I'll take a shot responding to a few thoughts here.
There's been some sentiment that folks aren't skiing well (as compared to some time in the past) or that skiing is in decline. I don't see it-I've never seen so many folks ski well and do things once thought impossible on skis. I can't right off all those twin-tipped teenagaers and twenty-somethings as mere acrobatic aberrations-I see to many of them doing it all well (trees, bumps, steeps, and of course Jumps both in and out of the park...I love that ski-wheelie all the kids can pull off these days). And that all-mountain bug has bitten plenty of us early middle agers, too and again, I remember a time when to ski the trees at Jay peak was to be alone- now, it's amazing how many folks can handle that terrain and handle it well. That's not a pitch for PSIA, I doubt some resort group lesson is turning out the people I'm talking about. I just mean to point out that there are plenty of folks skiing well, irrespective and perhaps completely without regard to any instructional school of thought.
Sure we still see folks swishing around in wedges, hunched over like pregnant ladies while riding very hard skids-but no more than in days of yore (and at least they don't have the football jackets and jeans anymore..well, not ost of them anyway!
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Now to the more pressing argument. Apples and Oranges, Ott. Neither Bob Barnes nor Harald (and not any other high end instructor or Coach) are ever asked to teach the sort of lessons you are describing (and yes, the school bus crunch model is still alive and well at my mountain, too) nor do they give advice on teaching those lessons. I think you're right when you ask, what else can you teach in that situation except some sort of beginner balance and the rudiments of a wide footed turn which is about what folks get, and that's no easy task even for a good instructor.
But Harald's Camps aren't for never-evers, and Bob get's sought-after privates at keystone and choice clinics at Epic Academy events (and PSIA instructor clinics) so I'm not sure what your plaint about the lowest end lesson experience means to this thread. Does Bob Barnes even have advice for that sort of lesson?? Any more than Harald?
The student that both Bob and Harald compete for is the intermediate. That is, the person who got started with friends or in one of those corporate group lessons, has put a few years in but is stuck in an advanced beginner, or very low intermediate rut (that's right, someone else did the hard work of getting them up and moving around the mountain).
The question is whose advice will move that student along quicker and further?? Harald's books and videos have worked for me-I've never tried any of Bob's stuff-Has anyone taken a clinic via Epic Academy with him (or any other high-level PSIA coach) AND worked with harald??? That's the comparison at hand.