Are You Ready for a Womens Week of Skill Development?
Words: Emma Wilson
Photos: Brendan Reeves
Pip was hit badly from behind by a large male snowboarder. It was a bad accident requiring Pip to go through surgery, which made it impossible to run a household with young kids for quite a few months. Her family hired someone to help with the kids and the house while Pip physically recovered from a leg in traction but it left her pretty traumatised and hesitant to ever ski again.
‘Skiing for survival not enjoyment’
Pip’s family loves the snow so Pip’s goal was get back on the snow so she didn’t hold up her family but understandably became very paranoid about being hit by a snowboarder again. Heading out on her first family snow trip Pip felt very tentative and knew she’d lost her confidence.
Getting Back on the Horse
- Knowing she had to do something different if she was ever to get out of ‘survival ski mode’ , Pip enrolled in a Rookies Women’s group during winter 2024 in Wanaka. “The men’s and women’s ski weeks are well organised by the Rookies team and the ski content is personalised with your individualised needs by your trainer. I knew I could get that daily on-snow consistency that I needed throughout the week. And as a bonus these weeks have a real ‘community feel”. Pip’s trainer for the week was Georgie who Pip felt focused on skiing being about enjoyment rather than survival and took Pip back to the fundamentals of skiing. “The fundamentals went against my instincts” Pip says as she tells me about the bad habits she’d developed in survival mode as a result of the accident.
How is Rookies Different from Regular Ski School?
Pip has participated in regular ski school classes before and can vouch for them to be fun, enjoying the camaraderie of being with a group of women having a great time. She had different motivations this time, and felt she ‘had to‘ get back on the horse’ post-accident and knew the Rookies crew would make her work hard to change her mindset as well as fix her technique. As an added bonus – the opportunity to access some of the world’s most elite ski trainers who were usually off enjoying post-Northern Hemi downtime was too good an opportunity to miss!
The Trainer
Rookie trainer, Sarah Walls has been instructing for 20 years and training trainers and conducting ski instructor examinations for 15 years with NZ Ski Instructor Association (NZSIA). Sarah works back-to-back ski seasons between Telluride Colorado and NZ and has been working with the Rookies since 2017.
Sarah agrees that if you’re a female intricately motivated to push yourself, the women’s camps are the camps for you. She has worked for various ski schools teaching women’s weeks and women’s lessons and feels what sets Rookies apart from standard snowsports schools women’s weeks IS that intrinsic motivation to push yourself to the next level of competence.
“Ski school women’s lessons can be super fun but often the ladies there are kind of into skiing but kind of not into skiing. Rookie camps are different to that, you are going to be pushed, your limits of what you think is possible are going to be blown apart. You’re with the same trainer all day every day for a week, the trainers are at the top of their game, they’re really into video analysis and will custom to you what you need to improve”.
Sarah thinks there is a place (and an important place) for both standard ski school and Rookies camps, “we don’t try to compete with ski schools as there is space for different types of women’s weeks, ski school women’s lessons and camps are very popular and fun and that’s what people want when they’re on their holiday. Rookies is the next step up when you’re ready to nail those fundamentals but you have to be ready for it”.
Pip loved having the same Rookie trainer every day, building trust that they were caring about what she was afraid of and loved that they were committed to her. “There were so many takeaways from the daily lessons. The consistency of what was expected of me carried through the whole week. I left feeling my confidence was restored (to how it was pre-accident)“.
If you’re interested in a Rookie’s women’s camp and men’s camps, they have ski camps in Japan, USA, NZ, Canada and China. Check the schedule for a week that suits you.
If you’d like more information about Rookies camps, including the men’ s camp, or know a male skier with bad habits who doesn’t think he needs improvement , or want to read about snowboard issues or other skiing issues read here.
See you in Wanaka through the Southern hemi winter 2025!