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Reprints From The Professional Skier

Spring 1994 - "Teaching The Upper Level Lesson: A Psychological Approach To Common Problems" by Jennifer and Todd Metz with Bert Saxby

This article is reprinted from The Professional Skier. All copyrights apply. Please see our copyright and disclaimer notice page.

The big dump came last, night. Fifteen inches of full-bodied fluff, and your students don't want to just survive in it, they want to know your they want to know your innermost secrets (and favorite runs). Using the latest equipment and wearing the coolest clothes, they're ready to slice and dice with the best of them.

Your students say they want to ski hard during the lesson, and they want to ski more difficult terrain. For the sake of clarity, you ask if they want to pick up a tip or two about skiing powder. Considering themselves accomplished skiers, they say, "Sure" but they want to get in plenty of turns before the new stuff gets tracked up. You wonder if you can take this group, ski hard, and still follow your lesson plan.

At face value, it may appear that there is a conflict between your needs and theirs. But this apparent conflict doesn't have to materialize when teaching advanced skiers.

In the first two articles in this series, "Teaching The Lower-Level Lesson" (Fall 1993) and "Teaching the Intermediate Lesson" (Winter 1994), we examined some nuances of teaching Level 1 through 7 skiers. In this article, we'll consider teaching techniques for advanced skiers - those who ski 8 or above. They generally ski blue/black and black terrain with a variety conditions, including ice, bumps, powder, crud, and steeps. Advanced skiers tend to have refined skills, and their goals focus on developing the timing and tactics needed to ski a broader range of conditions and terrain.

Student Behavior At Advanced Levels

External Influences

Advanced-level skiers have reached their lofty status within the ski lesson continuum because they have the adaptability and skill to ski terrain and conditions that demand certain turn shapes and speed control (i.e., ice, bumps, gates, and chutes). But many aren't yet ready for an appearance in a Warren Miller flick, no matter how cameo it may be. Terrain selection, snow conditions, and equipment are the external factors of primary importance to instructors teaching advanced-level skiers. At advanced levels, students may believe they have mastered most skills, so they tend to focus not on skill improvement but on tactics for skiing specific conditions or terrain. However, many exhibit an insufficient blending of skills, which can prevent achievement of those tactical goals. Skiers who rely on one specific skill, rather than an appropriate blend of skills will find themselves in trouble when trying to ascend within advanced levels.

For example, a skier who always uses excessive rotary movement in turn initiation may have a great deal of success in groomed terrain, bumps, or even steeps because of his or her ability to move quickly from initiation to completion. This skier is generally adept at slamming on the brakes or moving from edge to edge (provided he or she has enough sensitivity to balance on the edge).

This same skier, however, is likely to have difficulty in other conditions. Why? Because skiers who use rotary movement as the dominant skill tend to move too quickly through the control phase of the turn, resulting in a predominantly skidded turn rather than a turn with smooth edge engagement and carving. In powder or crud, the skier may take a few face plants because skis don't pivot nearly as effectively when there are a few inches of snow resisting the sides of the skidding skis. In icy conditions, the result of such rotary emphasis is excessive skidding and loss of control.

Your advanced students may not need to make dramatic changes in their skiing technique, but external influences will demand some subtle adjustments. What works in terrain in which they are comfortable doesn't necessarily work in new conditions.

Equipment becomes a major external influence because most advancedlevel skiers own their own skis, boots, and bindings. If the student wants to improve, his or her skiing will require more precision. And to ski with precision, it is important that the student's equipment be up to the task.

If your students purchased skis and boots when they were intermediates, they are probably out-performing their equipment. At advanced levels, especially, the student's ski boot should adequately support the foot and ankle without being overly stiff, allowing adequate flex in the ankle. To get the most performance out of skis, leg alignment should be close to neutral. (See "Body Alignment Relating to Biomechanics," Fall 1993). Skis should have the proper length, flex, torsional stiffness, and side cut for the intended use. Your student could have a serious battle in store if he or she is trying to ski a mammoth GS ski in the bumps. Likewise, if the skis are too short, the student could have trouble maintaining edge control and skid too much in the turns.

