Garett Shore brings us a report on the Australians at Interski
The Aussies in full flight
Being our closest neighbours and dealing with a similar ski market to us here in NZ, I thought it would be interesting to check out what the Aussies were up to.
So I attended their indoor lecture and on-snow workshop, their indoor lecture was presented by Richard Jameson APSI Technical Director, the topic of the lecture was “Connecting Australians to the mountain experience”
Their goal is to make skiers feel like they belong and once a connection is made it increases the likelihood they will return. To facilitate this connection the APSI aim for a “balanced approach” to teaching.
This approach strives to provide lesson experiences that have structure and framework, yet still gives scope to be creative and experiment with different exercises, analogies and tactics – making the lesson experience unique as well as targeted to the student’s needs.
There has been a redesign of the teaching section of their manual, giving their instructors the knowledge and tools to lie somewhere in the middle of this spectrum and be able to adapt their approach depending on the situation and guest.
And they have definitely embraced technology to deliver this content to their instructors through the use of QR codes in the manual and a very comprehensive Instructor App.
Their on-snow workshop was led by Richard Jameson, and Riley McGlashan,
They covered some of the core concepts of their high end skiing the goal of which is to ski with the highest ski performance possible, depicted by terrain and snow conditions. They emphasize being dynamic and having flow. This means fast energetic skiing that allows the COM to follow a smooth path down the hill.
The 4 core concepts to help achieve high end skiing were
- Rotational movements
- Inclination/Angulation
- Foot to Foot balance
- Pressure management
Secondly they gave some insight into how these movements are taught in a structured yet inventive way. They did this by getting us to ski through some tasks that were specific to developing each core concept.
They still want these exercises/analogies/tactics to target the correct mechanics to be effective. This is what led to designing the Instructor App. It helps connect information together so APSI instructors can have a bank of knowledge to choose from and still have it target the correct mechanics their guests ultimately need to make an improvement in their skiing.
In summary I think the Aussies did a great job at Interski, they have come up with some innovative ways to promote skiing in Australia through technology, and a number of their team have developed international profiles by firstly being great skiers and secondly through the use of social media.
the Aussies at the top of the demo hill