2007

PRESIDENT’S REPORT

Tony Smythe HI ALL AND WELCOME TO THE ANNUAL EDITION OF SNOWPRO AND A SPECIAL WELCOME TO ALL OUR NEW MEMBERS WHO JOINED US THROUGH THE YEAR. HOPE YOU ALL ENJOYED A RIPPER SEASON WITH PLENTY OF FRESHIES EARLY IN THE SEASON THEN LOTS OF BASE LATE TO GET US THROUGH TO THE END. (AS I WRITE THE BIG KICKERS ARE STILL INTACT ON THE BULLER SUMMIT, THE LITTLE BULLER SPUR GLACIER IS ALSO STILL HOLDING SNOW).

2007 came and went all too quickly as usual, but wasn’t it great to have snow conditions that were as good as anywhere in the world. (Well that’s what it was like at Buller for few weeks anyway). How was the season for you? Lots of work, plenty of parties, new friends or even a certificate or two. Hope it was great and you all have plenty of fond memories to take away. We too, at the APSI, have had a memorable year with lots happening.

The highlight of the year was undoubtedly our attendance at Interski, one should all be aware of this event by now and inside this edition you will find lots of reports and pics from the adventure. Mountain “development” teams have been selected.

Interski represents the pinnacle of the snow sport and I urge all of you strive to make the 2011 team.

Claire and Andrew have, as always done a great job in the office and on snow, and we sincerely thank them for their efforts.

A really big thank you also goes out to all the Technical Directors of the various disciplines. Sometimes we overlook the kudos that these dedicated guys deserve.

After all, it is this team that is shaping our Snowsport future. Well done gentlemen.

A few years ago I spoke with Andrew about evolving his job to encompass all aspects of running the APSI with the overall goal being a General Manager. The feedback is there to suggest we are on the right track. The technical aspects of coordinating all the disciplines are well in place with all the TDS appreciative of the approach; you will now be seeing more continuity across the disciplines. The next step will focus on business modeling, i.e. funding submissions, product placement, sponsorship, web site and data base management. Once again, if any of our members have any experience in any of these areas and are happy to contribute, please let us know. After all it is YOUR association and every little bit helps.

Congratulations to Richard Jameson on his appointment of Alpine “Chief of Exams”. From all reports a very capable, professional performance, well done RJ. This is a role that has traditionally been undertaken by the Alpine TD and is stepping stone in developing Richard towards this position. Next season will see Richard assuming more roles within the Alpine TD role.

A few of the other changes were the introduction of the Children’s Certificate for Snowboard. This was widely accepted and pass rates were very good. We even had a snowboard candidate participate in an Alpine exam, which leads to question can this course be trained in Discipline specific then examined jointly?

Level 2 Alpine saw the introduction of a more defined “Block” system, designed to ease the time and financial burden of completing the Level 2 in one hit. Further it addresses the needs of the Snowsport schools and introduces“Coaching” content, which is a basic introductory coaching content to enable instructors to deliver coaching lessons aimed at Interschools participants. Once again the feedback on the format was well received, especially the “continual” assessment aspect of the Coach and Ski block.

At our recent board meeting we had some spirited discussion on the current structure of the Board. At present we have 13 representatives on the board and with such a large number it is often difficult to gain a quorum to hold me on the meetings. The by-law amendment proposal at the next AGM will be to have one mountain representative on the board of management, with a sub committee of

individual resort representatives reporting to this person. This will streamline proceedings as well as present cost saving initiatives.

Overwhelmingly across all resorts were the reported levels of increased business.

Most probably the combination of the great snow and the pent up spending anxiety of the 2006 season waiting to be released. Coupled with some resorts reporting being understaffed the cry of being “under the pump” was widely heard.

However with such a huge year it was disappointing to note the declining participation rates at course and exams.

At CC and Level 1 it is easy to explain reduced participation numbers, i.e. less new hires, it would be interesting to hear your feed back as to why Level’s 2 and 3 are also declining. Level 3 Exam participation has more than halved in the past 5 years! Is it worked loads, cost, the system? All feedback will be treated in the strictest confidentiality and should be directed to myself at maloha@bigpond.com.

I would like to thank one of our partners for his support of the association. Andrew Abbercrombie through his company “Flexirent”, has been providing us with super deals on PC’s and laptops. It has saved us quite a bit of late, and I am pleased to be able to announce that “pro deals” on computers are now available.

This is a unique opportunity, so if you have any computer requirements, please research all your technical requirements, contact Claire and wait for the quote.

The APSI will add a small handling fee and is an initiative to value adds to your membership. If you have any other “deals” that can be added in this manner, please let us know.

Speaking of deals, we still have a quantity of fleece T Necks that need to disappear from Claire’s storeroom, any marketing gurus out there let us have your thoughts!

We will be busy as usual over summer making improvements for the coming seasons, for Claire and Drew it will be a chance to catch up on some well earned rest and relaxation. I wish you all the best and thank you for your support over the season.

Merry Christmas and Happy new Year.

Look forward to seeing you all back safe and well in 2008 Tony Smythe

Summer 2007

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TRAINING & PROGRAM DIRECTOR’S REPORT

Andrew Rae WINTER 2007 SAW AN IMPROVEMENT IN SNOW CONDITIONS WHICH IN TURN SAW A MASSIVE INCREASE IN BUSINESS AT ALL SCHOOLS. THIS WAS AN IMPROVEMENT AFTER LAST SEASON. AFTER ALL ITS TRAILS AND TRIBULATIONS OF LAST YEAR IT CAUSED MANY MEMBERS TO CHOOSE A NEW CAREER. LUCKILY APSI ALPINE COURSES STILL SAW QUITE A FEW MEMBERS ATTEND THE AVAILABLE TRAINING AND ACCREDITATION OPTIONS. Some 420 people participated in the various options available this season.

A few of these products saw some large changes with an updating of some of the level 3 demos, a complete revamp of the level 2 course by including a coaching component and the addition of Richard Jameson as a supervisor of the alpine exam process.

This season’s changes to the alpine programs plus some other updates over the years such as the mid-season CC assessment as well as including freeride as apart of main stream training may cause people to ask ‘who makes the decision as to what needs updating or changing’?

Therefore this would perhaps be a good time to explain the process behind any change to courses & exams offered by the APSI. Each discipline represented in the APSI has a 'technical committee' which is made up of experienced individuals who volunteer their time to gather technical information from many sources including each of the snowsports schools training programs, the courses we provide, to international influences.

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All of this is then discussed under the supervision of their respective technical director. This is where each discipline carefully addresses each of the products on offer and looks at what needs updating to parallel the ever changing market demands of our Australian Snowsports schools.

This should explain why my role is also evolving. Into what can be considered a ‘general managers position’ where I am charged with the responsibility of ensuring the great concepts that evolve from each of the extremely experienced technical committees are followed through to action.

No matter the discipline.

Major changes or advances to the program are also passed by the various Snowsport School Directors to check for appropriateness and market feasibility.

In addition to this, if these changes affect the cost of courses or exams they are also need to be passed by the APSI board for approval.

For the past 5 years I have worked very closely with the alpine technical committee to update many of the courses, produce a manual that can be digested in sections & produced training movies.

The technical director then has to essentially manage their group of casual employees (trainers/examiners), to make sure that they are trained on these latest concepts. So the trainers can inturn then conduct the most up to date training programs and standardised assessments, season to season.

Each member in this process is not only passionate about constantly evolving these products to meet demand they are also an integral part in the evolution or change.

A two-way street of communication is always available between the technical directors, their committees, Snowsport schools, resort CEO’s and all members.

Their comments are always considered when the technical committee address any change.

Now you may well ask “why so much change?”

The answer is for you the members, all of you.

Every thing that is done goes through a well thought out process it is rechecked and includes input from many sources to produce the best possible, most up to date training program.

Our primary charter as an association is to provide training and standardised assessment to all members, most of whom are also employees of Australian Snowsports schools. Therefore as a business we have to keep evolving so that we can work with the Australian Snowsports schools to create products that meet the demand of not only our national market but also the expectations of the international market.

The small changes to the APSI management structure seen this year have been added simply to allow me to spread my time as a full time employee to work with all the individual discipline TD’s to achieve the same growth in all the programs that are offered through the APSI. I will also act as an immediate contact for all and any questions, if I cannot answer it immediately I use the wealth of knowledge of the experienced TD’s/managers who work with me.

To each of the discipline TD’s I would like to thank you for you support and communication over this season, something that definitely added to the success of this seasons training/assessments.

And to all our members who were involved in this season’s training and assessments please keep up the communication and stay involved in what is becoming a very dynamic association.

Andrew Rae

SNOWBOARD TECHNICAL DIRECTOR’S REPORT

Jason Clauscen AS THE 2007 SEASON PASSES, IT IS AMAZING HOW TIME FLIES. BEFORE YOU KNOW IT YOUR SAYING GOODBYE TO FRIENDS AND WORK BUDDIES AND TRYING TO PLAN THE NEXT UP AND COMING SEASON. YOU’VE GOT TO WONDER WHERE THE TIME WENT.

TELEMARK TECHNICAL DIRECTOR’S REPORT

Graham Hammond Another season has just flown by! This winter has seen two level 1 courses, one cross over course and one level 2 course for telemark, all with healthy numbers.

Is this a sign of increased interest for lessons or self improvement? I think both compliment one another especially with regards to telemark.

There have been some new faces emerge who worked on some of the courses this year. Tom Gellie (Charlottes Pass) and Richard Hocking (Wilderness Sports). Both passionate skiers. A big thanks for your help this winter. Thanks also to the existing

The 2007 season was a great turn around from the 2006 season. Having snow makes life easier. I would like to thank a number of people this season for there support and advice throughout the season.

A big thanks goes out to the Technical Committee and all the trainers and examiners that helped with training and the exams during the season. I would also like to thank Andy Rae, for working with me during the season and helping me along the way. A BIG thank you goes out to the all the resorts for helping me through the season with courses and exams.

Last but not least I would like to thank all the candidates that attended training and exams throughout the season. I hope that you enjoyed your season and learnt from the training you experienced.

With the 2007 coming to a close there have already been a number of items come up for the 2008 season, from training, courses and exams. With snowboarding forever evolving it is important that we try and keep up.

For those of you that are heading north for the winter I wish you a safe and powdery winter and for those of you who and having a summer, don’t forget to slip, slop, slap!

Yours truly, Jason Clauscen PS Thanks to Claire

There were a number of good results this year starting from the re-sits at the start of the season. There was a very high success result for all re-sit candidates during the season. Form a trainer’s point of view it was very pleasing to see people return during the season and show that they had worked hard and got what they deserved.

trainers, Tony Keeble, Bruce Easton, Danny Monaghan and Roberto Ireland. I apologise for not being around more often.

Commuting from Tassie was far from ideal!

Thanks to Andy Rae for crossing over for the day on the level 2 course, Claire Stanton for having to deal with all of our emails and phone calls and of course to this years candidates.

I must also make a special mention to the nocturnal cross dressers who attended the cross over telemark course. I knew I was in for a laugh when I asked them all to have two runs to warm up on Front Valley before we started. “That might take all night!” was the passing comment.

With the continued success of these courses I am suggesting that cross over courses are scheduled at every resort next winter. Tricky part will be to work these outside of busy periods. This course is a great way of earning a second discipline which helps towards gaining an ISIA stamp.

Feedback over the winter that was received outlined the need for extra training. Due to the lack of opportunities for training, instructors do not get to progress or further their skills unless they

possibly book into the next level of course available. To help progress skill levels, understanding and also to develop ideas to increase lessons in telemark, I am suggesting that next winter there be scheduled training sessions (night or day) at each resort. So if you have already gained a qualification or are approaching exams (or resit) these will offer an opportunity to train further with added guidance. As we all know when we do some training we generally do it on our own or are continually asking and seeking advice from where ever we can get it! I hope these training sessions will improve the standards, improve communication between all instructors as well as help foster increased telemark work.

If any of you have any further suggestions for next winter please do not hesitate to contact me. There is always need for improvement. Being such a small area within a ski school, anything that helps increase the profile is great.

Enjoy your northern hemisphere winter turns!

Ski you all later.

Graham Hammond

Summer 2007

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NORDIC TECHNICAL DIRECTOR’S REPORT

Warren Feakes NORDIC HAD A LEAN YEAR IN 2007 WITH RESPECT TO COURSES, RECALLS AND EXAMINATION CANDIDATES. I HAVE HAD VARIOUS REASONS FOR THIS REPORTED TO ME. Primarily, it seems to be the bumper start to the season causing people to be too busy working to do courses as well as programming that did not tie in with school holidays and other conflicting events. Certainly this was so in July and August, but please remember there is a September in winter as well.

Next season, I will attempt to address the course dates issue by introducing a new method of doing Level 1 and Level 2 courses. I have concurrence to run these courses in blocks so we can complete a

THREDBO REPORT

Jeremy Valencour AFTER ANOTHER SEASON IN THREDBO I AM SO EXCITED TO SAY WE HAD THREE OF THE FOUR COURSE TOPS THIS YEAR, WELL DONE TO ALL THAT ATTEMPTED AND PASSED, RECEIVED A RE-SIT OR CONTINUING, YOU ALL TRIED YOUR BEST.

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Level 1 or 2 over two weekends for instance. Lake Mountain intend to run inhouse courses over weekday afternoons.

I will devise a Log Book system for this and probably incorporate it with the Workbook.

Trainer wages will be the same as will course costs. There may be some changes to Level 3 courses as there will be in the other disciplines – essentially they will become Trainer specific qualifications.

OEG again ran a successful Level 1 preparation course and all of their students passed Level 1 exams. I was pleased with the response the 2007 Level 1 workbook has had. It is structured to ensure the appropriate references are read as well as allowing some thinking answers to be provided to the “Case Studies”. I would be pleased with any feedback on this workbook.

The New Nordic Manual (first Draft) is almost complete and the ‘guts’ of it – the skills and how to teach them – has been circulated to the Technical Committee and selected trainers for comment. The remainder of the manual will mirror the Alpine, Telemark and Snowboard Manuals including the progressions of the Alpine Turns with a “twist” on doing them on Nordic equipment. I am happy to circulate the skills section to any other trainer who would like to comment. It is emailable in two lumps, each of about 5Mb. The new manual will be produced “in-house” and will be of high quality but not the same “book” style as the Alpine or Snowboard manual as volume makes this

Thank you to our training supervisor, Matt Smith, and his team of excellent trainers, if it was not for these guys and girls we would not have achieved this great result.

On the training side I am sure everyone at Thredbo would like to thank Con Poulos for his ten years of service as lead trainer.

Con stepped into that position in 1997 and was instrumental in growing the training program within the Snow Sports School, so from myself and the rest of Thredbo Snow Sports. THANK YOU CON. As some of you may know Thredbo had a few changes in the last season one of them being the removal of the Workshop name for the 7–14 years skiing and Rippers for the snowboarding and replaced by one name "Freeriders". This change was well embraced by all staff and clientele. The further improvement of our snow making last summer was also a great improvement on the hill.

uneconomical. It will be “comb” bound and will be capable of being amended by full page amendments.

I am negotiating with the Australian Team Cross Country coach, Finn Marsland, to cross qualify Level 2 Instructors in some of the skill blocks required as part of the Cross Country Level 1 NCC Coaching accreditation.

The converse may also be possible for some of the Level 2 skill set. I believe Interschools have become a large part of our business and a Coaching qualification will make instructors more marketable in this area. The reason Level 2 is appropriate is that there is a greater concentration on technique error detection and correction at this Level.

Finally, you will note by the other Nordic articles in this SnoPro that we have sorted out “skating” terminology. Please also have a look at the Interski reports. Interski was certainly a great learning experience, especially with the Swiss Nordic Cross Instructional system which will be the subject of more exposure on the APSI website.

Thanks to all the trainers who assisted in Season 07. I will attempt to get draft programs out before Christmas for 2008 so that I can get my bids in early for your services.

Have a great off season.

