Archive for the ‘Lectures/clinics/workshops’ Category

Finland ended up presenting two ski clinics, with Gav going to one on motivation and Scotty attending this one about emotion. Here’s his write-up…

Clinic title: Emotion; (1) emphasis on experimenting and emotion, (2) showcasing how to train ski instructors into this concept.

Clinic synopsis: Toni our clinic leader worked through the Finish progression from a good dynamic parallel turn, backwards down to a wedge turn. The reason for this, was to show how the equipment (skis) are used at a high level and how it can filter down to the lower levels.

Our summary: Toni started with an explanation of the stance that they are promoting. Standing ‘cuff-neutral’ with the balance point on the balls of your feet (toes). We then went skiing with the idea of not using any excess movement vertically. This was to give you muscles an easier time so skiing becomes less effort.
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NZSIA Ski Course Director Stephanie Brown went to America’s ski workshop at Interski. Here’s her thoughts on it…

Clinic title: New technology

Clinic synopsis: This clinic focused on ‘Rocker Technology’. This technology is impacting all equipment in the USA, i.e. alpine skis, telemark skis and snowboards.

Our summary: The Ski manufacturers have differing designs so here’s a quick overview of rocker technology equipment…
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Sweden actually presented three on-snow ski workshops at Interski. Scotty Dagg checked out the third one, which followed the same concept as their snowboard clinic, and wrote this post as a summary…

Clinic title: Will, Hill, Skill approach to High-end technique, based around race coaches and problems that they are experiencing.

Clinic synopsis: To discuss modern high end technique and relate this to the ‘Will’ of the coaches, The ‘Hill’ or terrain that is being used and the ‘Skill’ of the athletes.

Our summary: Kicki was the clinic leader. We discussed the stance that Sweden has adopted. This is pretty standard except for the rounded back. We had some great exercises presented to us for the transition phase to promote forward movement along the length of the skis. Kicki used one exercise called the nutcracker. Pretty hard to explain but is easier to show, it involves some rope.
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Here’s Steph’s write-up on the Croatian skiing workshop…

Clinic title: Croatian Ski Technique

Clinic synopsis: This clinic was about how the Croatian’s teach in their country and why. Check out what Boris has to say…

Our summary: Some facts about Croatia… Croatia is a Mediterranean Country with 1000 islands and famous for its summertime, not winter. It has 3 ski resorts and hosts 2 FIS races. Janica and Ivra Kostelic are Croatian. Croatia has 900 Instructor Members of their association. The Association began in 1894. The 250,000 skiers in Croatia mainly go to Western Europe to ski. Instructors often start their students in Croatia and then escort them to European resorts where they continue to coach them and be their holiday guide.

The Croatian Technique has a foundation of 4 Movements:
1. Along the length of the skis to keep centered
2. Lateral movements of the Legs and the whole body to affect the edges
3. Circular Movement to actively guide the skis
4. Movements along the vertical body Axis – flexing and extending used for pressure control and this results in 3 Basic Stances (1) Low (2) Middle (3) High – all of which are centered.
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We’re getting round to all the final write-ups now folks.

Here’s one from Scotty Dagg about Finland’s indoor lecture before they started on the snow…

Clinic title: Motivation, Emotion, Progression

Clinic synopsis: Finland want to stop ‘Teaching’ and start ‘Learning’, like children do. Finland believe that the competition in the snow sports industry is not other sports or even ski schools but Playstation, Wii, and shopping malls. They have identified that you can’t change your customers; you can only change what you do. The slogan that they quoted a lot was: Motivation happens in the brain, which creates Emotions and leads to Progression.
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Scotty Dagg went along to the Australian indoor lecture and on-snow clinic. Here’s the low down…

Clinic title: APSI pathway using the four levels

Clinic synopsis: The Aussie indoor lecture was about introducing us to the four levels that they use, and what’s involved at each level.

Our summary: Andrew started with some interesting stats for example: Instructor longevity in Australia is only about 3 years. Andrew sets the client scene; he said that an instructor is like a mechanic. The people only take their car to the mechanic when they feel something’s wrong. All they want to do is have a go and get mobile.
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Mark also went to the Netherlands’ workshop on the last day of Interski. Here’s the summary…

Clinic title: Skiing with Strength

Clinic synopsis: The clinic was a technical workshop focusing on some of the key elements in their technical progression.

Our summary: The clinic was presented in English. It was well structured and made good use of the terrain available.

The key technical elements presented were as follows:

• Skiing in a tall position with hips over feet with limited flex.
• Skiing with a stronger outside leg.
• Pushing the outside ski forward and inside ski back to promote turning to the fall line.

These elements were introduced in a wedge turn. The strong outside leg and tall hip position was promoted as a stronger more efficient position to ski in. Flexion was discouraged as the dutch presenters believed that any active flexion on the part of the student would simply lead to back seat skiing.
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This is Mark’s write-up form the Italian workshop, check it out…

Clinic title: Italian Progression

Clinic synopsis: Following an indoor presentation outlining the new manual, the new childrens’ manual and an online resource for instructors, we were presented with the Italian technical progression on snow.

Our summary: The indoor presentation by the Italians was excellent. It was well prepared and very professional.

During the indoor presentation the following was presented:

• An overview of the new electronic interactive manual.
• Review and changes in the Italian teaching model since 2004 with a particular focus on teaching children.
• Snowpedia – overview of a web based resource for storing and sharing information between instructors.

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