Instructor Knowledge

When I tell people that I work as a snow sport instructor, many of them assume that I must be an amazing skier or snowboarder. What they don't realize is that most instructing isn't with seasoned clients, but rather new or intro classes where the very basics are repeated on a regular basis.

In fact, the really great instructors typically have absolutely nothing to do with being a fantastic rider. Instead they are amazing communicators and visual listeners. It just so happens that many of these same instructors work full time and receive down time to free ride, which in turn makes them better riders.

My best example of this came over the summer during a pre-season refresher regularly held. In the class, the instructor asked the class to run through the basics of teaching a wedge for stopping. Each of us took a section to explain while the instructor acted as our student who would consistently do things wrong. The fun part was seeing how wrong our instructor could make each movement, and also how each student in the class would come up with creative solutions to undo a movement. The crowning glory came when the instructor pointed out a very significant detail...

When making a pie wedge to stop, we often teach push down on the toes and out with the heels. What each of us missed was that pushing with the heels, while functional, is not the correct solution. Instead twist the entire leg and then position yourself for the stop. Why is this huge? Most beginners try very very hard to keep their knees pinned together, creating an almost perfectly imbalanced platform through twisting at the knees only. Having a student twist their entire leg releases much of the tension on the kneed, while also returning a sense of balance to their stance.