carissa

Psychomotor: What The Heck is That? By Katie McHugh

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What does P stand for? Petite, power, perfume, pretty, pretty powerful? When it comes to the CAP model, it stands for both physical and psychomotor development. When we think of physical development in children, how they grow,  this includes how their center of mass changes as they age as well as their ability to access fine motor skills versus gross motor skills. Whereas the physical realm is concerned with the body’s growth and development, the psychomotor realm is concerned with how the brain talks to the body, and how the body talks back to the brain to learn how to move. It’s a complex process that involves the perceptual-motor system. This system, how the brain receives, processes, and transmits information, is highly affected by the developmental processes and experiences of a child.

 

For the brain to talk to the body, it processes information through our sensory receptors, our eyes, ears, nose, and our joints, muscles, and skin. When a three-year-old falls in the snow hands first without mittens on, he or she shrieks because it hurts! The skin on their hands felt the cold, and the feeling of cold on the skin was transmitted to the brain via nerve endings. The brain then communicated to the hand through the nervous system to remove the hand from the cold snow. Hopefully, the child is now willing to put his or her mittens on to avoid this sensation in the future.

 

If you think about your own skiing or riding, trying to make that perfectly round turn, how do you know you have made it? Does it feel smooth? Is there more pressure in one phase of the turn versus another? Our brain receives information from our external environment and our body’s movements. We process what we see and hear, external stimuli, to decide where and when to turn. And we process information through sensing movement, through proprioception and kinesthesis, to decide how and when to move. 

 

Proprioception refers to the brain’s ability to know where we are in space. Think of Simone Biles in the 2020 Olympics. She lost her ability to know where she was in space and was said to have a case of the “twisties.” Imagine being on a 4-inch wide balance beam and trying to do a backflip not knowing where you are in space. Not ideal. We can speculate that Ms. Bile’s vestibular system of the inner ear, a key part of proprioception, wasn’t functioning properly. Bringing this back to your own skiing or riding, think about how you know when to extend your legs to reach the ground after you go over a bump. The landing is spotted visually, your eyes communicate this information to the brain, and you know to reach for the snow with your legs. Yet, how do you know you’ve touched the snow if you don’t look?

 

Kinesthesis is the body’s ability to detect its own movements. Simply put, we feel when we hit the ground. The bottom of the feet feel the pressure build up underneath the skis or board and communicate to the brain that it’s time to flex the knees to absorb the landing. Our skin, joints, muscles, and brain are in a constant communication loop, helping us make movements at the right time and in the right amount.

 

In teaching children how to move, it is important to take into consideration how their brains are developing and what level their brains talk to their bodies. How much information can their bodies process to talk back to their brains? Think back to that 3-year-old student with cold hands who finally realizes what a wonderful idea it is to keep his or her mittens on. Have you noticed that student may need to look down at their skis to know that he/she is making a wedge? Kids’ bodies, muscles, and joints are not yet developed enough to process the position of their skis, so they need external confirmation. With repetition and practice, they begin to know without looking that the wedge is occurring. And, they can also begin to sense that it slows them down. 

 

As children grow cognitively and physically, they are capable of detecting movement through proprioception and kinesthesis at a much faster rate. An eight-year-old can look down a tree run, visualize his or her turns past the next several trees, and communicate to his/her body when to start and finish the turn to complete the imagined line. A four-year-old may only see the turn around the tree right in front of him/her and can only communicate to his/her body how to start and finish the turn one turn at a time. Yet, give that 4-year-old plenty of repetition and practice time, and their ability to see those lines and communicate with his/her body will improve.

 

Understanding the psychomotor realm and how it develops in children helps inform our instruction to give our students the time and practice they need to learn motor skills and enjoy the sport. Developing minds need a lot of repetition to learn a new movement pattern. To keep your lessons exciting and your students engaged, keep working on the same skill in different ways to keep it interesting. This gives the brain and body time to communicate with one another until a new movement pattern emerges. Enjoy the process.

 

Telemark is Alive and Well! By Jim Shaw

The Scoop / By

Jim Shaw PSIA-AASI RM Telemark Chair

 

Telemark is alive and well! You may not have noticed but there are more telemark skiers on the hill and interest is growing. Last season, all RM Telemark events ran successfully! Companies like 22 Designs and Scarpa are adding to their lines and introducing new products. New festivals are popping up at Breckenridge and Winter Park. Things are alive and growing!

 

So, what’s new in the PSIA-AASI Telemark world? As with every other discipline and specialist we are moving towards national alignment and will see this after the end of the 25-26 season. The biggest change RM Telemark will see is the move towards a more modular certification assessment process. Currently RM Telemark operates with a more integrated assessment process. We have not separated the various modules (Skiing, MA, Teach) by day. As we move forward, the standards will not change but the various components will be slotted into a specific schedule rather integrated throughout the assessment process. This will certainly make it clear as to exactly where we are in the process and what’s next. We have been offering certification assessments every other season. This season will be at A Basin in late April. The last before moving to a more modular process.

 

Last season, Tele Fest in Steamboat was a great success with Tele Trees, All Mountain Performance, and Precision Tele clinics offered something for everyone. It’s sure to be a success again and a true hot spot for telemarkers.

 

There are several other opportunities if nothing else fits. There’s always a clinic at Spring Fling and at Angel Fire at the Southern District Spring Fling this season. There was some truly amazing skiing at the Extreme Tele at A Basin last year; maybe again this season?

 

Tele is the original way to slide down the mountain. It’s been around for more than a thousand years. Alpine may be a faster way to get down and snowboarding has many advantages as well, but we still Telemark. There are many reasons telemarkers telemark. At the foundation of it all we put one foot in front of the other. It’s the most natural of movements and something we all learned to do around the time of our first birthday. Come give it a try and join us at one of our other events and share a few ideas on how to put your best foot forward!

 

 

 

 

 

How Skiing Impacts the World Through Sport & Human Connection By Christian Bright

The Scoop / By

Opportunity comes to everyone. Sometimes, we act, and sometimes, we don’t. There are opportunities that we are glad we missed, and there are opportunities that we regret we didn’t take. However, the key is always to be alert and recognize opportunities for what they are. 

 

Ski instructing was an opportunity that I took. It has been one of the best decisions I’ve made in my life. However, as I worked and continue to do so at Steamboat Ski Resort, another opportunity was presented, and I almost didn’t take it, but I did. That ‘yes’ was transformative, and it is the best yes I’ve said yes to since becoming a ski instructor. 

 

That yes was agreeing to join a local non-profit, Generation U, in Steamboat Springs, Colorado. It was a decision that opened new doors and changed my perspective. During my first weeks as an instructor, I met the founders, Joel Cobb, Snowsports school supervisor, and Nich Cornwell, ski instructor. 

 

Weeks pass, and Nich tells me about Generation U, a non-profit that brings water to Uganda’s most vulnerable people. I tell Nich I am a former journalist, and several months later, I begin writing for Generation U. 

 

I started writing blog posts, following the story of the Generation U athlete program—high school athletes using sports to connect with people and raise money for water wells—and the organization as a whole. 

 

I’ve been to Uganda twice in under six months, in February and again in June. It was my first time leaving the country in February, and I went to a third-world country. Video, pictures, and marketing schemes you see on TV do not do it justice because it’s not reality. 

 

When we arrived in Uganda, we slept and took a seven-hour van ride to Baduma village. Traffic was something I had never experienced. There were few lights in the cities or lane dividers, but everyone knew the right of way and the hierarchy of vehicles, who moved for whom. 

 

Then we enter a Baduma. We drive down a dirt road, likely the only one. Bumpy is an understatement; you bottom out frequently. There are no street signs or directions to villages, but we are greeted with massive celebrations. We sing and dance—I mean dance—and celebrate a village having a clean water source. 

 

We are born with clean, running water from a faucet that will run all day if we choose to. Imagine not having indoor plumbing, water, or electricity—we can’t imagine it. We’ve not had it. 

 

The first village I went to, I was overwhelmed. I had not experienced a crowd sprinting to our vans waiting to hug, dance, and celebrate getting a water well.

 

Afterward,  I followed a man around my age, 25, to where they get the “good water,” a concrete irrigation pit where water flows from the rice field operations. We were not allowed to get that water but were guests, so it happened anyway. The water source was maybe a half mile away from the celebration. We carried empty jerry cans – a canister for water- to the water source, and I peered into one before we filled it. It was black inside, with germs, dirt, and diseases. 

 

A young boy came to get more on a single-speed bike with no shoes on, no air in the tires, and bent pedals. He loaded three jerry cans weighing 50 lbs each onto the bike. I pushed the bike for a bit on the dirt path with potholes seemingly every foot. 

 

The young boy and the man are beside me for support because you cannot spill a drop; every drop is critical. Something that hit my heart heavily while pushing this bike, physically struggling, was the water I was pushing was already contaminated, and I was effectively pushing disease and sickness to people in that village, but the other water source was worse. If they drink the water, they get sick and die; if they don’t, they die of dehydration; choose your evil. The young boy eventually had me stop. I took too long to return it to the village, and he rode off easily. 

 

Preface: I was on a backpacking trail crew in Routt and Medicine-Bow national forests that summer. I was in shape, but it still was one of the hardest physical things I’d ever done. People in Uganda do it every single day, multiple times per day, and it’s often women and kids who fetch water. 

 

After the celebrations, I went to some of the villager’s huts made of mud and straw. They are better kept than most Americans’ homes. I also had a child take me to where they collect water for their family. It was a mud hole where animals bathe, filled with moss, murky brown, with all sorts of insects swarming in it. These families will drink, cook, and wash with this water. 

 

This is the reality. Many people walk miles to a hole in the ground that is contaminated with insects, algae, dirt, feces, and bacteria and drink and bathe from it. Kids use any container they have to fill it with water, whether it’s a jerry can black from backer tiers to used oil jugs or engine coolant jugs. 

 

Another reality is Uganda’s attempt to help with clean water. They installed chlorine dispensers next to water sources to clean the water. It does help if you know the amount to put in so that it is not harmful to ingest. However, on the dispensers, there is no stop valve; the people who fetch water can put as much chlorine in their water containers as they see fit. There were no instructions or education on the dispenser to tell people how much to put in. 

 

Because of a lack of information, Ugandan hygiene and sanitation practices are not as prevalent as in the United States. In the United States, we are taught from a young age not to put our fingers in our mouths, cover our cough and sneezes, wash our hands before we eat, and how germs spread. 

 

Villagers may not know these things, but sometimes, they learn what a germ is and how it spreads. They learn not to defecate near water sources or where they eat, to take their shoes off before going to their homes, and how to make soap from coal or ash. These are all practices that Generation U teaches in the bush, and we’re seeing declines in typhoid and malaria in these communities that learn hygiene and implement it into their lives. 

 

I was fortunate to help build a pit latrine for the Baduma village with a man named Fred. The latrine provided the village with a place to use the bathroom in one central location, helping to keep feces out of water and food sources. 

 

I recently went again and was able to do similar projects, such as building a pit latrine and helping pour the concrete casing for a well. In June, we bought sugar and offered it as a gift to villagers—sugar is relatively expensive and is only used on special occasions. This immersed us more in the bush and allowed us to meet more people in the community to tell them about the well in the ground and that it was for everyone to use. 

 

As we were doing that, each family we visited welcomed strangers into their homes like they had seen us before. A family, in return for the sugar, gifted us a chicken, which is an essential animal in the bush, demonstrating the appreciation and kindness of the Ugandan people. 

 

In the United States, many people don’t know their neighbors, let alone invite strangers into their homes to learn about each other. 

 

In the villages, it truly is about community. Although we think they are struggling or in need, they have community, something the United States needs to improve. Everyone says hello. If you see someone walking by, you acknowledge that person and engage in conversation. They greet you with smiles and a willingness to get to know each other. 

 

Since my trips to Uganda, I’ve made three good friends: Issac, Isa, and Cha Cha. All three are around my age and were translators while we were in Uganda. Issac and Isa are both at university, and Cha Cha is a businessman. I have developed relationships with these men, and we talk weekly, proving that you can make friends with a language, time, and region barrier. 

 

If I had not said a simple yes to ski instructing at Steamboat Resort, where this all began, and a simple yes to going to Africa, my view of the world and the importance of water, hygiene, and human connection would be misconstrued and surface-level. 

 

To get involved or make a donation https://gen-u.org/

 

 

The Return of the Center Line! By Josh Fogg, PSIA-AASI RM Alpine Chair

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As our attention turns toward winter each fall, it’s normal to start wondering what the buzz word will be- what will everyone be talking about this winter? “Center Line” and the “Common Threads” are those buzzwords. For those of you wondering if you just travelled back to an era of stretch pants and long skis, hold tight. There are many members who’ve never heard of these buzzwords, and that’s exactly why we want to lean into them.

 

At the PSIA-AASI Spring Conference in May 2024, the Alpine Task Force* decided to reintegrate aspects of the Center Line concept in our Alpine Skiing Assessments starting the 24-25 season. We identified it as the part of our Technical Understanding story that is not commonly utilized these days, and still plays a critical role in PSIA-AASI. Knowing the Center Line and Common Threads adds context to the idea of “task variations,” and deepens our understanding of the Skiing and Teaching Fundamentals.

