Life Lessons from a Swedish Ski Instructor

We left Scandinavia for the US via Swiss Alps, and even there I was reminded that the road to success and peak performance could be Nordic-style balance, joy & flow state.

Dec 21, 2022

Turns out, even in Zermatt, Switzerland, my Scandinavian education continues!

We left Finland on a snowy and uncharacteristically sunny Saturday on December 10th, but instead of flying directly back to the US after spending the fall in Scandinavia, we traveled to Switzerland for a transitional vacation.

My husband and I had mused on the idea that an active winter holiday in a neutral country—that’s actually not even part of the EU—would be a good place to reset and get ready for our 2.0 lives in the US (meaning, coming back to our old home, but modifying our lives as much as possible to our new Nordic mindsets).

Scandinavian Ski School

Serendipitously, as we stepped into our ski boots, grabbed our skis, and took a gondola up to meet our ski school instructors up on the white mountain, we learnt that we were paired with Swedish and Danish instructors.

We had signed up our two oldest boys for ski school for the duration of the trip (at 7 and 8 years old, they wanted to master skiing backwards and jumping, something we thought would be best left to a coach to teach), and I had wanted my own grown-up ski school to help me expertly navigate the Zermatt peaks so I wouldn’t fly off-piste into a crevasse—a perhaps funny, but valid concern when skiing on a glacier! (My husband was happy to shoot down the black runs on his own).

I was paired with a Swedish ski instructor, while my boys were paired with a Danish one.

What’s more, as our transitional trip moving in between continents fell into the slow season—those preciously quiet 1-2 weeks before the end of most school semesters and Christmas and winter holidays—no one else had signed up for more advanced ski schools, and we got our Nordic trainers all to ourselves.

Life Skills for the Slopes

I had been expecting a Swiss-style download on how to improve and perfect my technique to get me down these slopes without heli rescues, but what I got was something so unexpected and so Scandinavian, I really couldn’t believe it.

I got to experience, for myself, the Scandinavian teaching style my kids had just experienced in their school in Finland. The famed Nordic teaching style responsible for, at least per PISA scores, some of the best education in the world far beyond countries like the US and UK, that puts less emphasis on technical skills and more emphasis on life skills.

What this meant, on the slopes, was not focusing so much on “getting top points” in coming down one slope, but instead focusing on building confidence and getting into the flow, so I could get down any run and enjoy it too.

From Wikipedia: "In positive psychology, a flow state, also known colloquially as being in the zone, is the mental state in which a person performing some activity is fully immersed in a feeling of energized focus, full involvement, and enjoyment in the process of the activity…Flow is the melting together of action and consciousness; the state of finding a balance between a skill and how challenging that task is.

As I hesitated on the first steep and black-labeled part of an otherwise red run, and looked around for him to provide me a map of moves I could use to descend without losing control, all I got was:

“Just relax. Skiing is meditation. When you let go of all the thoughts in your head, the worries, the fears, you will ski great. You’ll see!”

Instead of improving my skills & strategy, he wanted me to loosen up, relax & just fall in love with skiing the Alps.

Intuitive Learning

As I needed to get down somehow anyhow, I decided to give his approach my all, and turned my skis downwards.

“Speed is your friend!” he would shout with his Swedish accent, as I made my turns, raising his arms and poles into the air as if to embody a gold-medal performance, just for daring, and having fun.

Not long after, I noticed myself loosening my grip on the ski sticks, relaxing my shoulders and balancing my breath—and even laughing out loud skiing down the pistes at the Rothorn ski area.

I had interviews my boys’ teacher and the school principal, talked to multiple parents, and read countless articles on how it’s possible that Scandinavian kids can learn so much, and conquer so many skills, by essentially practicing technical skills less and life skills more, not ranking themselves, simply focusing on having more fun. But no one was really able to explain to me, how that all was actually possible.

Peak Performance Through Happiness

Here, in the Swiss alps, I got it. I understood why that was all possible because I myself was now learning faster than I ever had, and laughing more than I ever had, on ski slopes.

“Look, you thought you were a total beginner but you just went down a steep red in total control,” my instructor suggested, as we ascended in a cable car to the highest piste in Europe, the Matterhorn Glacier Paradise.

When you teach connection, confidence and having fun, the rest tends to fall into place.

“In just four days, you got to solid level 4. It’s not just about the skills. When you are relaxed & enjoying it, you can ski any terrain. Then you don’t really fall. You intuitively react and always find your way.

Had I let my doubts about my own skills & fears stop me—which so often happens in any kind of learning and trying new things—I would have never glided down that tallest European peak— and laughed while I was doing it because it was so much fun.

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I would have also never found myself carving down along the longest European run from Switzerland to Italy and back in one day.

Even when he gave me a technical tip, he also asked me to not try it too hard, and focus on the mental tools he had given me, should things get choppy, icy or very steep.

“Just feeeeel it!” He would say with his Swedish accent, as he modeled the “reverse airplane”, to help me find my center balance. “Having center balance, that’s the most important thing; everything starts from having balance first.”

I smiled, as there couldn’t be more of a Scandinavian mantra.

Another whole world on top of the mountains opened up for me.

Could this attitude of conquering new things and skills with more intuition, feeling & fun, and with center in balance, be one of my biggest imports from Scandinavia—and Switzerland slopes—back to the US and wherever we’ll live?

What do you think about this Nordic approach to learning? Have you tried learning new skills as a grown-up and would you try this approach? What do you think, could this work for kids outside of Scandinavia too?