Diva Ski Tips

This is from a series of posts based on my experiences at The Hartford Ski Spectacular/PSIA-ASSI Adaptive National Academy in Breckenridge, CO. I used to go to PSIA/ASSI clinic and walk away with a nugget or two that would really click.  But at some point I thought I was spending too much money to just get one or two things (while having a good time on the snow and making friends). Here’s what I do to get more out of a clinic I carry my cute argyle notebook in my front pocket with a pen to every clinic.  The silhouette looks funny poking out of my jacket, but I’m OK with that. The mechanical act of writing helps me remember. If the weather is OK, I jot down notes on the chairlift or the side of the hill. Sometimes this means I’m skiing after the group whilst trying to put my gloves and pole straps on.  It would be funny for the group if anyone was around to see it but they are usually gone. If it’s too cold, snowy or rainy I jot down notes inside.  I will often check with my

This is from a series of posts based on my experiences at the The Hartford Ski Spectacular/PSIA-ASSI Adaptive National Academy in Breckenridge, CO.   Here’s a common scenario for me that happened at this event.  We do a drill, ski down to the group and the leader asks “How does that feel?”  So the group responds with all kinds of feelings and sensations and I keep quiet because all I felt was my hands on my but because the leader told me to put my hands on my but. Creating sensations in a skier is a powerful way to help them learn and self-coach long after you’re gone.   I’m not much of a feeler so I need help to develop sensations.  I also know people who feel everything who have a hard time making sense of it.  Here are some of the things I do with the unfeeling, over feeling and everyone in between. Start with sensations Skiing brings in all sorts of sensations, so when I introduce an activity standing still I try to create some feelings that my student can measure against when

Since you are a ski instructor, you likely learned to ski many years ago. That feeling of uncertainty at the sight of the long slog down the beginner trail is a distant memory to you. For our students, it is foremost in their minds when they start sliding down the hill. One of the best ways to understand your students’ feelings, and therefore be able to help them be successful in the lesson, is to become a student yourself. I’m not talking about taking a ski lesson; we all know we can be successful in that or you wouldn’t be reading this blog. I’m suggesting you try an entirely new sport, with new skills and situations that will help you empathize with your students once you return to the snow. Hey, you might even have fun while you do it. This past summer I took whitewater kayaking lessons with Liquid Adventures Kayaking School . I had a couple of lessons last year and a couple of rolling sessions this year, on flat water. Wave-free, no current, and very non-threatening water conditio

Every season I’ve taught skiing but one I have been preparing for or taking an exam.  The only season I didn’t, I was opening a $500 million museum on Pennsylvania Avenue in Washington, D.C. Thanks to the help of my fellow divas, friends, family and my trainers I earned a gold pin.  While I’m proud that I finally got here, I’m not sure what to do now.  I’m a very goal and deadline oriented person.  This time last year I had posted to this blog 55 times.  My whole season of prep was planned and my technical director and ski school director signed off on it. This year I’ve been adjusting to a new, challenging (in a good way) job and racing cross.  Side note: Cyclocross is a great activity to keep your fitness up going into the season and have a good time in the dirt and with friends. I know that I want to keep improving as a skier and teacher.  How can I do that with out a target to aim at? Some of my closet friends are on the examiner track so I have some concept of the gargan

The weather is crisp - well, and raining here.  Are you ready for the season?  I'm already doing a bunch of the physical fitness parts of early season success.  But in addition to raking leaves, there's some homebound tasks I need to complete before my season starts on December 1st at training.  Guess I'd better get these done during the dark days of November. My to do list: Find my boots in the basement.  They are somewhere behind the bike wheels, spare tires, rags, boxes of powdered drink mixes and camping gear.  somewhere. Try them on and call my bootfitter if I need to.  It's always easier to get work done in November than the week before Christmas. Find some skis, get the bindings set , wax 'em, tune them.  We left our skis in pretty good shape after our late Spring Utah trip last year, but I also picked up a new pair and we have a bit of switching around to do. Find poles .  Seems these are easy to forget the first trip of the season. Dig out all the