Warren Feakes

Not much else to say for us this year, so hope you all have a great winter/summer what ever it maybe and look forward to seeing some of you overseas and the rest back in oz for the 2008 season Jeremy Valencour

MT. BULLER REPORT

Dave McNiel WELL, IT’S HARD TO BELIEVE ITS ALREADY OVER. TRAINER’S COORDINATION, HIRING CLINIC, THE CRAZINESS OF SCHOOL HOLIDAYS THEN THOSE AWESOME POWDER DAYS THAT LAID AN EXCELLENT BASE OF SNOW TO SET US UP FOR AN AMAZING SEASON. BEFORE WE KNEW IT, INTERSCHOOLS WERE UPON US, A FEW QUIETER WEEKS IN SEPTEMBER AND IT’S ALL OVER FOR 07.

As many of you will know, Mt Buller was surrounded by a 360 degrees fire front last summer. We take our hats off to all the volunteers who spent the whole summer on 24 to 48 hours notice of evacuation as they protected our mountain from the “Ring of Fire” as it came within meters of the village and some of our chairlifts. Due to their fantastic efforts, there was no loss of life, property or infrastructure and we are all eternally grateful that we had a resort to come back to.

When the dust settled, we were left with a huge array of tree lines that were previously un-rideable due to the thick undergrowth, now burnt away. Add a good layer of fresh snow and it was game on!!!

After such a lean season last season, we all took every opportunity to remind ourselves how much fun it is to freeride in Australia.

It was always a tough call, whether to ride your favourite line from seasons past, or to explore lines you’ve never been able to ride before. Either way, fun was had by all, with telltale signs including big smiles and black charcoal marks on jackets!!

Due to a re-shuffle at management level, Mt Buller Snowsports School was starting

MT. BULLER SKI AND SNOWBOARD SCHOOL APSI Alpine Level 2/3 trainer .

Due to the recent retirement of Richard Ross we require the services of an

this season with a new Director. Paul Romagna was the Snowsports School director for 15 years until 1996 and was invited to once again take the helm. Paul has a reputation for running a tight ship and this season was no different. His strong leadership, with the backup of all the supervisors was certainly appreciated once things got busy.

This season in training, Multi-skilling was a big theme. Early in the season, Rookies and Veterans alike got together to get a taste of teaching a second discipline. Later in the season, instructors qualified in one discipline were offered cross over courses in Cross Country and Adaptive Teaching. All of the courses were well attended and it was great to see so many people so keen to broaden their skill and knowledge base.

For the first time at Mt Buller, a Basic Avalanche Awareness Course was held.

Although the course was structured around the ISIA requirements, many participated purely to gain or reinforce avalanche awareness for the coming Northern Season. After one and a half days, all participants left with a newfound respect for the dangers that exist overseas and a desire to continue their learning curve with a course specific to their home resort in the Northern Hemisphere.

Due to the success of this season, Mt Buller has a brand new, six million dollar chairlift to look forward to next season, improving access from Bourke St to the rest of the mountain. This will replace the Abom chair and Blue Bullet 2 will also be removed to provide a greater expanse of unobstructed beginner terrain on Baldy.

On that note, have a fun and safe Northern Winter or Aussie Summer and I’ll see you in ‘08.

APSI Alpine Level 2/3 trainer.

An excellent package will be offered to the right person, including senior contract status, new purpose built accommodation, a great blend of work assignments which will be mainly based around training.

This is an fantastic opportunity to further your career and be part of an exciting new era on Mt Buller.

Expressions of interest , in the first instance should be directed to, Tony Smythe maloha@bigpond.com Please note. Snowboard Trainers are also welcome to apply.

Summer 2007

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FALLS CREEK REPORT

Also well done to the rest of our team who completed their levels or are continuing their journey.

With all the events and school holidays going on during the season it makes it hard to pin point certain days in the season that stood out.

I’ve been teaching at Falls for 14 winters and after awhile the seasons tend to melt into one another. This is especially true when you are focused on training for your levels or generally just trying to improve your own riding.

Adam Geary G’DAY THIS IS GRINDER FROM FALLS CREEK I’M WRITING THIS ARTICLE WITH JUST OVER ONE WEEK TO GO BEFORE WE CLOSE FOR THE 07 WINTER. Once again the season flew by with great snowfalls in June and July making for some great riding.

This year was particular busy for Falls, hosting the Interschool championships. Style Wars and the Victorian APSI Level 1, 2 and 3 skiing exams, congratulations to Tim Esnouf Level 1, Steve Crowley Level 2 and Tim Creak level 3 who were all course top’s.

PERISHER BLUE REPORT

For me personally this season was a busy one organising training for the season and making sure it ran efficiently for our instructors while trying to get some skiing in for myself, something that we tend to forget about during our busy Aussie winters. Skiing for ourselves.

SNOWPRO

Now are thoughts drift off to the warmer climates to where ski/board boots are forbidden and thongs are a way of life.

So as one Southern Hemisphere Winter finishes and our thoughts lead towards the coming Northern Winter I wish everyone the best of luck OS and hope to see everyone back for another great Aussie winter in 2008.

Cheers, Adam Geary

It was great to see those great snow conditions early in the season and then witness the excitement on the faces of our new hire instructors just itching to get out there and play.

A great change from past seasons where we were stuck to more of the green runs.

Also with the early snow the Link T-bar was opened from the second week of July and made it all the way through to the 18th of September. This allowed Smiggs to be connected with the rest of the resort by snow for most of the season.

groups stayed the same, 2hrs long and only being run out of Smiggins and Blue Cow. Congratulations to everyone who achieved their goal of passing their levels this year.

Everyone trained hard and to those how missed out on parts, keep training it is worth it in the end.

So for everyone heading over for the Northern winter have a great time. For me I will be having my first summer in 14 years, it should be interesting. I have already made plans to paddle Dragon boats for the summer.

Till next season have fun & ski hard.

HI ALL, WELL WHAT A GREAT START TO THE SEASON WE HAD. ALL 50 LIFTS WERE OPEN

BY THE JULY SCHOOL HOLIDAYS. THIS MADE FOR GREAT SKIING AND TEACHING, WITH THE CROWDS BEING SPREAD OUT NICELY OVER THE WHOLE RESORT.

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While a season in Australia can test our enthusiasm for riding/teaching it does set us up for great successes overseas, making us one of the most sort after instructors.

But with the good early snow this year I did, like many other instructors manage to ski some terrain that provided some great powder runs.

Big changes at Perisher this year was the new lesson product. We went form three 2hr retail lessons to two 2.5hr lessons in adults and children. Privates were then booked around the retail lessons. Schools

Marty Firle

Even though spring did come rather early and we didn’t get our August/September dumps we still managed to enjoy the season and get some great riding in.

Summer 2007

Marty Firle Perisher Blue Rep

MT. HOTHAM REPORT

Demelza Clay THE SEASON DIDN’T FINISH WITH A BANG AT HOTHAM, IT FINISHED WITH MUDDY, RAINY SQUELCH. AFTER ROUGHLY A MONTH OF GORGEOUS SUNNY WEATHER HOTHAM STAGED SOME WEATHER WHICH QUITE CATEGORICALLY TOLD US TO GO HOME – OUR JOBS THERE WERE DONE. And what a job we did! We saw the largest July school holiday period ever with more bums on seats than a passenger train headed to Delhi. We broke our previous attendance record, or rather blew the

ADAPTIVE TECHNICAL DIRECTOR’S REPORT

Graeme Morris AS I AM WRITING THIS REPORT, THE SEASON THAT STARTED WITH A BANG, IS GOING OUT WITH A BANG! IT IS THE OCTOBER LONG WEEKEND AND IT IS SNOWING! What ever happened to August and September, I don’t know. In early August I made a road trip down to Victoria, to train the instructors. I concentrated on Mt Buller

previous record out of existence, at the Children’s Snowzone on the 13th. I’d like to thank the amazing staff at Hotham for their efforts during that week – including our GM who went back to her ski instructing roots and helped out for the day.

The Big D is undergoing a renovation for 2008, which will give us improved facilities for all those cute little Mighty Mites. The complex will be converted to a children’s only facility, housing kid’s rentals and integrated staff from tickets… it will be all hands on deck next year at the Big D! We are also planning a new locker room for the instructors, which will make accommodating next years guests much easier.

While we are on the topic of snow, Hotham skiers will be enjoying Heavenly Valley for longer each season now with Imagine and Snake Gully getting snowmaking for 2008.

So that’s it for season 2007, a big thank you to Nigel, Amanda, Chris, Meryn, Mike and the rest of our dedicated Hotham staff for all the laughs (especially those during Friday afternoon ‘safety meetings’ at Zirky’s) – I’m looking forward to next year all ready! And to everyone else I hope you all have a great summer/winter in your respective destinations.

Demelza Clay The Hotham Chic.

The snow was as exceptional improvement on last year, its presence in June for starters was most motivating for our staff, and secondly, the quality of the snow in July saw everything stay dry and cold. It was great to see the Orchid/Keoghs and the Extreme Skiing Zone open again (however we need to make it safer for the APSI trainers who have a tendency to fall in the creek).

and Falls Creek. It had been a long time since I visited Mt Buller. Not since working for the Australian Institute of Sport a number of years ago.

Mt Buller had been in the shadows since Andy Stringer left APSI. Andy was instrumental in implementing the Disabled Adaptive component into our APSI manual.

This led to the Level 1 Certification exams coming to fruition.

The two days of training in Mt Buller, ignited some interest in teaching adaptive people, which resulted in two instructors successfully participating in the Victorian exams.

Last year I enjoyed a successful trip to Falls Creek, however this year’s visit was a little disappointing but a few interested instructors came out on the hill, with me both days.

I’d like to see a much stronger core of instructors here. Falls Creek is the epicenter for disabled adaptive skiing in Victoria. This is due to the Howman’s Gap Facility located just down the road.

Exams in Victoria were held at Mt Hotham with a good attendance – a total of 9 candidates. In all, the standard was very good resulting in everyone passing with flying colours. The NSW exams were moved from Thredbo to Blue Cow due to dwindling snow conditions.

Thank you Tina Burford and Don McGuiness.

The exam results speak for themselves – everyone passed. The standard was extremely high, thanks to Manuela (Smiggins/Perisher Blue) and Robbie (Thredbo) for their great training.

Next year I will be changing the format slightly for the exams to come into line with the changing business.

Level II exam dates will be still in place and will go ahead if there is a demand.

Again I am inviting interested instructors to next year’s co ordination clinic from all disciplines to work as in-house trainers.

In closing I wish you all a great summer or winter and I’ll see you next year.

Graeme Morris

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Interski Reports 2007 APSI REPRESENTATION

Andrew Rae PERSONALLY I FELT THE WHOLE TEAM PERFORMED AT A VERY HIGH STANDARD AND ALL MEMBERS SHOULD BE PROUD OF THE WAY THEY REPRESENTED AUSTRALIA & THE APSI. What you need to understand is Interski is not a competition, it is a conference designed for exchanging technical teaching concepts. But having said this at an event of this size you do get a feeling of where you fit within the world stage.

I got the feeling that much of the world was interested in what we were presenting & were impressed with our performance.

Australian participation at Interski included: • Full team snake on demo slope Sunday 28th • Full team show (3 demonstrations) Monday 29th • Alpine Keynote presentation Tuesday 30th • Workshop introduction lecture (all disciplines) Tuesday 30th • Technical presentation (all disciplines) Thursday 1st • 2 workshop presentations (all disciplines) Thursday 1st • Park & Pipe show (Snowboard & Alpine) Thursday 1st • Full team demonstration at the closing ceremony Friday 2nd

Alpine Keynote presentation

Telemark workshop

Presenters: Richard Jameson & Steve Brown

Presenter: Graham Hammond

Topic: “Australia, experience the difference”. Our presentation revealed; our country, our culture, how our teaching has evolved, our philosophy, our mechanics and what it is that makes snowsports in Australia so unique.

Topic: Australia – the Telemark Progression and key learning concepts.

Content: Australian’s in general tend to be “Have a Go” type of skiers, really wanting to get off the beginner hill and tackle the biggest slope they can see. A large number of our clientele will realistically only ski once in there lifetime, we try and get them going as simply and practically as possible.

Nordic workshop

The ‘Australian teaching system’ focuses n experience centred learning. This system has evolved over many years; by combining the best of the past with a modern approach that is directly influenced by the expectations of all our guests.

Evolution of Australian teaching: • Teacher centred • Student centred • Subject centred • Experience centred

Experience centred teaching In simple terms, Australian teachers combine the safe class handling skills and useful exercises learnt from the teacher centred years; add the relationship building qualities with customer service taken from the student centred years, combined with the professional, although relaxed two-way learning atmosphere of the subject centred years.

This evolution has produced ‘experience centred teaching’ where the instructor strives to give the guest an exceptional experience that is all encompassing of the Australian alpine environment. This unforgettable experience will then become a life-lasting memory.

Australian’s in general tend to be “Have a Go” type of skiers, really wanting to get off the beginner hill and tackle the biggest slope they can see. A large number of our clientele will realistically only ski once in their lifetime. We try to get our guests going as simply and practically as possible, via our easy to learn movements that translate into 3 types of ski performance; Steering, Carving and Pure Carving.’

Content: the workshop emphasised our progression and the aspects we tend to focus on with stance and the key concepts of steering, pressure and edging.

Presenter: Warren Feakes Topic: Australia, experience the difference Nordic style Content: the workshop looked at the differences between x-country skiing in Australia and Nordic skiing world wide.

Snowboard workshop Presenter: Jason Clauscen & Tim Stuart.

Topic: the riding standard at levels 1, 2 & 3.

Content: The start of our session was about equipment set up in relation to stance and performance. What we have been noticing is that a wide stance with high duck angles has not been beneficial to candidates attending exams. The majority of exams for instructors a turning based and the stronger freestyle stance has been affecting the skills and how a rider needs to move to get the same performance.

At first they thought the APSI was against a duck stance which we are not, it is the combination of wide and duck which effects such skills as for and aft and steering. We explained the APSI certification path and what the main skills were that we focus on. The remainder of our time was spent showing the riding standard for candidates that go through our system. Levels 1, 2 and 3.

Alpine workshop Presenters: Con Poulos, Mark McDonald, Matt Mohr.

Topic: ‘Australia, experience the performance’ Content: The workshop allowed participants to experience the simplicity of how we teach and describe ski performance, as well as examine some traits common to all 3 performance types.

Steering is the art of guiding the skis through a smooth, round turn that flows down the fall line. Although these turns have a strong emphasis on leg turning, the turn is created with the appropriate skill blending. Steering is not the same as skidding.

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continued from page 9 Carving is the same as steering but with more speed, more edge angle and therefore a stronger edge grip.

Pure Carving is where the tail of the ski follows the exact path of the tip, allowing the ski to cut a narrow groove (i.e. zero skidding). The skier obtains the desired turn size by manipulating the external forces to get the ski to bend i.e. ‘working the ski’.

Common traits to all turns: • Our basic position (stance and angulation) • Turn shape • Tempo, which is similar in all turn sizes no matter the performance.

• The correct choice of terrain, which is vital as this encourages the guest to let the skis run down the fall line.

Thank you: Attending Interski would not have been possible without all the support that the team received during the past years leading up to the event. Although I have

INTERSKI 2007 – AN OVERVIEW

tried to include as many of the main supporters as possible, I do know that the commitment from others should not go unrecognised. So to all those listed below & those I have possibly forgotten, we all sincerely thank you.

• ASAA-For financial assistance, their training facilities, photo libraries, help with fundraising events & allowing your staff to participate • APSI board of management for their commitment to the event • Karbon & Ed Fortey for our uniforms • KoreanAir (Cameron Brown) & Flight centre (Olivia Texier) for our flights & insurance • SIA for financial assistance • Dialog-information technology for financial assistance • Rebel studios for financial assistance • Contact & Clarendon printing for our ‘theme brochure’ • SnowSports International & Hestra for our gloves • Engraving systems for our name tags

I do not know exactly where it fits in, what I do know it is one of life’s great experiences and I urge all to make it a goal in your snowsports time span.

Firstly, the people were amazing and we were welcomed like returning Kings. The show hill was pristine and steep enough for all to show there wares.

The skiing and level that was on display was nothing short of inspirational. The notable teams in my view were the Italians, French, Korean and Japanese.

They each had members of their respective world cup teams, so the performance was extremely high.