 

The Center Line concept was born in the 1980’s to support and clarify aspects of the Skills Concept. It identified the Common Threads, which are common movements or mechanics that are the same in Wedge Turns, Wedge Christies, Basic Parallel, and Dynamic Parallel Turns performed on groomed terrain. For demonstration purposes, each of these tasks are performed in a medium radius corridor, with a turn shape that is symmetrical above and below the fall line, to maintain a consistent speed. The Common Threads include:

 

  1. Both skis stay on the snow
  2. The ankles move in unison creating matching forward angles
  3. The skis are simultaneously guided/steered toward the fall line to begin the turn
  4. A countered relationship is maintained through the finish of the turn
  5. The legs flex and extend independent of each other to move the Center of Mass laterally from one turn to the next
  6. Pole use and position supports the stability and alignment of the torso

 

With the Center Line intact, we can vary the skill blends and application of fundamentals to meet the needs of different environments, speeds, and situations.  For example, pressure control skills take a very prominent role in fall line mogul skiing. Or, when you are doing an outside ski turn or a javelin turn, both skis don’t stay on the snow all of the time anymore. Other examples include how rotational control becomes so important for pivot slips, or how edge control takes center stage in railroad track turns and carved large radius turns.

 

Center Line is more than skiing with a narrow application of the fundamentals. Variations of skill blends and application of the Fundamentals make up an important part of Center Line. The variations from the Center Line are just another way to express Lateral Learning; a key tool in skill development. By exploring different skill blends and applications of fundamentals, we advance from one milestone of Center Line to the next. Each variation challenges our skillfulness; we learn the limits of things like how far we can turn the skis, tip them on edge, or how to finesse the edge angle.

 

Armed with the Center Line chapter of PSIA-AASI’s skiing story, we can see how later models, like Stepping Stones and the Fundamentals, work together to tell us a more complete story of skiing. Together, all of them inform us about skiing and how to structure our lessons to create learning experiences. Armed with technical content that has a theme and is flexible in nature, we can guide a student’s reflection to transfer the learning in to long-term memory much easier. Without the whole picture of our technical story, lessons become muddled with thin reflections, lacking any really memorable moments.

 

As we look forward to this coming season, take some time to explore how Wedge, Wedge Christies, Basic Parallel, and Dynamic Parallel turns are linked to each other. Along the way, explore how all of the other activities on the Skiing IDP are variations from this Center Line. The experience will make you a better skier and teacher. Here’s to the coming winter, cheers!

 

*The Alpine Task Force is made up of regional representatives (I am the current Rocky Mountain representative) who are working on our national alignment initiative. We meet several times each year working to surface best practices in our assessments to reach PSIA-AASI’s alignment goals for the 25-26 season.

 

 

My Friend Weems by Victor Gerdin

The Scoop / By

My Friend Weems – A Skier

 

I had heard, read and known about Weems since the early ‘70’s. His “take” on skiing, and life, somehow had always intrigued me. It wasn’t until 1987, when I was hired as Ski School Director at Buttermilk Mountain, that our paths would finally cross.

 

Weems and Nancy had moved to Aspen a few years before, and when I met Weems, he handed me his business card. On it was a black and white picture of he and Nancy skiing, with the words “Real Good Ski Instructors” and their phone number – I liked his style from the beginning!

 

When D.D. and I arrived in Aspen, I wasn’t sure what to expect. This was especially true because the two people who hired me (the Buttermilk Mountain Mountain Manager and ASC’s President/CEO) were “let go” from Aspen Skiing Company within 3 months and 6 months, respectively after we moved here! Needless to say, Aspen Skiing Company, and the ski industry, were in transition:

 

  • The infamous era of Curt Chase, k.a. “Papa Bear”, as ski school director, was in transition with Curt’s retirement, (Curt was one of the 7 founding father’s of PSIA in 1961)
  • The Silver Queen Gondola’s installation on Aspen Mountain became the longest single stage gondola in the country, while Snowmass received some the first detachable chairlifts in Colorado,
  • And ASC ownership was changing as the Crown Family became co-owners of what used to be Aspen Ski Corporation with the MKDG conglomerate, and its ties to 20th Century

 

This was also the time when Snowmass General Manager, Curt Stewart, promoted then Snowmass SS Director, Doug Mackenzie to the Snowmass Mountain Manager position. Weems and I were Stewart’s finalists for succeeding Dougie as the SS Director. Curt saw the value that Weems’ creativity and communication skills could bring to the school, but I think Curt was somewhat “nervous” about his financial skills and perceived that Weems could possibility “sink this ship” financially, without knowing it!? I guess somehow that made me the better choice!?

 

During this 5-or-so years of working closely together (literally AND figuratively meaning we shared a 150 square-foot office), Weems and I had a lot of fun working from the same mindset of making the Snowmass Ski School the best it could be … and, along the way, became good friends.

 

But also during that time, the world of skiing, and therefore ski instruction, was ripe for change with the shaped ski tsunami rapidly changing the way anyone thought about the sport. At that point, Weems was WAY ahead of the curve, innovating and directing the path of that giant wave for the Snowmass School and PSIA-RM. As Squatty references in Weems’ book, “… we don’t teach people how to ski, we turn them into skiers!” Weems was a skier that was also a prolific writer, and writing was the tool he used to become the great communicator. His life’s ambition, in addition to being the best dad and husband he could be, was his book “Brilliant Skiing, Every Day”. And the basic premise he immortalized on the pages of that book, was how he lived his life when he said – “I can’t make the best turns everyday, buy if I maintain my attitude, feeling, sense of humor and will to shine … I can be brilliant every day!”

 

But there was a day in April of 2008, that tested every fiber of Weems’ being. The day Wallace (a.k.a. Waddy), their son, died, every person that new him was crying their eyes out and saddened beyond belief! The unimaginable sadness a parent must feel in losing a child is hard to comprehend. But during the hours, days and weeks that followed, Weems seemed to draw on the inner-strength that helped him manage other difficult times in his life. And he used that strength to help the rest of us move past our grief and honor Waddy as the very special person he was.

 

Brilliant was a word Weems used regularly and also was a theme he used for his life. We all make mistakes in life, some more than others, and Weems used his brilliance to absolutely learn from each one. Around 1995 is when different goals would lead to different paths:

 

  • Four individual schools would merge to become the Ski and Snowboard schools of Aspen. Weems was a big player in making this
  • Jim Crown and Mike Kaplan would lead ASC to become the “family” it is Weems was effective in guiding some of that transition as well.

 

At Weems’ Memorial celebration on top of Aspen Mountain this past June, his family presented stories of what their husband, brother and Dad meant to them. His oldest son, Dylan, told a heart-wrenching tale about the difficulties he had growing up, but shared the touching conversations he had with his dad during his last days. Afterwards Dylan, Packy, Ben and Nancy cast Weems’ ashes into the wind, just a few ridges down from where they cast Waddy’s ashes 16 years before, to reunite them.

 

Weems has touched thousands of students and pros, throughout his lifetime, to be the best they can be. He used his wit, humor, irreverence, compassion, listening skills and spontaneity to help us all become Real Good Ski Instructors! And there is one spontaneously irreverent poster of Weems that prompted one of his grandchildren to tell him … “Hey Grandpa, pull your pants up!?”

 

Let’s raise a toast to Weems Westfeldt, a good friend … and one of the most brilliant skiers and teachers of all time!

 

 

Curiosity Corner – April 2024

The Scoop / By

The Curiosity Corner was suggested by a member committed to lifelong learning.  Three suggestions will be offered in each newsletter as something to explore while stirring your cocoa, your cocktail, and your spirit off the hill.   If you have new and inspiring articles, podcasts, books, movies, etc. that might spark others’ learning, please share them with jtarlow@psia-rm.org.  Sometimes looking outside our own resources can expand our perspectives on our work with others or ourselves.  Curious? Happy exploring!


To Start: Before the season’s memories begin to fade, sign up for an interesting Zoom (free) on May 13th titled, Benefits of Forgetting: How It Helps Us Learn, Think, and Thrive.  Here is the announcement from Barbara Oakley’s Learning How to Learn newsletter:

 

“Until recently, most memory scientists believed that forgetting served no purpose. But new research tells a different story: Forgetting is not a failure of our minds. It is good for us – and, alongside memory, it is a required function for our minds to work best. How exactly does forgetting help our cognitive, creative, and decision making abilities? And how do we identify and deal with undesirable forgetting?”

 

On May 13th,  she will explore this topic with Dr. Scott A. Small.

 

“Scott A. Small is a physician specializing in aging and dementia and a professor of neurology and psychiatry at Columbia University in New York City, where he is the director of the Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center. He has co-authored over 120 articles and his neuroimaging and molecular work has led to 7 patents. Dr. Small is also the recipient of numerous research awards and his research has been covered by The New York Times, The New Yorker, and Time. Register here!“

 

Secondly, if your off season time involves planning for next season’s assessments, or just building your understanding in any area of interest, here is Olav Schewe’s short TEDx talk called, The Power of How.  Listen at 3:24 ask he explores the difference between asking Can-based questions that imply what you want to do might not be possible.  The shift to ”How can I learn more effectively?” can change your mindset to help you become solution-oriented on the way to success!


Finally, wrap up your teaching season with a look at the soon to be named new National Team and postings from this year’s National Academy.  Over the off season time(or during your summer in ski boots!), inventory your teaching and learning strengths and weaknesses, and dream up some clinic topics you’d like to suggest to your school or region to bring some new professional development opportunities to light!!



Fly Butterfly by Dana Forbes, CEO

The Scoop / By

I have a tattoo on my shoulder of half of a butterfly. People will ask, why only half? My answer is simply that I like being somewhere between the beauty and the goo. When a caterpillar forms a cocoon and starts to morph into a butterfly, they literally become goo.

The three stages of a butterfly’s life can be viewed as metaphors for life, death, and resurrection. The caterpillar represents life, the cocoon signifies death or a transition phase, and the emerging butterfly symbolizes resurrection or new life.

 

I often tell people that when I work hard towards something, that I am morphing into my next….”me.” As I near the goal I have set, I imagine the single wing of the butterfly poking out of the cocoon, almost completing metamorphosis. At this moment, I am somewhere between the goo and the beautiful. Most people would want to fast forward to the beauty, but I like both. It is in this state they are evolving, growing, and changing.

 

I love to grow, change, and evolve so maybe that is why I like the in-between? I am also notorious for getting so close to completion then deciding it can be even better or something different. I am guessing many of you reading this are similar in that regard.

 

As the season comes to an end, consider the moments where you grew, evolved, and faced change over the years. Now go back to when you were the “goo.” It was messy and ugly, and you were likely wondering if you would ever get there. How did you respond to those moments? Did you embrace them? I can assure you that if you embrace change, rather than resist it, you will learn to love the in-between and become more comfortable sitting in it and visiting it many times throughout your life. But this takes courage. Courage is the root of change, and change is what we are meant to do.

 

Last month I wrote about not getting discouraged, which is the loss of courage. I encouraged you to remember that you are amazing educators and sliders, and that one bad day can’t take that away. Now I am asking you to have the courage to embrace all the changes you will face in the industry, and in life.

 

“People die 1000 times to get to who they are” ~Zach Bryan

 

So be the caterpillar, the cocoon and the butterfly and you will get to fly thousands of new times in this lifetime and that is what it’s all about!

 

A special thanks to the women who inspired this article:

 

Last week at our big Vail event I had the opportunity to ski with six beautiful butterflies. While we only spent a few hours together, what these women did for me and one another spoke to the strength of our sliding community. They embodied the courage to change, evolve and grow. Thank you, Julie, Maddie, Sami, Shauna, Grace and Hannah. Keep spreading your wings butterflies!

 

 

 

Don’t Get Discouraged by Dana Forbes, CEO

The Scoop / By

You know that sweet spot? The moment the turn feels just, right? The day you are on, and every turn feels amazing. You even get some hoots and hollers from the chairlift. Why is it then, when something goes wrong, we have a bad day or someone tells us it’s not perfect, we believe we were never that good? This even happens to elite athletes who have won gold medals and Super Bowl rings. They have one bad day and everything they accomplished goes out the window. 

 

I just taught one of the worst lessons of my life and I have been teaching for 35 years. When I walked into the office, I said “that was discouraging!” There was nothing I could do to get this girl to turn. I tried every trick in the book, and my book is thick, and while I do believe there are some people who should never ski, and she may have been one of them, it was still discouraging and made me wonder if I am a bad instructor. Am I though?

 

Did you know that when you let someone (even yourself) get in your head, making you feel discouraged, you are allowing them to take away your courage. That is what it means to be discouraged, the removal of courage. Discouragement equals failure when it moves in, and it is imperative that you get rid of it. 

 

First you need to ask yourself, who is your adversary? And then tell them to shut up. If you don’t, delusion sets in, and we begin to doubt ourselves. While yes, many people can be delusional, causing them to have a giant ego, you can also be delusional over emphasizing your weaknesses. It can make you think you are further away from something than you are. The reality is, we usually get discouraged the most when we are working towards something great. We all know that when doing the work, we may just be one step or one small change away from success, yet this is often when we give up.