Here in the Mid-Atlantic, our ski season is short, our goals are high, and most of us have full-time jobs, families, pets, and other hobbies that impinge upon the ability to ski every day of the winter on man-made snow in Pennsylvania with 600 feet (generously counting) of vertical drop.  Ski season is coming (2 months!) - if you want to hit your goals this year, you'd better start now.  You have goals, right?  Set yourself up for success.  Don't be just a winter athlete .  It just doesn't work like that. 1)  Find a fall sport that gets you strong and builds aerobic capacity.   Picture December 27th, the Monday after Christmas.  Hundreds of beginner children show up with new skis.  The people at 3pm paid just as much as the morning folks - do you want to be the one to let them down?  Are you going to be that instructor ... you know, the one that stands at the bottom of the class, yelling at them, rolling their eyes and sauntering up the hill to help them put a ski b

I've spent a lot of time trying to correct this thing when I would just shove my hips to the side to edge by skis then I dumped by body inside. To fix this, I spent a lot of time working on edging from the feet up. Caveat: It’s pretty common for people to do this and move purely laterally. Make sure your instructions and demos emphasize forward and diagonal movement. Also, keep an eye out and fix it quickly. Start statically by rolling the uphill instep towards the little toe. You might have to point out where the instep is. You can enhance this by moving to the corner of the boot. I try this out using a garland moving from the corner one boot to the other. You will likely see students try to twist the ski instead of tipping it. Remind students that we want to tip the ski before we twist it. Then I bring up the focus to the thigh. Moving the thigh forward and inside the turn will draw the hips and upper body inside. Thanks to the Elk guy who taught me this and helped me m

I love teaching bumps. I’m a recovering bump-a-phobe. Learning lots of tactics and tricks really helped me love them. I like to think I can help someone make a similar breakthrough. This post has general ideas on teaching bumps. But I’d like to talk about how I develop tactics and skills before I take someone in there. My mom’s family is from New York and they love their bagels with a heaping mass of cream cheese. A cheese knife, spreader or what we call a “schmearer” is a key piece of equipment. The flat blade easily spreads cream cheese or peanut butter. I like to ski bumps like I use a schmearer by standing tall and keeping the edge angle low. This makes it easier for my legs to steer my skis and create nice “C” shaped turns. Standing tall gives us the added bonus of lots of room to flex and extend later. You can pair students up and ask the follower to watch the tips. Are the tips leading the tails? Are the tips pointing across the hill before they change direction? Once

I like to use the zones of the foot as a way to get students to feel where they are balanced and play with different movements to keep them in balance. The credit for this goes to a certain terrific teacher from Elk Mountain. Introduce the zones I draw a foot in the snow and explain: Zone 1 is the toes Zone 2 is the arch Zone 3 is the heel I ask students what they feel in each zone and what it looks like. Ski it, what zone are you in? Often students will tell you they are in zone 1.  When most will be in zone 3.  To match perception and reality pair students up and ask the follower what the zone their partner is in or give feedback directly. Explore zones to feel and see different outcomes If you have some time, you can try skiing in zone 1 then zone 3 to see and feel how it affects what you can and can’t do. Then try zone 2. In zone 2 you are centered over the skis and able to move fore/aft to make necessary corrections. How do we get to zone 2? What parts of the

Depending on the child’s level of development they may move as a unit or be able to move their legs independent from their upper body. Practice getting small and tall while standing still. See if the kids can stay centered as they move. Skiing bumps is like riding a roller coaster. You want to go up and down without getting out of control or tossed around. Let’s start with the warm-up coaster ( no kiddie coasters please). Find some gentle bumps and traverse. Get small as you get to the top and get tall on the way down. Next it’s time for a big coaster , so let’s go over 2-3 bumps and then turn on the top of the next bumps. Don’t forget to say whee? Get ready, it’s eXtreme coaster time. Turn on top of every bump. Look for bigger bumps to go over. When you go on bigger bumps get small and tall in slow motion.