Keep in mind that inappropriate or mismatched equipment can block success by increasing student frustration. As an advanced skier yourself, you should be able to relate to the frustration of knowing that you are making the right moves physically, but your equipment is stopping progress.

Along these lines, you may want to stress how a well-tuned ski can enhance performance. If your students are looking to get to the next level, a quick chairlift discussion about tuning can be worth the price of a lesson. At this level of instruction, you are acting more as a consultant than anything else. To answer the increasingly sophisticated questions of students, you must familiarize yourself with the subtleties of equipment and performance, as well as the equipment strengths of local ski shops.

Internal Influences

Advanced students are usually confident with their skiing, and their previous skiing experiences give them security in familiar situations. However, when faced with unfamiliar conditions, improvement may be impeded as they may move back into lower levels of Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs. (Discussed in the previous articles, this psychological model defines levels of needs to be fulfilled in pursuit of goals.) By reminding them of past success, you can help your students transfer skills to new situations while building comfort and confidence.

For example, when you take strong bump skiing students into a steep, narrow chute for the first time, they will probably exhibit some safety and security concerns. Even if they don't show obvious signs of anxiety, they may have other characteristics of defensive skiing (e.g., stiff body, rotated initiation, square stance, downstem).

If you mention a previously successful exercise and reassure them that they know the moves necessary to ski the new terrain, you can help them face this new challenge. The solution may be as simple as reminding them that placing their pole down the fall line will help stabilize their body so that their feet can turn quickly and easily. In short, you have to create an experience that allows them to take their mastered moves into new terrain. You must be patient so that you don't overload them with new information while they are coping with a new environment.

Within a few turns (maybe a few runs for some), they'll once again be basking in the glory of challenge accomplished or asking you for a progress report. Your response here is extremely important. Don't ignore their need for recognition by immediately jumping on a small glitch you might have seen in their skiing. Positive reinforcement is as important for advanced students as it is for beginners, if not more so. Students at this level tend to be highly critical of themselves, so be sure to point out a number of positive features before addressing any shortcomings.

Because advanced skiers tend to have natural athletic abilities that often aid their progress, they may be impatient about getting results. Your challenge is to keep them interested enough to pay attention and try new ideas. Practicing the entire skill or task with slight variations may enable students to feel some success immediately.

For instance, a 20-year-old athletic student who moved right to black terrain 10 days after first learning to ski may come to you and say he's ready to conquer the bumps. If you even breathe the words "blue run" you will lose him. On the way to the bump run you assess the rough skills (and mostly natural ability) he possesses. You notice that your student steps to initiate, rotates his hip and upper body to help get the skis around, but doesn't quite finish the turn enough to scrub speed. The result? After five or six turns, he blows up in the bumps.

Sensing frustration building for your student, you might lead him to more gentle bump terrain. By having the student follow your fine to help him focus on something besides wiping out, you can create a successful run. Usually, this generates enough interest in learning to ski smoother, like you, and still have fun in the bumps.

On the way to the next run you could work on scribing arcs in the snow with one foot, then the other. This will help illustrate the concepts of rotary movement in the leg and guiding the ski to an edge. You might then try foot arcs in garlands and whole turns. By the time you get back to the small bumps (bumps being the original task) you should have had enough success that this run feels better. The graduation run in the bigger bumps will usually be strong enough for the student to sense progress. And all of this came about because you set up a focused set of exercises that created a series of successes.

In this case, you were able to take the student's focus on tactics (skiing a particular bump run) and weave in a subtle technical focus (foot arcs) to help the student achieve his goal of having fun in the bumps. Among advanced skiers, another factor that shapes motivation is their level of self-awareness. Most advanced skiers know what they want or at least what is lacking in their skiing. They are generally articulate about describing their abilities and the problems they face. Educator Madeline Hunter, in Mastery Teaching (TIP Publication, 1982), notes that relating the material to be learned to the students performance can affect his or her intent to learn. Make sure your students agree on the benefits of your approach to their skiing. You are likely to lose them if you don't.

