CSIA Level 1 Ski Instructor

Yeah baby, that's me!

(now the learning really starts)
<--break-->
If you're an intermediate skier, who thinks they're quite good, and want to improve, then this is the course for you. It's really intense, and really tiring (long days, lots of information). Here's a little breakdown of the four days I had:

Day 1 - ski, ski, ski, get told a zillion things wrong with your skiing (all prefixed with "that's great, this is not personal, but you need to ...". Get videoed in the morning, reviewed in the evening. Brain completely full by lunchtime.

Day 2 - ski in the morning, doing a few exercises, get a couple of comments about your skiing. In the afternoon, start on teaching with the instructor doing a lesson to you in snowplow stop, turn, linked turns and 'fast track to parallel'. Realise you can't do a snowplow to save your life. Brain completely fried by about 3pm.

Day 3 - A bit of skiing, with video number 2. Lots of teaching practice, with plenty of chances to see your fellow students teach, as well as getting mucho feedback from the instructor. Brain full pretty much all day. Watch the video, realise your skiing sucks big style, but the instructor stays quiet (because you don't need telling - you can spot mistakes yourself by now).

Day 4 - A bit of a warmup, followed by ski tests 1 and 2 (parallel and 'free run') and then 3 (linked snowplow). Then, teaching tests 1 and 2. You get the night before to prepare for the first lesson, but the second you get given about 10-15 minutes before you have to do it. Handily, Sunday's a good day to watch real instructors teaching real beginners, and making them do real exercises. Keep your eyes open. Brain and body completely giving up by lunchtime. Beers at about 3pm, results at 4pm. Complete jubilation or dispair by 4.15.

All in all, it's hard work. You won't get time to go out in the evenings, but it's really, really, rewarding. You learn a shed load (and your skiing will improve). And hey, you might just be able to say "I'm a ski instructor" at the end of it.

Submitted by coofercat on Mon, 2004-03-22 03:07