 

Many of you are about to, or just did take an assessment. When training, and in the process, it is difficult to not get discouraged. It is easy to get in your head or let someone else get in your head. But I know the very reason you are in the process is because you had that day described above. The days when you crushed it out there. So as the season winds down and whether like me you have a bad lesson, or a bad run, or a bad assessment, choose the confidence to know that you are good and that one day doesn’t take away the many great ones! 

 

Stay the course and have a safe and wonderful end to your season. 

 

Curiosity Corner – March 2024

The Scoop / By

The Curiosity Corner was suggested by a member committed to lifelong learning. Three suggestions will be offered in each newsletter as something to explore while stirring your cocoa, your cocktail, and your spirit off the hill.   If you have new and inspiring articles, podcasts, books, movies, etc. that might spark others’ learning, please share them with jtarlow@psia-rm.org.  Sometimes looking outside our own resources can expand our perspectives on our work with others or ourselves. Curious? Happy exploring!


Here is a book rich in ideas for improving people skills – “Supercommunicators” by Charles Duhigg.  This looks at ways to not only improve conversations, but connections, both vital for building really strong relationships with our guests, and all the people in our lives.

 

Along with completing a daily lesson safety debrief at Breckenridge, staff receives messages that go deeper into considering your own personal safety.  This TED Talk on optimism bias is helpful for reviewing your thinking on possibilities to keep you safe through the end of the season and beyond.

 

As Spring approaches, try developing some exercises, drills, or movement patterns and sensations for students to take into their off season time.  Foot arcs in the sand at the beach, downhill lies on the golf course, inline skating experience…What else can you offer them to keep the memory of great snow time with you in mind during Summer and Fall?



Gamify Your Lesson Experience by Scott Birrell, PSIA-AASI RM Children’s Committee

The Scoop / By

Using the Power of Play to Enhance Student Engagement and Learning

 

During one of my lessons this season a student exclaimed “I feel like I’m in a video game but it’s real life!”. It left me pondering how I could replicate this in future lessons. As a non-gamer, I decided to dig deeper into what makes video games fun and addictive, and see whether I could incorporate these concepts into my snowsports lessons. 

 

This led me to discover the concept of gamification. In simple terms, gamification refers to applying typical elements of game playing to an activity to encourage engagement. Gamification is currently being applied across various domains including studying for academic tests, motivating participants in exercise programs, and influencing consumer behavior. 

 

With digital intelligence, also known as “tech-savvy”, being added to Howard Gardner’s Multiple Intelligences, and an increasing emphasis on fostering engagement and retention in snowsports, can we gain by adding gamification to our bag of tricks? I believe the answer is yes.

 

There are many types of games, and many typical elements within those games. These include having a narrative or story, point scoring and rewards, leaderboards, feedback, goals, rules of play, unpredictability, discovery, and much more. Some people prefer individual games, while others prefer team-based games.

 

With all these options and variables, where do we start? Goal setting is a great first step (Teaching Skills Fundamental #5). Beyond asking the typical questions about what skills students want to learn, you could find out: 

  • What is their favorite game to play at home? Why? 

  • Do they prefer to have a clear objective, or the freedom to explore and experiment? 

  • Will points and rewards be a fun way for them to stay motivated? 

  • Do they prefer team-based activities or individual tasks? 

 

The source of motivation is personal to each student, and what is fun for one student may not be fun for another. We can ascertain information while goal setting to build a student profile, determine their ideal type of fun, adapt to the changing needs of the learner (Teaching Skills Fundamental #2), and find ways to gamify their lesson in a relevant way.  Scholarship about gamification has identified four different types of fun:

 

People Fun

Students motivated by People Fun are all about social interaction and relationships. For this type of student, find ways to incorporate partner games and challenges throughout your lessons. As the instructor, think about how you can connect the students with each other, with you, and foster learning along the way? 

 

An example could be pairing up your students with a leader and follower. Each time the leader touches their helmet, the follower has to jump. Build upon this by having the leader make a random mix of small, medium, and large turns, where the follower must stay in their tracks. You could also have one student ski or ride down to a safe spot, then be the “controller” for their partner by pointing left and right to safely direct them down the slope. 

 

Partner discussions, problem solving activities, teamwork games, and activities to find out more about each other are also great ways to add game elements to your lessons for students who prefer People Fun. 

 

Easy Fun

Experimentation, exploration and play define Easy Fun (Teaching Skills Fundamental #1). For students favoring this approach, learning is a creative process. Video games like Minecraft allow for plenty of exploration and adventures where the player is in control. 

 

You could gamify your lesson experience by having students explore as many different turn types and shapes as possible, scoring points for each new turn they discover. Recently, one of my students attempted to do “3” shaped turns, where they did a “C” turn, stepped around, and connected another “C” turn in the same direction. This allowed them to discover that turning back up the hill can help manage speed, reduced their reliance on making a wedge to slow down, and helped them understand the concept of leg rotation.

 

Other simple ways to add game elements for those that enjoy Easy Fun include involving them in the decision making process of where to ski or ride, exploring the trail map together, and building a theme or story around your day. 

 

Hard Fun

Students that like Hard Fun enjoy the opportunity for challenge, mastery, and feelings of accomplishment. They may want to test their abilities with difficult tasks or competition. For this type of student, you may want to establish various goals, objectives, quests, or milestones to achieve. For example, riding on 10 different lifts throughout the day, striving towards carved tracks down a steep black run, or switching between three different turn types in the bumps without stopping.  

 

You could also add rules of play or set parameters that force these students to problem solve and accomplish goals. Allow your students to be challenged, fail, and try again, while managing emotional and physical risk (Teaching Skills Fundamental #4). By problem solving and pushing through frustration, there will be an even greater feeling of accomplishment once success is achieved. 

 

Serious Fun

For students that like Serious Fun, purposeful participation in learning changes the way they think, feel, and behave. Every aspect of the learning process has meaning- from planning to preparation, and from practice to execution.

 

You can give students the agency to be “game designers”, where they plan the lesson experience collaboratively with you. You can set milestones to achieve, and facilitate reflection upon the learning process (Teaching Skills Fundamental #3). Find ways to help the student achieve goals that help them grow as a person. For example, improving their coordination, discovering new strategies for learning, or increasing their confidence to tackle difficult tasks. 

 

In summary, adding game elements to your lessons can make them more fun, engaging, and effective for you and your students. Gamification also helps us to successfully apply the PSIA-AASI Teaching Skills Fundamentals:

  • Promote play, experimentation, and exploration

  • Adapt to the changing needs of the learner

  • Facilitate the learner’s ability to reflect upon experiences and sensations

  • Manage emotional and physical risk

  • Collaborate on long-term goals and short-term objectives

 

By using a gamified approach we can drive motivation, make failure an acceptable part of learning, and create a fun and interactive lesson environment. As the saying goes, “you can discover more about a person in an hour of play than in a year of conversation”. Try incorporating gamification into your teaching practice; you may be thrilled with the positive impacts on fun and learning for you and your students. 

 

References

Post Foster, E. Sogard, R. (2018). PSIA-AASI Teaching Snowsports Manual. American Snowsports Education Association, Inc. 

 

Lazzaro, N. (2004). Why We Play Games: Four Keys to More Emotion Without Story. XEODesign, Inc.

 

Reflect and Project by Dana Forbes

The Scoop / By

As the year comes to a close, most of us cannot help but consider the past twelve months and plan for the coming one’s. We are busy thinking about all the things we want to achieve and reflecting on what we did and did not accomplish. I can guarantee that everyone reading this has set a goal and not met it. I can also assume that many reading this have BIG plans for the season and all they want to get done. So how do you get there?

 

Many of you know the saying “how you do anything, is how you do everything” I recently shared with a group of people that I am that person. I am the one who puts the grocery cart away, picks up trash when no one is looking and makes their bed, every single day. However last month I had to change an implement out on my 75 HP John Deere Tractor. This is a large machine and I needed to remove the brush hog and attach my 78” blower. Last year my neighbor helped me, but this year I was determined to do it on my own. I was, however, extremely intimidated. This was all quite new to me having just bought it a year ago. So I read the manual, watched the Youtube videos and read the manual again. I still had my neighbor come supervise because this is not something you want to mess up – and I crushed it! I spent the remainder of the day ticking off my list of things to winterize my property when I arrived at my final task…changing the windshield wipers on my truck. Now, if you have made it this far, in an effort to entertain you, picture this: I rip open the package and just dive in. If you have done this recently, you know that this may be one of the most complicated things to do as there is a secret decoder ring or riddle to solve just to figure out how to get the old ones off. I’m sure you can imagine how it went. To put it simply, they are still sitting on my backseat. Yes, I went back and attempted to read the directions and sort it out but I just wasn’t committed. The reality is, how I do anything is NOT how I do everything, otherwise I would have prepped more and likely found success.

 

Did you know that if you spend just 18 minutes a day on a skill, and do this for an entire year, roughly equivalent to 100 hours, you will be better than 95% of people in said discipline? While I have zero intentions on spending any amount of time on those wipers (look out NAPA here I come), there are things within my skiing I want to be better at. Since the average season is 100 days, I have decided to commit one hour a day to improving in that area. I am sure many of you reading this have goals around their teaching or sliding. Whatever it may be, set that intention now and know if you commit just one hour a day, you will succeed.

 

Does this mean if you do not spend an hour a day doing your “something,” you will fail? This, I do not know, and likely depends on how far you made it. With that being said, don’t fast forward to this exact time next year and reflect on what goals you did not reach. To avoid that, on the days when sitting in on another MA session seems unbearable, or it’s raining and blowing sideways and you just taught the family from hell, you may have to force yourself to just do it. There is power in one more day. In Alcoholics Anonymous, those in recovery are taught that if they can stay sober for just one more day, when they want more than anything to give up, they will not only make it through that day but likely the next one as well. It is also so much easier to just focus on the one hour you need to commit that day, versus the 72 more in front of you. Stay the course, commit and you will carry it through.

 

 

 

Alpine Tech Article by Gates Lloyd

The Scoop / By

Dec. 12, 2023

 

As I write, the holidays are around the corner. RM schools are furiously wrapping up the technical training, and nuts & bolts of operations for new and returning staff.

 

As these training sessions wrap up, it’s a good time to step back and consider the human side of our job – the Fundamentals of People Skills:

 

  • Develop relationships based on trust.
  • Engage in meaningful, two-way communication.
  • Identify, understand, and manage your emotions and actions.
  • Recognize and influence the behaviors, motivations, and emotions of others

 

One way – my way – to connect the Fundamentals to one another is to look at them upside down.

 

In my mind, I exercise the fourth to meet the challenge of the third Fundamental. An on it goes: exercise the third, move on to the second. If I’m successful, I enjoy the first – relationships – as an outcome of the fourth, third and second.

 

Trainers have been modeling the Fundamentals for in house training and Examiners have been doing the same in early season assessments across the Region.

 

At the 2023 Fall Education Staff Training session, the Alpine groups identified and the assessment skills of examiners:

 

  • Facilitate a positive environment that helps candidates perform
  • Collect information
  • Interpret and apply information relative to the National Standards
  • Deliver an interpretable result

 

Over two days, we went through a series of on-hill, practical scenarios to develop these skills.

 

After the training I realized that there is application beyond examining; these skills are closely linked to teaching.

 

Let’s rename them instructor skills…and see them through the lens of an instructor:

 

  • Facilitate a positive environment that helps guests achieve their motivations
  • Collect information by watching and asking questions of our guests
  • Interpret and apply information to develop an effective lesson plan to meet motivations
  • Deliver interpretable feedback to celebrate guest achievements and inspire development

 

I’m committed to using the People Skills to develop relationships based on trust. Over the holidays I’ll develop the practical instructor skills I mentioned above: set up a positive environment, collect information freely, have time to interpret it and offer feedback that connects with my guest.

 

Connecting People Skills Fundamentals to practical instruction skills gives me a plan as I go into this busy time of the season.

 

Best wishes.

 

 

N-Mail by Jim Sanders

The Scoop / By

Greetings Nords!  N-mail is back, just for you.  It’s been a while.  It seems like it’s been a good seven years since there was an N-mail.  That’s because, it has been seven years.  Where does the time go?  I guess I was busy skiing.

 

For those of you who have never received an N-mail, please don’t be afraid.  N-mail is a good thing.  And it probably won’t hurt.  Its primary purpose is to communicate information about things Nordic (Nordic meaning XC & Telemark, in my Lexicon) that take place around PSIA-RM to you, the member.  It’s also an opportunity for me, the N-mail staff, to have a forum to spout my opinions and observations about Nordic stuff around RM and elsewhere, mainly for your entertainment.  Just like with Nordic skiing, everybody is welcome to join in on the fun.  So please, read on.