Instructor Behavior

Influencing The Learning Partnership

Because there is less skill difference between us and our advanced skiers, we are not quite the authority figures we are with beginner and intermediate students. If you speak too authoritatively, you may enter into a struggle for interpersonal control that will distract all parties from the learning process. This is particularly important when you consider that students are paying customers, and they aren't paying to go to boot camp.

A more productive approach at this level is to earn your students' respect by acknowledging their wants and needs and showing them that you can help them meet their goals. Disclosing your own skiing challenges and how you meet them can also build the rapport that leads to respect. Why? Because it shows that you and your students have had common experiences,

Occasionally, a command style of teaching is appropriate when setting lesson pace or introducing specific-response exercises, but upper-level skiers generally benefit more from an experiential, participative teaching style. This is because they are at the top of the hierarchy in Gagne's Conditions of Learning (an education model that, among other learning variables, examines rule using and problem solving). They know how to classify linked chains of responses into common groups and can use these responses to create rules about the situations they face.

A good way to invite participation within a group is to use a teaching approach that encourages problem solving. One such approach is guided discovery, wherein planned situations, questions or tasks lead to student self-discovery. in this strategy, which requires extensive experience, knowledge, and connection with your students, the students must be able to use previously determined rules to solve a problem never encountered before. Although you set the framework, your students work toward and choose the solution or solutions.

With this method, you may have little control over the direction the lesson may take, but if you are communicating well with your students, you can help them stay on track with their goals.

For example, a bump skier who has learned that rounded short turns make for a smooth ride in small bumps may now be faced for the first time with big, steep bumps. The stated goal is to ski big bumps with control and ease, and so you set the framework by choosing the run, as well as the starting and stopping place. You might even suggest that the student apply previously successful tactics to this run. It is the student, however, who chooses how to apply tactics in the run.

After a while, with your encouragement and a few suggestions for exploring different lines through the bumps, the bump skier discovers that he or she can link three or four round turns in the fall line and stay in control. By applying previously learned rules to a personal path of discovery, the new problem is solved.

Teaching For Transfer

Advanced skiers bring a wide range of experiences and history with them. They may have skied through several eras of ski technique and be emotionally attached (perhaps rightfully so) to a skiing style that has worked well for 20 years. There is potential for both positive and negative transfer. You can't assume they want scrap their technique and start all over again.

For those with deeply ingrained movement patterns, you need to refine the skills that are there, and then address the tactical concerns that will allow the skier to be more functional on the chosen terrain or condition. Envision the student with the elegant, classic skiing style. Her feet are glued, her arms are sweeping, and her gliding style resembles that of a swan, not a skier. Her application of skills (up-unweighting and rotation to start, counter to finish) works beautifully on groomed slopes and powder, but ice and bumps are another story.

To take this elegant style, tear it apart, and recreate it would not only be impractical, but unreasonable as well. A better approach would be to take the existing blend, refine it by focusing on balance and a pressure shift, and then concentrate on tactics. By helping the student develop a consistent, medium-sized turn, you can give her a chance to skid on the ice with balance rather than spin out of control. You have taken the positive transfers of skills and confidence - and with slight refinement brought about success without focusing on her negative aspects of skiing.

Expert levels of skiing (i.e., racing and all-terrain) require both ability and positive transfer. To become a truly expert skier one needs to master all skiing skills so that one easily applies the versatility needed for a myriad of terrain and conditions. This level of efficiency is mostly demonstrated by professionals and worldclass skiers, but it is not necessarily out of the reach of the recreational skier.

Some people can transfer previously learned skills more readily than others to the task at hand. Madeline Hunter acknowledges that some peoples' innate ease of transferring previously learned skills into the present is due to ability. But there is hope for those who do not possess this strong ability. We all know instructors who have reached expert levels through sheer courage and perseverance, even though they struggle to transfer what they have already learned.