Mark McDonald I HAVE CLIMBED TO EVEREST BASE CAMP, LOOKED FOR TIGERS ON ELEPHANT BACK IN GIADA NATIONAL PARK, RIDDEN HORSE BACK ACROSS THE PLAINS OF MALAWI TO STARTLE KUDUS, WATCHED FALLING STARS ALL NIGHT OUT AT MAC NAMARAS HUT, SKIED SOME PRETTY DEEP POWDER, KISSED A FEW BEAUTIFUL GIRLS UNTIL THE EARLY HOURS, OCCASIONALLY DRAWN A DIVINE LINE ON CANVAS, ATTENDED AN INTERSKI IN NORWAY… THEN THERE IS KOREA 2007 INTERSKI.

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On a technical level it seems that all countries are drawing the same conclusions that we do need to have the ability to turn our legs and that when it comes to pure carving we release the hips early through the turn and try to develop the concept of arc to arc by allowing the body to travel forward with a slight up.

There is room as I hear you scream for the retraction extension method to allow the hips pass on a more direct line when the speed, necessity and pressure allows.

• 2XU for compression tights • Equipment by; Atomic, Board room, Elan, K2/technica, Nitro, Nordica, Salomon, Stockli, 22 designs, Wilderness Sports & Wilderness wear Also thanks to: • Natural sports for our leisure clothing • Global advertising for our pins • Brad Spalding for his foresight with the Thredbo pro-am • Thredbo Snowsports School & the Thredbo Alpine Hotel for their commitment to the pro-am • NSW tourism for their photos I would also like to personally thank all the team for their efforts at the event & to Claire for her help with the preparations.

Also to Kerry, Maureen, Marg & Roberto for their support of the team at Interski.

The team did manage to thank the Korean organising committee by presenting them with a signed cricket bat & Kangaroo.

“Thanks for a great event”.

Andrew Rae

The big things were the fire works, electric fiddle players that made Bond look tame, the lust the Koreans have for the sport, the mountain was open from 8.00am to 4.00am, the BBQs are spectacular fun, beer comes in 2 lit jugs, there is bowling til 3.00am, the food is fresh and abundant, café is available, fireworks are abundant and the technological stage that Korea presents is unprecedented, there are movies filmed in the resort, it has its own soap “winter Sonata”, there are giant TV screens on the slope next to trees that are as old as Budda, it has 3 day hot four days cold weather rotation, its snow fall is only one meter, spends millions on snow making, the season runs from mid Dec to mid Feb, the hills remind you of every scene you have ever seen in M.A.S.H, and finally the Koreans have a very similar approach to skiing as Aussies.

They go hard with minimal ability, in hard conditions, drink a lot of beer and love a great BBQ.

INTERSKI REPORT – SNOWBOARD

Jason Clauscen ATTENDED ENGLAND OUT DOOR CANADA IN DOOR SPAIN IN DOOR DUTCH IN DOOR SWISS IN DOOR/OUT DOOR GERMANY IN DOOR/OUT DOOR ITALY OUT DOOR SLOVENIA OUT DOOR There was one common goal I found each country had when it came to snowboarding. All countries were very focused on alignment. Some riders from each country might not have had the strongest riding skill but their knowledge was excellent. There was very little time in each session to truly get a feel for each country and get all the answers that we were looking for. I believe with the limited time each country had they did well in representing their country.

ENGLAND out door The out door session presented by England was focused on FLOW. Trying to prepare a rider mentally, both before and during a lesson. Before the lesson there was a focus on trying to relax the client and get them to picture what they are about to attempt.

They used exercises such as breathing and stationary stance positions to help. With the static positions; they got each trainer to hold a stiff position, getting the feeling of resistance then got everyone to feel more of a relaxed position. When riding the main words used, was to get to feel the board. There was no focus on movements as such more on just working with the board.

The BASI system mainly focused on twisting the board to aid in the turning process. To initiate the turn twisting or torsional flex is quite effective. When asked about Rotary there was no key focus.

CANADA in door The Canadian in door session was mainly focused on how there system is set up.

The level which they have and what is expected at each level. The one thing that stood out the most for me was there membership, over ten thousand members.

This is mainly due to there level one. At their level one stage candidates do not have to work for a ski resort but just have to attend training. This is also the case for their level 2. The only down side to this is the candidate’s don’t need any teaching experience to attend their exam. The big up side is there are a lot more members meaning the budget is huge allowing the trainers to focus on quality courses and exams for the candidates.

SPAIN in door The Spanish indoor session didn’t quite go to plan with there power point presentation unable to work. They explained what their out door session would be focusing on? Why they ride, the way they do. Spain uses a strong upper body rotation to aid in turning the board.

They believe it is very useful in the conditions they experience in Spain but also believe it helps the rider move their mass in the right direction.

DUTCH in door session The Dutch in door session was focused on asking each of the countries to comment on a specific statement: Advanced snowboarders do not come to the ski school anymore!

The answers ranged form what people believe is advanced snowboarding, to lack of terrain at certain place. There have also over the past few years been a number of camps starting to pop up which has seen a huge movement of young kids in this direction. There were many answers that were agreed upon.

SWITZERLAND in/out door Switzerland discussed their teaching methodology and how they use a range of teaching aids to get the best results out of their riding. Very similar to modern teaching they try to get the riders involved in their own improvement, not just through riding takes but games and questions involving the riders. There riding was also quite diverse, building basic skills through to more challenging areas such as steeps and freestyle. The riding portion I attended was half pipe based. The progression used was similar to Australia, but there was more of a focus on working

with each other and learning for each other’s strength and weaknesses.

GERMANY in/out door The in door session was mainly focused on the skills that Germany like their snowboarders to posses. The skills were ‘stance’ for balance, ‘vertical movement’ for pressure control, ‘lateral movement’ for edging and ‘rotary movements’ to aid turning. They also presented a goal sheet in which to try and aid in the development of their snowboarders. This gave the rider a variety of options as to the direction they wanted to head with their career. It also gives the trainer an understanding of were the candidate wants to head and their perceived ability level.

On hill we started at the low end of their riding level. But as we started to advance our skills, we started to blend a combination of an up un-weighted turn with a down unweighted turn. There aim is to keep the rider moving through out the turn.

ITALY out door Italy had a big focus on snowboarders not having a regular and goofy stance but being able to teach people to ride in either direction. They believe, if taught early enough a rider will be able to ride both ways; improving their balance, skills and mobility around the mountain. They used a stationary exercise getting each person to walk through each task in both directions so to comprehend the task and give the mind the ability to learn the task.

With the board on they used a number of 3-point turns in both directions to give the rider a feel of turning. By turning up hill in the 3-point turn it also washed the speed off. I did asked if this could confuse people and they believe it could if rushed but if time is taken in preparing the rider then it would be fine.

SLOVENIA in door Slovenia presented a new teaching aid to help with jumping. It was a speed-reader, which was placed at the base of the take off to a jump. The speed-reader would tell you the speed of which the rider was travelling before taking off the jump. The aim is to give the rider the correct speed so as not to over shoot the landing or knuckle. It would also allow the rider to feel more confident with the speed needed for the jump. It’s aim was to take away some of the fear. There were also a number of other uses not just jumps but straight lining for approaches, rails and half pipe drop-ins. continued on page 12 Summer 2007

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continued from page 11 I was unable to attend the out door session but was interested to see how it worked.

AUSTRALIA The start of our session was about equipment set up in relation to stance and performance. What we have been noticing is that a wide stance with high duck angles has not been beneficial to candidates attending exams. The majority of exams for instructors are turning based and the stronger freestyle stance has been affecting the skills and how a rider needs to move to get the same performance. At first they thought the APSI was against a duck stance which we are not, it is the combination of wide and duck which affects such skills as fore and aft and steering. We explained the APSI certification pathway and what the main skills were. The remainder of our time as spent showing the riding standard for candidates that go through our system.

Levels 1, 2 and 3.

AT RIGHT: “SUPPORT CREW ENJOYING THEMSELVES”

INTERSKI REPORT – NORDIC

Warren Feakes AS STATED IN MY INITIAL REPORT, NORDIC SKIING WAS NOT ‘BIG’ AT INTERSKI 2007, BUT WHAT WAS THERE WAS OF HIGH QUALITY AND RELEVANT. AS FOR SNOWBOARD, TELEMARK AND ALPINE, THE DAILY PROGRAM WAS USUALLY MORNINGS ON SNOW AND AFTERNOONS AND EVENINGS IN THE CLASSROOM OR LECTURE THEATRES. Australia, Finland, Germany, Switzerland, United Kingdom and Sweden had representatives. Finland and Switzerland both gave on-snow sessions as well as classroom presentations as lead-ins.

I gave a classroom presentation on Nordic Skiing in Australia and had the

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opportunity to present a limited teaching session on-snow. I chose ‘stationary skills’ and how we teach them. This was seen as unusual by the Europeans (with the exception of the lone Brit) as they don’t usually deal with people who have never seen snow before turning up for their first lesson and the question that amused me was “why would you need to teach falling down and getting up”. I leave the answer I gave to your imaginations.

Finland gave a particularly good lecture on the development of Nordic Walking in Europe. This is getting BIG, especially on a commercial basis. There are literally hundreds of specialist Nordic Walking facilities being developed, mostly in Germany. I looked upon it as sort of ‘fitness golf’ without the clubs and ball. The “gear” associated with it is trendy and the concept pushes the fitness aspects of the activity.

Everything is available from heart rate monitor hire and download service, interactive mapping and GPS, Wifi en-route downloads, special sport drinks, kinky lycra shorts and clever clothing layering systems, specialist shoes and NASA designed poles. One benefit to ski instructors seems to be an added opportunity for off season employment as a personal Nordic Walking coach. Then again, maybe they are just preparing

for the ultimate consequences of Global Warming.

Personally, I attended every lecture and keynote address I could. Particularly, I tried to fit all those on Nordic and Telemark skiing into my program, as they are my qualified disciplines.

One bonus was getting some skiing in on the new biathlon circuit being developed in proximity to the Yong Peyong resort.

In truth, it was the only Nordic area with snow and grooming available. The BASI (Brit equivalent APSI) representative and I, thoroughly enjoyed playing on snow with the young Korean biathletes and skiers, many of whom displayed excellent skiing skills and were quite keen to speak English with us.

Ski Instruction in Finland The four Finnish Ski Instructors at Interski held an on snow demonstration and workshop morning where the development of skills was explained. The teaching is quite traditional with a strong emphasis on good classical technique, especially development of balance and glide. They tend to use a lot of single ski scootering drills and develop these into ‘fun’ sessions using pairs of skiers. We were also introduced to a new technology Karhu brand waxless ski. Suffice to say it is

continued from page 12 OK for snow temperatures below -5C and nowhere as universal as Fischer zeros or Peltonen Zetas. I couldn’t convince them to liquid wax the grip zone when the temperature dropped in wet snow and the bases started to ice up, but hey, Aussies don’t know much about wet snow around zero, do they!!

The emphasis in teaching skating is on balance and correct placement of weight and the correct ‘timing’ of the pole push for various skill sub-sets.

I felt comfortable with their teaching methodology. They produce some of the best classical skiers in the world of course.

Swiss Snowsport Academy Philosophy The Swiss concept for Ski Instruction was presented at Interski as Performance and Fun for All. Swiss Ski Instruction identifies four types of “Sliding”: • Ski • Snowboard • Nordic • Telemark Swiss Snowsports address technically competent sports people who want to improve further in order to achieve outstanding performance in an ideal teaching and learning climate. They do this by maintaining methodological, pedagogical and didactic baselines whilst developing technical concepts in specific disciplines to produce high level instructors. Did you all get that lot?

What they really do is maintain a similar concept structure for the four disciplines whilst changing the way their baseline concepts are used depending on the bit you have on your feet and the things you hold in your hands.

So, Nordic is taught in a way that starts with very basic “core movements”: • Orientation (skis parallel, wedged in or out) • Rotation (turning moment) • Flexion/extension • Inclination/angulation

Then they proceed to “movement forms”: • Turning • Weighting/unweighting • Edging • Gliding All of these core movements and movement forms are practiced in a very “busy” group environment where explanation interaction can be minimal in the case of children or detailed, in the case of developing skiers/adults.

Games are used extensively and are designed so that the core movements and movement forms become second nature to cope with “chasing” or “getting away” or “tagging”. For example, chasing someone or getting away from a chaser develops strong turning and edging skills.

I believe the strength of the Swiss system however, lies in the way they develop skills in the environment of Nordic Cross skiing.

Most Aussies will only know Nordic Cross skiing from ‘Red Bull’ commercially sponsored events for professionals or the as yet simplistic, NordiX events held annually in Perisher during Race Week. Both of these are Harem Scarem, fast and furious events, carried out on terrain park style courses.

Swiss Nordic Cross is no such thing.

At Yong Peyong, the Swiss Instructors had a Nordic Cross terrain-park built on a gently sloping area about 50m x 75 m. They must have used about 40 to 50 slalom poles and half a dozen simple metal chairs as props but the whole concept was to have each section of the park contrived to practice a specific core movement and its associated movement forms.

As an example, a gentle 25 metre up-hill section with four spaced chairs becomes a real test of skill if you have to ski up it but ski around each chair completely then back yourself on to it, sit down and count 5 before getting up and skiing to the next chair to repeat the drill. Imagine what skiing skills you have to use to do this when the chairs are facing up hill and you are skiing up from the bottom. Then, imagine what skills you need if the chairs are facing down hill and you start from the top.

Imagine using slalom gate poles to make ‘gates’ and circles of various types and sizes and pushing up snow into a simple ‘bund’ or long mound for skating and ploughing up and down or jumping across.

Having a snow staircase to sidestep up, kick turn over the top and sidestep down is a simple but effective challenge. Little jumps, cones or poles to control length of

skating glide, and tunnels or ‘limbo’ gates are all variations that I found exciting.

Don’t mistake this as a kiddies teaching tool alone. We had a dozen mature, competent Nordic skiers having a ball and actually “learning” where their real skills and shortcomings were. The best part of it all is its adaptability.

Then the competitive element was introduced. A race around the terrain park? Yes it was, but with so many twists.

Imagine having a few dummy runs, then being asked to nominate your time for a sprint. The winner is the one who gets closest to their nominated time. Sprints in pairs, estimation of time difference between first and second run etc were all variations on the theme of “not just the fastest and best skier wins”.

The problem in Australia of course, is getting a closed dedicated area then trying to convince a groomer to help you set it up. And of course, having consistent cold snow so it works, will always be an issue.

An overall snowsports concept that seems to be gaining popularity in Swiss resorts is starting ALL baby skiers (from age 3 or 4) on Nordic skis and having them do two seasons before putting them on to Alpine skis. The Swiss instructors claim there are immediate bonuses. Correct stance becomes automatic and balance skills are far superior when they finally put on alpine skis. Slalom and Freestyle skills are able to be developed more easily from a strong and effective skills base. They tell me snowboarders get a good grounding for riding as well.

Good Luck trying to introduce that here!!

AS A FINAL POINT, I ASKED THE OTHER NATIONS’ INSTRUCTORS ABOUT TEACHING TELEMARK AND ‘ALPINE’ TURNS ON NORDIC SKIS. Their universal answer was “why would you want to do that, those turns are for slalom (alpine) or Telemark skis surely?”

But then, we all went out on the downhill slopes on our skinny skis and they proceeded to mix up their turns and did it without thinking anyway. I guess it has something to do with not restricting yourself to one discipline.

Thanks to the whole Aussie Yong Pyong Team for a rewarding experience.

Warren Feakes

Summer 2007

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INTERSKI REPORT – TELEMARK

One of the demonstrators was using the new NTN binding from Rottefella along with a new boot from Scarpa that matched the binding.

GERMANY The presentation from the two German representatives both on and off snow was very good. Their background has been strongly influenced from ski racing.

They focused on their new development within their model which was introduced since attending Interski at Crans Montana in Switzerland.

Graham Hammond ATTENDING AND PARTICIPATING AT INTERSKI IN KOREA WAS A VERY REWARDING EXPERIENCE. BEING THERE TO OBSERVE AND TO INTERACT WITH OTHER LIKE MINDED INSTRUCTORS FROM AROUND THE WORLD WAS AN EXPERIENCE THAT HAS STRENGTHENED MY PASSION TO TEACH. Comparing what we do in Australia to what other nations are doing and by sharing our ways of teaching and skiing, provided a good test to what we are doing and to possible future developments.

