The Journey for Level 3, part 1 (Author’s note: this blog has been a living article over the course of the season...please be kind regarding tense and time as these ‘plans’ have changed to ‘achievements’ as the season has progressed.) I came across a photo today on Facebook. 3 years ago (1/23/15) I received my shiny, silver, alpine, Level 2 pin at Whitetail Resort in Pennsylvania from PSIA. It was a fantastic day recognizing all I had learned and experienced the previous 5 years of teaching and skiing. It was also the capstone to a lot of time and energy I (and all the others who helped me in my journey) had devoted to this particular goal. I look at my face in that picture and I know what went into the shining smile. After seeing it today I knew I had to write about this next experience as well. When I got my level 2, my first courses of action were taking my first level 3 prep clinic (where I felt completely out of my comfort zone because I was mov...
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UPDATE: October, 2015: This has been updated with new links, programs, and information. Please let us know if you have other references, we promise to update again before 2020! - Kerry (Diva2) Last year when I was preparing for my L3 Part 1 Skiing exam, the Dev Team Diva turned me on to these great task descriptions developed by Bob Barnes for the PSIA Rocky Mountain Division (the Pocket Summaries listed under "Skiing" below). (Kerry's edit: Those pocket summaries are not on the PSIA-RM site anymore. But I think what you're looking for is in the Skiing IDP linked below.) In my search for them online, I discovered lots of other valuable ski teaching resources tucked away on various PSIA divisional Web sites. So I printed them out, organized them into categories, and stuck them in a binder. The binder became an invaluable resource in discussions with my good friend and ski coach as I helped him to prepare for his Dev Team tryout and he coached me to success in my ski...
written by Kerry and Debbie The Diva and D2 have many years of experience teaching in the corral in the Children’s Learning Center and have often trained instructors on how to teach beginner kids in that environment. In order to help others learn the magic of teaching in the corral, we’d like to share some of our tidbits of wisdom. Welcome to the world of teaching kids! DO: Count early and often. Children are slippery little buggers. Make sure you know how many you have at the start of the lesson, AND which ones you have. Learn their names, memorize their jacket/pant ensemble, do whatever it takes. Parents get upset when you hand back the wrong child. Or no child at all. DO: Wear your skis. You are a ski instructor, not a boot instructor. Yes we all know it’s harder to climb up the hill with skis on. But get over it; you are a ski instructor. Be in shape enough that you can skate up the hill throughout the two hours. Consider it your professional responsibility. Hey, it might even help...
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.
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 m...
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 si...
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...
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...
I picked this up from a clinic with an examiner. I just wish I was this clever. This is a simple, fun progression you can use to teach speed control tactics in the bumps. You can use it with adults as is or make it a bit more serious. We have a mission, a great destiny to create castles in our hilly kingdom. Where should we put our castle? Why on the top of the hill of course. Stop on the top of each bump to place your castle. By focusing on stopping on each bump, you use turn shape to control speed. Also, your students will be able to easily pivot on the top of the bump since there isn’t much resistance. Now, all castles must have a flag pole right? What color is your flag? Plant your flag like this when you get to the castle on top. Then motor around the castle to cut the grass. You can demonstrate touching pole on the top of the bump or the downside of the bump depending on your student. Touching on the top is the most neutral. Touching on the downside helps the student mo...
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...
“The CAP Model” helps us remember the three basic categories [Cognitive, Affective, Physical], which make up human development as it relates to skiing. The level at which a child understands, behaves and moves depends on their growth and development. Your ability to communicate skiing information to children (cognitive) depends on: How children process information. How children express themselves. How children reason. Young children understand the world in concrete or experience based terms. This means they comprehend only what they can see or touch, or have seen or touched before. Abstract thinking begins to develop by age eleven or twelve. Concepts such as cause and effect, time and space, and distance and speed, are developed over time. A child’s understanding of these ideas can affect their understanding of communication attempts. The ability to process information grows with the child. Very young children may not be able to attend to putting on skis while receiv...
by Alison Clayton-Cummings PSIA-E In teaching skiing, instructors should address the common movements that lead to more effective and efficient skiing. Adults are able to learn and develop these movements precisely and accurately. With less strength and coordination, children may not be able to develop and utilize movements with the same refinement as an adult and may substitute other movements in their place. This does not mean that children are incapable of effective, efficient movements, only that it may take more time, practice, and repetition to reach the same level of competency as an adult. While the real movements of children may involve larger muscle groups and more gross movement patterns, these will gradually come closer to ideal movements as the children grow older, bigger, and more experienced. In setting lesson goals, instructors should observe the real movements their students are making and strive t help students come closer to the ideal movements. In the descrip...
Atom Bomb (Balance/Stance) Balance a pole on the back of your wrists to promote a quiet upper body and good balance. If you drop it you blow up. Flat Tire Turns (Pressure) To start the turn inflate you tires and turn them until your toes point down hill. As you begin turning down the hill, you get a flat. **For matching deflate inside to make matching easier Cowboy Turns (Edging) Use very wide stance, put your hands on your knees, use your thumbs to push against inside of downhill knee Skating (develops active movement from one ski to another, edging, moving CM forward) Ice Skater - Glide on one ski for three seconds, then on the other, keep the glide ski pointed where you want to go Speed Skater - Roll your ski on edge and push off, move across your skis like a speed skater Xtreme Skater - Xtreme skaters know no fear, they skate down hills, but to do that you really have to get skis on edge and move across your skis The Squatty Body Waltz (Edging) Ski in a squatty ...