Process

Verifying your students' understanding of lesson material is a little tricky when teaching advanced levels of skiing, but it is still important. As mentioned before, positive change in skiing technique can be very subtle. Students can be easily confused or distracted if you use overly complicated explanations about a sim ple topic. We are not advocating that you talk down to your students. We are suggesting, however, that you pay attention to how much information students want or need at a given time.

Students who want relatively little information are not going to be impressed with your teaching knowledge if you insist on covering everything you know about biornechanics in 5,000 words or less. Ask them about how much information they want in the lesson. Ask them if the pace of the lesson is too slow, too fast, or about right. They, not you, are the ultimate judges of the timing and pace of information.

If you have been using a participatory teaching style, you will have created an open line of communication. This is useful when checking student understanding throughout the lesson. This will also help you restate, clarify, or adapt goals, making the direction of the lesson clear to everyone. Remember the universal rule: Keep It Simple.

Don't stop with a check of cognitive understanding. Use your students' performance to check their physical understanding, as well. If they are not getting it, you may need to slow the pace of your presentation. (See "Teaching the Intermediate Lesson: A Psychological Approach to Common Problems," Winter 1994.)

To predict how your students will physically learn, consider a bit of developmental theory. According to David L. Gallahue (as cited in Child Centered Skiing, 1988. Bode, Peterson, Workman), learners progress from initial to mature stages of motor control. Although Gallahue's work is grounded in child developmental theory, we've also seen adults pass through these stages while learning.

The initial stage is characterized by relatively crude, uncoordinated movements and lack of rhythmic coordination during execution of tasks. A skier at this level of motor control might not be able to identify how to apply a refined skill in new terrain. The result might be a bump skier who will try anything to survive, with no two turns looking the same.

The next level of motor control is the elementary stage, characterized by movements that are more coordinated but still awkward and lacking in fluidity. Upon reaching this level, our bump skier could start to identify proper tactics and focus on slight skill variations, as long as the bumps have predictable lines and sizes.

The final level of motor control is the mature stage, characterized by wellcoordinated, mechanically correct, and efficient acts. Students at this level will have the easiest time learning sport-specific movements. The learner is capable of repeating a sequence of movements accurately, without intense concentration and without environmental limitations. Upon reaching this stage, our skier can comfortably apply and adapt skill use on any bump run.

Understanding that we all go through these developmental levels and being able to identify these levels will help you recognize when a student's performance shows enough physical understanding to approach the next topic. You can also use this understanding to help the frustrated student realize that the plateau he or she has reached is only temporary.

Conclusion

This goal of this series of articles is to provide insight into the variations that occur as students progress. Expanding mountain access, equipment considerations, and time on skis (even technique and technology) affect skiers in all levels of ski instruction - from beginning to advanced. These factors also have bearing on levels of psychological needs (Maslow's Hierarchy) and variables in learning skills (Gagne's Conditions of Learning).

At beginning levels, instructors have a high degree of perceived authority that can turn into respect at the advanced level of instruction. Teaching styles exhibit variations at each level, with much interpersonal control at beginning levels, leading to less control and more experiential teaching approaches at the advanced levels.

When our students are beginners, we transfer natural, past experiences from known sports to new experiences in skiing. As they advance, positive transfer represents the successes from the beginning and intermediate levels that allow skiers to tackle expert goals.

Also notable is skill development. Beginning students focus on developing skills to help them survive. At the intermediate level, students still focus on skills but are busy exploring new terrain and snow conditions. Finally, advanced skiers are less focused on skill development and tend to hone in on terrain challenges and the tactical approach to skiing this terrain.

Jennifer and Todd Metz are division clinic leaders and apprentice examiners in PSIA-RM. Each has taught for 16 years and currently works for the Winter Park Ski School in Colorado. Bert Saxby is a freelance writer living in Denver.