Along with telemark it was good to attend other snowsport workshops.

Outlined below are the nations that presented a workshop and who were available to share information for telemark.

NORWAY The workshop presented by Norway worked on how the customer was feeling while skiing. This discovery approach they adopted allows the customer to experiment with a big emphasis on feel.

During the workshop participants were encouraged to ski different turn shapes and then asked what they thought after performing these.

This section is named Expert and is aimed at those who have developed their skills.

This also lies after the following steps in their model which is as follows.

“Keep Your Telemark Simple” • less is more • functional orientation • teaching people teaching themselves

Beginner 8 step program 1. alpine curve techniques 2. practicing step positioning 3. securing step positioning and practice step shifting 4. ending parallel curves in step position 5. practicing step changing with angulation 6. avoiding over curving 7. use of inside leg on curves 8. basic telemark techniques

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Their model and their skiing style was very good. Although their teaching model is different to ours, the concepts within are close to what we practice.

SWITZERLAND Along with Germany the Swiss presentation and workshop was the most interesting. They skied very strongly and were good to watch.

Advanced • controller system • the telemark skier as a dj on snow • the telemark skier adapts their technique to the skiing conditions, adjusting his body position and movement accordingly • the controller system; various ideas on adjustment possibilities for learners and instructors

Expert

There is a noticeable quick lead change in their skiing and an emphasis of a build of pressure to the end of the turn and a release coinciding with the lead change.

• forward orientated to allow body to move down the hill as well as to drive this lead change into an early and strong edge 2. weight and edge the inner ski • making certain the rear ski maintains weight and pressure to stop rear ski from loosing edge or control 3. hold steady the telemark step (lead change) without changing the wide, functional change of telemark step • keeping the stance tight and under your body and not separating too far and loosing ability to apply weight and pressure to your feet and skis 4. steady central neutral position of body • keeping upper body steady to maintain strong lower body movements • includes not too much up and down motion

• 4 key criteria of telemarking • the teaching experience from previous years has resulted in four criteria which exist with expert telemark skiers and which influences the quality of telemarking.

• the violation of a minimum of one criterion makes the attainment of the highest level of telemarking impossible.

1. change of edge setting is forward orientated • focus on rear ski becoming the new early edged front ski in the lead change (step)

The two demonstrators were very strong skiers showing a very square upper body which followed the line of the skis and allowing the body to bank into the turn with no angulation or counter. There is an emphasis to increase the pressure through the turn and then strongly release the pressure while changing lead.

This is developed by moving the upper body from forward to backwards around the arc of the turn. The body is forward early in the arc to load the tip of the skis and then there is a movement backwards with the body to load the rear of the skis, allowing a strong build up of pressure towards the end of the turn and then a strong release of pressure in the lead change. They describe this as a two part phase in the arc of the turn. There is a fore and aft rocking of the body to achieve this.

continued from page 14 In their high end and fast turns there was a degree of hip counter as well as angulation in the upper body unlike their slower carved turns that they perform with body following skis and banking.

They mentioned in their introduction that to gain feel and enjoyment out of telemarking that you have to obtain a level in your technique to be comfortable. This was due to previous workshops being very much involved in fun, enjoyment and feeling with no reference to technique.

The workshop got people involved in a Tele Cross which is the same as a Skier Cross but on telemark skis. While off or on the course, skills are developed in the lead up to having a race. This was a fun way of approaching the lesson allowing more dynamic group interaction.

For me their ski technique shown especially when they bank their turns, was the most interesting as it is very different to what we practise. They teach with an initial focus of that where your head points is where your skis will point. So if doing a left hand turn your head will look left first which your skis will follow. This creates your shoulders, hips and then legs to follow. So from top down rather than feet up. They also mentioned that in the telemark position this is the natural position for the body. So when watching their skiing their shoulders and hips will tilt into the inside of the turn. No doubt if you ski like this you will carve rounded turns.

However when conditions change or with different turn radius this changes to a countered and angulated body with less following of the skis.

In their teaching they showed two approaches for the early stages. J turns with a progression to linking and secondly the snow plough approach. At this point most participants in the workshop discussed how they were not using the plough approach to teach telemark because of the incorrrect shift in weight and changing of edges.

AUSTRIA “Well Being For Body & Soul” This was more a warm and fuzzy workshop involving the joy of telemark rather than a workshop showcasing technique or teaching methods.

Very disappointing as the alpine and snowboard workshops would have been of a higher calibre than what was shown by the Austrian demonstrator.

NEW ZEALAND The NZSIA Telemark Teaching Concept is fairly similar to our approach, as Peter Mack helped develop the NZ system in the early stages as well as provide us with a strong framework for our system.

The emphasis in the higher end still remains with a large up un-weighting when it comes to difficult snow, steeps and bumps. They too do not approach Telemark through a snowplough or stem turn.

The demonstrator mentioned that the backcountry is a big part of NZ telemark skiing as most telemark skiers will require backcountry guiding and experience in snow safety. This is because telemark skiers in general are advanced alpine skiers coming into the sport and require less instruction but want to move their skills into the back country.

SPAIN The highlight of the Spanish workshop was the technique they demonstrate to ski in difficult snow and powder. This technique involves lifting the rear ski and placing it into the new turn and surfed into position, feeling the irregularities in the snow. This allows the skier to surf the back ski and gain maximum pressure on the rear ski.

Movement described in 4 motions: – vertical – fore aft – rotational – lateral Progression focussed Beginner – position/balance and stance – upper body movements/counter and rotation – lower body steering Intermediate/Advanced – continuous motion (upper body movement) inclination, angulation and pole plant – carved turns – check hop jump turns

The following is some points on their Telemark Teaching Concept.

Adaptable-focus is on common elements used at entry level.

Common elements are adjusted for different snow conditions, terrain and turn shapes at advanced level.

I have collected manuals, dvds, video and images to share with those of you who are keen to know more about the above notes. I am looking forward to this coming winter and to sharing my passion to ski.

Coming from Interski and having seen and collected good visuals material supplied from other nations, I feel that this resource is invaluable. Instructors can use this to help with training as well as to compliment the manual and finally to draw from in future developments. This will be worked on this coming winter.

Telemark can also hugely benefit from working closely with the other snowsport disciplines. From Argentina and Denmark workshops I realised how fortunate we are to be able to experiment and keep testing our models. Look closely at these reports (Argentina – pressure control & Denmark – steering). Unlike many other nations we are unique in the way we are integrated within one snowsport association. New trends and ideas flowing from all disciplines will only help keep us excited and on our toes!

Interski was a fantastic opportunity to have been involved. I have come away with a greater desire to share and to promote telemark.

Ski you later!

Graham

Summer 2007

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INTERSKI REPORT – ITALY

It is quite evident that over the past eight years, all if not most nations had realised that we teach humans, and there for have to interact and listen to their needs and wants. The Italians made a point that they too are ‘student centred.’ Which is reflected in some part, in the way that the manual is to be used. They have 113 exercises to chose from which allows a less linier style of teaching. Leaving the instructor with more choices.

The manual is one of the best I have seen for it simplistic easy to follow layout.

Con Poulos THE ITALIANS ALSO SEEM TO SHINE AT INTERSKI, AND THIS YEAR WAS NO DIFFERENT. THEY BRING STRONG SKIERS, THEIR WORK SHOPS ARE KEENLY ATTENDED, AND THE LECTURE WAS CLEAR AND INFORMATIVE. BUT FOR ME THEIR SHOW RUNS WERE AMONG SOME OF THE CONGRESSES HIGHLIGHTS. The show, where each nation had three formation runs, had everything. Some hoped and spun their way down like performing clowns, others ski pretty counts with lots of changes. But the best demos were skied fast, cleanly with loads of confidence. It show cased their technique best, and allowed us to observe the movement patterns. That is what I wanted to see. Get on you bike and go to the instructors demo competition to see pretty formations. Not Interski.

The Italians had plenty of zoom zoom in their runs, one in particular sticks in my mind. A shmeemdium cross over turning into a lead follow.

There are three levels for skiing and each level has a basic and advanced section.

Bronze – first timers to our stem Christie level. Silver – basic parallel. Gold – Advanced parallel.

Each level starts with a turn description including photos, Then there are the 3–4 ‘skills’ or movement traits to be taught and developed.

Each skill has a outline of why it is taught followed by and number of exercises to chose from. All with photos of the exercises.

For example:

Their technique has them moving strongly forward, up, and across so that there is more shin pressure at the top of the turn.

They enter the turn square and follow their skis until they start to angulate, and move in. They remain balanced over the out side ski and carve both skis. There is a emphases on maintaining reasonably level shoulders and moving down the hill.

Technical objectives. Sequence of snowplough turns.

Summer 2007

Below are the ‘skills’ that each level is taught.

Bronze – advanced Closing the skis parallel, and angulation.

Silver – advanced. Translation (cross over), directing and guiding the skis, adapting to different turn arcs. (short, medium, and long)

Bronze – basic

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Then there are a number of straight run exercises listed all the a descriptions and photos. The same formula is repeated for the other skills.

Silver – basic. Planting the pole, edge control, guiding action of the skis, control of the bending and extension.

Technique

They have four main concepts: • Gradual and constant up and down motion. In the past they looked poppy and static.

• Constant shin contact • Ankle, knee, and hip used in combination.

• upper body and shoulders level.

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Teaching Style

At the end of the previous turn, with an upward extension release the edges of the skis and use body-orientation to begin the turn until the fall line is reached. Continue the turn by bending slightly to put weight on the out side ski, begin the next turn using the same sequence as before.

Skills to be developed Keeping balanced; Controlling speed; Changing direction.

Keeping balanced – the following exercises are to help the skier find the right posture (position) suitable for maintaining balance when skiing.

Gold – basic Maintaining a central position, increasing co-ordination, adapting to different turn arcs.

Gold – advanced. Perfecting the motorail action (active cross over) managing the central position at speed, adapting to different turn arcs.

For me their manual is a good model to base our next APSI manual on. A few of the team members have the Italian one.

It is worth a look.

INTERSKI REPORT – FRANCE & SWITZERLAND

Richard Jameson France Overall Impression The French interski team impressed me with their skiing in all of their demonstrations. Not a perfect technique, however, the image was strong and of that which achieved a purpose. The dynamics from the ski were impressive and the speed being carried down the hill was fast.

The demonstrators from France were very strong and noticeably athletic. It could be said that they got away with some technical flaws (differences from what we in Australia consider good skiing technique), due to this.

Frenchies focussed on this a lot. When we tried it moving the centre of mass into the turn a long way early was a good feeling (as long as you did not lose pressure to your outside ski). Keeping your body stacked on top of itself skeletally and extending your whole body for ‘strength in length’ not just you’re outside leg. Then from the fall line to end of the turn we worked into an angulated position to increase the edge angle to work the ski, keeping your centre of mass still and a long way inside. Not necessarily a new technique but definitely something which has merit at the very high end of skiing and ski racing on the groomed.

The learning process at this high end of skiing seemed to be taught through a guided discovery approach. The teacher can change the environment or turn shape to give the skier a new task or new feeling to try and change the skiing outcome.

The French set a series of brushes in the snow giving us different turn sizes to turn around. Always changing the turn size to make us feel and achieve different outcomes. It was implied that the turns should be pure carved or as close to pure carved as possible.

Switzerland Overall Impression

No indoor lecture given

The Swiss team also skied well and quite similar to our Australian style. The indoor lectures were well presented especially a freeride clinic given on new school skiing.

On snow clinic

Indoor Lecture

One of the better clinics attended at interski (after the Canadian race coach clinic by Peire Ruel). The training style was laid back but professional at the same time (similar to the Aussie style). They even managed to poke fun at Steve Brown and he took it in good humour!!!

One – Freeride

Indoor Lecture

The clinic was on how to develop advanced – expert skiers. The philosophy of goal centred outcomes was highlighted. The picture and body position of the skier was not necessarily important as long as the desired outcome or goal was achieved. A quote from our clinician “It does not matter how you swing the golf club as long as you get the ball in the hole”.

An awesome presentation and delivery by one of the French speaking Swiss freeride demonstrators. Notably the lecture gave definitions to all of the tricks in big air and half pipe which seemed to have different names depending on where you go and

who you talk too. It also showed detailed pictures of terrain features and park building, giving definitions and names to all of the features. They then moved onto how to ski the half pipe showing common errors and techniques for progressing students.

Two – Performance fun for all The concept is there are four snowsport disciplines and only one philosophy. They are still in a phase of whether this can be “Utopia or Reality”. The goals are that if they group together the commercialising and education of snowsports will be benefited in today’s economic climate.

All the disciplines should share these common traits: • Have a proactive attitude • Know how to use the snow • Able to use the function of the equipment • Know how to use the right movements The education system for all disciplines was: • Pedagogy • Methodology • Technique They are finding this philosophy good in that each discipline can learn from the others mistakes. However, it can be restrictive by the different language, people, interests and views from each discipline. Therefore they are working on creating the same vocabulary for better development.

The retention of guest’s was highlighted in this model, they called it Activity Zapping.

It was shown that 24% of guests quit because they did not like the coaching or training, but the snowsports environment was enough to stop people from leaving.

This is where they try and get them to join different disciplines in that environment.

After deciphering the clinic with Tim Robo on the plane ride back to California – we determined there was definitely merit in bringing back some sort of inclination/ banking at the initiation of a fast turn.

Speed and strength being the key, the

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INTERSKI REPORT – SNOWBOARD

Tim Stuart

Resplendent in out gum leaf green uniforms we strode proudly into the opening ceremony to the applause of the welcoming Koreans and Interski 2007 was on! The biggest thrill for me was riding with the Aussie team in our night time demonstrations. The skill level and professionalism made me proud to represent Australian snowsports. As the week progressed I attended many workshops in the mornings and lots of lectures in the afternoons. After dinner the team participated whole heartedly in the scheduled activities, be they demonstrations or drinking or both.

THE ANXIETY LEVELS ROSE AS WE SAT ON THE TARMAC IN DENVER WAITING FOR THE FOG TO CLEAR IN SAN FRANCISCO. WITH OVER HALF THE AUSTRALIAN DEMONSTRATION TEAM ON BOARD, WE ALL PONDERED THE IMPLICATIONS OF MISSING OUR CONNECTING FLIGHT TO SEOUL, SOUTH KOREA. With a quick sprint to the boarding gate and an upgrade to business class, the anxiety dissipated with my first sip of champagne. Those of us lucky enough to get an upgrade giggled all the way while listening to Trent curse from economy.

Upon our arrival the giggling continued as we checked into our rooms and found there were no beds. We all thought it was a joke until we looked in cupboards and saw our bedding. The culture shock kick started a week of excitement, exhilaration and exhaustion.

The nuts and bolts of Interski are that we all slide on snow no matter what the Equipment. It provides a forum for all nations to display their skills and teaching methods in a dynamic environment with open discussion on methodology and philosophy. Some general observations for me were stance width and stance angles.

Most of the European associations were riding positive angles with narrow to medium widths. The exception was the Brits and the Spaniards who were riding wide and duck. (The BASI TD was riding +18 ff/–15 bf and focusing on the intrinsic feeling of “Becoming one with the board”). The rest of the snowboard demonstrators were an even mix of angles and widths depending on age and riding style. I think the stance cycle is leaning toward wide and duck with the focus on freestyle at the expense of board performance. Our Technical Director, Jason Clauscen addressed this issue in the Australian workshop. Our workshop was well attended and managed to raise some eyebrows and create discussion within the groups. A point of interest for me was the formula being used by the Italians to determine stance width. They measure the riders height and divide it by 3.144 (pie) with +/– 2 cm.

Try it, it works.

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I saw many different interpretations of edging the board. Some nations focused on inclinating into the turn, others used a tilting method while some just pushed against their highbacks. Some degree of angulation was present in all methods.

One of the buzz words for many associations was “twist”. A lot of focus is being placed on torsionally twisting the board to initiate turns. There was a massive range of theories and technique when rotary was discussed and demonstrated in various workshops. The Euros were open in their stance which caused some breaking at the waist on the heelside. The Canadians had full body rotation, the Kiwis had minimal rotation and the Brits had NO rotary at all. It was interesting to see the effects, both positive and negative, the different theories had on the demonstrators’ riding. Pressure control or pressure management as seems to be the new catch phrase, created much deliberation between the demonstrators.

