Lots Happened

Posted on April 7, 2011 by rickyb

A lot has happened over the winter. I’ve completed my final day of commitment to ski school and there are three days remaining in Monarch’s season.

I’ve got lots of pictures, lots of names of students, lots of experiences. I’m sorry I have not kept up with this blog. Seems once I start getting busy in instructor mode, it’s hard for me to sit down and write. Perhaps I can go through my little black book and recall some experiences.

I’ve been asked to build a website for the Monarch Corporation for what they call a Monarch Information Portal which has been keeping me busy since early February.

Some things I’d like to write about:

  • Students and people I met
  • My new boot issues
  • Changes in ski school
  • The clinics I attended
  • Clinics I led
  • New teaching techniques I learned
  • New ski techniques I learned
  • New terminology
  • Lessons from students
  • Possible career paths
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Fun With Gunnar

Posted on December 6, 2010 by rickyb

Got to ski with one of my favorite students, Gunnar, yesterday. As far as his technique goes we’re working on getting him to use his legs more to initiate and steer his turns. He has a tendency to swing his shoulders to get his skis to start turning and so he ends up using primarily the backs of his skis resulting in z-shaped turns skidded on the backs of the skis. Using his legs more would allow him to more effectively manage the edging, pressure, and steering of the whole skis. Having rounder more arching controlled turns.

The primary movement that our exercises/tasks/games/play intended to instill was to use the inside leg to both start the turns and to continue to actively shape the turns. That means to start a turn we try to rotate our femur in our hip socket and continue to steer the knee and foot of that same leg to shape the turn (right to go right, left to go left). That also means we need to flex and extend that leg to be able to make that movement pattern.

Of course I didn’t get too technical with Gunnar. But some of the stuff I was saying were things like “closest to the snow is first to go” (referring to the use of body parts), roll your knee into the hill to shape the turn, flex the ankle to start the turn . . . .

He said something that I thought was great. He said he felt like he was going faster in the turns. I took that opportunity to explain that, that was exactly what he should be feeling, the ability to stay under control even while going faster. Talked about ski racers and how we try to emulate their techniques. There are basically two attitudes about turning on skis. One is that we turn to slow down. The other is that we turn to change directions. The former is a defensive mindset and tends to hinder development. The other is an offensive (or non-defensive) mindset that tends to allow the person to be in control of their own destiny (the Zen of skiing).

During the last hour of our lesson there were a couple of cute girls Gunnar knew that strangely sort of kept being on the same runs as us. I think it “enhanced” the whole experience for Gunnar on multiple levels. ;)

Here are a couple of links to PSIA videos that have some relevance to Gunnar and where I’m taking him.

  1. Balance Not Bracing
  2. Flexing for an Easier Ride

Posted in Skiing/Instructing, Students | 1 Comment

A-Framing

Posted on December 2, 2010 by rickyb

I’ve been told recently that I am “a-framing” in my skiing. At first I thought that it’s still early season and I happen to be unnecessarily outside ski dominant. I blame it on old learned habits where I am pressure biased, counter rotated, and predominately skiing one leg at a time. Or you could simply call it insufficient inside leg activity. But I’ve been working on improving my technique for quite some time and thought that I’d changed, unless I’m lazy, hung over, or actually trying to do those things.

Then I remembered that I’ve got brand new boots that I’m still tinkering with to make fit and align correctly. They’ve been feeling a little tight. I think I’m going to have to ask the boot fitter to pop out the place where my” sixth toe” is squishing the ball of my foot from the sides. If you think about the balance points under your foot as a sort of three point tripod (center in the middle of your heel, and two points under the ball of your foot at either side) the outside leg of that tripod is having a pressure that is affecting my skiing causing me to a-frame. The pressure is causing me a subtle sort of pain from my foot being squished and consequently not allowing me to feel the pressure between the snow and my ski adequately.

I’ll be able to visit the boot fitter again at the Copper Mountain Surefoot store on Monday afternoon.

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Content is Still King

Posted on December 2, 2010 by rickyb

A HubSpot article I read in my Google Reader, but lost the citation to, said, “. . . it is critical to provide news, information and thought-leadership content in a format that allows for maximum consumption and engagement from prospects, leads and customers.”