 

It’s been a bit of a slow start to the season as far as snow.  I hope that by the time you read this, things are different.  Some areas around our region have been consistently good at providing early season XC skiing over the last few years.  I thought it would be nice to give these areas a little recognition, so you know where to go if the snow is still thin.  With our consistent cold temps, Summit County Nordic areas have always been good at getting open on or before Thanksgiving.  Now Breckenridge Nordic, Frisco Nordic, and Gold Run Nordic all have snow making capability, so XC is even more consistently available.  Crested Butte Nordic and Grand Mesa, home of Grand Mesa Nordic Council, have done a great job of getting open early for a while, and they are awesome places to ski.  So start skiing, it’s out there.

 

Now that we’re immersed in the Holiday rush, it’s important to have something to look forward to, like Nordic events in January.  Register now, as you’ll have to pay a late fee if you’re within 3 weeks of the event.  No one likes late fees.  There will be an XC Level 1 Prep & Assessment at Vail Nordic starting Jan. 8, an XC L1 Assessment at Telluride Nordic on Jan. 13, as well as “XC Transitions in Classic Skiing” at Telluride Nordic on Jan. 8, and Classic and Skate Skills Improvement Clinics at Catamount Nordic on Jan. 25 & 26!  Go to psia-rm.org to see this season’s event calendar, get more details, and register.  You really should not miss any of this!

 

You may have noticed there have been many changes to our XC technical and certification resources, information, models, materials, and processes. And these changes/updates are amazing.  Right now, thanks to collaboration and hard work from PSIA Nords from all over the country, we have XC Education and Certification materials available for free on line that are more complete, more helpful, more interconnected, and more useful than ever before.  We have “E-Learning” courses for “Delivering the XC Beginner Experience,” XC Level 1, and XC Level 2 (brand new!!).  Everything makes sense and fits together really well.  These resources will help you prepare for certification, or if you are already certified, help you hone, modernize, and solidify your skiing/technical, teaching, MA, and people skills and knowledge.  It’s great!  But there’s a catch.  You have to actually take the time to look at and read it.  Sure, there are lots of fancy names like “Performance Guide,” “Learning Outcome,” and “Fundamentals.”  But the more you use these tools and fancy words, the more familiar and comprehendable they become.  The XC Fundamentals and Performance Guides (PGs) may be the most useful reference materials we’ve had in a long time.  The Performance Guide is not spellbinding bedside reading for most of us. However, what I’ve found is the more I go back to the materials, reading, reviewing, and checking on concepts, cues, and ideas, the more valuable it becomes.  Now that I’m “getting it,” I use this information on-snow everyday in my lessons and clinics.  Especially if you are going to an Assessment this season, dig into this material now.  It will pay big dividends!

 

This brings me to the last topic for this N-mail:  Nordic Culture and training/preparation for certification.  Most of the Nords I’ve met over the years are passionate about XC and/or Telemark and love to learn and improve.  And yet, at RM Nordic Certification events, many candidates have not adequately prepared or trained for the event.  As Nords, we’re very good at skiing lots, training for fitness, and getting “tips” and cues from talented and successful competitors, instructors, and athletes in our sport. But we seem to be less passionate and effective at having a consistent technical and teaching “training mindset” and behavior.  In Alpine Ski Schools, I see training cultures.  Certification training groups are established at the beginning of the season. Groups meet and train together every week, all season long. Folks set up informal weekly Movement Analysis evenings, often as social events or pot lucks. Instructors come and watch ski videos and practice MA together.  You can even drink an adult beverage at these informal events.  I’ve participated in these, and it’s really fun.  You develop strong friendships, and you truly improve your skills and knowledge.  Why don’t we have this as a part of our Nordic culture? This is both a suggestion and rhetorical question.  There are some very real differences in the Alpine and Nordic business and culture models that would be some of the answers to this question, but if we love to learn and constantly strive to be better skiers and instructors, why don’t we (You!) embrace this idea and try it?  Just a thought…

 

Well, that’s it for now.  I look forward to seeing every one of you this winter at a Telemark or XC event.  Until then, you can e-mail n-mail at hugeglide@aol.com.  See ya’.

 

 

 

Using Movement Analysis to Affect Functional Change in Cross Country Skiing

The Scoop / By

By Marcin (Martin) Wiesiolek

Movement analysis stands as one of the most potent tools in the ski instructor’s repertoire. With a thorough understanding of this tool, it becomes invaluable, both in identifying the mechanics behind skiing and in providing solutions for students on the fly. At its core, movement analysis is a tool that allows us to break down and examine the body’s positioning, its movements, their timing, and power behind the movements. By doing so, we can better understand how these factors impact the performance of the skis and identify any potential issues or areas for improvement. With this understanding, we can choose the right coaching cue, be it internal or external, or adopt a progression. This allows us to address any challenges or seize opportunities to enhance our student’s skiing or our own, guiding us toward skiing proficiency objectives.

The Challenge in Movement Analysis Proficiency

 

One thing I’ve noticed with candidates across all certification levels is a certain hesitation or unease when it comes to movement analysis – or to put it another way, they’re not quite proficient with it yet. For movement analysis to be genuinely effective during ski lessons or clinics, you’ve got to be really good at it. If you miss the mark in pinpointing a skier’s area in need of a change, you risk using a good chunk of your lesson or clinic without getting closer to the objectives. Being adept means understanding every facet of a skier’s ability, from body posture, its movements, to the coordination and strength of these actions. It’s about comparing this to when every aspect is performed optimally. In other words, it’s about measuring one’s skiing against the best standards in a manner that allows you to create actionable steps for a change in your student’s or own skiing. Yet, discerning the differences between a student’s (or your own) ski skills and top-notch skiing, and then devising the right adjustments to bridge those gaps, is no walk in the park. Hence this tool’s potency doesn’t present itself on day one. To truly harness its capabilities requires significant practice. Instructors who limit their understanding of movement analysis to exam materials risk seeing it as a source of anxiety rather than an invaluable coaching tool.

 

 

Movement Analysis for Personal Progress

 

Harnessing the power of movement analysis is not only vital for coaching but it can also be a key tool for every cross country skier’s personal growth. By taking the time to dissect and understand your own skiing, you open the door to numerous transformative benefits.

 

  1. Self-awareness: Regularly evaluating your own cross country skiing skills broadens your self-awareness, highlighting both your strengths and areas needing improvement. This introspection goes beyond mere error identification; it delves into understanding the nuances of your movements and the rationale behind every glide, stride, and poling action.
  2. Feedback Loop: Acting as your own critic fosters an immediate feedback mechanism. Instead of relying solely on an external coach’s observations, you can self-correct in real-time or post-session, maximizing the utility of each practice.
  3. Empathy in Teaching: Recognizing and surmounting your own challenges equips you with a unique perspective when instructing others, nurturing a sense of empathy. This insight allows you to resonate with the triumphs and hurdles your students or athletes might face.
  4. Enhanced Communication: As you refine your capacity to spot and rectify your skills and techniques, your ability to articulate insights to students improves. This enriched understanding facilitates clearer, more actionable guidance.
  5. Continuous Learning: Cross country skiing, like all sports, is dynamic, with evolving skills, techniques, equipment, and strategies. Persistent self-analysis ensures you remain attuned to the latest methodologies, constantly learning and adapting.

In summary, movement analysis, while an invaluable coaching asset, also holds immeasurable worth for personal growth. It’s a testament to the perennial learning journey that every cross country skier undertakes, regardless of their proficiency level. And as you elevate your own skills, you’re better positioned to elevate those of your students or athletes.

 

 

A Simple Guide to Embracing Movement Analysis

 

 

Develop a System

When you’re in the middle of a lesson or clinic, you’ve got to be quick with your movement analysis, so you really need a straightforward system. Consider movement analysis as a tool—it guides the direction of your lesson or clinic but isn’t an end in itself. You’ll probably find yourself doing this analysis more than once in a session. Every time a student tries out a new skill or sets a different goal, it’s worth taking a quick moment to re-evaluate with a new movement analysis. This helps keep everything aligned with where the student wants to go. Here’s a suggested framework to consider:

 

  1. Observe and Note: Start with observing and noting what exactly was the body position, body movements, timing, and power application of those movements as well what the skis and poles were doing in each phase of skiing, that is during push-off, weight transfer, and glide. This is your what-when-how. Instead of resorting to value judgments like “good” or “bad” (e.g., “good body position”), observe and describe the body’s position and actions, as well as the equipment’s behavior, using value-neutral terms. Be specific in your observations and aim for simplicity.
  2. Assess What You’ve Seen and Its Impact: Next, evaluate whether what you observed was effective in achieving the skier’s goals. Essentially, assess how the skier’s actions influenced their skiing results. This step in movement analysis is often referred to as establishing cause and effect. Having the clarity of what was the cause and what was the effect is vital for both instructor and student alike before attempting to change anything in their skiing.
  3. Compare to Optimal Skiing: Then, compare your observations to your mental image of optimal skiing. What did you spot as differences between the skier you observed and your mental image of optimal skiing? I use the word “optimal” to suggest the most efficient way of skiing given an individual’s current abilities, conditions, and equipment.
  4. Formulate a Plan: Finally, once you’ve compared and identified areas for improvement (or recognized opportunities to enhance efficiency) and have established the cause and effect, it’s time to create a plan. This might involve adjusting the body position, its movements, the timing/coordination between the upper and lower body during specific or all phases of skiing, or the power application of the skier’s movements. It may also involve adjustments or correction to the student’s ski equipment. The aim is to bridge the gap between the student’s current technique and what’s considered optimal for skiing efficiency, helping them get closer to their skiing objectives. Remember, movement analysis is but one aspect of a comprehensive ski lesson or clinic—it’s not merely an academic exercise.

How to develop a mental picture of optimal skiing?

Utilize established sources to observe elite skiers and analyze their movements as a form of exercise in movement analysis. This will help you develop a clear mental image of their skiing.

■        FIS Cross Country: https://www.youtube.com/@FISCrossCountry

■        PSIA Matrix Videos: https://www.thesnowpros.org/education/the-matrix-videos/

■        Andy Newell’s Nordic Team Solutions: https://nordicteamsolutions.com/

■        Nordic Ski Lab: https://nordicskilab.com/

■        Para cross country skiing: https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=paralympics+cross+country+skiing+

■         YouTube tutorials of expert skiers

Watch Your (Imprecise) Language

Using clear and specific language in movement analysis is essential for your own understanding of the sport and all it entails, and for you to be able to be helpful to your students. Ask yourself: Did my choice of words accurately describe the body or ski equipment performance and then did they effectively convey the cause and effect relationship? Here are the potential pitfalls you might encounter if you’re not careful with your language during movement analysis or, indeed, throughout the entire lesson or coaching session:

 

  • Lack of Precision: Sports require precise movements for optimal performance. Imprecise language can lead to misunderstandings about what exact action or adjustment is required. Avoid value judgements and thus labeling skiing or actions as simply “good” or “bad”.
  • Missed Opportunities for Improvement: Without specificity, you or your student might overlook key nuances in their technique that, if addressed, could lead to significant improvements.
  • Difficulty in Measurement: To track progress, changes need to be measurable. Ambiguous descriptions don’t provide a clear baseline or subsequent points of measurement.
  • Reduced Communication Effectiveness: Coaches, instructors, students, and athletes need to be on the same page. Ambiguous language can lead to confusion, mixed signals, and, ultimately, a breakdown in the coach-student relationship.
  • Potential for Injury: Precise movements are necessary not just for performance but for safety. Ambiguous instructions can lead to incorrect form or technique, increasing the risk of injury.
  • Inhibits Feedback Quality: Whether you’re giving feedback to a student or analyzing your own movements, it needs to be actionable. Vague or ambiguous feedback doesn’t offer clear steps for improvement.
  • Stunts Skill Development: Mastery of any sport involves the refinement of specific skills. Without clarity in analysis, students might practice inefficiently or reinforce bad habits.

Movement Analysis in More Detail


Recording: Record a video of your student’s skiing session or your own, and then review the footage. Pay special attention to the ‘what-how-when’ during all phases: propulsion (or push-off), weight transfer, and glide. When recording, it’s helpful to have a specific focus in mind. Utilizing slow-motion can offer deeper insights. Depending on your focus, film from the side, front, back, or consider capturing all angles.


Observe and Focus on Specifics: Examine body positions, movements, their timing, and the power application of the skier’s movements as well as skis and poles throughout each phase. If you’re uncertain about what to observe, begin with straightforward yes-or-no questions. Examples of such questions, from addressing beginner skier to expert skier :


  • Did the opposing arm and leg move forward simultaneously in the diagonal stride?
  • Did both skis of the sit-ski maintain contact with the snow on the turn?
  • What was the angle of the ankle flexion during the glide phase?
  • Did the ski touch the snow before one foot passed the other in diagonal stride?
  • In the V1, did both poles make contact with the snow at the same time as one ski during recreational skiing?
  • In the V1 bounding, was the time gap between the athlete’s foot landing and the pole push too long, affecting the efficiency of forward movement?
  • Was the strength of the pole push proportionate to the strength of the leg push in the given context?

Tips:

●        Your aim is to identify consistent patterns rather than isolated moments of mistakes or excellence.

