proud. She's definatley a girly girl, which made it even cooler how she trooped through it.She did fall off the lift about 10 times though,lol. The lift operater eventually started to slow it down every time we started to approach...lmao.


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## Guest

UPDATE: Took her up last week for the first time since feb of '08. It was her second time riding. She can link turns now


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## Guest

Those are some good suggestions up there. I'm taking my fiancee for the second time this weekend. First time out I just got her comfortable on the board and the edges then worked into traversing side to side. They are having free lessons at the mountain we are going, so I'm hoping to get her enrolled in one of those, I'll shoot around the mountain for a while, then go back and ride with her after. Guess we'll see how it goes.


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## Guest

i was going to write a comment about this aversion to falling leaf. then i read the thread and snowolf nailed it: "_The falling leaf is a great excercise to get the student to learn to precisely steer the board using torsional flex as well as becoming comfortable on both edges._"

so, +1 on some great advice.

also, a more general comment: friends don't let friends teach friends 

alasdair


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## Guest

alasdairm said:


> i was going to write a comment about this aversion to falling leaf. then i read the thread and snowolf nailed it: "_The falling leaf is a great excercise to get the student to learn to precisely steer the board using torsional flex as well as becoming comfortable on both edges._"
> 
> so, +1 on some great advice.
> 
> also, a more general comment: friends don't let friends teach friends
> 
> alasdair


i have been tought by my cousin , if someone can explain it wel it ain't a problem
i have tought friends of mine and they ride clean ,


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## Guest

IMO teaching a significnt others is a recipe for strife and conflict and NOT having a good time on the Hill. I have found through experience that it is much mo betta to have some one else do the teaching and then take up where the instuctor left off...

Several years ago I had my buddy Grizz teach a girlfriend and she listened to him in a way that she would not listen to me!! when the lesson was over, I took up where he left off and we were all happy campers.

friends don't teach fiends?/I agree wholeheartedly... good advice!


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