A complete range from downweighted at all times, (BASI “Why would you release pressure once you have created it?”), to full flexion/extension with a building and releasing of pressure was demonstrated.

Most nations agreed as the skill level increased so did the amount of time spent in a downweighted position.

Anticipation in the direction of travel also elicited a wide range of responses. I saw zero anticipation (BASI), to completely open and completely closed (CASI). The diversity of workshops and presentations stimulated the thought process and discussion constantly. I found the technical models and graphic representations of the Germans and the Swiss informative, simple and useful. The Canadians “twist the disc” method worked well in initiating turns.

The Italians methodology of not having a preferred stance was insightful. The Slovenians scientific approach to speed and the use of park features was exceptional.

They used a speed measurement and display device that provided instant feedback and took the guess work out of speed judgment. The anti ski sentiment of the Dutch provoked heated discussion only quelled by the free Heineken.

continued from page 18 I saw and heard so many new and different ideas it would be impossible to collate them all into this report. I did not agree with much of the material presented but in the spirit of Interski I participated and focused on the positives.

Perhaps the biggest eye opener for me was the business and membership aspect of the associations. The math was not hard to work out that the more members, the bigger the budget, the bigger the team.

When I investigated this concept further I found that most of these associations offered an “Introduction to Instruction” course. This in turn boosted their membership and grew the number of active instructors in their associations.

As a technical committee member, trainer and examiner, you put in countless hours for the love of the sport. To represent Australia as a Demonstration Team member far outweighs the long meetings and rewriting of manuals. I want to thank the APSI, its members and its sponsors for the opportunity to further my professional development and represent our great nation.

POSITIONS VACANT – MT. HOTHAM Hotham Snowsports Centre is looking to fill the following positions for the 2008 season

Senior Indoor Staff Manager The successful applicant must have previous secretarial experience and administrative skills. The applicant should also have a certificate 3 in Child Care and also carry experience in purchasing and invoicing. Good computer skills are a must particularly in the use of Excel and Word. This person would also be responsible for the supervision of indoor attendants and writing rosters. The successful applicant should be self motivated and willing to work in a busy and dynamic children’s Snowsports School. First Aid and a Food Safety Level 2 certificate would be an asset.

If you fit the above criteria and want to become a member of the dynamic management team at Hotham please apply to:

Kids Snowzone Kids Klub (7–14years) Supervisor This person should have at least three years in the skiing industry working as a children’s instructor. Preferably an APSI Level 2 (or equivalent) you will be a highly motivated individual with a great work ethic and a love of snowsports. With some experience in supervising or managing staff you will exhibit excellent time management and organisational skills and work well in a team environment. Your duties will include staff rostering, motivating and training as well as class allocation and payroll administration.

Nigel Mills Snowsports Centre Director Hotham C/o snowports@hotham.com.au

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INTERSKI REPORT – SLOVENIA

Tim Robertson THE SLOVENIANS WERE AN INTERESTING BUNCH OF GUYS. QUITE COCKY REALLY! THEY HAD STUCK POSTERS AROUND THE RESORT OF YONG PYONG OF THEMSELVES NAKED WITH ONLY THEIR SKIS COVERING THEIR PRIVATE PARTS! DIDN’T WORK FOR ME BUT SHELLY KNEW WHICH ABS BELONGED TO WHICH GUY. GO SHELLY! The Slovenians theme for Interski was “Skiing for a Day”. The indoor lecture was what I would say the equivalent to a command style ski lesson. Needless to say I was looking forward to the "on snow workshop".

The Slovenians use 90 cm to 125 cm skis when teaching new skiers. They call it “The system of gradually lengthening skis.

Beginners start on 90 cm skis then move onto 125 cm skis and then onto there regular skis in a day. The reason for using this system is the occurrence of shaped skis.

You may have heard of a system used in the USA called the GLM system (Graduated Learning Method) invented by an American guy named Cliff Taylor in the 1970’s. He may have been ahead of his time. He started beginners on 50 cm to 160 cm skis. The system did not survive though, because the technique he used to teach beginners on the short skis did not follow through to 190 cm to 205 cm length skis which were the norm in those days.

The Slovenians proclaim the technique to teach beginners on shaped 90 cm skis does not change when they graduated to longer shaped skis. "There is no need to introduce different teaching methods for students of different levels. The only things that change are speed, terrain and equipment”.

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Students are taught to ski in a parallel position. The only time they use a snowplough is when they need to stop.

Carving is the focus with little attention to steering. As you can imagine, speed control could be an issue, especially on steeper terrain.

The following are what the Slovenians call “the basic present day skiing technique”: • Open stance. Hip width apart • Centered position, to exert the best ski response.

• Lower centre of mass.

• Swift ankle and knee movements in the direction of the new turn.

• Less vertical and more lateral movements.

• More leaning during a turn.

• Carving turns on both skis to an individuals skiers' limits dependant on his/her knowledge, terrain and equipment.

• Maintaining shoulders and hips in the direction of travel. This position enables to easily overcome greater loads in the turn. (This comment could be open for discussion) Counter and angulation is not mentioned.

• At higher speeds the pole plant is only indicated; it no longer initiates a vertical movement. Even at lower speeds the pole plant is redundant. (More discussion) The Slovenians say that the short ski ‘forces’ the skier to: 1. Keep skis in an open stance 2. Lower the basic position for better balance 3. Better centered position for fore and aft balance 4. Keep the body following the skis, rotation results in ski wobble 5. Overturn (tip) the ankles (only way to keep the skis still) 6. Increase lateral movements The exercises they used on "flat terrain" were similar to what we would teach

beginners, but once the lesson moved to medium terrain the Slovenians introduced interesting names for individual carving turns uphill .ie.

• Pole man – pushing with poles.

• Straight Jacket – touching inside hip with outside arm.

• Superman – stretching outside arm in direction of travel.

• Happy man – arms on hips • Rope Walker – holding poles across body • Waterman – holding poles in middle and parallel to skis • Expert – hold poles normally As soon as the students get the hang of the above exercises the Slovenians link them in a garland which they call “Composed turns”. Then the next step is to link the exercises down the fall-line.

Once the students have graduated from 90 cm to 125 cm skis doing the above exercises, they are then ready to upgrade to their normal skis .

This is where the Slovenians start talking about leg turning and blending it with tipping of the ankles. Plus increased leaning in and “Yeh baby“, angulation!

(I thought we had to be square?)

Then we go skiing in wide (long turns), mid-wide (medium turns) and narrow corridors (short turns), experimenting with carving and pure carving technique.

It was an interesting experience, and I quite like the idea of starting on short shaped skis and graduating to longer lengths as they work through the exercises. It would be cool to blend some of the Slovenian concepts with some Australian teaching methods to our suit our students and environment.

Keeping an open mind and observing different methodologies and techniques is what Interski is all about, and as Neal Tanner (CSIA chairman) said “ski teaching is becoming a global concept”

INTERSKI REPORT – JAPAN & CSCF

Steve Brown AFTER NEARLY A DECADE OF SKIING IN AUSTRALIA AND NORTH AMERICA I NEVER THOUGHT THAT SKIING IN KOREA WOULD EVER TOP THE SOME OF MY MAGICAL SKIING MOMENTS THAT I HAVE EXPERIENCED; FROM CRYSTAL CLEAR BLUE BIRD POWDER DAYS IN TAHOE AND MAMMOTH, TO EARLY MORNING SUNRISES AND SKIING PERFECTLY GROOMED RUNS IN GUTHEGA WITH NO ONE AROUND. But I have to say that whilst the snow in Korea was nothing to write home about (being mostly man made and very similar to the texture of the snow here at home), the whole experience more than exceeded my greatest expectations. The Koreans were so efficient, polite, friendly, and accommodating that those teams who made the effort to delve into the Korean way of things undoubtedly had a great time. I am very proud to announce that our team did exactly that. I can easily say that our experiences of sleeping on roll out mats, Korean Soju (whiskey), the local Korean BBQ, meeting and sharing ideas with others from all around the world, and the efficient and friendly way the event was run made this probably the best week I have had on skis! Thanks so much to my teammates for a terrific time and also to Andy, Claire and the APSI for getting us there.

The Japanese described their skiing style as the use of “Bi-Axial Movements”. When pressed on what they meant by this they described it as similar to the movements of the Sumo Wrestler, the whole of the right side of the body moves as one axis around the left to initiate turns to the left and vice versa to the right. The outcome of this was that the outside ski would then travel forward of, and faster than the inside ski.

This was described is crucial for traction and pressure to the outside ski.

The turn also includes a move forward to pressure the front of the boot along with a strong move inside with the centre of mass to initiate the turn. All these movements combine to produce a turn which is deliberately without angulation. The Japanese explained that their turns are taught without and knee or hip angulation and throughout all levels from beginner to advanced.

The best part of this clinic for me was their explanation of “why” they teach this way.

Basically put the Japanese teach this style due to the type of clientele that they generally have. Similarly to here in Australia, most Japanese only tend to ski once or twice in their lifetimes for 2–3 days at a time, and it is thought that this style of teaching produces a faster and easier way to parallel. The Japanese also explained that with no angulation in the knees or hips injuries were less likely. They did fully acknowledge also that as a skier progressed past an “advanced” Japanese level and into competitive skiing, particularly racing, that angulation is an essential part of skiing technique.

All in all the Japanese gave a slick presentation with excellent explanations as to how and why they taught the style that they do. Their clinic was very well attended and unfortunately I was unable to go to their indoor presentation as there wasn’t even any standing room available in the corridor. Obviously the “Sumo” is a very enticing subject when talking about skiing.

Japan Report

Canadian CSCF Clinic Report

The Japanese had a great outdoor presentation that described how they taught their system and the best part that I liked was the “why”. The first thing that I noticed was the similarities between the Japanese style and that of the hosts, Korea.

Both teams tended to have inclination and rotation as major parts of their turn and so I was eager to find out the technicalities behind them.

Considering that I am an ardent supporter of the Canadian approach to coaching, and have done my fair share of courses and exams both in Australia and Canada, I hope I don’t come across to biased when I say I think this is one of the best on hill clinics that I have ever been to. Especially since I had a fair idea of what it was to be about already.

Pierre Ruel, the Technical Director for the CSCF took us for the clinic with a combination of technical information, ideas, plenty of demonstrations, participation and humour. Throughout this clinic he demonstrated and explained the tactics and strategies the CSCF have embraced to take them towards a common goal – success at their own Winter Olympics to be held in Whistler.

To do this they have changed a few focuses, especially for coaches. The aim of every racer is, simply put, to be the fastest from the top to the bottom without making mistakes or falling. To achieve this, the CSCF have implemented changes to their coaching philosophies. As mentioned

by Adam in his report it looks like some of these changes are taking affect as Canada has risen in Team rankings from 11th to 5th in the world.

These changes in coaching style have included: • A transition from a directive style of coaching to a decision style of training.

This involves the athlete a lot more in the way they train and how they interpret their performances, rather than just external feedback from the coaches. By doing this the athlete is better able to understand how to interpret tactical and technical aspects of training or race runs, thus hopefully making them better able to react in certain situations and make them faster. It also forces the athlete to think about how they can help themselves perform better.

• A move to a more 3 Dimensional type of training. This type of training is designed so athletes are better able to make adjustments and fine tune their run on the move, rather that waiting for post run feedback, which by then is too late if it is a race run. The athletes are trained so they can feel/interpret how the run is going and consciously or unconsciously react to make any particular training or race run better e.g. A racer may feel they are taking a rounder line than necessary on a flatter section of the course and decide to go straighter hence maintain or increase speed mid run.

• Another shift in the CSCF coaching was to move away from the idea that everyone must ski the same i.e. that everyone must have the same width stance, same angle of back, same position of the hands etc. Instead they now recognise that everyone is different and as long as extraneous movements don’t impede or continued on page 22 Summer 2007

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continued from page 21 slow down the ski then it is not as important. That is not to say that they don’t work on technical aspects of athletes, quite the opposite. It is still believed that the racer requires a strong and stabilised position, balanced and strong but NOT FIXED. The CSCF feel that a racer needs to move freely and balanced through different positions to get the most out of a ski and turn to make it faster.

• The CSCF have also changed a few of the tactics they use to get a good training effect and race result. They have changed the type of training to force focus and intensity from athletes into their training.

One such example was for the World Cup team to race full length slalom on their first day of training. Obviously this may not be appropriate for every racer but the idea of creating intensity at training and forcing the athletes to focus is a very good one in trying to get the athletes to train how they would like to race.

Hopefully making them ultimately faster by training fast and not having to ski any different on race day.

• We were also shown a number of drills and exercises that pushed us out of comfort levels and made us aware of how far we can go on skis. These types of drills are good for athletes as it helps make them aware of their limitations and lets them experience the boundaries of their technique. An excellent tool to help an

athlete learn about their skiing and help them with confidence in their technique.

• The CSCF still believe that having fun and generating an excellent team atmosphere are very important, from the elite World Cup team down to entry level clubs teams. It is believed that with fun and professionalism coaches will get the most out of their athletes.

INTERSKI REPORT – AUSTRIA & POLAND

of knowledge for anybody interested in snow sports.

Ant Hill General Feedback “SNOW SPORTS FOR ALL” – THE THEME OF THE 2007 PYEONGCHANG INTERSKI CONGRESS IN SOUTH KOREA. This phrase is entirely reflective of the fun filled, major learning experience which I was privileged to be involved in, in January this year – taking home a wealth 22

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Combining all that I learnt from Pierre in this clinic and what I had already learnt from the CSCF, I think that the Canadians

have developed a very good structure for their coaching and development strategies.

Hopefully it will be successful for them leading up to the 2010 Winter Olympics and also for any coaches here in Australia who plan to integrate some of these philosophies and strategies into their own coaching, I know I am planning to!

Look forward to seeing you all and sharing more ideas from Interski and around the world in the new season.

Cheers, Steve Brown

After several hours of traveling, seemingly tired and exhausted, I found myself in my sleeping quarters with nothing more than a bedside table and cupboard. The bed you may ask? I opened the cupboard to find two ‘blankets’, but still no bed. Upon examination, one ‘blanket’ seemed ever so slightly thicker than the other. This puzzled me. It was later made apparent that this so called ‘blanket’ was not an implement for insulation and warmth, but rather my cradle for the night. So, tired as I was, I made my bed, pulled the ‘blanket’ out of the cupboard and sought ultra-comfortable refuge on the marble-like Korean floor. A wonderful night’s sleep was had by all – or not.

The anticipation of a good nights sleep was soon overlooked as the days and nights ahead were full of entertainment.

I never found the bed.

There were many highlights of my time away, particularly the ultra-cool ‘beginner’ tips and tricks from the Japanese, the professional skier analysis from the Austrians, the spectacular demos from the Koreans, and the local flavor of Korean Vodka.

The Resort and its staff made us all feel very welcome. The entire congress was a major success.

Country Report – Austria Keynote Lecture – Carving: Learning – Applying – Perfecting In 1956 the Austrians began to photograph racers and begin to show the different movements in ski racing and skiing. They used these photos as tools to teach skiing in Austria’s ski schools. However, to there dismay in 1974, Franz Hoppichler realised that the general public could not emulate the technique of the photographed races.

continued from page 22 As a result, ski instructing needed a new focus. In 1980 ‘swinging’ was the new word – the core concept of the 80s skiing in Austria.

From a snow plough into a medium turn half the turn is carved – applying.

At an expert level in either short or long turns nearly all the turn is carved – perfecting.

From a visual perspective a carved turn is when the tail follows the tip. Keeping this in mind, a basic position is a must, width of track is vital, and parallel leg tilting needs to happen.

At present Austria is still looking at the best skiers in the world to establish there curriculum and movement patterns.

In conclusion, carving has already taken off however, the Austrian’s have managed to break it down and apply it at ALL levels.

This I believe is a key to success and would help a skier advance through levels more quickly.

Over the past years Austrian skiing is focusing on speed, line and gliding. The development of the carving ski and development of the sidecut and radius of shorter skis the Austrian developed a carving routine.