●        Keep in mind that the movement analysis for standing skiers and those with physical disabilities, including sit skiers, is consistent for the body parts that are accessible and in use.

●        It might seem a bit odd to make notes when everything seems perfect with the skier. However, remember that the goal is to carefully evaluate the skier’s body position, movements, timing, coordination, and how they apply these skills to their skiing techniques. This systematic approach helps us spot areas where there might be room for improvement or ensures that the skier is executing the task as instructed. So, even if you’re using movement analysis to check if the skier has incorporated previous feedback and is following the task’s guidelines, it’s a valid and valuable application of this approach.

●        Video recording can be incredibly beneficial if you have the means to quickly record the skier using a phone or tablet. It lets you slow down the skiing action and go over different phases with the student. When you review the video, just keep the feedback constructive, not judgmental. While analyzing the video indoors has its place, the best feedback for a skier is the kind they can use right away to practice and improve.

What to observe and note:

  • Body Position & Movements:
    • During each skiing phase, examine the body’s position and its forward tilt. For standing skiers, focus on the angle at the ankle, knee and hip joints, and for sit skiers, concentrate on the hip joint.
    • Center of mass in relation to the base of support. For standing skiers, this base is their feet. For sit skiers, it’s the range between the front and back attachment points on the sit-ski frame.
    • Hip positioning and movement.
    • Shoulder alignment and movement.
  • Lower Body Action:
    • Weight transfer from one ski to the other.
    • Leg extension during push-off.
    • Range of motion in the ankle, knee and hip joints.
  • Upper Body Action:
    • Synchronization of arm and leg/lower body movements.
    • Poling technique, including pole plant and push-off.
    • Arm swing.
    • Rotation and lean of the trunk for turns and direction changes.
  • Foot Action:
    • Foot placement when transferring weight from ski to ski, specifically considering how much it moves past the other foot before bearing the full weight.
    • Foot placement when gliding.
  • Balance & Stability:
    • Maintenance of balance during glide phases.
    • Stability during weight transfers and turns.
    • For sit skiers, balance involves both core stability and equipment management.
  • Trunk Stability and Mobility (in sit skiing):
    • Observe the sit skier’s ability to stabilize their trunk in the sit ski that is used for ensuring efficient power transfer.
    • Look at the sit skier’s ability to rotate and lean the trunk for turns and direction changes.
  • Equipment Interaction with the Snow:
    • Ski edging of the ski in skate skiing or during turns.
    • Ski grip zone’s effectiveness during classic skiing.
    • Ski-to-snow contact.
    • Ski glide length.
    • Pole length and angle relative to the snow during poling.
    • For sit skiers, evaluate the fit and function of the bucket (the seat in the sit ski) and the support it provides for optimal movement.
    • For sit skiers, pole use is crucial for both propulsion and steering.
  • Timing & Rhythm:
    • Coordination and timing of arm and leg movements.
    • Rhythm maintained during various techniques like the V1, V2, and diagonal stride and during transitions.
  • Breathing & Stamina:
    • Breathing patterns relative to skiing rhythm.
    • Endurance and pacing, especially in longer races.
  • Transitions & Techniques:
    • Switching between different skiing techniques, e.g., from double poling to diagonal stride.
    • Technique selection based on terrain and conditions.
    • Observe how the sit skier initiates and completes turns. For some sit skiers, this may involve a combination of upper body movements and equipment adaptations.

Identify Inconsistencies: Compare your student’s ski and pole actions, body position, movements, and their timing to the standards of optimal skiing. For skis, this involves contact with the snow, edging, flattening, and turning. For poles, it’s about their contact with the snow.


Set Targets: Based on observations, set specific improvement targets. Instead of broad goals like “improve glide,” aim for more specific ones such as “keep the body more upright during the glide phase.” Be clear about desired adjustments in terms of body position, movement, and timing as well as the goal of those adjustments.


Practice with Intent: After identifying areas of improvement and outlining actionable steps for your student, head to the trails together with a focused plan to work on these specific areas. This deliberate approach can lead to more focused practice sessions.


Consistent Analysis: Improvement is a continuous journey. Regularly record and analyze skiing sessions, noting progress and any new areas that might need attention. Immediate feedback accelerates improvement. Once you’ve assessed your student’s performance, implement changes and let them try again.


Use Technology: There are apps and software available that can break down videos into slow motion, compare side-by-side with professional skiers, or provide biomechanical analysis.

Reflect and Adjust: After each session, reflect on the changes your student made and their effects. Based on this reflection, help your skier create new goals and a pathway for attaining them.

 

The Role of Effective Movement Analysis


This article delves deeply into movement analysis because it’s a complex subject. Yet, in reality, you often have only a few minutes, or even just one minute, to use it with a student. That’s why it’s vital to become really good at it. If you’re inaccurate or it takes too long, your teaching won’t be effective.


In essence, while movement analysis isn’t a standalone lesson or training session, it’s an essential skill in the coaching toolkit, guiding both the instructor and student towards more efficient, or closer to optimal, skiing. Instructors and coaches who invest time in honing this skill not only elevate their teaching abilities but also become better skiers themselves. The path to proficiency in cross country skiing, whether as a learner or an instructor, runs through effective and diligent movement analysis.


About the author:

Marcin (Martin) Wiesiolek is a seasoned ski instructor with expertise in cross country, Alpine, and adaptive skiing. He lives in Grand Junction, Colorado.


A special thank you to Scotty McGee for content editing. Scotty instructs and guides in cross country, telemark, and Alpine skiing in Jackson, Wyoming. He’s also a four-time member of the Professional Ski Instructors of America National Nordic Team.

The Pursuit of Excellence in the Double Pole Technique by Marianne Osteen

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The Pursuit of Excellence in the Double Pole Technique

by Marianne Osteen, PSIA-RM Cross Country Education Staff

 

As cross country skiers, instructors and athletes, we are continually looking for ways to improve our ski performance. Although we usually ski “just for fun”, we are often striving to develop more speed, endurance and efficiency. We may choose to focus on one specific component of our skiing fitness such as aerobic capacity, anaerobic threshold, or strength. At other times, we may choose to focus on our skiing technique including proper body positioning, efficient movement patterns, and proper timing. In this article, I make the case for the pursuit of excellence in the double pole technique. I believe that mastering the double pole is one of the most important and efficient ways to improve your overall skiing performance. First, I will give some reasons why the double pole motion is important in both classic and skate skiing. Next, I will discuss some current research on physiological and technical aspects of double poling. And finally, I will offer some ideas on how to improve your double pole technique. Within this analysis, I will offer some of my own general impressions acquired while skiing, teaching, and coaching skiers. These ideas are relevant to skiers of all levels from the beginner to the elite and apply to both classic and skate disciplines.

Developing a strong and efficient double pole is obviously important in classic skiing. It is often faster and more efficient than the diagonal stride even on uphill sections of trail depending on snow conditions. We have seen an increase in the use of this technique by elite skiers who sometimes double pole entire races without any kick wax and often finish at the top of the field. The kick double pole in classic skiing is another obvious application of the double pole motion, but with the addition of a strong single leg kick for each pole stroke. Perhaps not as obvious as in the classic techniques, the V2 and V1 skating techniques incorporate the double pole motion as well. The V2 technique applies the same upper body motion as in the double pole technique, and uses all of the same muscle groups. The slight variation of the stroke in the V2 occurs as the skier balances over one ski at time, and applies the double pole pole stroke in coordination with the push off from each ski. Similar to the V2, the V2 alternate skate technique uses the double pole motion except with only one pole stroke for each skate cycle. During the V1 technique, the arm position is off-set, but if you observe the motion of the upper body, you will see the same powerful double pole motion. Not only is the double pole incorporated within these skate techniques, but there are times when an extended double pole may be used during a skate ski session. I often double pole for an extended time if my legs need a break from the skate motion or when the skate lane is not as fast as the track. So we see that across all classic and skate skiing techniques, a well developed double pole is applicable and beneficial to skiing performance.

V2 skate technique incorporates double pole motion. Photos by Linda Guerrette courtesy of PSIA-AASI

Over the past several decades, the double pole has evolved into a more compact and powerful stroke compared to the double pole of the past. I will describe some general points of this more compact form of double pole. The hands and hips come upward and forward together with the elbow joint maintained at 90 degrees or less in the forward high hand position. The arms do not reach forward, rather the whole body angles forward from the ankles. As the body weight is planted on the poles, the skier uses a dynamic whole body movement contracting muscles of the trunk, lower body, and upper body to create propulsion through the poles. When a skier performs a coordinated and skillful double pole, the whole body resembles a spring loaded and then released with each powerful stroke.

Double pole at the start of pole stroke (showing “high” hands and hips). Photo by Linda Guerrette courtesy of PSIA-AASI

Double pole at the end of pole stroke (showing flexion of ankles, knees and hips). Photo by Linda Guerrette courtesy of PSIA-AASI

Within the double pole technique, there are variations in both form and tempo depending on the terrain, speed, and fitness level of the skier. In both the uphill and the accelerating double pole, the hands generally do not follow through beyond the hips because of the shorter time of the skiing cycle. As the hill becomes steeper, the body mechanics continue to become more compact with a shorter and quicker pole stroke. During faster flat and downhill double pole sections, both the ski glide and the follow-through with the hands become longer as the duration of the skiing cycle increases. In some cases of this longer glide double pole, the hips will rise up slightly ahead of the hands in order to maintain a rhythmic motion. This connection between push-off and glide is visually represented in the PSIA XC technical model where push-off, weight transfer and glide interrelate to create continuous forward motion. If the timing changes for the glide phase, the timing will necessarily change for the push-off phase.

An interesting study (Stoggl and Holmberg, 2016) compared the kinematics and kinetics of the double pole technique performed on flat and uphill terrain. During uphill double pole, swing times were shorter (quicker tempo) and peak pole forces greater. The shorter swing time translates to less follow through of the hands. During the uphill double pole, the angle of the elbow joint was more flexed and the shoulder joint less flexed resulting in the arms remaining closer to the torso. The knee was more flexed, but there was less flexion in the hips keeping the torso more upright. Skiers raised their center of mass 25% more during the uphill double pole and obtained maximal heel rise closer to the timing of the pole plant. The primary observations from this study were that in the uphill double pole the tempo was higher, the range of motion for all joint angles was less, the torso was more upright, and more force was applied through the poles. During higher speed terrain sections such as slight downhills or flats, the skiers decreased stroke tempo, allowed more movement through the shoulder, elbow and hip joints, and increased follow-through with the hands. From a recreational skier’s point of view, if the goal is simply an easy ski day, the relaxed slower tempo double pole will be the preferred technique variation.

Many skiers believe the double pole is predominantly an upper body exercise, however, an interesting study (Holmberg et al., 2006) evaluated the contribution of the lower body to the total workload of the double pole by restricting motion of the knees and ankles. The study compared several physiological markers as well as maximal speed achieved for elite skiers under two conditions. All variables were measured for the skiers double poling with either “locked” or “free” knee and ankle joints. The results showed that when the knee and ankle joints were free to move during maximal double poling, skiers achieved a higher maximum velocity, higher VO2 peak, and a longer time to exhaustion. This study emphasized that the coordinated movements at the knee and ankle joints are an essential part in the development of a skillful double pole. In other words, the double pole technique is a whole body movement.

Another recently published study (Dahl et al., 2017) measured more precisely how the work of double poling is distributed between the upper and lower body. This research was performed by Jorgen Danielsen who studied the double pole technique as part of his PhD dissertation thesis while a student at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology. An excellent article published in Norwegian SciTech News (Sliper, 2018) contains a review of his original research.

Danielsen compared double poling on flats, moderate inclines and steep inclines at varying intensities. He found that when double poling at lower-intensity about 60% of the total work comes from the upper body and 40% from the lower body. As the intensity and incline increase, more work comes from the lower body until about 50% comes from each. This lower body work occurs primarily during the recovery phase as the extension of ankles, knees and hips bring the body upward and forward in preparation for the next pole stroke (Danielsen et al., 2015).

Danielsen emphasized that although the lower body contributes 50% or more of the work, the upper body needs to be strong enough to perform the double pole efficiently. From my experience coaching skiers and from my own training, I have observed that when significant core and upper body strength has been developed through strength training or participation in other sports, an efficient double pole technique can be acquired without difficulty.

We have seen that the double pole motion is used in virtually all techniques of both classic and skating, and we have examined some of the technical aspects of how the double pole is performed. Now, the question may be asked, how do we develop a stronger and more efficient double pole in order to gain maximum benefits to our skiing performance?

First, we need to have a sufficient level of overall body and core strength in order to develop proper on-snow technique. After these strength prerequisites are achieved, specific on-snow training will yield optimum benefits. A year round strength training program that moves from general to specific and varies throughout the year is best. If you are new to strength training, I would advise seeking out the guidance of a strength training professional to ensure proper development and prevent injuries. There are many exercises that can be done using only bodyweight if you are not inclined to the weight room.

With sufficient general strength, the next step is to work with a ski instructor or coach to develop proper technique. Without proper technique, you will train and ski below your potential and more importantly, without proper technique there is an increased possibility of overuse injuries. Being forced to take time off due to injuries is something we definitely want to avoid.