That quote wanted me to make a poster out of it and put it up on my wall.

It was talking about Google getting into the ebook market with Google Editions. They want to make ebooks available where ever books are even mentioned online. The article says that Google could capture 20% of the market share very quickly.

Went back and found the reference. See it here. It’s in the Marketing Takeaway.

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Cassandra

Posted on December 1, 2010 by rickyb

Cassandra “Cassy” M. is a really great student that I get to be with for at least 5 three hour lessons, hopefully more. Her dad requested me for all the lessons, which makes it all even more special.

Our first was on the 27th. She’s 9, from Denver. She and her family stay in Buena Vista on some weekends when they ski Monarch Mountain.

Cassandra, Dad, Sydney

Cassy and Sydney are gymnasts. They both had ski lessons last year at Monarch with Bevy and Susan.

More later . . .

  • Relating gymnastics to skiing
  • Fore/aft pressure
  • Leg steering
  • Christmas tree ornaments
  • Sparky Starbo’s Spaceship
  • Finding the “center” chair on the lift using math
  • Memorizing all the runs at Monarch
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Christine, Heidi

Posted on December 1, 2010 by rickyb

Me, Christine, Heidi

Christine B. is a nurse in Colorado Springs. She signed up for a Level 1 Group lesson on Nov. 27th. Heidi is a new instructor at Monarch this year and was allowed (asked) to “shadow” this lesson. The lesson began at 9 am and was scheduled to last 1 hour and 45 minutes.

Christine is originally from Alabama. She moved to Colorado with her husband who is stationed at Ft. Carson. She’s 22, and the last time she skied was 12 years ago. Her husband loves to ski, so her goal for the lesson was to get back up to speed to spend time on the slopes with her hubby.

Heidi’s goal was to see how I teach a level 1 group lesson.

Turn’s out Christine still had lots of muscle memory, more than she thought she had (like riding a bike). We did go though the typical exercises that I would normally use in a level 1 lesson but at an accelerated rate. Once I saw that she possessed a certain balancing/movement skill I was able to build and move on to more advanced movements. Within 30 minutes we were taking our first chairlift ride to midway on Tumbolina. We did a series of traverses near the top of Snowflake, getting practice at standing on the middle of our feet while sliding. Included in the exercise was lifting and stepping of the uphill ski in a straight traverse. I included this in our exercises because Christine had a tendency to lean up the hill (hmmm, I wonder if I over terrained her and leaning uphill was really fear). Once we were on the Flake’s more gentler terrain we talked more about turning and and using the gravity zone to help us start a turn. We talked about “femurs” since she is a nurse and how we can turn our legs to steer our turns.

This all seemed to work pretty well except that she said it felt like her ski (inside ski) was getting stuck. I reminded her about earlier in the lesson when we talked about balancing on one ski more than the other. We practiced balancing more on one ski while turning the other.  This worked well for her.

We actually got to ski Rookie and got to practice quite a bit. I encouraged her to come back so we could explore more of the mountain and refine her skills so she would eventually be skiing parallel. I could see that by using these movements and gaining confidence and a little more speed she would be skiing parallel soon.

Later near closing time I ran across her and her husband. They told me all about how they’d been exploring the mountain and how she was “skiing with her skis together!” She said I was a good teacher, but I was thinking to myself that I hope she’d come back to build on her development. Not sure she will because it sounds like her husband is going to take over from here.

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My First Official Guest of the Year

Posted on November 27, 2010 by rickyb

Monarch Mountain opened yesterday. The snow is a little thin but in pretty good shape. Had my first student of this season yesterday in a private lesson. Melissa P. is a student in Ft Collins. She’s from Pueblo, Colorado. She very excited to get going on her brand new ski, boots, and poles that she just bought for herself. She was signed up for an hour and 15 minute Level 2 lesson. She said her goal was to get used to her new gear and get a good start on the right technique for the season.

Before we got started we looked over her new equipment. I showed her how the skis were shaped and talked about how her boots fit and the kinds of socks she had on. I asked her questions to help me determine her understanding of skiing and watched how she moved (i.e. how she walked, carried her skis, cleaned off the bottoms of her boots to step into her bindings, . . .) to determine what sort of balancing skills she already possessed.