To determine what they really mean by carving we need to look at the biomechanics of carving. The Austrian system looks at three things in regards to carving: Side cut, edging angle and steepness. The Austrians wanted more than just a definition. To do this, they took to the field with 3D kinematics. A 3D view for computer use measured and calibrated data by video and sensors. Some examples of the information that is collected are: knee angles, edge angles, and pressure from the foot to the ski. One of the key findings was that during a world cup racers carved turn the pressure on the ski from both feet was relatively even.

All the technical data aside, carving has become the centre of teaching material; they are no longer limited to the racing carving. From beginner to the advanced, this is the basis for the new snow sports Austria.

The new carving system is split into three tiers, basic level carving, parallel steering of skies – carving with different radii, and expert skiing – fine tune racing carving.

Carving, in the new Austrian snowsports system is: “controlled carved turns at all levels”.

In a practical sense the system uses carving as follows: In a Snow plough a quarter of the turn is carved – learning.

amongst the people”. This was also the main goal of the public relations committee which was stopped prior to Korea.

The key points within the lecture were: – A congress is most expensive way to distribute information – Move away from technical component of ski instructors – Brand Interski as a festival Following the opinions outlined there was much criticism of Interski. “Interski should work harder on involving more instructors not just the teams at the actual Interski.

Support new associations and new skiing countries.”The lecture was a bit of a shambles, not really looking at “snowsports for all”.

The workshop was interesting. We looked at three slalom exercises: – Hand clapping short turns; – Double pole plant; And double pole plant each side in a short turn.

In the workshop, the theme continued in the same vein as the key note lecture. In brief, we looked at teaching and improving carving to the upper levels. The key concepts were: edge angles are created by the body, then hip, then knee. We then moved to an exercise on the flat and walking in our ski boots feeling the foot, hence feeling slight edge changes when we pretend to walk whilst in motion on our skis; then we took to the steeps and concentrated on a straighter outside leg to hold the carve longer and stronger.

The workshop was up tempo and moved quickly with a lot of skiing which was great!

I was really impressed with all the Austrians presentations. However, I must express that their contributions to other countries were some what lacking.

Country Report – Poland The shortest Keynote Lecture – The challenges of Interski in a Global communication

It was interesting but didn’t hold much depth. Their knowledge is some what basic.

The Polish way is different to ours and I suggest you have a look at their DVD of their skiing skills and systems. In my opinion it seems to focus a lot on over extending knee movements and using the tail of there skis.

Overall, Interski was an amazing time for me. I learnt and mastered many interesting key concepts in such a small space time. I am so pleased to have had the privilege to participate and I look forward to putting what I have learnt into practice, through my ski teaching and coaching.

I would also like to personally thank all the team members involved and especially our coach. Australian snow sport instruction is really on the map! I’m looking forward to everything that lies ahead within the APSI team.

This lecture was from a former member of the Interski Public Relations Committee.

Whilst he is the President of polish ski instructors association, it came across as a bit of a gibe at Interski, particularly as the Public Relations Committee has recently been shut down. The lectures main emphasis was on ‘bringing Interski

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INTERSKI REPORT – ARGENTINA

Shelley Giles WHAT A WEEK! SNOWSPORTS FOR ALL WAS THE THEME. WE WENT TO SHOWCASE AUSTRALIAN CULTURE AND SKIING AND TO GATHER AS MUCH INFO AS POSSIBLE FROM OUR SKIING FRIENDS FROM ACROSS THE GLOBE. With an open mind and interest in learning new/different concepts we hit the slopes each morning to attend workshops and lectures in the afternoon led by the various countries.

I had the task of reporting workshops from Argentina and Spain.

Argentina

The discussion amongst the classes is related to how things feel in the soles of the feet.

SMART SKIING is the relationship between the internal forces that a skier undergoes, and the invaluable source of energy generated by linked turns on an inclined plane. The goal is to optimise muscular activity and the energy savings that the skier can experience the use of these forces.

Joaquin taught us that as they move through the progression they strengthen the skills to adapt to faster speed and changing terrain but the goal is to have an the most even pressure possible throughout the turn. In order to accomplish this, the skier focuses on creating pressure before the fall line and absorbing the excess pressure after the fall line.

Therefore working the ski where gravity is working for you and taking the pressure off through the second half of the turn in order to have gravity assist the smooth crossover movement.

Ernesto spoke about Aikido; form of martial arts, translated means "the path of harmony of/with energy". The Argentine Compensation Technique, with its particular concept of maintaining a constant load, tries to harmonise the energy load along the whole turn. In both cases, Aikido and the Compensation Technique, the energy is controlled but not blocked.

Part of Smart Skiing is taking advantage of the pre-existing external forces. The other part resides in how they apply these forces, in relation to the goal, with the intention of looking for efficiency and as a consequence the economy of movements.

Straight line On the hill Argentina demonstrated their low to high-end turns. I joined team member Joaquin Darquier for the workshop.

When I watched the Argentine team ski the first impression is without a doubt is that they have pressure control down to a fine art. Though their other skills are no less strong, they make skiing look fluid and effortless.

From the first movements the skier makes to snow plough or turn the focus for instruction is to keep things very simple and not to use any unnecessary movements.

INTERSKI REPORT – NORWAY & CANADA

Norway

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ON THURSDAY, I ATTENDED THE NORWEGIAN WORKSHOP WHICH WAS CONDUCTED BY JOHAN MALMSTEN, WHO IS A TRAINER AND EXAMINER WITH NORWEGIAN SKI INSTRUCTORS ASSOCIATION. THE THEME OF THEIR WORKSHOP WAS VERY SIMILAR TO AUSTRALIA’S, IN THAT WE WERE CONTINUALLY ENCOURAGED TO HAVE A GO!!! JOHAN ELABORATED ON THE CONTENT OF THE PRESENTATION GIVEN ON THE TUESDAY NIGHT. The theme for Tuesday’s presentation, given

by Goran Dalhin, was Positive, Practical and Coaching. This is a model incorporated into the Norwegian Instructor training system that gives instructors the framework of a

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I attended the lecture on SMART SKIING AND STRAIGHT LINE with Ernesto Fernandez, team coach.

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great lesson. In essence, it is similar to the 9 lesson essentials that the APSI trainers use. Let me explain further, and see if you can see the similarities that I did,

Positive Smiling – Always try and smile from the heart, Positive mindset – be positive with everyone you encounter through the day, Positive learning environment – try to create this in every lesson, Inclusive – always include all your students in the lesson, Engagement – try to actively engage every student in the class

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Coaching Good communication skills Empathy Focus on one thing at a time Positive Feedback Creating Trust with the student As you can see there are numerous points that our system shares with the Norwegians.

The on-snow workshop Johan conducted gave me the most number of runs of any workshop I attended. He had a goal for us at the start of the lesson and by the end of the lesson this had been achieved, with a lot of skiing too. He gave us very brief explanations of what we were attempting to do, then gave us the whole run to practice what we were attempting (see High Activity). This was the most enjoyable aspect of the workshop for me. This was a great reminder to me of the importance of keeping things simple in our lessons.

Canada The Canadian on-snow presentations at this Interski had two different themes. The first was a perspective of the changes in the coaching system in Canada over the last 4 years, and the second was looking into some of the models and methodology currently in use within the CASI (Canadian Ski Instructors Alliance) system.

The first session that I attended was with Pierre Ruel (pictured), the technical director for CSCF (Canadian Ski Coaches Federation). During this session Pierre covered several points that highlighted the evolution that has taken place in the coaching system in the last 4 years.

These included: • Integration with the CASI system to bring parity with terminology used.

• Sharing of information on technical skiing concepts with CASI. • Progression from use of traditional coaching concepts, to a more ‘athlete centered’ approach.

Previously the two skiing educational bodies, CASI and CSCF, had very different systems in place to educate their respective participants. Increasingly, they

were finding people who were members of one association, were participating in the other association’s courses. Because of the different terminologies being used by each association, a ‘bridging’ course was necessary to highlight these differences.

Now that the terminology used is the same, these bridging courses are now redundant.

The CSCF has gone away from a more traditional coaching method in recent times, to a more ‘athlete centered’ method. In short, they are getting away from setting courses and having an athlete run them numerous times day after day.

It was seen as creating boredom that eventually caused athletes to stop participating in the sport. Now, they’re trying to vary the training methods as much as possible, creating and atmosphere of innovation and competition amongst athletes. For example, instead of the coach telling an athlete he was slow in a particular section of a course, the coach is now asking the athlete where they though they were fast and slow. They believe that this helps the athlete to develop a sense of how they are performing as they are going down the hill, and not always relying on the coach to critique their performance.

Pierre believes this philosophy has help lift Canada from 12th overall in the 2006 season, to 5th for the 2007 season.

The second Canadian workshop that I attended was presented by Russ Wood representing CASI. Russ talked a lot about CASI believing more in outcomes of a situation rather than inputs that lead to this. They are teaching their instructors to encourage students to successfully complete a task, even if the student is not quite mechanically correct. He also talked about what they believe makes a great guest experience.

The main outcomes they are trying to attain can be broken down into the following three areas: 1. controlling speed 2. maintaining speed 3. generating speed These outcomes are all obtained by teaching their students 4 basic types of movements common across all three of these areas. These movements are blended together to help the student obtain their desired outcome. The 4 types of movements are: 1. Stance 2. Initiation from lower body 3. Pivoting 4. Balancing on Edges

This idea forms one part of the model that they use to create memorable guest experiences and ultimately return business for their instructors.

I really enjoyed both the Canadian presentations, and I now have a much better understanding of their educational system. I would encourage you all to participate in a coaching course this season. These all following the CSCF outline and would allow you to explore these ideas further. See you on the hill.

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INTERSKI REPORT – KOREA & GERMANY

demonstration championships Jong Moon, Byun, “It’s like the new system in cars where the outside wheels spin faster than the inside wheels and this is the best traction a car can have.” The principle works for short and long turns.

The second point of the Korean workshop was that Korea is very icy really very, very, icy. So the important thing to teach in Korea is edging. “We have to learn edging.” Jong Moon kept repeating this point.

Mark Mc Donald MY CHARGE WAS TO REPORT ON THE KOREAN TEAM AND HAVE THE GERMANS AS MY SECOND FOLIO.

To do this they do a lot of hockey stops and edge sets in G.S turns. It seems to work and the way the public charge down the hill a few hockey stops is a great idea as the Korean love a good charge so being able to stop to some degree is not a bad thing.

For initiating the turn they see it as a motion that follows the form of an ocean swell the body projects slightly up and forward toward the fall-line, the motion comes from the legs.

Well the first thing I would love to point out is that the general consensus is that how to ski has arrived at the same point by most countries.

What is the important thing about Interski is that we learn many diverse ways to achieve the same greater goal.

For Korea the main emphasis was adopting their cultural back ground of taw wan doe like a taw wan doe punch the outside part of the turn is punched forward this does mean it rotates the concept is that if the outside travels faster than the inside half of the body the traction is high and the turn is driven. The analogy the ex world cup skier and winner of the Korean

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As for the Germans, they have a very similar approach as we do they like to describe the stance as something that fits the person anatomy, if they have wide legs then have a wide stance, if they are narrow in the hips then why not have a narrow stance that enables that person to balance the best.

The final point is that Korea would love the 2014 Olympics and the GS and SL courses at Yong Pyong would be great.

Good Luck Korea.

I think what we see and hear is great it is a matter of taking the information and using it to help understand skiing and teach skiing in a world forum. I suggest you take all the ideas that get by presented by the team mates and use them in becoming a creative and through world teacher of skiing. I already have used the Korean explanations, the Japanese way teach leg turning and a smattering of the Italian panache.

INTERSKI REPORT – SWISS SNOWSPORTS

comfortable for the client to experience different sports and the modern instructor to become proficient trough training to become multi skilled. This will help the instructor and industry to survive in a very competitive recreation market.

An example of ideas that have worked would be Boarder Cross to Tele Cross, Nordic Cross, and Ski Cross. Alpine GS to Snowboard GS. Rails. And so on.

On Friday February 2nd the Swiss Team ran their snowboard clinic.

Daniel Monaghan THE SWISS HAVE A FINE HERITAGE WITH THERE PARTICIPATION IN EVERY INTERSKI SINCE ITS INCEPTION IN 1951.

Their willingness to share ideas internationally and also between all snow sports was an inspiration to me since I first encountered their Core Concept Philosophy at 1999 Interski in Beitestolen, Norway.

It is based on three concepts of Pedagogy, Methodology and Technique. These are then utilised in the four disciplines of Snowboard, Telemark, Cross-country and Alpine. Eight years on from their international début they feel that their philosophy has lead to an increased interest in snowsport for the participants and teachers.

The ability for instructors and clients to have an understanding of other snowsports allows them to move more easily between sports to enhance there snow experience.

2003 saw the Swiss showing their 2002 “Teaching Children”. This is a carry over of core concepts for kids in all 4 disciplines.

A blend of technique, methodology, theory, practice, learning and playing.

The Half pipe clinic was based around introduction to pipe riding. Having noticed that many people would like to ride the pipe but are intimidated the Swiss take particular care in making the pipe feel safe and fun.

Safety gear was highly recommended for all their freestyle pursuits.

In the first exercise the group using the last 10 meters or so of an empty pipe to slide on the backsides down the walls from the platform. This was to allow student to feel less worried about a fall in the pipe.

We then had teams to see who could reach the highest point on the pipe wall, sort of a human ladder. Last we tried to see who could run the highest up the wall. Up to now we had our boards off.

The first attempt at riding had us doing shallow turns down the pipe; over the next few runs the height was increased. With the increase in height riders are reminded to try to keep their bodies at 90 deg to board (the analogy used was an inverted T with the board having the body at right angles to it). Later the runs would put more emphasis on a more vertical line up the wall. This then made it possible to air, with riders tiring to land on there new edge (take of on toes and land on heals or take off on heals and land on toes).

The key was through gently increasing the difficulty of task they have a better chance of success. The student doesn’t need to take a blind leap!

Our next task was boxes. Again with a fun and safe environment the student will better learn to master the skills needed.

A discussion of Frontside and Backside proceeded the session so the student could nominate their move and the instructor would be ready for the spin.

An emphasis on teacher assistance helps the student find success. Hand held 50–50’s with the instructor walking with the student, and as skill and confidence grows the student opportunity to do the task unassisted was presented.

For Board slides a strong slalom pole was used with an instructor on each end and the pole at waist level across the box.

Student traveling slowly can pivot themselves with the use of their hands on the pole as the instructors walk or jog along the box. The instructors also could use a spare hand to hold tip and tail of board if needed.

More reports click here.

We had mainly snowboarders doing slides but we were also shown the method worked well for skiers, disable/adaptive and tele (maybe even x-c).

Our trainer also has a small teddy bear on a snowboard that he would use to help with visualisation.

The Swiss system works well and has the ability to improve itself more quickly due to a pooling of resources.

I would like to thank all A.P.S.I members for allowing me this opportunity. Hope the next team has a good a time as we did.

2007 Yong Pyong Interski’s catch phrase was “Snowsports for all”. The Swiss said they wanted to close the loop with the phrase “Performance and Fun for All” The feeling that while snow sports have grown up together they were still separate and had their own identities. The Core Concept Model helps evolve teaching due to knowledge and skill exchange between disciplines.

Swiss Snowsport have worked hard to bring there snowsports together noting that they all have individual validity but a common core. This makes it more

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INTERSKI REPORT – NEW ZEALAND & HUNGARY

Matt Mohr NEW ZEALAND NEW ZEALAND, OUR NEAREST SKIING RELATIVE. THE KIWIS PRESENTED AN EXTREMELY WELL PUT TOGETHER PRESENTATION THAT WAS AN OVERVIEW OF SKIING NZ STYLE. Firstly instead of teaching the traditional skills such as Stance and balance, Rotary, Edging and Pressure control, the Kiwi’s

focus on 4 planes of balance. Lateral, Rotational, Fore aft and Vertical. This in itself was a really interesting concept to find out about and an area that certainly holds plenty of water in my books. It made me consider this theory and how I teach.

Essentially it really is very similar to our Basic Skills but in a slightly different slant on it.

Lateral looks at edging and inclination, how we do it and how we change it.

In this portion we were told that they are focusing on keeping the legs quite long throughout the turn and focusing on making sure the hips stay over the feet and not fall behind, consequently they seem to have very small focus on angulation and when they ski the look is what we would call “Banked”. But bear in mind this is what they believe to be the strongest biomechanical position.

