Clean Up Messy Movements
A creative indoor activity to explore inefficient movement, observation, description, analysis, and exercise development
BY MIKE PETERS

One of the challenges for Training Directors and School Directors is to plan relevant preseason dry land training sessions. Although your staff is probably excited to get together and learn the ‘latest and greatest’, off-snow sessions need to be fun and motivating while providing content that enhances their lessons and skiing skills.

Dry land clinics can provide opportunities to develop exercises that can be retained and built on through out the season. The benefits of this approach are consistency of instructional techniques and a baseline source information. This process also supplements your school’s progression by providing valid connections between steps. Additionally, instructors who actively participate in the formation of exercises used in the school develop a sense of ownership and pride. For you objective aficionados the lesson plan is as follows:

Materials- tape, large pieces of paper, felt pens
Task- Create simple exercises to correct inefficient movements
Objective- improve skills of observation, description, analysis, and exercise development

Procedures:

1. Divide staff into small groups
2. Each group picks a ‘messy movement’ (examples below) and gives it a funny name.
3. On their papers, complete the sentences: Where in the turn might the messy movement be observed? The effect of (messy movement name) _________is __________.
4. Create a simple exercise to correct the messy movement.
5. Each group presents their exercise to rest of staff.

Now, after the laughs and rewards for the cleverest names, there will undoubtedly be a fair length of time before those on-snow clinics or lessons. All these great exercises need to be saved and made available for later use. So the subsequently (very important) procedures follow.

Hang the papers created from the dry land in the instructor room (hopefully you have one). Instructors now have readily available resources for their lessons. Attach blank sticky notes to the papers. Instructors add their comments and/or improvements to each as they have a chance to try the exercises. On-snow clinics can now review and revise the original exercises. Post the revisions and on it goes!

Not only have you created a successful ‘bag of tricks’, these can also be subjects for those evening tech-talks and are great resources for your new hires. Keep all the materials and you have next season’s dry land kick off.

The final step is to compile your own list of messy movements. Have fun.

Messy Movement Examples:

 Now here’s a quiz. Can you match these messy movements (from the 49° North staff) to their inefficient pseudonyms?

Storkin’
Wimpin’
Jelly Belly
Rigid Roger
Rigid Roger’s twin
Skooter Skiing
Hangers
Fuzzies
A-Framin’
Perpendicularity

Training directors are welcome to submit training or clinic ideas for the column. Please send to the PSIA office (office@psia-nw.org).