Goal : To release and re-engage edges in one fluid movement. We want to see 2 edges, 4 edges (or flat) then 2 edges. The first critical step is to get off the old edges and get to a flat ski. Frequently a skier will brace against their outside ski, forcing them to move up and over to flatten the ski. I like to get this started by focusing on flexing the old outside ankle towards the corner of the boot to flatten the downhill/old outside ski. To practice this I ask students to drift downhill between turns. They should feel their hips float over their skis. To help this along, I add in opening the uphill knee joint . The extension helps get the belly button moving towards the new turn Take out the drift and move off the old edges and on to the new edges. Instead of floating, we’re going to sting. What we want to: SEE – Shortening /lengthening of the legs, release and re-engage edges in one smooth movement FEEL – Hips move over feet, belly button moves in the direction of

Cognitive I can process more than one direction I understand right from wrong I can think in an abstract terms and understand complex concepts Characteristics --- Instructor Responses Can apply problem-solving skills and understand effect ---Help them analyze the reason for a less-than-cause and envision an appropriate change May be gaining confidence as strength, coordination and experience increase, may want to test their limits ------ Allow enough room to be creative and gain confidence by pushing the envelope but avoid situations that are unsafe or disruptive Affective I don’t like to be singled out, even if I am the best in the group. I like to blend in with everyone else I want to be treated with respect and not talked down to I may not respect authority and will test my independence I want to have fun while improving skills and attaining goals I want to be part of the group and accepted by peers Physical I may be experiencing a growth support that affects my co

Cognitive I can only remember one or two things at a time I can show you what I learned I need to learn new vocabulary I have an active imagination I need structure I have a short attention span I like to play games I copy and mimic well Characteristics ---- Instructor Responses Egocentric (self-focused) ---Be prepared to give lots of individual attention Have short attention spans --- Keep tasks short and change often Can’t translate your right and left to their own --- Face the same direction as the students when demonstrating Comprehension based on how things are, not what caused them --- Focus on how something should look and feel Relate to the world through fantasy --- Use pretend situations and themes Affective I don’t need to be perfect I need to feel safe I may want my mom or dad I may not like new surroundings I may need reassurance I like to be told when I do something well Characteristics --- Instructor Responses Shifting from singular play to grou

Here are my dos and don'ts. Add yours in the comments. Do come to an agreement about expectations Trainers get frustrated because candidates don’t do their homework. Candidates get frustrated because they don’t get enough support. A better solution for both parties to agree on expectations of each other Do ask about the plan My tech director always asks candidates what their plan is. It’s important to analyze strengths and weaknesses then come up with a training plan.  This goes in hand with the first do. Do pay attention to the calendar Many of my friends have been sent to emotional tailspin when trainers said they were going to fail days before an exam. Once their money is paid, what can be accomplished by dropping a bomb on them? Don’t mess them up A friend of mine was horribily confused by a trainer who got the inside and outside ski mixed up. Tread lightly with canidates especially when the exam is days away.  Do ask candidates what they need We know students

Cognitive I do best with one direction at a time I need to know “why” I’m asked to do certain things I will ask questions I can learn in a variety of ways I like process more than the goals I like to be challenged and successful I can describe and explain I will remember the highlights of my day Characteristics ---  Instructor Responses Can separate reality from imagination > Avoid the use of fantasy; it makes them feel that you are treating them like babies Can understand things they can’t see --- Use hypotheticals (what ifs) to introduce cause and effect and explain why something worked or didn’t work May overestimate their abilities (I can do anything!) --- Keep them reined in to avoid unsafe situations or setbacks Affective I want ownership in my day and can work independently I compare my achievements to those of my peers I want to have fun and like to play games I like to be responsible for my learning I like to know when I’ve done something well Charac

By an energetic eastern ed staff member Balancing movements • Ski too far forward – Test those bindings • Shuffle feet • Stepping • Hopping • Lift one ski – Start lifting the inside ski toward the end of a turn and lift it earlier till you can ski the whole turn on the outside. Then try it with the outside ski. • Ski tall, short and in between • Ski placing hands on toes, knees, hips crossed on top of your head • Terrain play – Bumps, jumps, lumps, rolls, crud, ice to muck, rails, boxes pipe • Hold poles out to side – Keep em off the snow and still as can be. • Cat and mouse • Drag the outside pole – More balance on outside ski • One ski skiing – Try it with and without poles, rotating poles around upper body while turning and non ski leg crossed over ski leg • Backward herringbone – Walk backward down a pitch putting one foot behind the other. Use the sensation of pulling the feet back. Rotary movements • Hop turns • 360s on and off the snow or boxes • Real shor

