Instructors are fuckin' patient!!!
I basically wasted 3 months of skiing to ski instructing this past season, time I would have loved to spend destroying powder lines or hittin' up the park.
I did skip a lot of days though haha.
But to the thread maker, you wanna know the basics? Here's PSIA standard basics:
Level 1.
Get used to the boots. Walk around in your boots, try jumping around, flexing the boot, practicing wedge without skis on. Get 1 ski on and slide around on it. Practice the wedge with 1 ski. Get both skis on and practice walking around, sidestepping, maybe the harringbone (the V walk uphill). Finally, once they can walk, a straight run down a shallow hill, to a wedge stop if they can.
Level 2.
Go work on wedge stops, and maybe wedge turns. If you have a ropetow or a T-bar or something easy like that (not a chairlift) Use that. To wedge turn, make a wedge, and push down using your opposite big toe (Right big toe to go left, Left big toe to go right... You get the idea). To go up a rope tow or T-bar, BE SURE YOUR SKIS ARE STRAIGHT!! No idea how many 4 year olds I had to pick up... ****ers!!! Haha sorry... Jea. Wedge turns and weave across the hill, don't go straight down or you'll lose control.
Level 3.
Connected wedge turns (Wedge Christie) Begin wedge turns and turn from staying wedge when you traverse the hill to parallel across the hill. So you do a wedge turn for the turn, and then a parallel traverse (your skis parallel).
Level 4.
Improved Wedge Christie. Begin switching to parallel turns sooner, so about half of your turn is wedge turn, half is parallel. This sets you up for parallel turns.
Level 5.
Parallel turns. Jea. Parallel turns where you just carve on your inside (Uphill) edges.
That's basically it. If there are any other instructors who care to criticize me on not being perfect in my memorization of the book of ill-favored ski teaching mcgayness, suck my balls. I hate teaching ahahaha
P.S. that took fucking forever to type...