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What are the new certification standards in PSIA?

LiquidFeet

instructor
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Nov 12, 2015
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There are all sorts of reasons clients hire a ski instructor. Not all of them are solely about learning.
....It takes a community to serve a community.
....That demo team member is not a match for some, maybe most, of our clients. That 18yo gap student isn't a match for others. But putting those folk in with the right clients can create great experiences for everyone -- client and instructor alike.
@Mike King is making an excellent point that I haven't seen made in this kind of discussion before. He's right.

I was a ski club member back in the past, before I became a ski instructor. One year I signed up for an adult seasonal program along with a number of my cohorts in the club. For eight weeks we had a 3-hour morning lesson on Sundays with the same instructor. I took this course in order to build new skills. I assumed that the others in my group also wanted to build new skills. I came to wonder about this as the eight weeks went by.

I found the instruction wishy-washy, without any focus. It was not clear what kind of benefit was supposed to result from the things our instructor had us do. He did not explain how to work the skill required by any drill into our personal skiing. No one received personal feedback on how successfully they were doing those drills. We'd get a good demo (he was a PSIA LIII), then get our chance to try the drill. Our one chance. Then we'd ski around a bit and stop, at which point he'd tell an entertaining story to add interest to the morning's skiing. Then another drill. Rinse and repeat all morning long. A string of drills, once chance at each, followed by a story.

When our group gathered back at the club on Sunday afternoons for drinks and food, I liked to ask them, one at a time, what they had learned that day. "A lot" was the general sentiment. No one, not even once, was able to explain what they learned that day about how to make a turn, start a turn, get grip on snow, end a turn, shape a turn, choose a line, choose a speed or lane width, or anything, anything, specific about how their skiing might change as a result of the time we spent with our instructor. Just vague praise for how much they were learning.

My clubmates were clearly very happy with the instruction. Their expectations for the lessons were being met. Mine weren't. Either I was the only one wanting to improve my skiing, or they were delusional.

Mike is not specifically referring to situations like this unique one since he is speaking in generalities, but I'm sure my experience fits in some way.
 
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Seldomski

All words are made up
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'mericuh
Really depends on the student whether a L3 would really be 'required' to maximize the learning lesson experience. If your goals are (1) feel like you are skiing better (2) still desire to ski tomorrow, then the requirements for the lesson are not all that strenuous. You just need an instructor who shows you the mountain and gives a visual model for better/more precise skiing at your tempo. That plus a few drills as homework. That is the majority of what my one-off group lessons have looked like. Throw in some people skills for the instructor and it's a fun vacation activity.

If the requirements are instead to 'master skiing' in as few sessions as possible, then I do think the differences in L1/L2/L3 instructors are clear. In that case the L3 is going to do a much better job making the overall lesson plan. Maybe have L1/L2 do most of the work on snow with some check ins from the L3+ (note this is how the Mahre Camp works and other structured multi-day lessons I have taken). For me, there is a limit to what I can absorb in a lesson. So even if I could ski with the "bestest" instructor all day, it would probably boil down to 20-30 minutes of that day really mattering. The rest of the day (season?) is spent on trying to practice that bit and make it automatic and normal to my skiing.

But if you are talking about one-off lessons taken annually, I am not convinced there is as much value-added for the typical recreational green/blue skier for the higher cert. Or at least the system isn't willing to pay for the additional expense of L3's for everyone.
 

Chris V.

Making fresh tracks
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Mar 25, 2016
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Truckee
So even if I could ski with the "bestest" instructor all day, it would probably boil down to 20-30 minutes of that day really mattering. The rest of the day (season?) is spent on trying to practice that bit and make it automatic and normal to my skiing.
Agree that it's that patient practice that delivers the most benefit. Albeit, "Practice makes permanent. Perfect practice makes perfect." So there's great benefit in having a well qualified instructor watch you practice, for a few runs, anyway, or off and on, to ensure you're practicing correctly. The difficulty is that even though using lesson time this way may be most beneficial--and this is a fact that instructors themselves often overlook--it may not meet the client's expectations. A client spending some ridiculous amount per hour for instruction may understandably be hoping for a lesson packed with information on several topics one after another--a whole magazine of magic bullets that will rapidly overcome the difficulties the client has been having. We know it doesn't work that way, yet the client may be subjectively happier with an instructor who makes that futile effort.
 

Tim Hodgson

PSIA Level II Alpine
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Aug 20, 2016
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Kirkwood, California
@martyg What was the genesis piece of information essential to WW kayaking?

Ok, I will bite because of @John Nedzel 's like, below. When I was a lowly assistant white water instructor I thought that that the concept expressed by my senior instructor that the "Paddle is a Handle for the Water" was pure genius. It works for teaching the paddle roll, the forward stroke, the Duffek stroke or high bow rudder for entering and leaving an eddy, the back stroke recovery while surfing, and all draw strokes including of course the crazy cross-bow draw, etc.

The concept is exactly the opposite of what people think when they think of the term "stroke." Very little or no stroking involved. Rather, the current provides the turning force against the paddle which the paddler's upper body, then core, transfers to the hull.
 
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