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Monday, February 18, 2013

Turning your students into Ski Instructors, a post for the Fantastic Four

It's President's Week, 2013, and the mountain is busy!  For me, this is the best week of the year at Northstar California, primarily due to The Fantastic Four, a group of sisters I've had the pleasure of skiing with every year for the past 5 seasons.

As you might imagine, the girls are very good skiers, and enjoy skiing all sorts of terrain.  This year, the older three (13, 11 and 10) are extremely focused on mastering all of the level 7 and level 8 skills, and exploring the final challenges of level 9 skiing.  The youngest skis with a fellow instructor, and she's mastering similar skills, as well as honing her snowball throwing arm whenever she sees me.

Last year we started a new practice during our week which proved to be a huge help for knowledge transfer and retention.  During the week, the girls take turns acting as our group's instructor, teaching the rest of us a movement pattern via a static exercise, a drill or a game.  

So... Fantastic Four members:  To help you pick a skill for your teaching session, watch this movie made by the New Zealand Ski Instructor's Association.

Your mission?  Choose one of the turn types, and get ready to teach the rest of us how to do it!  You have time to practice up through Wednesday, and Thursday, you'll each take the reins for a run or two, honing our skills in the skill you chose.