Photo from Image Makers http://www.viewmyimages.com/mp_includes/body.asp

After getting familiar with her skis and the feelings of sliding again, she began to get comfortable with turning and stopping. I took her through a series of “tests” to further check her understandings and movement patterns.

Melissa progressed quickly building on her experience and muscle memory. Aside from satisfying her spoken goals, I determined that she needed to shift her rotary movements more to her feet and legs rather than using her shoulders and torso to turn the skis. By the end of the lesson we were able to ski the green run called Rookie focusing on turning our feet and legs to make our skis turn. The mantra became, “right leg to go right, left leg to go left.”

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Attended PSIA Fall Training

Posted on November 24, 2010 by rickyb

Had the opportunity to attend PSIA-RM-AASI Fall Training in Breckenridge last week.

Clinics I attended on day one:

  • Movement Analysis Applications,
  • Area Representative lunch (sort of),
  • Coaching Exam Maneuvers,
  • 2010-2011 Exam Process clinics.

Day two clinics I attended:

  • Personal Riding Improvement in the morning,
  • Progression Building in the afternoon.

All in all it involved a lot of skiing. The snow at Breck was awesome. We even skied the T-Bar which opened this year earlier than any other year in history. Got to reconnect with lots of friends and get myself brushed up and reminded of all things ski instructor/trainer related. The focus at this event is ski/ride school trainer and management level. I got to go because I am the “PSIA-RM-AASI Area Rep” at Monarch Mountain. It seems to me that no one truly seems to know exactly what that means functionally. I’ve heard it described as an extension to the Division’s staff. But exactly how I operate specifically in that role at my area is still a little unclear to me. Apparently I am a liaison between the instructor staff and the Division staff which should ultimately be a help to Division and Monarch management.

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Two Fundamental Models to Teaching Well

Posted on November 15, 2010 by rickyb

Two models found in PSIA (Professional Ski Instructors Association) Rocky Mountain Division, are the Teaching Model and the Guest Centered Teaching (GCT) Concept. These should be ingrained in every instructor in all they do. They should be second nature to how they conduct snowsports instruction.

Overlayed on the graphic example of the GCT model below is the Teaching Model (Introduce, Assess, Determine Goals, Plan, Present Information, Practice, Check for Understanding, and Summarize). Under the Teaching Model is the GCT model of identifying and facilitating motivations, understanding, and movements. The arrows signify the circular nature of the process.

Can you tell if your instructor followed some similar structure in your lesson? One thing good about asking for a certified instructor is that they will have learned these methods and you’ll have a better lesson. You’ll also notice some consistency in lessons taken at different areas if you’re with different certified instructors.

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Monarch Ski & Ride School's Guest Survey

Posted on November 15, 2010 by rickyb

Click this image to see actual PDF version.

Here is another way to rate an instructor. This document is handed to all guests that sign up for a ski/ride booking at Monarch Mountain. It asks the guests to rate their satisfaction with our school and their instructor on a scale of 1 to 5 (5 meaning strongly agree) to statements.

Here are the statements:

  • My instructor’s appearance was professional.
  • My instructor was friendly and met me with a smile.
  • My instructor was interested in my motivation for taking a lesson.
  • My instructor considered my motivation when building a lesson plan.
  • My instructor was conscious of the ways in which I learn and process information.
  • My instructor accurately assessed my movement patterns.
  • My instructor recognized the strengths in my riding.
  • My instructor provided me with ample practice time after introducing new material.
  • My instructor summarized the lesson and presented me with something to work on.
  • My instructor was concerned about my awareness of safety.
  • My instructor introduced or reviewed the skier’s responsibility code.
  • My instructor met my expectations.
  • I would recommend my instructor to friends and family.
  • The Ski and Ride School sales staff was friendly and knowledgeable.
  • The Ski and Ride School supervisory staff was friendly and knowledgeable.
  • [Comments section is provided.]

If you’ve read my previous post you’ll see some correlation to PSIA’s candidate score card, especially in the areas of identification and facilitation of motivation, learning styles, movement needs, and safety.

Posted in PSIA Teaching Methods, Skiing/Instructing | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment