Skip to main content

My beginner lesson - Part 4

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

Coaching Points:
• Ankles, knees, and hips evenly flexed
• Active steering of the legs through the whole turn

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

VAK - Visual, Auditory, Kinesthetic

Visual learners These students learn best by watching and imitating others. The following guidelines are helpful when teaching visual learners. • Ski well-executed demonstrations that illustrate the point. Be careful not to exaggerate and destroy the picture of good skiing. • Target the students’ attention to a certain part of your body or to particular movements.

Learning Styles – Doers, Feelers, Thinkers, Watchers

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

Ski good or eat wood

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 problem. These stumps were more p