Harry Potter Turns (edging, directional movement) Most children, and a lot of adults, have seen the Harry Potter movies, when Harry plays Quidditch on his broom stick. Try this use your poles as your broomstick. When you want to turn, turn your broomstick in that direction and push against your leg. This will flatten your inside ski and allow you to steer it. Game Time – Most turns Wins Throwing curses – as you move to turn around a corner flick your pole out and throw a curse. It can be “jelly legs”, “eat slugs”, “experiallmus” Flat Tire Turns (Pressure) On flat terrain, show how you inflate (extend) your tires and then how you get a flat (flex). Use sound effects with children Have students inflate their tires and turn them until their toes point down hill. Then get a flat when they turn down the hill Expand on the movement, by having students move across their skis and then steer their skis to match as they get a flat Skate to Shape (Edging/Directional Movement) On

A strong inside half is the concept that leaves many instructors scratching their heads or arguing with each other. I’m doing homework on how to coach a strong inside half. I’m ready to start trying to coach it but not quite ready to post my thoughts. So here are some thoughts of others that are worth considering. For a topic you hear discussed often it doesn't warrant much space in our technical manual. A countered stance is a form of anticipation and a way to create a relationship between the upper and lower body that helps block rotary momentum. A countered stance is typically used when the inside (uphill) half of the body leads the outside (downhill) half through the turn; this allows for effective stacking of the bones and muscles to deal with forces. We call this a “strong inside half” because the strength and functional tension of the inside half of the body facilitates steering the legs. If you were to relax the inside half of your body, the upper and lower parts would

Hockey stops are cool.  One way to get kids improving turning skills is to teach them hockey stops.  It works best with a fan progression, turns become tighter and tighter untill you complete the hockey stop. First, traverse standing tall then twist legs to get tips pointing up the hill, repeat on the other side. Next, ask students to traverse slightly more down the hill. Twist legs while keeping the upper body pointed down hill. As students become more comfortable, have them point their skis more down the hill and twist legs more quickly. Add some juice by having students tip their skis before they twist, you're will be hockey stopping in no time. What we want to: SEE - Legs turning under a quiet upper body, quick steering of the tips, ankles and knees flexing evenly FEEL - Hips centered over feet, legs turning, tightening in the core UNDERSTAND - Use legs to turn skis, quiet upper body helps turning, ankles and knees

Here are the my dos and don'ts. Add yours in the comments. Do be a cheerleader I can’t tell you how nice it is to work at a mountain where the instructors are incredibly supportive. Chats, Facebook posts, text messages and hugs are awesome. Don’t ask, don’t tell It’s a standard practice for me to keep my feedback to myself unless I’m asked or I’m teaching a clinic. It’s particularly important to give frequently picked on exam candidates a break. Do bring the fun and change the subject Exam candidates can often get in to the “all exam, all the time” mode. Sometimes they need to be reminded that skiing is fun. Encourage them to take a “burner” from the top to the bottom of the mountain. Do keep your doubts to your self Candidates often are fraught with self doubt. They don’t need any from outside sources. Do offer suggestions and perspective, but gently It's easy for a candidate to loose perspective (they're all picking on me, I'm not getting any support

Laundry, grocery shopping and oh Coming up with a good hockey stop progression Studying the CAP model Rethinking my intro bumps without bumps lesson Rethinking a short radius turn progression I welcome suggestions in the comments. T-minus 4 weeks to the exam. I'm just trying to get this done.

Congrats to the Diva and all the other vounteers on a successful Winter Games.

A common trait of intermediate skiers is whole body rotation - also known as doing too much work .   The skier may turn the whole body as a unit, so that the torso is always square to the skis.  Or, they might generate rotation with upper body force - so that the shoulders turn more than the feet. There are lots of ski instructor drills to develop more effective movements - some of these drills focus on stabilizing the upper body - hold a tray, hold the poles flat, etc.  I often find that its more successful to help skiers learn to steer with rotary movements of the feet and legs independent of the upper body - once these skills are developed, upper body stability can be enhanced afterward. When we want to help develop independent leg steering, don't be afraid to go back to the basics - many of the exercises I use are similar to those in most beginner progressions .   Then, build the progression or lesson around what the student is capable of and their success (or lack there o

