THE JOURNAL OF THE ROCKY MOUNTAIN PROFESSIONAL SKI AND SNOWBOARD INSTRUCTOR
PSIA-ROCKY MOUNTAIN-AASI Rocky Mountain Ski Instructors Educational Foundation
PSIA REPRESENTATIVES Linda Guerrette - President Member-at-Large Michael Melhauser - Vice President Front Range Bryan Olson - Secretary Western Slope Peter Donahue, Southern District Michael Chandler, Southern District Michael Green Southern District Toni Macri, Member at Large John Buhler, Front Range Joel Munn, Western Slope Kevin Roop, Western Slope Mike Teegen, Front Range Tony Britt, Member at Large
COMMITTEE CHAIRS Jonathan Ballou - Alpine Chair Patti Banks - Nordic Chair Toni Macri - Snowboard Chair Shawn McDermott - Children’s Chair Ruth DeMuth - Adaptive Chair Bill McCawley - Member School Chair
The Indispensable Element by Steve Miller
Perhaps we ski instructors get so wrapped up in questions of technique, that we lose sight of the more fundamental requirements of learning how to ski effectively. What are these requirements? Well...we all know what it takes. It takes self-confidence, it takes courage, it takes the willingness (or should I say eagerness) to go downhill. Kid instructors may not so often encounter students who are reluctant to go downhill - who lack confidence and/or courage. It’s more typical of adult students. And this reluctance effectively stalls progress in learning to ski, when the instructor is incapable of helping them past it. What can we, as instructors, do, to help our students move past this most fundamental challenge? The first thing that probably comes to mind is conservative terrain choice.We need to select non-intimidating terrain, and then not rush our students off of it too soon.This, of course, requires patience, especially in the case of teaching beginners. The typical new instructor’s goal, rather, is to be able to say, at the end of the day, that he/she got their class “up the chair”,as evidence of their instructional skill.The typical supervisor’s response to that is to say:“What was the rush?”.So,conservative choice of terrain and an unhurried pace will best insure that students don’t get scared to the point where they seize up and stop learning. What else can you do? Is it permissible to address the issue of courage directly? Are you within your rights, as an instructor, to comment on a student’s fear? I say yes. I say that because we instructors know very well that fear and lack of confidence stand between the student and his/her goals of learning to ski. Our students are buying lessons and we’re getting paid to help them achieve that goal. We can’t just teach “technique”.
I assert that a positive mental state is intrinsic to good technique.While courage and self-confidence, alone, won’t necessarily make you a better skier, it’s lack will inhibit progress in that direction. How, then, do you address, first, lack of confidence? How often do we encounter, in our students (and, perhaps, ourselves), self-doubt - the conviction that “I’m not good enough”? What can you do, when a student says, for example :“I’m not good enough to ski Fritz’s Chute”, when you, the instructor, knows very well that that individual possesses the necessary skills? For myself, I learned that it was essential to ski “Fritz’s Chute” as though I was good enough to pull it off.What does this mean? I came to understand that to effectively ski something I perceived as perilously steep, I had to unhesitatingly tip forward off the upper edge, bringing my upper body and hips forward and dropping my tips, so that I would remain in balance over my skis and be ready for the upcoming turn.These are the elements of technique that a confident skier employs on this kind of terrain, which elements depend completely on the willingness, in the first place, to take the plunge down the fall-line. So, to ski Fritz’s effectively, I had to ski it as though I were a sufficiently accomplished and confident skier. I had to do what that confident skier would do. I had to attack Fritz’s Chute. I had to ski it as though I was perfectly sure of myself - even if I wasn’t. Once one has the necessary skills assembled, it’s no longer a question of being “good enough” or not. It’s a question of, simply, taking the plunge, as though one were good enough.This mental approach is summarized in a saying I recall from the old days:“Fake it before you make it.” Ski as though you’re confident,I tell my students, and your subsequent success will then bestow that confidence. How do you address fear? First of all, there’s nothing like taking a few deep breaths, while exhaling slowly. “In with the good, out with the bad.” Then there’s visualization, or mental rehearsal.When myself and students are standing at the top of a run that is, for them, unaccustomedly steep, I advise them to look down at the feared run,identify where they’ll first turn, and go over in their minds the moves that will be required of succeeding turns particularly the need to move fast, to keep coming
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