Rotational looks at how we turn our skis and what we use to turn them, this is where I found the largest difference to our system and upon trying it was surprised at the results but although I may be biased I

felt we are creating a stronger skier and a safer position for our spine. The NZ system talks about rotating the leg and hip to turn the ski whilst creating counter by a rotation of the Spine in the lower section between the bottom of the ribs and top of the pelvis. Now don’t go and start saying it’s weird or bad or anything they work very closely with the top world cup coaches and are very well educated. It feels very odd at first but ultimately seems to work.

Fore Aft looks at how we stay centered on our skis and what we move, bend etc to keep us standing. It was a focus that I felt we called pressure control. How do we maintain a good athletic stance through out all our turns?

Vertical considers a similar area such as dealing with forces and allowing things to bend and adapt to the variances of terrain and an ever changing surface. How tall do we stand what to do to maintain good contact etc.

The New Zealand presentation was very interesting to see and was very a relaxed environment for us all to see there system and give it a try. I think that we should look into what they are doing and how their 4planes of balance affects their students compared to our current system.

I don’t necessarily agree with all of the biomechanical differences but believe it would be valuable to explore their concepts.

Overall a great 90 minutes that explained what they are doing and why.

Well Done New Zealand.

HUNGARY AT INTERSKI THIS YEAR HUNGARY PRESENTED A GREAT CONCEPT TO THE DELEGATION.

Soar Like an Eagle – For those who like to feel their way down the hill using plenty of just try it style of learning, Lots of analogies and plenty of time visualising.

For the feelers

They are working on moving away from the Traditional style of putting groups together by classic abilities and grouping instead by 3 learning styles. Firstly they are using catchy names to help people decide where they should group themselves.

Lionheart – For the Brave!!!, well really for the people who want to get out and give it a go. Get stuck into it, minimal stationary teaching and plenty of skiing. For the doers.

Hips Don’t Lie – For the technically minded those who would like to learn by means of descriptions, Biomechanics, physics and a more detailed lesson. For the thinkers.

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Overall the Hungarian presentation was well put together and defiantly made me think about what we do and how we group people. This in mind I did feel that this is something we already teach to our instructors and cover well in our manual. It was a fun 90 minutes that gave me a refresher on really reaching out to all the different people in our groups everyday it was a concept that I really hope all our instructors were already doing.

Matt Mohr

INTERSKI REPORT – TELEMARK

Bruce Easton Telemark representation: Bruce Easton – Australia Graham Hammond – Australia Peter Bilous – New Zealand Elaine Adams – Great Britain Christian Leicht – Germany Ortwin Veile – Germany Matteo Planzer – Swiss Roland Tuchschmid – Swiss Manuelo – Spain Guilermo Aterido? – Spain Piotr Kapustianyk – Poland Tomas Drdacky – Czech Tor-Havard Kolbu – Norway Jorn Minde – Norway Arno Klein – Austria ? – Japan ? – Denmark With so many high level instructors and Telemark trainers in the one place it was bound to be an interesting few days with meetings where people presented teaching models and skill sets and then also followed some on snow demo time and clinics. The above instructors/trainers were focused mainly on Telemark but an additional 10–12 others floated between workshops and telemark skied during the Congress.

Every 4 years this Event rolls around (St Anton in 2011) presenting an unprecedented opportunity for countries to showcase their teaching approach and skiing skills and techniques as it currently has developed to everyone.

I found this interesting as around almost half of the presentations remained more about the “feel“ of the sport of telemark skiing and how we should strive to gain this. The balance considered and demonstrated the skills and how we can teach with the goal of improvement and assist our students to learn and improve.

Personally I see more value in the latter but perhaps this was reflected in the fact that we actually were active in teaching the skiing consumer rather than just training potential instructors and trainers.

The other aspect that I found especially interesting was that out of all the skiers on telemark equipment only 2 had specific telemark designed skis! This in fact does not auger too well for the ski companies attempting to develop equipment for the sport and new skiers? Instructors are definitely influential in the understanding and awareness of equipment especially to those new to the sport and wishing to attain “performance” from their equipment….Some gear was certainly “dated” that a number of people were using!

Many would agree that the right equipment designed for the right terrain and conditions can make a critical difference to enjoying the day (some suggest ‘who cares’)…..most know

it does make a difference but few can explain why! Alpine skiers do not use a race slalom ski for general skiing off piste?

Other analogies make sense….and come to mind. If we are talking with the skill acquisition matching ski performance then this is a critical factor from my perspective.

The final aspect that I noted was that while many people are trained to instructor levels. The “systems” developed help people to progress their personal skiing and not so importantly the teaching of the skill (the difference between a good skier and a good instructor). One of the biggest factors that is critical to access to the sport and lessons is the availability of hire equipment. A great many instructors do not get a lot of work teaching Telemark because the potential customers cannot locate equipment to learn the skill. Not everyone wants to buy the gear straight out and then source an instructor. We saw no other Telemark skiers while in Korea and many like the Ski Patrol, Lift staff and “racers” were genuinely interested but they would have no chance as the gear was simply not available. This is not isolated! Even in Europe and North America the availability of telemark hire equipment in all snowsports resorts is not a given!

It is slowly changing….

Telemark trainers need to develop instructors to enthuse skiers to clinic and workshop and always strive to improve and be better than they ever thought possible……PASSION AND EXCITEMENT with a dollop of skills to up the X factor.

The key is to build on these contacts and consolidate what we achieved and workshopped over the 7 days in Korea. This will be the benefit to the sport worldwide!

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INTERSKI REPORT – SWEDEN

Trent Jones SNOWSPORTS FOR ALL THIS JANUARY THE AUSTRALIAN INTERSKI TEAM AND I WENT TO KOREA TO REPRESENT THE AUSSIES EXPERIENCE TO THE REST OF THE SNOWSPORT NATIONS. IT ALL STARTED OUT VERY EXCITING WITH LEAVING ASPEN EARLY IN MORNING AND GETTING INTO DENVER TO SEE HALF OF THE AUSSIES TEAM HANGING OUT AND DRINKING COFFEE, JUST LIKE BACK IN OZ. After arriving in Seoul tired from all that flying and not knowing a word of Korean we found the bus. Knowing that we had a long drive ahead all we wanted to do is find a bottle shop and get some beers (so Australian).

The next morning after sleeping on the floor with no beds, ‘not the best night sleep I must say’ We all checked out the resort and went skiing all together as a team which was so amazing to me to see us out there in the green and silver with all the other countries.

The opening ceremony of Interski was one of the biggest highlights of my skiing career. Walking into the arena with the Australia team was incredible and then Skiing under lights for our show was up there too.

The next couple of days we all had to see a couple of team’s presentations, there indoor and on-snow clinics. My job was to see Sweden.

SWEDEN The Swedish team’s theme this year at Interski was “The Swedish Learning Philosophy”. The Swedes have a very interesting organisation with it been made up of a lot of smaller organisations with in the one organisation. The Swedes had one of the main lectures and they talk about how they all worked together as one in the simplest way.

They use this method in the way they teach skiing in Sweden since they have to travel along way the get to the best ski resorts for the more intermediate to advance, but they have a lot of smaller resorts closer to the major cities which get visited by people who are ‘the first timer skiers’. It is very similar in the way we teach in Australia with us giving our guest the best experience and most out of there time in the snow since they have a long way to come for a ski trip.

The Swedes approach to teaching there guest is a very relaxed style like guide discover. For example they took us out on the snow and we went through different methods of teaching a beginner such as focusing on fun, enjoyment and little technique. So they don’t feel like they where not successful. We went through things like Stance and that they are not too fussed on them being in the perfect basic position. But that they were up-right and sliding and getting the result that they are aiming for. When they were happy with this part of the progress they moved onto the next step. I ask them “what if this stance issue started to affect there skiing when you continued with the progress, what you would do? Then they said that they would address the stance and fix it.

JUST A QUICK NOTE TO ALL SNOWSPORT INSTRUCTORS HOPE ALL HAVE A GREAT SEASON OVERSEAS, IF YOU ARE GOING FOR EXAMS HAVE FUN PRACTICING AND GO FOR RUNS AFTER WORK THEN HIT THE COFFEE BAR. I do know it is hard to resist a Starbucks, – well not really.

Lets hope we all return to a bumper year back home.

Good travels, Macca

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Then we went off and got into the more advance skiing. Here they show how they started teaching with more in depth technique with exercises. But they kept it very simple. We were told to ski down parallel and do a javelin turn, but we had a focus on starting on the up-hill ski, on its up-hill edge.

During the on-snow clinic Ant and I both discussed that they have the same philosophy of teaching people as we do in Australia. I really enjoy the clinic with the Swedes because it was great to see that we are up there with some of the top skiing and teaching nations in the way we give the guest the best experience when they are in the snow.

The overall the experience of Interski was one best thing I have done in my skiing career. I have learnt some much about great skiing and how we can always better our self’s. I would like to thank the Australia team for making one of most memorable times I have had. Also I would like to thank Andrew Rae for putting such an amazing bunch of people together and getting the best result out of us.

APSI SKATING – TERMINOLOGY

Warren Feakes – Nordic Technical Director With significant input from the Nordic Technical Committee For as long as I can remember there has been confusion concerning skating “gears”.

Is V1 a WW2 German rocket? Is V2 a type of vegetable juice? Get two or more Nordic Instructors together and you can have an escalating and sometimes heated discussion about this issue. To me, the well used phrase “Don’t worry, I know what I mean” comes readily to mind.

Since assuming the role of Nordic Technical Director, I have been faced with the dilemma of getting this sorted. Now it is crunch time!

As a result of raising the matter at this years Training Coordination and then through no less than 43 emails, the Nordic technocrats have agreement on where the variations sit in the “skating gearbox”.

Bear in mind, this is not necessarily where they fit in teaching progression. We have tacit agreement for “names” for some of the variations but the couple of middle gears are an issue. Let us look at the progressive gearbox as it has been: Michael Hampton (responsible for the chart above) puts the requirement very nicely when he says, “I've always liked names that describe the rhythm and flow visually – timing can change with terrain”

The Gears – The New APSI Way First Gear: I like Herringbone Skate as when I say to students, “it’s like classical herringbone with glide” or “look at the tracks you have left”, they seem to comprehend immediately. Diagonal Skate would be fine as it describes the arm movements perfectly but let’s keep it simple – Herringbone Skate it is.

Gear (to suit terrain)

OLD APSI Terminology

American (PSIA)

Race fraternity

Other

Comments

1st gear

Herringbone skate Diagonal skate

Herringbone skate Diagonal vee

Herringbone skate

‘Weenie walk’ Diagonal dance

Diagonal skate in higher gear applications

2nd gear

Offset two skate

V1

Offset Paddling

Paddle dance Asymmetric skate

Most common skate used by recreational skiers

3rd gear

One skate

V2

Double time

Double dance

The accelerator!

4th gear

Two skate

V2 Alternate

Gunde Open field skate

Single dance Two-side skating

Used on the flat as well as cornering

4th gear

Half skate

Marathon skate

Marathon

Sitonen skate Used on the One-side skating flat, as well as for cornering

5th gear

Free skate

Free skate

Free skate

6th gear

Tuck skate

Tuck skate

Tuck skate

Skating without poles is not necessarily free skating Leg skate

You’ve earned a rest

Second Gear: Offset Skate is good, as it ‘says’ the pole movement and stance is “offset” to the ultimate direction of travel.

No need to add V1 rocket ships or gorillas in the mist to it.

Sixth Gear: Tuck Skate is clear as daylight – we stick with it.

Third Gear: Mmmm! Consensus seems to be that Double Time describes what is going on quite nicely. No dancing or vegetable juice required.

First Gear – Herringbone Skate Second Gear – Offset Third Gear – Double Time Fourth Gear #1 – Single Time Fourth Gear #2 – Marathon Skate Fifth Gear – Free Skate Sixth Gear – Tuck Skate

Fourth Gear (I): Single Time might have to do for consistency with third gear even though it does not seem to engender the flowing dynamism of this gear. Live with this one I think.

Fourth Gear (II): Does Marathon Skate really fit here? Do we still use it for anything more than a teaching tool?

Personally, I think it is one of the best teaching tools that links striding skills to skating and I still use it in long races when there is suitable terrain and good track but it is very rarely seen now and it does fatigue one leg a tad. Right now I think we stick with Marathon Skate as a name for it rather than half skate, as Michael put it – “for a touch of history” but I think it might fall out of the gearbox in the final wash-up.

So there we have it:

New APSI Terminology

One final quote from Michael Hampton to wrap it all up that I thought pertinent: “maybe we should take away people’s poles, and then it'll all be the bloody same”

Fifth Gear: Free Skate will not get any arguments. Remember though, this is a gear not a progression terminology (see comments in the table).

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SKATING PROGRESSIONS

timing or poor weight transfer, seems to be an effective way to encourage change and improvement.

On the other hand, the more traditional approach of ‘lets put the poles away and try this skating thing” works most of the time and if it is your preference, use it.

It is just that it has proven to me to be a more hit-and-miss approach to skating and usually a more torturous and time consuming pathway to an acceptable final product.

Teaching Skating – A Personal Approach I maintain that teaching skating by progressions is very much a “suck it and see” thing. Each student will have a different approach to starting to skate, sometimes embedded as a motor pattern by self-teaching, ‘friend teaching’ or plain kinesthetic pick-up. Although I find it rare to have to start right at the beginning, I always do, as some habits like excessive foot lifting, lack of basic timing and lack of commitment to balance on one ski are so ingrained that they must be broken to be re-set.

So, I believe we need a sound ‘progression’. I think there are many ‘entry points’ into beginning skating. As I intimated above, I like using the Marathon Skate. Marathon Skate incorporates all of the basics of good skating technique viz: • Timing • Diverging Vee • Edging • Weight transfer • Leg compression and extension • Abdominal compression and extension • Balance and glide on one ski • Stepping forward • Correct pole positioning and use The Marathon Skate also has the advantage of being a logical stepping stone or building block to offset skating and skate turning but more importantly can be used to encourage the rare early skill of being able to offset or Single Time, at will, to the right or left, merely by using one drive leg or the other. Of course there are various tips and tricks to fix blatant problems, but I seem always to be able to fall back on marathon skate to demonstrate and repair technique.

I also find that it is easy to ‘mimic’ individual problems using marathon skate.

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The “Smurf Wee” Approach Once the basic skate with poles (offset) is roughly mastered, we need to attack hills – the feared spectre of the beginner skater.

One of the basic items in my pack is blue food colouring (Smurf Wee). I put 5 ml in a full water-bottle and squeeze out a lovely blue line up a medium, even slope. I then encourage the skater to skate up the slope, alternatively placing their heels as close to the blue line as possible with every skate step. To do this they must ‘step up and in’, they cannot do otherwise. Minor corrections to body position and pole work are usually necessary, but Hey! the biggest bogey man seems to have disappeared and more importantly, the student generally feels it is easier to get up a hill.

Solid Offset skate

The Physics and Biomechanics Next I work on a tidy up of the physics and biomechanics. Good Offset skating is a simple matter of angles and resolution of forces. My three rules are: 1. Keep the line through the hips perpendicular to the line of the driven ski; 2. The knee (and navel and nose) must be over the driven ski; and, 3. BOTH poles should be driving parallel to the gliding ski.

I often use a reinforcement method of reverting to one pole. The student can |then concentrate on where that pole is in relation to the ski it is driving. I do it by alternately taking each pole out of the equation. I emphasise that at any time during the pole push, if the ‘pause button’ is pressed, then the pole(s) should be pushing directly along the line of the driven ski and at right angles to a line across the hips. It is simple vector analysis and best resolution of forces. Herringbone skate can also do a lot to reinforce this principle.

Maintenance of Momentum Efficient skating is all about maintenance of momentum. Rhythm and effective use of the poles are the key elements.

A stalled ski is hard to get going again – so – don’t let the ski stall. I reinforce the principle of “getting off a ski before it stalls”. In other words, maintain a continuously flowing rhythm with the legs.

The poles, especially on hills, must contribute to the momentum. I use the phrase “continuous even pressure to the snow over as long a period as the pole stroke will allow”. Maintaining discipline over the sequential use of bicep, tricep and latissimus dorsi muscle groups is essential and, combined with scapular stabilisation, is vital for an even, powerful pole stroke.