Intermountain My thanks to the folks at the Intermountain division for these resources. Also, thanks for a killer steeps clinic at Jackson Hole last year. Professional Knowledge and Glossary This is 55 pages of good stuff from teaching concepts to a technical glossary. Level I Workbook This workbook and study guide helps provide a framework for your level I prep and quizzes to check progress. Rocky Mountain Teaching the Aging Population Managing Splits & the Family Private “How” to Communicate with Success Women are Different Alpine Instructor Training Course Another workbook for new instructors and aspiring level 1s Level 3 Exam Teaching Tips 3-6 Year Old Educator’s Endorsement Workbook Theory of Multiple Intelligences Sensory and Motor Development Kids Accreditation Workbook Central Level 1 Study Guide A bit dated, but still some good information Level 2 Study Guide A bit dated, but still some good information Level 3 Study Guide A bit d

Here are my dos and don'ts.  Add yours in the comments. Do accept responsibility for your preparation I was told I was a level 3 skier, but only on level 2 terrain, so I spent a lot of time on the road training at mountains up north. A friend of mine was not a book learner, so he recruited friends to repeatedly quiz him and talk through all the material in the books. It’s no one’s job but your own to get the training you need. Don’t wait for it to be given to you. Do your homework You should have a good understanding of all the material in Core Concepts for Snowsports Instructors , Alpine Technical Manual: Skiing and Teaching Skills and the Children’s Instruction Manual. Do have a plan Here is mine for this season. Do choose your coaches Everyone and their brother will try to give you feedback and advice on your training. I only listen to a few select people (the divas are included). I nod and smile when anyone else offers feedback. Part of your learning process is fi

After a fantastic day of on snow coaching yesterday with Jeb Boyd of the PSIA National Team and Arc2Arc , he recommended what appears to be a pretty awesome update of Ron LeMaster's original book The Skier's Edge.  By the way, if you ever get a chance to ski with Jeb whether at a PSIA event or through his coaching company - Arc2Arc, go for it. Perusing it on the ride home, the 2009 copyrighted Ultimate Skiing (still by Ron LeMaster) is one of the best modern technical skiing resources I've seen.  Great pictures, examples of drills and how to use them, technical discussions, even profiles of US Ski Team athletes.  Since I just got my hands on a copy yesterday, I'm still working my way through it but already I've read clear discussions of the apparent but oft-confused centrifugal force (not a vector force!), alignment and center of mass differences between sexes, unweighting moves, analysis of the skill blends under different conditions, assessing forward lean i

Ski instructors are as susceptible to trendiness as anyone. Remember the whole tea pot thing? This season’s trend is picking up the inside ski. If you see the following in a student this kind of activity could work: Hard finish to the turn resulting in a Z shape Issues with lateral balance or getting inside the turn Breakaway outside ski in the bottom half of the turn Settling in the knees Twisting or pushing skis to get on edge Pick up the inside tail If someone is drifting back or settling ask them to pick up the inside tail. This will promote flexing in the ankles and knees and will help center the hips over the feet. Pick up the whole ski If your student is centered, then we need to get them moving forward and inside of the turn. Start by picking up the inside ski and tipping it to pull the outside ski along with it.  It will take practice and coaching to get this to work. Why? Picking up the ski heightens the feeling of the movement forward and inside the turn. Once

Here’s a fun way to help students check their balance. The credit for this goes to a certain terrific teacher from Elk Mountain. You can start it off with a static activity so students can feel each zone and see diffences in the joints and fore/aft position. Then ask them to ski it. What your students feel may not correspond with what you see. They may also answer with what they think it is the right answer, instead of what they actually feel. From here you can take this in a number of directions. By the way, what is the right answer?

My apologies to the non-eastern instructors out there. I dug these sample score cards up on the PSIA-E Web site. The score cards give you a little checklist to use in your exam prep.  There are four points available in each module.  Currently, you need 10 points out of 16 to pass.  It all seems really fair and straight forward to me.    Creative Teaching Power of Transfer - Teaching Styles and Learning Modes Technical Validity of the Teaching Concept Group Handling Skills (Able to make age specific modifications) Communication Skills - Group Involvement, Personal Attention/Skiing Skills - Demos Movement Assessment Observations and Descriptions Potential Solutions/ Prescriptions Cause & Effect Relationship Effective Feedback Teaching Movement and Skills ATS Understanding Communication Skills/Terminology/Skiing Skills-Demos Use of Teaching Styles and Learning Modes Does the leader and the group see it, do it and understand it? Teaching Children and Youth Class Managem

