Why ski schools don't market their instructors? Most ski schools will not have names of their instructors on their website (or credentials).
A couple of reasons I can think of...
Cost: Even if you have a list of instructors available and their credentials, and a nice photo, most people will balk at the price once they find out how much a lesson runs.
Unrealistic expectations by guests: Credentials only tell half the story. Some of the best instructors I've even met were just CSIA 2's, who for various reasons never progressed. I've also seen CSIA 3s who were able to ski well, and regurgitate knowledge on an exam but were terrible instructors. (I had one fellow who came to work at my ski school one year who had his Level 3 in snowboarding and Level 2 in skiing, without having worked a second as an instructor. He had just pinged the exam enough times until he'd passed. On paper he was impressive, but in practice... there are things that experience will teach you that you don't learn on a course...)
And of course, what happens when a guest requests Mr PSIA examiner and gets a PSIA 1 instead? They'll be quite unhappy indeed.
Turnover: In Canada especially, a lot of the workforce come in on 1 and 2 year visas. So a huge amount of the workforce changes over annually. Maintaining a website with the bios of 200+ staff for a decent sized snow school becomes a lot more costly than whatever benefits it might bring in.
Another factor is that most good instructors in the US don't actually instruct guests, they are typically staff trainers, examiners, supervisors etc, as that's where you can make a sustainable living.
Absolutely! Same case in Canada. The "best" instructors are the ones doing Instructor training programs while others are in snow school administration. (That's not to say that all top cert instructors are "good" per-say, some of the worst clinics I've ever been on were with CSIA Level 4's who were well past their due date...)
* Note: in my other job as a mental health counselor and couples therapist....
I can imagine that you'd get a fair number of clients from couples where one tried to teach the other to ski!
& did you eventually feel your arch?
Of course, if your trainer never told you when, where, how or especially WHY they were asking you to "feel your arch" then I am sure the path was much longer than necessary.
Often, this is what it takes to make an effective positive change. It is up to the teacher/coach to provide the proper feedback, example & direction to keep the student/athlete on track.
As someone who spent a few years in college doing sales, I've found that a lot of instructing really is about salesmanship! You're trying to get the student to buy into what you're teaching them, but in order for them to buy in, they have to understand *why* they want to ski a certain way, or change something. And that all stems from the start of the lesson. I always ask my students, "why are you here?"
The responses I get are never the same. Some are here because they have a fear of skiing trees or bumps, others are here because they just need to be able to get faster on groomers to keep up with their kids. Some are here just because their parents or spouse made them. But by knowing what their motivations (or lack thereof) are, you can actually make some progress, and you don't end up with students having the same experience as
@SallyCat did, getting turned off from the whole process. As my sales training put it, "hit them with your FBAT." Feature of what you're working on, Benefit, Ask them to try it, and then say thanks at the end.
On a personal note, I've been told for years on CSIA courses that I wash out my turns and over-rotate when I turn to the left. I was never told how I was doing it it, or what to do to correct it. Just to stop it. This week I was doing a ski camp with the DSV (German Ski Instructors association) and my trainer took a look at my skiing and said "you know, you kind of swing your right hand around when you pole plant, but you don't do it with your left. If you keep doing that, you over-rotate."
Boom. Problem fixed.