Prodding at the snow is a common problem that I can usually cure by ensuring the skater has a long pole stroke – generally to full rear arm extension with release of the hands from the grips. A rapid movement of the arms back to the start position is essential in the learning phase.

Generally, I attempt to get the student to conjure up a mental image of not letting the snow realise that either the ski or the pole is coming into contact with it. In other words, the ski should be moving and infinitesimally decreasing its distance from the snow as it “arrives” and the poles should not be driven into the snow like tent pegs. Ski smooth and ski light – after all, the student is usually a long way from jump skating in sloppy snow at this stage.

The kids call it “sneaky skis and cunning poles”.

Double Time Alpine skiers want to do this all the time.

I find it is often a battle to get them to single time. After all, double time that is what they do in their ‘heel clamps’ between lift queues. I do not tackle Double Time with a skater until they show

continued from page 32 commitment to balance and glide on one ski. Then, I find an effective way to get the Double “timing” is with little skates, minimal Vee, and little prods of the poles at the snow. Then, I gradually get to lengthening the cycle time, making sure the return movement of the poles from the rear is rapid and whippy. Drills I use are a little ‘hop’ on the gliding ski in mid cycle to ensure the skater is actually ‘on’ it, or a complete second pole cycle whilst on the gliding ski. This is a great game for the kids. I believe Double Time is best learnt on a gently rising slope.

gliding ski. I seem to have a high error rate when returning the student to Offset as they seem to want to advance their pole plant as opposed to the three points of contact of the strong Offset. I always look for terrain with a flat breaking into a decent hill to overcome this. I find the error rate goes away when the skater becomes adept at moving back down the ‘gearbox’ from Single, through Double to Offset as the terrain becomes steeper.

A Few Other Tricks from my Bag

Double time– mid cycle

Single Time I generally tackle Single Time as a direct follow-on to Double Time. Usually getting the student to leave an alternate pole cycle out of the Double Time sequence is enough. Then I work on a long free flowing rhythm and encourage long glide, powerful pole strokes and strong body drive, standing tall and well up and over the

• To encourage the three points of contact in Offset, I revert to a bit of red electrical tape or a felt pen X on the tip of one ski and tell them that is the ski they push with the poles – let the other one do its own work whilst you bring the poles back into position.

• I find a nasty piece of off camber track to demonstrate why it is necessary to be able to offset to each side.

• I encourage a side biased offsetter to step off on their non-preferred side, each time they start to skate.

• I use two circles of cones or flags and have students do continuous Figure-of-Eight skate turns around them to develop an even left and right skate turning ability.

Nordic equipment – Evolutionary change or just plain good marketing?

I have always been a NNN skier but found myself in the minority. In early 2006, I got a pair of Rossignol X-ium skates and X-ium boots from the factory race department in Grenoble and they had the NNN Rossignol “Nordic Integrated System” or NIS bindings attached. First off, the skis were dogs, then I moved the toe piece two clicks toward the tip and it was a totally different feel and great ski.

For those of you not familiar with this system (skate and classic), it incorporates an ABS rail plate bonded to the ski on which can slide a front and heel piece of a NNN

series III binding. The small tool allows you to move the toe or heel pieces to any position on the rail with a total of 2 cm of adjustment. At the Torino Olympics that same winter, I noticed that by far the majority of biathletes were on the NNN series III system and the cross country teams were heading that way as well.

The upshot of it all is that Fischer (yes Fischer!) Madshus, Peltonen, and Rossignol will have plates for the NIS in 2007/8.

The bonded plate forms part of the ski’s structural strength and cannot be removed.

The preferred binding is therefore NNN NIS.

Always Remember • Age, fitness, flexibility, power-to-weight and type of physique must be taken into account when teaching skating – some people will never develop their skating beyond a modified Offset, and indeed may not want to.

• We are instructors, not race coaches – although you may be one of those as well, teach your students to ski effectively and efficiently.

• If you can ski slowly, you can generally ski well.

• Encourage the ability to offset to either side, especially in children and early teenagers – developing muscles and bones do not take kindly to ‘side’ biased activities.

• Avoid teaching skating on classical skis – Shin pain is unpleasant • Embedding motor patterns is important – encourage students to get the miles in between lessons, even if it is on gentle terrain.

• Half Skate skis (brands excused) are skis looking for a technique.

Of course, these are just some of my methodologies and ideas. All correspondence will be gladly entered into on the matter and I encourage chastisement and correction. Meanwhile, may the gods of balance and long glide be with you all.

You can mount (and I have), SNS or Pilot bindings on the plate but it is untidy and tapping the plate is vital. Salomon is left out in the cold on this one but will run with Atomic and their own branded ski (made in the Atomic factory?) sans plate and suited to Pilot/SNS bindings.

I gather Salomon boots will remain Pilot/SNS but Fischer boots will be NNN soled as will no doubt some others that were, until now, SNS. I believe the Australian National Cross Country Team will be on Atomic skis and Salomon Pilot bindings and boots for 2008.

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ISIA REPORT – THE EURO TEST

these racers must go to France each year to be calibrated against the other EC pace setters. The pace setters have to originate from a country that is a member of the EU. Now the race has a heavy regulated jury and controls. Firstly, there is the “Test Jury”; two members of the EU community and one from the host nation.

Secondly, there is the “Race Jury” this is made up members that are familiar with how the course must be set in regulations to F.I.S rules.

Mark McDonald “JUST WHEN YOU HAVE NO DESIRE TO PUT ON SKI BOOTS AND THE BEACH IS CALLING …STOP ITS TIME TO GO RACING AND TRY YOUR BEST TO ACHIEVE THE EURO TEST In this report, I will try to explain a brief history, what the Euro test is and what it would mean to us as ski instructors.

In a nut shell the Euro test is held in an EC country and the countries participating in this thus far are; Spain, Italy, Germany, Austria, England and France. These are the bodies that have the Euro test as apart of their final instructing qualification. Currently, the head of the ISIA, Riet R Campell (SWISS) seems to see his challenge to make the instructors that are members of the ISIA of the same standard and sees the Euro test as the perfect vehicle.

So what is the Euro Test? It is a race that makes up apart of the Euro Card qualification. It is a race that must be set to the F.I.S standards. It requires a minium of two pace setters that have had less than 50 F.I.S points in the last five years and

Thirdly, added together these become the high commission and make the decisions on the race. For example, In St Christoph this year the race was scheduled for the 27th; this was cancelled due to bad weather. The high commission then made the decision to send the race to Pitztal Glazier, this was later changed to Kannertal, Tirol. This was done to satisfy the F.I.S requirements and for the best conditions available.

Now what the candidates have to do is not so black and white. It is not just 18% for men and 24% for women behind the pace time. There is the a base time that is calculated from the two fastest times of the reference skier plus using the handicap that he/she is given at the start of the year. So the out come is you are really racing against a fairly highly ranked world cup racer.

The pace setters must be of less than 50 F.I.S points over the last five years and currently be of E.C descent.

What is in the race for us? Well it is a good thing to have if you need to work in

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Content and duration

Highest professional qualification recognised in the respective country; member of the national professional association and ISIA

ISIA minimum Standard for ISIA card: – measurable technical test (GS) – Safety included in training – additional modules

Recognised professional qualification: at either national, regional or association level member of the national professional association and ISIA

ISIA minimum standard for ISIA-stamp (badge)

Lowest professional qualification: candidate, basic level Instructor, instructors “Lehrwarte” volunteer

Free: Left to the respective training institution

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Whilst over there I did meet Claude who is in charge of the ESF the French system he made kind comments on our performance in Korea and has a passion for Australia as he worked in Mt Baw Baw in 1976.

He believes in our level and what we are doing. I think the race is there and it a wonderful thing to do if you have the inclination to test yourself and work in Europe with full respect and true worth.

Do we need to worry about setting one up in Australia? For the moment I would suggest we are fine and the entire process would be too expensive and for to smaller group. The ISIA stamp still applies to our Level two as it does for England. I think it will stay this way as this means we are good instructors that can work in ski schools the euro card is a standard set for those that may wish to branch out on there own.

Some comments that were said on the side, at breakfast and around the traps of St Christoph. “ I think Austria could learn a lot from Australia and have more emphasis on teaching” – Staatlicher candiate.

ISIA qualification pyramid Professional qualification

Europe and be recognized in their pay structure as fully qualified ski instructor.

Also if you wanted to be independent form ski schools it is possible with the Euro Card.

You will also have to have languages, Euro Security alpine course (14 days back country course). As for setting up a ski school, in Italy you need seven fully qualified instructors (euro test) plus one must have made a directors exam in Bolzano or another certified course. In Austrian you need Staatlicher, Schi Furher, business exam and permission from the state. In France it seems easier, but I am not sure on the fine print. Suffice to say there would be quite a lot and some.

Diploma certificate of proficiency

ISIA CARD

ISIA-Stamp

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Association Stamp

Job Self employed freelancer: Mutually recognised, able to work in any country in the world either employed or self-employed Employee: Works under supervision at a ski school at home or abroad

Employee: Works under supervision at a school in their own country or in a club

“The staatlicher candidates are so fixed on the race they forget about their skiing” – Staatlicher trainer.

“Great! Australia should host a Euro Test” – English candidate, on his 6th attempt or more at the Euro test.

“Australia you did a good presentation in Korea” – Claude ESF. It was a great thing for us to go and be there for an event that is very topical at the moment. I think we should show respect for what it is and have good faith in what we are doing. We produce teachers that we can be proud to have working around the world.

Mark McDonald.

ROOKIE ASSIGNMENT – EXAMS

Tom Langtry THIS ARTICLE IS WRITTEN FOR ALL INSTRUCTORS, WHETHER YOU HAVE JUST PASSED YOUR CC, LEVEL 1, LEVEL 2 OR LEVEL 3. IT LOOKS AT HOW YOU CAN USE YOUR EXAM RESULTS WHEN DECIDING WHAT TO FOCUS ON NEXT IN YOUR PERSONAL/PROFESSIONAL GROWTH. Well done to everyone who passed exams this season, but more importantly congratulations to all of you who improved and met your personal goals, whether or not that included achieving your next qualification level. All the hours training and studying is never wasted effort and it is all time well spent getting you closer to achieving success.

One very important point to note is the invaluable time available for you to speak to the Examiners after exam results are read out. Whether or not you passed the exam it is hugely beneficial for you to ask about your strengths and weaknesses and ways to improve. If you need to, take a few minutes to compose yourself beforehand but then still go and ask!

Karl Veiss DO THE RESULTS OF MY EXAM HELP ME DECIDE WHAT I SHOULD FOCUS ON NEXT IN MY PERSONAL GROWTH? I do believe results from our exams can very much help us decide what we can work on next in our skiing future.

But it can also help us decide on what part of my next exam/level I would like to achieve. This is because both our level Two and Three exams are pretty much split into two parts. The level two having a part consisting of the teach and demos components and the other part being

No matter what Level, if you have scored 4’s or 3’s in a component this is obviously one of your weaker areas and will need to be trained for. If you have a variety of scores – some 4’s, some 5’s, some 6’s and some 7’s it is important that you still spend adequate time training the component you scored a 7 in as well as the others. A score of 7, for example in a Level 1 exam is a good score but may translate into a 4 at a Level 2 exam if not further trained. All components of your next exam should be trained for, with extra attention on your weaker areas.

After the current season comes the question “Do I sit an exam next season?”

I encourage everyone to look towards taking an exam. Unless you are totally burnt-out, having an exam as a goal to work towards is an excellent way to motivate yourself throughout the season.

Training is usually a lot of fun and it’s inspiring to see yourself and your colleagues improving and pushing each others’ limits. As well as increasing your love and enjoyment of the sport, training and passing exams will also make your lessons more fun and easier to teach.

The results of your last exam will give you an indication of where to focus your next training efforts. The big question for Level 2 and Level 3 candidates is ‘Do I go for the whole exam or just part of it?’

With the new Level 2 format it is now possible to do either the Teach and Demos components or the Coach/Race and Freeski components for both the Level 2 and Level 3. In effect you are able to sit ‘half’ the exam. While successful completion of either the T&D or C/R&F does not give you an official qualification Level,

it offers two benefits: 1. It allows you to gain recognition for your abilities in a particular area allowing you to potentially be rostered onto higher level lessons.

2. It allows you to focus your training time on fewer tasks – thus increasing your chances of passing those components at the Exam.

A lot of us are naturally better at one area (T&D or C/R&F) than the other. After seeing your strengths and weaknesses from your exam results you may feel quite confident in your ability to train for and potentially pass one area, but not so confident in the other. The additional financial aspect of paying for courses and exams may be considered when choosing to sit a part or the whole exam.

If you opt for the whole exam, no matter pass or fail, you will gain a very good perspective on the skill level you have reached within each component, and what to focus on next in training. Opting to sit the whole exam is a great thing to do.

However, you must have the motivation to train over many different areas for the whole season. Having well rounded results from your previous exam without a lot of low marks (4’s) in one area (Skiing or Teaching) is an indication you should consider doing the whole exam. Having said that, even with low marks in one area you should not be discouraged from going for the whole exam – you just need to take it into consideration.

Talk with your in-house trainer or the other trainers at your resort to help you make your decision. Best of luck for you development in the future.

Tom Langtry

made up of the coach and free skiing components, and the level Three also has one part made up of the Teach and Demos and other of race and free ski.

demos and free ski components, only getting fours and fives either just failing or just passing with the assistance of a SSS(snowsports school mark).

When we receive our results at exam time, they are broken up into the different components of the exam, we get a mark for each of the areas teaching, demonstrating, free skiing, analysing of skiers and our general knowledge. After looking at these results we can clearly see our strengths and weaknesses.

The SSS is a mark given to each person attempting the exam by their ski school.

A high SSS will allow us to be given a “bump” (an extra mark) in an area of the exam that we may have not done so well at. It can be a little nudge to just get us over the line and pass. But it does highlight a weakness, for a reason though.

It pretty much gives us a focus before achieving your next goal.

For example we may have done very well in the teaching and scored a seven and our theory and analysis also getting an eight and nine showing strength, but in the

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continued from page 35 Anyway, from the above example we can see our skiing components are weaker.

From here we can talk to the trainers to find out what we should be working on, take these comments, ideas, and exercises away and practice them.

Some of us have a great opportunity to do this as we head north for another winter in the northern hemisphere. This is a marvellous opportunity for these people as they have a whole new season ahead of them to strengthen their weakness(es).

For the people who may have just missed out on a part of the exam the previous year they can come back at the beginning of the next season and do a resit. If they achieve this they are then able to go onto the next step and go for the level two exam for example.

And the following year go for the free skiing. This simplifies our focuses gives us another whole season or two if you go OS to work on your skiing. It can also be done vice versa, eg if your skiing is a strength you could do it first and work on the teaching areas a year after.

Our results can also help us determine what part of our next exam we would like to go for instead of going for it all. This is an advantage because we don’t have to worry about a weakness from last year’s exam. So, if teaching is a strength we can choose to only sit for the Teach and demos,

In the end we can all take something out of our exam results as it is a great opportunity to do so. If we do this we will improve ourselves so we can achieve our goals whatever they may be?

Snowsports instructors, at the top of their field.

HOW CAN YOU TELL IF YOU HAVE REACHED THE TOP OF YOUR FIELD? How can you ever measure success, of what is not only a job but also a way of life?

Customer surveys, request lessons, years of experience, or being compared to others???

Interski is the only International gathering that Australia gets involved in. Not only that, 35 other nations also attend to learn, swap ideas and compare.

Over winter 2007 saw the beginning of the selection process for the next Interski.

With the inclusion of a new development team program; where each of the major ski resorts had groups of talented riders (of all disciplines) chosen for further training.

We are all now looking forward to 2011 St. Anton, Austria. Stay tuned to our website for training dates as well as the next step in the selection process.

State Team selections – followed by National selection.

Please support the members of your resort’s development team, they have all worked hard to be where they are now and I wish them all the luck possible for the next step.

Andrew Rae, Team coach

REMINDER: Please remember to use your website as a porthole to access information on the services & products provided by your association.

Important Dates such as Trainers coordination & resits will be added to the site by Christmas time.

This site is for you.

www.apsi.net.au

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