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This December I skied with the wonderful Mermer Blakeslee and a group of really fun people. The lovely Jane skied with me and I'm putting our notes together to create a series of posts. We experimented with different radii turns at different speeds and on different types of terrain. Then we moved on to skiing with little or no edge angle. Mermer coached us to must resist the temptation to slip into a wedge by working the inside ski. If you work the outside ski only, the wedge will appear. Why? This drill helps you center yourself over your skis and gives you immediate feedback if you start getting back. If you can lean on an edge, you probably will. Taking the edges away means you have to center yourself. It’s a particularly a good drill to get things back in shape in early season. You can take this drill in a couple of different directions. Rotary - Add focus of turning the legs and shaping the turn Edging - Add progressive edging to shape turns Pressure - Add flexion

During a lesson I noticed a student’s boots were unbuckled and suggested she might want to fix them. She replied, “my instructor told me to ski like this.” I quickly remedied that situation, but it serves as a constant reminder to always bring my lessons back to regular skiing. By the way, they were rear-entry boots. Every lesson has time constraints and we need to come up with a lesson plan that works within those constraints that includes enough time practice and integration into regular skiing. Let’s say we are working on drills involving lifting the inside ski. As we near the end of the lesson I’ll ask my student to start out lifting the inside ski and then start to do the same turns with both skis on the ground. Then we should take the same feeling and movements into our regular skiing. If the movement starts to break down, don’t hesitate to go back to the drill and work your way into regular skiing. At the end of the lesson, I like to wrap up by reminding my students why

Note: I was poking around the interwebs and came across a great post by Bob Barnes on EpicSki .  It's worth reading the whole thing and seeing the great drawing, but here are some excerpts. I've had trouble with boots with too much forward lean and getting fixed really helped my skiing. Forward lean--which is influenced by boot cuff alignment, boot design and fit, footbed design, internal ramp angle and heel lifts, external ramp angle (boot sole angle), delta angle (the effect of bindings), leg and calf shape, and ankle range of motion--affects ankle and foot function, fore-aft balance, range of flexion-extension, and the ability to tip and steer skis. While there is some room for personal preference, optimizing fore-aft boot setup is absolutely critical if you want to perform your best. And there is no substitute here for a top-tier bootfitter who can decipher all the variables I mentioned above and come up with the best individual solution specifically for you.

We've done an extraordinary amount of skiing in the rain this year, it seems.  Lots of weekend rain capped off most recently by a fun wet day at Elk Mountain on Monday.  I'm becoming better at skiing in the rain and enjoying it. The snow is great on most rain days here in the mid-atlantic, but when you have to be out or you want to be out, it's important to dress appropriately and have reasonable expectations for the day. Whether teaching or freeskiing, my tips for skiing in the rain: Start with a good base layer .  When the chances of getting wet are high, bet on wool.  Or polypropylene.  Cotton will just make you colder.  This goes for socks too. Rookie ski instructors teach the most on rain days.  They have the least rain gear.  Be prepared with what you've got. Have your best rain gear, even if it looks ridiculous.  Gore-tex is great.  Clothing made for fly fishing and hiking can be even better.  Watch out for zippers on pants - water pools there and then r

What's going on here and what do you want to in your lesson? Post your answer in the comments.

Congrats to everyone (but especially Carl) who became a level 2 yesterday at Elk. It was great to meet you and I'm glad that we could help. Welcome to everyone who's coming to the blog for the first time after learning about it at Elk.  I hope you find it helpful. Everyone feel free to comment on posts and make requests.  We're here to help.

You may have heard instructors talk about the pivot point of the ski. So here's a little rundown how to look for the pivot point and how it's location impacts skiing. Ideally the pivot point is directly is in the center of the ski.  When the pivot point is in the center, the tips follow the tails and both tip and tail move the same amount. It requires good balance and active leg steering to accomplish this. It’s very common for the pivot point to be in front of the binding. In this case the tails don’t follow the tips and the tails are displaced. This can be caused by a number of things: back stance, pushing the tails, rushing turns. Less common is a pivot point behind the binding. Here, the tips displace more than the tails.