Finally, you can incorporate on-snow specific training including long distance double poling sessions (endurance training) and shorter interval sessions (sprint training) over varied terrain. The foundation of moderate intensity endurance double pole sessions should be developed before adding intensity in the form of short interval type sessions.

A recent study (Vandbakk et al., 2017) compared the effects of adding either sprint interval training or continuous double pole training to the regular training of female cross-country skiers. Both training groups showed significant improvements in double pole peak speed and VO2 peak, as well as in upper body strength and power. In general, we see that both long moderate intensity double pole sessions and short sprint double pole sessions offer benefit to the skier.

 

Here are a couple of ideas for specific double pole training on snow:

 

1.  Long distance double pole sessions (one time per week).

Warm-up easy skiing for 15 to 20 minutes. Double pole only (low to moderate intensity) over varying terrain. Start with a manageable but challenging amount and build from there.

10 to 20 minutes is a good starting point, but keep it within your comfort zone and ability.

Be aware of good form with each stroke and finish before you lose form. Cool down easy skiing.

 

2.  Interval Sessions (one time per week)

These sessions can be incorporated into your training after you are comfortable with moderate intensity over distance. Short sessions build speed, adaptability, and extra strength.

Always warm-up and cool down with easy skiing for 15 to 20 minutes.

Each work interval should be approximately 15 to 30 seconds with a 1:4 work to rest ratio. (For example, 15 seconds accelerate to maximum speed with 1 minute easy ski recovery.)

4 to 6 repetitions is a good starting point working up to 8 to 10 repetitions over several weeks. After adapting to flat terrain, you may wish to try these short sprints on an uphill to vary your body mechanics. Again start with a comfortable number of repetitions. There are many ways to vary interval workouts, and if you are interested in this type of training, a ski coach is always a good option.

Whether you are skiing just for fun, fitness, or competitive achievements, the double pole technique is an important skill to master and deserves your attention. A well-developed double pole will add strength to all of your skiing techniques. Developing a general foundation of overall body strength, becoming skilled in the double pole technique, and acquiring specific double pole fitness will accelerate you to the next level of excellence in skiing.

 

References

 

Dahl, C., Sandbakk, Ø., Danielsen, J., & Ettema, G. (2017). The Role of Power Fluctuations in the Preference of Diagonal vs. Double Poling Sub-Technique at Different Incline-Speed Combinations in Elite Cross-Country Skiers. Frontiers in physiology, 8, 94. https://doi.org/10.3389/fphys.2017.00094.

Danielsen, Jørgen et al. “Mechanical Energy and Propulsion in Ergometer Double Poling by Cross-country Skiers.” Medicine and Science in Sports and Exercise vol. 47,12 (2015): 2586-94. doi:10.1249/MSS.0000000000000723.

Holmberg HC, Lindinger S, Stöggl T, Björklund G, Müller E. Contribution of the Legs to Double-poling Performance in Elite Cross-Country Skiers. Med Sci Sports Exerc. 2006 Oct;38(10):1853-60. doi: 10.1249/01.mss.0000230121.83641.d1.

Midling, A. S. (2018, February 20). Proper poling technique can decide Olympic winners.

Norwegian SciTech News.

https://norwegianscitechnews.com/2018/02/proper-poling-technique-can-decide-olym pic-podium-position/.

Stöggl TL, Holmberg HC. Double-Poling Biomechanics of Elite Cross-country Skiers: Flat versus Uphill Terrain. Med Sci Sports Exerc. 2016 Aug;48(8):1580-9. doi: 10.1249/MSS.0000000000000943.

Vandbakk K, Welde B, Kruken AH, Baumgart J, Ettema G, Karlsen T, Sandbakk Ø. Effects of upper-body sprint-interval training on strength and endurance capacities in female cross-country skiers. PLoS One. 2017 Feb 27;12(2):e0172706. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0172706.

Have Learning Styles Been Debunked? By Scott Birrell

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How do you like to learn? Are you a visual, auditory, reading-writing, or kinesthetic learner? You have likely been asked these questions in clinics and may have asked your students similar questions during your lessons. At times throughout my career, I have tried to determine my students’ preferred learning style and worked to tailor my teaching towards this preference.

 

Recently I have heard several comments that learning styles have been debunked, and that they are not supported by research. There is some truth to this. Pashler et al. (2009) found that there is no adequate evidence base to justify incorporating learning-styles assessments into general education practice. Rogowsky, Calhoun, and Tallal (2015) also found no statistically significant relationship between the preference for a particular learning style and learning.

 

There are several reasons for the above findings. First, what people prefer is not, per definition, what is best for them (Kirschner, 2016). Our preferences can change, and often what we prefer may not match what is most beneficial for us. Second, learning styles may pigeon-hole learners into discrete categories, when the reality is that there may be significant overlap among variables related to learning styles or preferences. Finally, even if we are aware of our students’ preferred learning style, it may be difficult or even detrimental to try to tailor the learning environment to their specific learning preference.

 

Does this mean that we should abandon the concept of learning styles? Not so fast. The Visual, Auditory, Reading-Writing, Kinesthetic (VARK) Model above all is designed to be a starting place for a conversation among teachers and learners about learning (Fleming, 2006). By facilitating awareness of the different ways that we can perceive and process information, learning styles may still be a useful tool in our repertoire.

 

In addition, teaching often reflects the teacher’s preferred teaching style rather than students’ preferred learning style (Fleming, 2006). Reflecting upon learning styles may help us be accountable to using a variety of styles that address different learning preferences, rather than defaulting to our preferred style. VARK’s strength lies in its educational value for helping people think about their learning in multiple ways and giving them options that they might not have considered (Fleming, 2006).

 

Personally, I have found the most success with an approach that uses a range of visual, auditory, reading-writing and kinesthetic cues. A variety of teaching strategies creates a rich environment that helps students to solidify their understanding and subsequently supports skill development. People rarely learn in only one way. Therefore, appealing to all learning styles or preferences will likely be more fun, engaging, and lead to more success for your students.

 

With all students, and especially with children, remember to consider how their Cognitive, Affective and Physical development may impact your teaching. For example, a three-year-old student will have less previous auditory and kinesthetic experiences, so you may simplify your language, provide plenty of demonstrations, and allow them time to process the new kinesthetic sensations they are experiencing. A teenage student will be able to process more complex explanations and auditory cues, and may also need some kinesthetic cues to help them understand why things feel different after a growth spurt.

 

I encourage you to get creative. Try sending a follow-up text to your students with some diagrams and notes, or getting your students to write down their feedback. Perhaps include movement and sensations to your next indoor instructor training clinic. You could even get your students to come up with their own unique cues, challenging them to address the visual, auditory, reading-writing and kinesthetic realms.

 

In conclusion, uncovering your students’ learning preference and tailoring your lesson to that style may not be the most effective approach. However, being aware of each learning style can still be beneficial and can help facilitate conversations with your students. Address different learning styles through your lessons, and make your delivery complete- but short. The PSIA-AASI Teaching Children Snowsport Manual (Aiken and Jordan, 2021) summarizes the concept of learning styles well: “Show ‘em, tell ‘em, and let ‘em do it!”.

 

By Scott Birrell
-Rocky Mountain Children’s Committee

 

References

Aiken, M., Jordan, K. (2021). PSIA-AASI Teaching Children Snowsports. American Snowsports Education Association, Inc.

Fleming, N. Baume, D. (2006). Learning Styles Again: VARKing up the right tree! Educational Developments, SEDA Ltd, Issue 7.4, Nov. 2006, p. 4-7.

Kirschner, P. A. (2016). Stop Propogating the Learning Styles Myth. Computers & Education (106). 166-171. Elsevier. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.compedu.2016.12.2006

Pashler, H., McDaniel, M. Rohrer, D., & Bjork, R. (2009). Learning styles: Concepts and evidence. Psychological Science in the Public Interest, 9(3), 105e119. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j. 1539-6053.2009.01038.x.

Rogowsky, B. A., Calhoun, B. M., & Tallal, P. (2015). Matching learning style to instructional method: Effects on comprehension. Journal of Educational Psychology, 107(1), 64e78. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/a0037478.

 

 

Connecting with the Freestyle Culture by Ronnie Barr

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As the winter season fast approaches, all of us passionate educators are getting into our pre-season strides.  Boards and skis are getting waxed, new gear is arriving in the mail, and the early season stoke is starting to hit.  The first turns are coming, goals are getting set, and the planning of the next six months is kicking off.

As those goals are getting set, many skiers and riders are having thoughts of spending more time in the park and enhancing their freestyle skills.  For some it’s a laundry list of new tricks and skills to learn, for others it may be as simple as following through on spending more time in the park to become more rounded, a goal that can easily take a back seat as snow falls, terrain opens, and soft turns become the number one priority.

At many resorts, the early season park is a great way to kick off freestyle learning.  There are only a couple runs open and the quality of those runs diminishes quickly throughout the day.  But what I see happen often is as the early season park picks up, it deters some of us from going in.  Let’s be honest, it can be a super intimidating place to step into, especially if your experience is limited.  On the other side of that coin, the park is filled with eager learners who spray positive energy around and love building up their peers.  So, for those of you who have been wanting to get into the park more, let’s talk about some ways to make it happen and get your goals on the path of achievement early in the year.

Step 1:  Get in there!

While it can be a bit overwhelming at first, the big step is to ride through the baffle, past that SMART style sign, and get into the park.  Before even thinking about the features, check out the vibe, the set up, and think about what you feel comfortable with.  As you process the environment and those around you, you can begin to get ready to meet your goals.

Step 2:  Bring your smile and good vibrations!

Sure, it can be a lot to get in the park and watch all the expert riders start getting their skills back, especially when you’re watching athletes all the way up to the professional level.  But the big secret is that most people in the park are super nice and friendly, especially the high-level athletes.  The best way to work past personal pressure or uncertainty is to embody “respect gets respect” and start handing out compliments like candy on Halloween.  If you see something cool, let that person know you liked it.  It’s not often that a compliment is met with negativity, and on many levels, this can open up opportunities for conversation and connection, just like you do with your guests at lineup.

Step 3:  know your SMART style!

About the only thing that gets to park riders is inexperienced riders in bad places.  Knowing good places to stop, inspect, watch and move is key!  Getting on the safe side of a feature where you’re not in anyone’s way can help you determine if you’re ready for a feature, different ways to get over that feature, and even provide ideas to push yourself on that feature.  It’s also a great way to make some noise and show support and encouragement for others, which is what the freestyle culture is all about.  Then having the right route to the next feature or out of the park will help you remain fluid and build your own confidence as you work your way into focusing on your own riding.

Step 4:  Drop at the right time for you!

Few things are appreciated more than handing off a drop into someone else.  If you see someone else lining up to hit the same feature as you, don’t be afraid to give them the drop.  Not only does it make you look like the good and courteous skier or rider that you are, but it keeps those jitters of dropping in front of someone away and keeps you from doing something you’re unsure of when you don’t feel ready.  Many mistakes happen when nerves kick in, and this can help keep that off the table.  Don’t feel rushed, or like you must drop when you’re not ready.  Give some room, do what you need to do, and give yourself the space you need to focus on your skills!

Step 5:  Have a solid hike session!

Nothing is better for your skills and mindset then a good hike session!  It doesn’t need to be all day, but a good 30 to 45 minutes of hiking a feature will seriously up your reps, help you build confidence, and it’s even a solid workout!  Hiking is such a huge benefit for your riding, and the best way to get some feedback from your peers.  You’ll be amazed at the people you will meet and relationships you can build if you hike with a smile, and it can give you the opportunity to provide feedback to others.

These tips, if used with other knowledge gained from other educators, will help set you up for success.  For cognitive learners, make sure you have enough information to feel confident, and then bring it to the park!  Kinesthetic learners, remember that a little info to help things make sense is a better avenue than huck it and hope.  No matter what kind of learner you are, learning happens by doing, so get out there and do!  In my experience, spending more time in the park, even if you do not consider yourself a park rider, is the best way to build confidence and change your vibe in our industry.  I can’t tell you how many lifelong friends I have made in the park, and early in my career it came from overcoming the fear and intimidation of not feeling like a park rider.

Happy shredding and have an amazing winter season!

Ronnie Barr

PSIA-AASI RM Freestyle Committee

Head Coach of Snowboarding, Ski and Snowboard Club Vail

Are We There Yet? By Dana Forbes

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Are We There Yet? By Dana Forbes, CEO

If you are reading this, you are either too young to know what’s coming and take for granted how quickly you will get “there” or you are already ”here” and you know it happened in a blink. This letter is to the 20- and 70-year olds, and everyone in between. 

If you are in your 70’s, fifty years ago you were in your 20’s and tearing up the ungroomed slopes on your Gravdal skis and new all plastic buckle boots. For many of you, you were living in the moment, no different than the 20-year-old instructor today. Similarly, you likely didn’t consider that 50 years from then, you may be doing the exact same thing…except now the equipment and grooming is substantially better, even though your body is not. 

