Has anybody attained new certification this season?

[Mike King]

To followup on my "empathy" comment above. What I mean is that a great teacher has to see and understand what their students know and are able to do. They then need to determine what the most important skill or skills to focus on are. Then they need to figure out how to transfer that knowledge to the student. To do this is usually trial and error as students "get it" through different perceptual and understanding channels.

So a great practitioner (world cup racer, world class musician, etc.) starts with a ton of knowledge, but that comes before the first step above - which is seeing where there student is at. That is not teaching skills. Teaching is a skill in and of itself. I know this from my professional life and experience which has all been in education and training.

Having a great eye for movement analysis is not the whole ball of wax, seeing what a skier is doing does not tell you what they need to do differently first -- and how to get that across. I have had things that I do pointed out to me where I was literally angry that no one had ever told me before. Examiner level and Level III trainers who had lots of great things to share, but no ability to look at me and say "OK, first off you need to change this."

I think I've had a couple of those from PSIA in 15 years. Stan Wilkes is one.

Only in the last 2 or 3 years when I worked with non PSIA trainers did I start to find what I needed to know.

The long and short of it is that teaching is both an art and a science. There are great artists in ski instruction within every national association -- and outside as well. But not even those who are most accomplished in the science of ski teaching will be great artists at it.

@Steve, you hit the nail on the head that what often separates a good instructor from a great one is to know what your student needs when -- and how to communicate it to the student so that they understand the why, what, and how. The structure of the instruction environment can enable or inhibit the ability to give a student what they need at the current time. It's easier in a private lesson environment, more difficult in a group setting. And in instructor clinics it may be even more difficult.

 

[Sunnysloper]

Earned my level 2 pin on Tuesday and I’m pretty psyched!

I’m also on the local Masters team and have no doubt that the the PSIA trainers I work with (who are also examiners, ex-demo team members, etc.) have improved my skiing on the race course. Same goes for the Masters coaches, they’ve certainly improved my skiing off the course.

It’s harder to picture the PSIA instructors getting the fastest folks on the Masters team (not me) to shave 10ths of their times or the Masters coaches getting a skier from wedge to parallel in 3hrs (or developing a level 1 into a level 2, like me). Either might be able to do it but neither would do it as well as the other.

Anecdotally, at my home mountain, a PSIA level 2 meets the hiring requirement for a coaching job in Race Department while the USSA certs don’t seem to mean much if anything to the Ski School (no bump in pay or higher level lessons). Kind of the opposite of giving racers pins.

 

[VickieH]

Congratulations, @Sunnysloper! And thank you for steering this back around to achievements such as yours. You guys put in a lot of work and deserve our recognition.

 

[LiquidFeet]

Congratulations, @Sunnysloper! That's a big deal.

 

[markojp]

To followup on my "empathy" comment above. What I mean is that a great teacher has to see and understand what their students know and are able to do. They then need to determine what the most important skill or skills to focus on are. Then they need to figure out how to transfer that knowledge to the student. To do this is usually trial and error as students "get it" through different perceptual and understanding channels.

So a great practitioner (world cup racer, world class musician, etc.) starts with a ton of knowledge, but that comes before the first step above - which is seeing where their student is at. That is not teaching skills. Teaching is a skill in and of itself. I know this from my professional life and experience which has all been in education and training.

Having a great eye for movement analysis is not the whole ball of wax, seeing what a skier is doing does not tell you what they need to do differently first -- and how to get that across. I have had things that I do pointed out to me where I was literally angry that no one had ever told me before. Examiner level and Level III trainers who had lots of great things to share, but no ability to look at me and say "OK, first off you need to change this."

I think I've had a couple of those from PSIA in 15 years. Stan Wilkes is one.

Only in the last 2 or 3 years when I worked with non PSIA trainers did I start to find what I needed to know.

I'm really hesitant to go into this yet again, but PSIA is a large organization that is not seamlessly integrated. One's experience at a particular ski area, or even region, is not necessarily indicative of the experiences of others across the board. When training people for exams, I'm very clear that we're training from the feet, and gradually working up the chain. Another important point is to ski something of value until you achieve ownership. Ownership doesn't happen in clinics. It happens through a process of thoughtful, self-directed free skiing. It's my job to help people find a process and framework for self-diagnosis/correction. The idea, particularly at L3 testing levels, that any one clinician is responsible for one's success is to obviate personal responsibility in the process. L1 and for some, L2, can be externally motivated, but L3 and up, the individual needs to own their path. Motivation, correction, diagnosis, etc... needs to have a strong internal ability to self monitor and edit information/input.

