Jan 27 (2011)
Last week Mat Philips and Adam Dooney presented a technical clinic about the NZ system, the levels we have and some of the philosophies we use, including ‘coach approach’. Here’s a quick summary from Mat on how the clinic went (video to follow)…
Clinic title: SBINZ Assessment Overview and Coach Approach
Clinic synopsis: Our New Zealand clinics all started with an indoor presentation. Mat and Adam introduced the SBINZ focusing on the diversity of its team and the international flavor they bring to the system, the resources and overall direction of the division.
The rest of the clinic was used to introduce the new concepts in the manual and topics to be covered during the on snow clinic session. They were:
- Our website
- New manual
- Development Options Model
- Performance outcomes
- Levels One, Two, Three and Trainers Cert (assessment levels)
- Coach approach
Our summary: The on-snow session commenced with an introduction to the history of our levels, the introduction of a new level (CSI) to meet industry demand for a domestic qualification and finally renaming our levels to the presents titles of Level One, Two, Three and Trainers.
Mat then rode through one or two key demonstrations required to pass each level while Adam explained the movements or focuses we require for you to be successful at that demo. We also explained how one demos stance and focus movements flow through into the following demos throughout all our levels.
There was a slight break for refreshments and some great conversation kicked off. Back to the clinic and it was time to cover the Trainers cert.
The biggest focus here was explaining to the group how we introduce the ‘Coach Approach’ at this level to help create a trickle down effect of coach approach philosophy from trainer to instructor to the public. The thought behind this is if we continue to train instructors to be technical mechanics then they will teach the public like technical mechanics. If we train our trainers to work with the student to create awareness of their own riding then the student will feel a sense of responsibility for their own personal development. The benefit of this is that it links the instructor and student closer as they are working together for a common goal as apposed to being a student and just being told what to do.
About now we set up a task for the attendees to test our coach approach. This task involved pairing two riders together. One rides away down the run to a meeting point. The other is not allowed to watch their partner. Then they meet up and the person not watching the rider has to ask a series of questions to find out how the run was and to get a sense of what was working either very well or maybe not so well.
At this point they could choose to focus on either the positive element or the not so good and possibly ask more questions to help the student understand why things were working well or not. Once the person questioning decided they knew how to continue on with the riders good form or had enough info to help them improve they could offer a few words of wisdom.
In one case an attendee decided to focus on the good things the student was doing and asked the rider why there heel side carve was good. The student answered, “I’m just more flexed in the heel side and feel smoother” to which the attendee replied “well why don’t you just try that more on your toe side too then”. The rider did and later in further discussion felt like the questioning made them aware of what they were doing well and could flow that across to improve other areas of their riding. The key here is that they were not told directly just to flex more. They processed how to and were a part of their own remedy… great line of questioning!
The four hour long clinic went extremely fast. The wrap-up of the clinic went well and most commented on how they enjoyed the coach approach and saw the value in it if used correctly. It was great to show our standards on a world stage and have the opportunity to explain them and have them be so well received by the international attendees.
Since our clinic we have again received positive comments and feedback from several attendees. Most were also impressed with the SBINZ website and mentioned how they will use it personally as a resource for the future.
Working with the group to understand coach approach and see some light bulbs switch on was also a highlight. Great to see New Zealand is highly respected and is still on the leading edge of Snowboard instruction globally.
[...] incorporates all the snowboard clinics given at Interski last week, including the indoor section, Fatty and Dooney’s ‘About the NZ System and Coach Approach’ clinic, as well as Dutty and Tommo’s freestyle [...]
Love the coach approach and how you presented in the clips I could see online…you look sharp and sounds like it went brilliantly for snowboard team well done everyone!