We don’t know what we don’t know, you know? But now that you 70-year-olds are “here” you know. I hope for the majority of you reading this, that you planned. You planned for the day when you would get to “here.” You were prepared for the day your body couldn’t do it anymore and that you paid into your retirement, secured a health savings account to cover the surgeries, and paid into a home or property where you could enjoy retirement. Unfortunately, my guess is some of you did not, and are now scrambling to figure it out. For those of you facing a surgery you cannot afford, check out https://www.keesbfoundation.org/, a foundation to help instructors pay for medical costs. And be sure to do the research on social security and the benefits of waiting a year or two more before you collect, it makes a huge difference. Lastly, I want you all to know I am not here to make you feel badly about this but rather in the true essence of the teacher, have you help me educate those coming behind you to not make any of the mistakes you may have.

This next part is for you “20” somethings so please keep reading. Did you go to college and decide to take a year or two off to teach, or maybe you delayed college all together for just a couple of years while this covid stuff passed? Are you telling yourself that you will get a “real” job someday soon? That there will be time in the future to start to save and plan? Or maybe this was your plan, to teach your whole life. Whatever the case, now is the time, not later. I encourage you to take FULL advantage of any retirement fund you are offered and to pay the MAX into it. I insist that you take care of your bodies and eliminate the concept that you will ski your way into shape each season and start a strength and conditioning program daily. The biggest favor you can do yourself is to start saving ASAP. Per Suze Orman, “someone who saves $250 a month starting at age 25 will have nearly $500,000 saved up by age 65, assuming a 6% annualized return. If they wait until age 40, saving $250 a month will give them a retirement pot of only $175,000 by age 65. If they start at 40 and want to end up with the same pot as their 25-year-old self, they will need to save $700 a month for those 25 years.” 

Now for everyone in between whose window is narrowing. It is the eve of my 50th birthday, so believe me when I say I can relate. It is you, who likely just rubbed your knee which aches more now than it used to. It is you, who just got new boots and after struggling to get them on, reflected and asked yourself “was it this difficult last year?” It is you, who after two decades of delay, decided 10 years ago that you better double down and put the max into that 401k and now in this financial crisis have looked at your meek investment portfolio and cringe at the losses. It is you, who know where “here” is and are finally admitting someday, sooner than we like, will be there. For you, it’s not too late. Did you know in 2022, those age 50 or older can contribute an additional $6,500 to their 401(k) plan each year, as well as an extra $1,000 across Traditional and Roth IRAs combined? There are so many opportunities out there to take advantage of and now is the time.

Moral of the story…

We have all chosen this path because we love the mountains and living in these amazing places. While that comes with sacrifices now, we are fine with it because every morning when we strap on our boots, we know the day ahead is going to be amazing. What I want for us all is to have that feeling daily, long after the boots turn to sneakers with Velcro and maybe the mountains to beaches

When we were kids my guess is we shared a common question approximately 32 minutes into a 7-hour car ride to see our grandparents, “Are we there yet?” Some of us are, some of us will soon be and some are far off, but it goes without saying, we will all get there, so do yourself a favor and start now so you can be ready.

 

There is More to Selecting Cross Country Classic Skis Than the Price – By Martin Wiesiolek

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There is more to selecting cross country classic skis than the price.

By Martin Wiesiolek, PSIA-RM Education Staff

There is a good chance that the classic skis in your local used gear shop will not set you up for success in learning skiing or honing your skills unless they are matched to your weight, height, typical snow conditions where you will be skiing, and your ability level.

Classic Ski Flex, Camber and Structure

For classic cross country skis to perform well, you should consider three factors:

  1. Ski flex design: needs to be correct for the skier’s weight and ability level
  2. Ski camber: needs to be appropriate for the snow conditions
  3. Ski base structure: should be specific to the typical snow temperature and moisture content of where you ski

For beginner to intermediate classic skiers, skier weight and ability level are the most important factors. For intermediate to advanced skiers, typical snow conditions at their favorite ski areas or races play an important role too.

 

Ski Flex

The ski flex (tension) must be appropriate for the skier’s weight and skill level.

The ski flex is three things:

1. Cross country skis have a certain amount of pre-tensioning that creates the camber (bowing up) in the ski. The pre-tension is the distance between the ski and the snow surface, without any pressure (weight) on the ski.

2. When the skier steps on the skis and stands evenly on both feet they create a residual tension, which is the small gap left between the ski and the snow surface underneath the binding area.

3. The camber pressure is the force necessary to press the ski down on a flat surface until only a 0.2 mm gap in the binding area between the skis and the surface can be measured. In other words, the camber pressure is the force necessary to connect the ski with the snow. The 0.2 mm gap left underneath the binding area is needed for the layers of grip wax or the skin.

Ski manufacturers provide ski flex reference tables for selecting ski length for the skier’s weight, which ensures that the ski will flex just right:

  • For propulsion: a skier would apply force to one ski to cause the ski’s grip zone to come in solid contact with the snow allowing the skier to push off from that ski;
  • For gliding on both skis: a skier stands on both feet with their weight evenly distributed over both skis allowing the ski’s grip zone to hover just a bit above the snow preventing the ski from gripping;
  • For gliding on one ski: a skier glides with their weight on one ski and while the ski’s grip zone is in the snow because the ski is flattened, the ski glides with minimum resistance because the ski isn’t over flexed (bowing down).

If you are a beginner skier and your weight falls near the low number of the recommended weight range for the ski, select the ski length for the next lower weight range (a shorter ski).

To see the classic skis flex: https://youtu.be/NUNkdz61GkY

Consequences of  a ski being too stiff and not flexing enough for a skier: Pushing off becomes almost impossible as the skier cannot compress the ski enough for the grip zone to make contact with the snow. Additionally, the skier glides on tips and tails of the ski resulting in poor ski control and in extra resistance through friction in cold/soft snow conditions.

Consequences of the ski being too soft and flexing too much for the skier: The ski is slow due to the skier compressing the ski through the camber, thus resulting in permanent contact of the grip zone with the snow.

If buying used skis, you should have a professional shop help you determine if the skis are properly flexed for your weight. If you have no access to a competent shop, you can do a paper test. Here’s how to do a paper test:

With your weight equally distributed between both feet, stand on the skis with toes at the binding clip or the spot just behind where the ski balances. A friend should be able to slide a paper back and forth beneath the skis under your feet. When you shift all of your weight to one side or the other, the weighted ski should compress enough to trap the paper against the floor.

You can also search the internet to find the flex chart for the year, make, and model of your skis.

 

Ski Camber (Cold, Universal, Plus)

Snow conditions should dictate the camber of the ski.

Cross country skis bow upward in the middle, and that upward bowing of the ski is called the ski camber. A low camber ski has long contact zones with the snow while a high camber ski has short contact zones.

Ski Camber for Cold and Dry Snow

For a ski to be as fast as it can be and easy to maneuver in cold, dry snow, it should generally have a low camber and a relatively long area of contact in the tip and tail sections. The same amount of friction spread over a larger area (longer contact zones) translates into less friction per square inch and therefore faster glide in dry snow.

Ski Camber for Wet and/or Dirty Snow

In snow that has a high moisture content (“wet snow”) you would want a high camber ski that will fight suction and thus remain fast and maneuverable. A low camber and more contact between the ski base and the snow would result in more suction and more opportunity to pick up dirt creating more friction and more suction. The suction effect would lead to the ski braking. Also, dirty snow, even when cold and dry, creates the same braking effect as the wet snow. A low camber ski would result in more opportunities for dirt to attach itself to the ski base, making the ski slow due to the added friction. The dirt in the ski’s base structure affects the hydrophobic nature of the base material. In short, high-camber skis should be used in wet snow to fight the suction effect and/or to reduce friction in dirty snow.

Ski Base Structure

Snow conditions should dictate the structure of the ski’s base.

When your ski glides on snow it melts a microscopically thin film of water, which is what the ski glides on. If there is too much water your ski will develop suction with the snow’s surface, slowing the ski down. If there is too little water forming between your skis and the snow, this  friction will  also slow down your skis.

Ski Structure for Cold and Dry Snow

For a ski to be as fast as it can be and easy to maneuver in cold, dry snow, its base finish should have a structure designed for dry, abrasive snow crystals. Fine and smooth ski base finish will prevent the sharp-edged snow crystals from snagging the base and thus slowing creating a braking effect on the ski. Such structure is achieved with stone grinding, which is a process where a ski grinding/tuning machine uses special rotating stones to remove sealed base material, flatten the base, and apply final structure to the ski base surface. For skis that will be used in cold, dry snow, the final structure will be very smooth.

Ski Structure for Wet and/or Dirty Snow

For a ski to perform well in wet snow conditions it needs to have a high camber with a wet/warm structure on the base to minimize the contact with the wet snow.

Basic rules of cross country ski camber and structure:

  • Long contact zones and fine structure reduce friction of cold and dry snow
  • Short contact zones and deep structure reduce suction of warmer and wet snow

 

Hopefully this information helps you select a perfect pair of classic skis. Don’t hesitate to contact me with any comments or questions:  martin@nordicskipro.com or through https://nordicskipro.com

 

Curiosity Corner – November 2022

The Scoop / By

Here’s a newer addition to the newsletter, suggested by a member committed to lifelong learning.  Three suggestions will be offered in each newsletter as something to explore while stirring your cocoa, your cocktail, and your spirit off the hill.   If you have new and inspiring articles, podcasts, books, movies, etc. that might spark others’ learning, please share them with jtarlow@psia-rm.org.  Sometimes looking outside our own resources can expand our perspectives on our work with others or ourselves.  Curious? Happy exploring!

Book: For a thorough look at coaching that grew out of work by one of the early associates of Tim Gallwey and the inner Game work, try Coaching for Performance by Sir John Whitmore.  Look for the newest (5th) edition of what has been called the world’s #1 coaching book.  While it has a focus on coaching in business, most of the information is directly transferable to the slopes.

Video: A video delving into the realm of People Skills Fundamentals:  Putting High-quality Connections into Practice – a video by Jane Dutton and Monica Worline, leading experts, authors, and teachers at the Ross School of Business, University of Michigan. Learn about the benefits at time stamp 13:55.
If you’d rather read, click HERE.

Article: An educator’s thoughts on reframing the question “How did that feel?” into “What did you feel?”  Self-Awareness: The Connection Between “Emotional” Feeling and “Physical” Feeling by Peter Hoppock, PSIA-C Examiner Emeritus.  The article begins on page 4.

Events Update Nov, 2022

The Scoop / By

As we slide into November here are some events that would round out prepping for a successful season, we have something for everyone, take a look!

Adaptive: Welcoming Guests with Disabilities into Cross Country Classic Skiing Dec 9 Gold Run– Cross country skiing is a natural entry portal into snowsports for people of all ages and backgrounds, including those with disabilities. Join this interactive and game-filled session to explore group lessons with adaptive application for stand-ski guests with cognitive, behavioral health, or physical diagnoses including the use of communication tools, learning tools, and teaching methodologies applicable to all participants. BethAnn Chamberlain, US Para Nordic coach and a para Nordic athlete will make a guest appearance in the afternoon of this session.

Alpine: Fall Workshop, Dec 12-13 Winter Park: Get an early season tune-up for your technique from top PSIA-AASI Rocky Mountain Divisional Trainers. Share your knowledge of contemporary skiing, teaching, and technical skills, as well as guest retention with your peers. Individual feedback will create a focus for development to take you into a successful season and beyond.

Cross Country: Rendezvous, Dec 8-9 Gold Run: The biggest skiing and teaching event of the season! Learn a new cross-country discipline, or explore modern cross-country skiing, teaching and people skills with members of the PSIA National Team and Rocky Mountain Educational Staff in a small group learning environment. This event is a must for instructors looking to enhance their cross-country ski skills, become a more effective ski instructor, or work towards a higher level of instructor certification. Many clinic topics to choose from, with 1 or 2 day options available.

Freestyle: Technical Foundations of Freestyle, Dec 6 Online– This online clinic will focus on the mechanics of freestyle and implement a freestyle lens to Movement Analysis. Participants will have the opportunity to hone their technical understanding through group discussion as well as time spent viewing movement patterns. Participants will develop problem solving skills and knowledge of cause & effect relationships, and practice formulating lesson plans for skiers viewed from video. Emphasis will be placed on freestyle riding at beginner and intermediate levels while connecting concepts to all skill levels.

Snowboard: All Mountain Performance, Snowboard Anything! Nov 30-Dec 1 Aspen Mountain – Want to be a better snowboarder and instructor? The All-Mountain Performance clinic explores varying terrain, snow conditions and speeds to help you develop the tactics, technique, and attitude required to shred all terrain in any condition. You will also learn the skills to be a more effective instructor to enable your clients to also snowboard all terrain in any condition!

Supervisors/Managers: Choosing to Lead, Nov 22 Online – You’ve stepped up to transition from a high performing individual to a leader supervising other to reach their highest potential. Set yourself up for success by learning key management tools, tactics, and tips to effectively communicate, manage expectations with feedback, and foster engagement.  Membership is not required to attend this clinic.