 

[Steve]

@markojp my comments were not specifically about training towards certification, but about teaching people how to ski. My general feeling is that teaching beginners through to low level Intermediates is done quite well, it's above that level that I find a lack of great teaching ability to be common. Teaching's hard, it's an advanced and undervalued skill in our society in general.

It's not about my training to pass Level 2, it's about my experiences learning how to ski at an advanced level.

 

[markojp]

Again, I think that's very dependent on where you are. Every area has different human resources. It sounds like your area might be limited. Wish you were out our way.

 

[Sunnysloper]

Thanks for the support, everyone!

@LiquidFeet Yeah, passing the level 2 teach exam and getting the silver pin was a big deal. Thanks for saying so.

I passed the 2 ski exam three seasons ago, thinking I’d take the 2 teach the same season. After taking my first 2 teach clinic, I realized that would be a mistake (the trainer’s only comment was “have you even read the manual?”). The ski exam was mostly based on things I already knew how to do (wedge christie excepted). The teach exam required learning new things. It really wasn’t until February of this year that I felt like I had a chance at passing the teach section, after lots of studying, dozens of clinics and more real lessons.

Not sure if I'll make a serious effort for level 3. I usually only instruct on the 15 to 20 busiest days of the season, moving large groups of 5 to 7-year-olds from greens to blues. It's cool. That's where the need is, but it's not "advanced skiing in the advanced zone". The improvements I had to make in my teaching and skiing to get the level 2 pin definitely improved the lessons I typically do, but I’m not sure the same can be said about the improvements I’d have to make to get level 3. Then there’s the huge amount of work involved.

On the other hand, there’s a lot to learn about skiing and teaching during the actual exams. If you think of an exam as a two-day super-intense lesson, with a top instructor, then it's dumb not to spend a few hundred bucks (that goes to a good organization full of good people), attend an exam, learn something and maybe even pass.

 

[Erik Timmerman]

After taking my first 2 teach clinic, I realized that would be a mistake (the trainer’s only comment was “have you even read the manual?”).

 

[Erik Timmerman]

I've found this to be pretty effective for teaching people to take a rounder line in the bumps as well. Too many skiers pivot the skis ASAP in the bumps which prevents them from ever establishing any real flow from bump to bump.

Yeah, it's a big step to get people to realize how much time they actually have in the bumps. Patience in the bumps being relative of course, maybe the skier is only letting the ski point downhill for .01 second and .02 would feel like an eternity. When we used to have a half pipe I liked skiing that to show how much time there is. When you get tp the top it seems like you need to whip the skis around super fast, but there's so much more time up there than you think there is.

 

[Chris V.]

(the trainer’s only comment was “have you even read the manual?”)

Talk about tough love....

 

[Chris V.]

Yeah, it's a big step to get people to realize how much time they actually have in the bumps. Patience in the bumps being relative of course, maybe the skier is only letting the ski point downhill for .01 second and .02 would feel like an eternity. When we used to have a half pipe I liked skiing that to show how much time there is. When you get tp the top it seems like you need to whip the skis around super fast, but there's so much more time up there than you think there is.

Or in the bumps, it may be a matter of people not understanding or embracing what they should be doing to make the skis come around fast. Actually it's pretty fast--but not as a result of a big muscular twisting motion. Sitting back isn't going to do it. People have to screw up the courage to really get forward at the right moment.

 

[no edge]

Thanks for the support, everyone!

@LiquidFeet

(the trainer’s only comment was “have you even read the manual?”).

There's a manual?

 

[whumber]

Yeah, it's a big step to get people to realize how much time they actually have in the bumps. Patience in the bumps being relative of course, maybe the skier is only letting the ski point downhill for .01 second and .02 would feel like an eternity. When we used to have a half pipe I liked skiing that to show how much time there is. When you get tp the top it seems like you need to whip the skis around super fast, but there's so much more time up there than you think there is.

Many of our intermediate glades at Killington have mountain bike flow trails cut through them now. They disrupt normal glade skiing but are a great tool for teaching more patient lines in the bumps. The banked turns from the flow trails act like an extremely low frequency bump field and are a great place for people to get the idea of riding up onto the adjacent bump, dropping the tips into the trough and then skidding their way to the next bump. Since there's so much time and margin for error it takes out much of the fear component that drives people to twist the skis and brake ASAP in bumps.