Archive for the ‘Ski Division’ Category

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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Gavin went along to the Finns’ workshop at Interski. Here’s Gav’s review…

Clinic title: Motivation

Clinic synopsis: This clinic was all about how to motivate students (video at bottom of post).

Our summary: This was an interesting clinic that looked at how to motivate students in a group situation. The main motivating tool demonstrated was that of social interaction. The approach was to use a variety of drills (usually performed with skis off) which encourage the group to work in pairs or threes. The drills used simulated ski technique but created a fun element to the lesson.
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Steph Brown went to see what Swiss clinic was about. Here’s the review (short video at the bottom)…

Clinic title: Emotion and Skiing

Clinic synopsis: Jan Brand, Swiss Demo Team member, presented a workshop about the overall Swiss Performance Model which can be applied to any sport and the Technical Concepts Model which is predominant in the Swiss ski teaching system.

Our summary: Jan began by explaining to the group that the Swiss have a training philosophy that when people interact as part of a specific teaching situation this is not simply a transfer of information. Whenever possible, opportunities to acquire knowledge and continue personal development are created for both teachers and students.
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Gherardo went along to the San Marino workshop last week. Here’s the writeup for everyone…

Clinic title: Feel… that you are learning; The Self-Conscious Learning

Clinic synopsis: The core concept of this workshop is that learning is not about copying or imitating a model, but it is about feeling what the body is doing while skiing. An instructor/coach can describe and demonstrate what is right or wrong, but the important thing is the feeling of the student/athlete, and that’s something often impossible for the instructor/coach to perceive.

Our summary: During the on-snow workshop we worked on one specific area – movement of the hips in the fore-aft and rotational plane.

First they explained the ideal model – a tall stance, with hips on top of the feet. The hips move forward at the start of the turn and they remain square to the direction of travel during the turn (i.e. no counter).
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Garett went to check out the Canadian workshop last week. Here’s the review…

Clinic title: Ski with Intention

Clinic synopsis: The focus of the clinic was developing a parallel turn using fore/aft, rotational, lateral and vertical. These four movements fit into the stance and balance skill, which is one of the five skills they use to develop skiing. The other four are pivoting, edging, pressure control and timing/coordination.

Our summary: The clinic was lead by JF Beaulieu, a CSIA demonstrator from Mont Sainte Anne who also makes his way down to NZ in the Southern Hemi winters. Check out the video but read on for more details…

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