Telemark: Early Season Primer with Video, Dec 10-11 Loveland – This 2 day clinic will use video and the available terrain to get you ready. See your habits and movement patterns and develop a focus help you take the next step. Possible terrain choices may include groomers, easy bumps, powder, and variable conditions. While any terrain open may be skied options will be available. You should currently be comfortable on blue/intermediate terrain. Video will be used to enhance learning. Get your Tele on!

 

Interview with Christian Keller, by Doug Sanders

The Scoop / By

Originally Published Dec 18, 2012:

Christian Keller walks out into the crisp breezy chill of the Snowy Mountains every morning with his eyes twinkling and ears curled back to make room for his glimmering smile.  His 30 year old pink florescent Solomon boots clank on the metal grate as he walks over the bridge and turns to me. His thick Swiss accent he says “Douglas.  I think there is knee deep powder today!” He pauses, tilts his head into schoolboy wink and continues, “You just need to kneel down!”  His timing is still perfect even at 77 years.

Keller has a weather worn face with a freakishly young grin placed on top of it.  He conducts himself with ageless grace, small, fit and neat.  His movements are no longer fast and reflexive; as I am sure they once were, but smart and deliberate.  His demeanor is quiet and gentle among his colleagues, and warm and often flirtatious with his clients.  I only have seen him in his European team uniform or his Perisher blue instructors’ suit.  His hat rests on top of his head above the ears to give him a little extra room to fit his over sized grin.

I wonder if he owns jeans.  I don’t imagine he has a need for shorts or flip flops.  You see; Keller has done over 50 years of teaching, back to back.  To put that into perspective, he’s been teaching skiing in different hemispheres continuously since Eisnenhower was president.   I am not sure this is the picture most of us have when we think about the ‘endless winter’.  But Christian Keller’s quest has made him an icon and an inspiration for generations of ski instructors.

Keller was born in 1935 in Southern Switzerland near the Italian border.  The border was his family’s life.  His father was a customs agent and it was war in Europe in those days.  His family moved every three years. “We were like Gypsies,” Keller jokes.  His father taught him to ski as many families would have then.  Keller took to skiing for fun and for sport.  Then, just as now, he skied for love not competition.  “I was very slow,” Christian joked about his ski racing.  He skied with boyhood friends, “In those days we could ski rather than gymnastics for school sports.  So I would ski, unless the weather was bad out.”

At the end of his youth, his family moved back to southern Switzerland near the Italian border.  This is where he would end school and start his magical career.  “That was our playground.  Sometimes we skied one hour to school.  We would walk up the hill, then down the other side to the school.”  His skis were made of wood with a leather strap.  There were two metal pins in the front to hold his boot on top of the ski.  “We used the same leather boots for walking and for skiing.  Then, we used the old telemark turn for steering”.

Keller left school and became a tradesman in the sheet metal and welding industry for four years.  Back then one was required to have a job or a trade before you could become an instructor so you would be able to earn a living.

Keller started teaching skiing in 1958 and did his first back to back winter in Smiggin Holes in 1966 just two years after it opened.  Then “Smiggins” as it’s known, only had 10 instructors.  The Perisher valley itself was made of several small individual resorts, Smiggins, Perisher, Blue Cow and Guthega.

Keller remembered his first trip across the world to teach down under in 1966.  “I flew through Delhi, then Bangkok, then Hong Kong, then over to Sydney.”  “We drove in through Canberra and then on to Cooma.  Then I drove through the Old Jindabyne when the dam was being built.”  That town is now long sunk under a lake with same name. “We drove up the road toward Smiggins and there was still all the vegetation, the bushes, and the trees, but no snow!  I thought gosh, what am I heading for!  Then just as we turned the corner into Smiggins, there was snow on the hill.  But it was just barely enough to turn a ski!”   Smiggins is the lowest of all the now combined Perisher ski resorts.  These days it is struggles to keep coverage there throughout the Australian season.   “It snowed quite a lot more then,” Keller remembers.

In the following years Keller settled into the ‘back to back’ life style.  He weathered the worst conditions imaginable.  Winds blew off the south pacific bringing shards of ice that eventually piled into snowfall.   He would then trudge back to winter again in the European Alps, where glaciers and small isolated towns locked yet another season under his belt.  He eventually settled in working in St. Moritz in the northern hemisphere.   I asked exactly when he started there, “Now that is getting personal” he joked while wagging a knotty finger at me.  No matter which hemisphere he is in, the attitude is the same, a warm smile each day for anyone that walks up to greet him.

His career down south meandered.  After four years in Smiggins he moved over to Perisher, about two kilometers up the road and 100 meters in elevation.  This resort offered more terrain.  Keller remembers a day in late September racing down the off the Olympic T-bar.  The Olympic j bar is powered by a small diesel engine strokes so slowly you can tap your foot to each up and down of the cylinders.  Black smoke pours out into crisp air and a dogleg left up the ridge frightens the average skier.  It was here where he raced down the face at more than 30 degrees.  “It was well groomed and prepared for such and endeavor.  I went straight down at 180 kilometers an hour, then crashed very hard at the bottom near the Sun Valley T bar.  I crashed so hard I broke my skis in half.  Then my friend offered me to use his skis to go again.  So I did!  140 kilometers and hour then straight down.”  He did not break the borrowed skis.

There was comradery between the different ski schools and many of the pioneers that started teaching at adjacent resorts are now among Keller’s best friends and his coworkers now at the combined Perisher resort. Keller remembers years in which there was so much snow he could jump over the chairlift towers on Mt Perisher some 30 feet in the air.  “They would use bulldozers to create T-bar tracks, then at night the wind would blow all the snow back in.” Other years Keller recalled terrible drought.  “At Smiggins we only had a ribbon of snow.  A client would go down and turn right, then down again.  If they missed the turn to left, they were in the mud!”  He laughed.  “I remember teaching the sous chef at the Smiggin Hotel one year.  She was very tall and it was very warm.  She didn’t stop and went right over the creek and then slowly rolled back.  She landed in the water up to her chest.  I ran over to help, and she said no….it’s cool in here!”

After 12 years in Perisher, a new ski resort emerged in the area, Blue Cow. Keller moved over to this resort that lay off the back of Perisher and offered longer runs and better beginner terrain.  The problem was it had no roads to it.  So a tunnel was dug in from the valley far below near Jindabyne all the way up through Perisher valley, then into the “terminal” at Blue Cow.  “At first they couldn’t complete the tunnel from Perisher to Blue Cow for trains.  They ran diesel busses up the tunnel that year.  In the morning it was okay, but by afternoon the smoke was terrible!  If a bus broke down, they would use a bulldozer to pull it along the tunnel.  It was a terrible smoke.”

“After 16 years the wind blew me back to Perisher” Keller says with another glint of his boyish grin.  Winds at Blue Cow are often over 100k’s and all lifts (including carpets) go on wind hold.

Keller seems stitched into the fabric of Australian skiing.  He would go on to teach generations of skiers.  He tells stories of parents dropping children into his lesson saying “Listen to Christian.  He taught me how to ski!”  Later, that child, all grown up, would repeat the same advice to their child decades later.  He still sees people he taught to ski two or more generations ago and they always remember to say “hi.”  “That is very rewarding,” he says full dimples showing.

“Now I even teach beside people I taught to ski over 30 years ago!  That is really fun.”  When asked what he most enjoys about instructing.  “There are always challenges to overcome.”  His eyes widen now.  “If I get beginner that has its challenges.  If I get a person that can ski, that too has challenges.  I love the freedom, and being outside in the air.”

Now Christian has logged in over a hundred seasons of full time skiing between Perisher and St. Moritz.  At an average of 240 days or so a year that puts him over 24,000 days of full time teaching!  That is a phenomenal number by any standard, and he shows no sign of slowing down, although he does admit to a little jet lag here and there.  When I asked Keller how long he thought he could keep up the perpetual winter he looked at me wryly.  “I think I have a few more years to go still.  When I can’t keep up anymore I may have to become fulltime playboy instead of just a part time one!”

Written by Doug Sanders

Christian Keller (pictured above)

Cross Country Trail Notes by Greg Rhodes

The Scoop / By

The past three months have created what seems like an endless series of events that have left us feeling out of control. These events have encouraged us to work on reaching out for support from friends and colleagues, staying mentally healthy with regular physical activity, and being ready to adapt to whatever unexpected situation we find ourselves in each morning. Despite the challenges that everyone has overcome, these past three months, the PSIA-AASI RM Cross Country Education Staff and the greater XC community have found ways to adapt and grow. This new (or maybe renewed) recurring column in the Instructor-to-Instructor Newsletter is one example of positive growth we have initiated within the XC community. This first edition highlights several things we have been working on as an XC Ed Staff as well as some happenings around the greater XC community within our division.

Nordic Skiing Saved Winter: 
The Nordic community in Crested Butte and the Crested Butte Nordic got some wonderful press about their efforts to keep grooming so that the community could keep skiing and remain active while still staying safe during the earliest period of the COVID-19 pandemic in Colorado. Link to the article can be found here.

We know that skiers in CB were not the only ones using XC skiing to stay connected with the snow.  Stories abound of XC skiers finding the enjoyment of crust skiing in Summit County, on the Grand Mesa, and off Rabbits Ear Pass.

Zoom Meetings allowed for more time together:
The XC Ed Staff has an annual end of season meeting in early April to review the past season’s events and start planning for the next season. Usually this consists of a few hours following a day of skiing together before everyone needs to hit the road to get home. However, this year the Spring Meeting was a Zoom call which turned into three different calls. A silver lining to having to meet over a Zoom call is that we had fewer time restrictions which allowed us to have some of our most productive meetings and planning sessions in years. As an Ed Staff we are extremely excited for next winter and have already started planning our events for next season while also considering contingencies for whatever restrictions we might encounter. One outcome of these efforts is a survey that was sent out recently to you, our membership, to help us offer clinics that are the most relevant to XC instructors at the annual Cross Country Instructor Rendezvous in early December. Getting this feedback over the summer will allow us to plan and prepare in the fall so that the Rendezvous can help all instructors kick off their season with a great learning experience.

National Task Force involvement:
Across all disciplines of PSIA-AASI, National Task Forces have been working on developing new Learning Outcomes and related educational resources. The RM Division Cross Country Education Staff has been extremely involved in the Cross Country Task Force and the sub-working groups. With RM Division representation on every working group and several Ed Staff members on each conference call we are truly helping move Cross Country ski education forward across the country and showing our leadership by sharing our best practices with other divisions.

The 20/21 Season will happen:
One thing we do know for sure in this period of uncertainty is that winter will return and there will be opportunities to ski again. We have set a schedule for XC educational events and are continually working on how we are going to run them with participant, clinic leader, and general public health our first priority. We are all missing the connection with others and the wonderful community of you, our fellow XC skiers, and are working to find the best ways to safely gather next winter. We look forward to seeing everyone on snow or in a virtual clinic (or a hybrid of both) this coming season. As highlighted by CB Nordic at the end of the 19/20 season, XC skiing can happen safely and allow everyone to save their ski seasons. Be well and see you soon!

Ski & Snowboard Instructors – Come spend the best Winter of your life with us in Japan!

Front Range Jobs, Southern District Jobs, Western Slope Jobs / By

Teach only private lessons & get paid the best hourly wage in the world!

Do you want to work with a company revitalizing the ski industry? Are you an independent self-starter?

We are here to facilitate your passion by bringing clients to you through our web-based platform. You work on YOUR OWN TIME – you get paid 50-75% of lesson fees.

We are turning the common ski school model on its head to deliver earned value to the instructor – if you want to join us in this project and make $200-275/day, then please email your resume and a brief introduction on your passion and suitability for the role to admin@mountainpros.com.

This will be our fourth season operating in the main ski regions of Japan and we are looking for highly motivated individuals who will earn 50-75% of lesson fees rather than the usual 10-20%. We serve you by bringing you clients and passing on the majority of the lesson fee to you – it’s only fair.

You will need to deliver HIGH VALUE lessons so you can be BETTER PAID with MORE FREE TIME TO SKI than working anywhere else in Japan or the world.

You will need to be an exceptional client-facing ski guide/instructor managing your own time, communication with clients and hourly pay. Clients rate and review you as an instructor/guide, allowing you to turn good performance from one lesson into higher pay for future lessons.

In addition to enthusiasm, detail-oriented communication skills, and outstanding people skills you will need:

  • At least two seasons instructing experience
  • PSIA Level 1 qualification or higher
  • Be more than 25 years old
  • Be happy working at a variety of resorts and teaching in your own clothes
  • English language fluency essential
  • Japanese and/or Chinese language proficiency very helpful, but not necessary
  • Other languages a bonus

What we will do for you:

  • Find you clients
  • Provide a great team environment living with other instructors & guides
  • Excellent cultural experience living with a wonderful Japanese host family
  • Breakfast and Dinner included each day as part of monthly rent
  • Season Pass reimbursement available
  • Transport to lessons where necessary
  • Provide client support and instructor development sessions
  • Pay you up to 75% of lesson fee
  • Advise on travel arrangements and visa process
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