Skip to main content

My beginner lesson - Part 2

By
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.

After the boot excercises it's time to put on a ski.  It's up to you to allow guests to choose a ski or tell them which ski to put on.  Given a choice most will choose their dominat foot, so give plently of practice time when you go to the week foot.

One ski
Goal: Help guests become comfortable on a single ski and introduce balancing and rotary movements.
Terrain: Flat
Estimated Time: 10 -15 minutes

Suggested activities:
• The name game – Practice naming the parts of the ski.
• Practice putting the ski on and taking it off
• Gliding on one foot, scooters
• Follow the leader
• Red light/Green light
• Push against the poles - On opposite edges, place one pole near the tip and the other pole near the tail. Then turn the skis to push against the poles. This gives the guests the feeling of creating turning force with the feet and legs.
• Figure 8s
    1. Keep ski on the snow
    2. Change sizes (large to small)
    3. Focus on maintaining contact between shins and boot cuffs

Coaching Points:
• Keep hips centered over the feet.
• Maintain shin contact with the boot tongues.
• The ski should be flat, if the ski is on-edge it will be more difficult to steer.
Labels:

Comments

  1. Sight SeerJanuary 8, 2010 at 12:10 PM

    Good tips! It also helps to use Lightweight Ski Poles. Read more at http://www.sightseeingreview.com/lightestskipoles.php

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Learning Styles – Doers, Feelers, Thinkers, Watchers

By
A learning style is the way a person’s sensory, perceptual, memorial, decision-making, and feedback mechanisms operate. Or more simply, the preferred technique to approach learning. Some students have a dominant style and others are comfortable in more than one. PSIA references different theories on learning styles, this is a classic one. Doers Values active experimentation Pragmatic, practical, functional Good problem solvers, work well with others Constantly active, doesn’t like being idle and gets frustrated with too much talking Learn by experimenting, trial and error Instructor should provide experiences that will guide the child Experiential learning is an effective method for all students
3 comments
Read more

Creativity with kids

By
Sometimes, I see instructors preparing for exams and getting bogged down in all of the terminology, studying kids development literature, and others' progressions or ideas.  That stuff is important, for sure.  But in order to have a ton of fun teaching kids, we have to apply all of that professional knowledge while looking at the world through kid-colored glasses.  Yeah, the big fluorescent ones.  Like these: A few of the Liberty gang were clinic'ing with me this weekend - a kids' teaching clinic.  One of the required clinics everyone has to take each year.  Usually I make everyone sing "Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes" loudly while skiing at some point during these clinics.  But we never got to it. I gave each of the three groups a description of children we often see come through our programs and asked them to develop a program to share with the group.  Once they got started thinking about movements and their ideas, I bugged them to get more...
3 comments
Read more

Ski good or eat wood

By
Ski good or eat wood. That’s only one of two mottos for White Grizzly Adventures , a cat skiing operation based in tiny Meadow Creek, British Columbia.  The other motto is considerably less family-friendly. I was a little excited to see the lodge sign... I should say, this was my first time ever cat skiing – it’s quite the splurge but can truly make a ski vacation a vacation – no worries, just lotsa skiing and eating (yes, we had sushi for lunch in the snowcat one day!). Appetizers.  Seriously.  The first question Carole asked when I called to give them my credit card - I’d already filled out about 3 pages of forms online! - was whether I’m an expert skier.  Did I know they ski steep, tight trees most of the time?  Did that sound fun?  Am I fit enough to ski a whole day without getting exhausted and increasing my chance of injury?  Um, yeah!!!  Epitome of a 'tree bomb'. Without a lot of wind, snow piles at the top of trees can be a pr...
4 comments
Read more