According to PSIA people learn 10% of what they hear, 40% of what they see and 80% of what they do. So why do instructors spend so much time doing something that doesn’t really stick? Instructors complain frequently about trainers talking too much and then we turn around talk too much to our students. The cycle of too much yakking must cease! I don’t need to know the when, why, how, where and what of the whole lesson at the beginning. Only tell me what I need to know right now. “Try this” is one of the best ways to start a lesson. Then add in the why, pepper in some how and keep the show moving with when. Keep tweaking your script to make it tighter and punchier, especially when you’re teaching something new. If you spend less time rambling, you can spend more time practicing. If you spend less time explaining, you’ll have can spend time giving individual coaching. You can have a more lasting and beneficial effect on your students and give way better customer service. You wil

Many people believe in skiing and teaching from the feet up. The theme of these variations is simultaneously releasing the old edges and reengaging the new edges. There is no wrong answer as long as the student is successful. If the student isn’t connecting with the activity, you need to try another approach. Magic pennies There are magic pennies under your little toe. To get the turn started push on the magic pennies. Big toe Ever done the cheesy thumb dance? We’ll this is like it. Pick up your big toe and rotate it to get the ski on edge. Instep to little toe My instep is that red thing on my foot when I take cycling shoe or ski boot off. Move your instep towards your little toe. Each one starts with a static demonstration then skiing practice. Watch out students may move too laterally, instead of forward and into the turn. You can develop this activity a couple different ways. Keep the focus on the foot by • Adding a focus on the outside foot Move the focus up fr

Skijoring a winter sport where a person on skis is pulled by a horse. Gotta love it! The faster the better says the Diva and friends.

This is the beginner progression I wrote to help my new instructor candidates. I welcome feedback on it. Here are my sources and additional resources. Introducing the lift • Organize the group before getting to the line. • Check for loose clothing and to make sure pole straps are removed. • Point out groups loading the lift and explain the process. • Explain how to unload and tell group to meet at the trail map sign at the top of the hill. • Explain how to use the safety bar Responsibility code • Always ski in control. • People ahead of you have the right of way. Look uphill and yield. • Explain the significance of trail markers. Show guests the terrain available to them. First run • Some guests may become scared looking down at the slope. Remind guests of the skills you developed on easier terrain. Ask guests to make a turn to a stop to develop confidence. • Manage your group. Tell them exactly where to stop • Give individual coaching so that each guest walks away

Weems wrote a book called "Brilliant Skiing, Everyday" that is free online and very worth a read. In it he provides a boat load of teaching pointers and lays out the Sports Diamond. The parts of the diamond are: Power - Technical, mechanical, technique, movements Purpose - Tactics, results, intentions Touch - Physical, mental and spiritual Will - Commitment, action and choice We tend to focus most on power, but a complete skier needs to be balanced in each corner to succeed.  If you find you're getting stuck in a lesson or in your skiing it's time to move to a different corner of the diamond. I can't describe it as well as Weems, guess you're gonna have to read it for yourself.

This is the beginner progression I wrote to help my new instructor candidates. I welcome feedback on it. Here are my sources and additional resources. Shallow deviations Goal: Help students develop their first turns, starting with small changes in direction working towards turns and turns to a stop. Terrain: Small incline Estimated Time: 10 -15 minutes Suggested activities: • Cross the line – Draw a line in the snow, ask guests to point the tips of the skis across the line. • Follow the path – Draw a path the snow for guests to follow. • Clock face – Draw a clock face in the snow. Ask guests to point their skis towards 11 and 1. Coaching Points: • Ankles, knees, and hips evenly flexed • Active steering of the legs Turning and stopping Goal: Develop the shallow deviations into turns and stops.  Terrain: Slightly steeper incline Estimated Time: As long it takes Suggested activities: • Slalom course – Put cones, gloves or poles up for your students turn around

This is a pretty classic drill that hits on all the elements of the skills concept . The “standard” version involves making small steps throughout a series of turns. There are many variations on the theme of 10,000 or 1,000 steps (depending on how you say it). It can be customized to work for different skills, skier levels, ages and parts of the turn. Beginners Any hopping, stepping, or shuffling style activities work on the two most important skills for beginners: balance and rotary . You can use them with just boots and/or one ski then repeat with both skis on flat or very gentle terrain. Intermediate Using this kind of drill can help facilitate matching skis. For wedge turners stepping or shuffling drills will improve balance and rotary movements of the inside leg. You can help more advanced intermediates become parallel skiers by working on engaging and releasing edges. Step to the edges, then flat, then to the new edges. Your student may be reluctant to pick up a ski.