All New Exam Tasks For 2004 !
By Chris Kastner
Early Winter 2003
Did that grab your attention? Usually does. Every year I am asked if the alpine tasks have changed. So, since they haven’t been in a few years, I have decided that they should be. What do you think? Are you ready to train towards passing new exam tasks? Or are you ready to strangle the Certification Vice President. I am only kidding about changing the tasks. But what if we did? Would you be ready?
What is new are the National PSIA Alpine Education/ Certification Standards. Referenced to the PSIA-AASI's Core Concepts and PSIA's Alpine Technical Manuals, the National Standards uses terminology consistent with these manuals. These standards provide a training focus, and represent a minimum competency for each level of certification.
The premise of the education/certification standards is based upon the concept of "levels of understanding". Stages of learning are defined based on the degree of understanding. As certification is a measure of understanding, levels of certification represent stages of understanding. Candidates will be held to the knowledge and performance standards of the level at which they are testing as well as the criteria for all preceding levels.
The nice thing about the changes made to the National Standards is that they have been modeled after our own PSIA NW exam format and task criteria. Instead of a task base emphasis as before, the standards reflect movements that affect skill blending that you see in good skiing. You will be able to find the National Standards in our Alpine Certification Guide which is available on the PSIA-NW web site or on the PSIA National website. Which brings us back to the question of: Would you be ready if our exam tasks were to change?
Lets play ”Guess the Exam Task”. Can you guess what task this set of criteria belongs to?
CRITERIA
1) The skis are edged and carving before the fall line,
2) Remain in balance through flexing and extending evenly in the ankles, knees, hips, and
spine so that the outside ski bends from the middle,
3) Shoulders stay level with the horizon
Is it:
A: One Ski Turns
B: Bumps
C: Medium Radius Turns
OR,
D: It shouldn’t matter because the criteria defines good movement patterns found in modern skiing and should be apparent in any task.
If you picked C you would be correct. It is the criteria for medium radius turns. If you picked D you would also be correct. Even more correct. Can you be “more correct”? Anyway, lets take a look at just one of the criteria for medium radius turn.
The skis are edged and carving before the fall line. I think that we could all agree that for a medium radius turn, that this describes what you should expect from a good skier skiing medium radius turns. As the skier enters a turn, they focus on moving forward and through both boot cuffs to tip the ski and engage the edges with the snow. Funny, that is what you actually do for developing a turn in the bumps or while skiing on one ski. Accept that you are only moving through one boot cuff.
Lets try this. Lets change the criteria for a medium radius turn.
CRITERIA
1) Maintain contact between the shins and the boot shafts while moving forward and
laterally,
2) The ski's edges are released and engaged in one smooth movement,
3) Completely transfer the weight/body/mass to the other ski,
4) Flex and extend ankles, knees, hips and spine to balance over middle of ski,
5) Keep the shoulders level with the horizon
Recognize this set of criteria? It happens to be the criteria for skating down hill, but it works just as well as criteria for medium radius turns too.
What’s my point? The tasks themselves are just a conduit for evaluating the components of good skiing. Each of our skiing tasks are great tools for enhancing your skiing, but the criteria are the pieces of the puzzle that makes each of the tasks come together in an efficient and effective manner. If one or more of the pieces are missing, that piece will also be missing in one or more of the other tasks. Your focus, while training for your exams or just training to improve your own skiing, should be to choose a missing link in your skiing and focusing on that in all dimensions of your skiing. Once you have mastered that, you should have no problem in making it work in the exam tasks themselves. If you focus just on improving the exam tasks you continue down the frustrating certification road. Focus on the movements that affect your skill blending and you will see your overall skiing improve and enjoy the process much more. This is the concept behind the new National Standards.