AASI Snowboard Manual

by Ed Kane

This new manual and its accompanying video were just released by the AASI and are available through the office or from the PSIA accessories catalog. The manual is $19.95 (plus tax and postage) and fills a badly needed hole in the available literature on snowboard instruction. The prior publications and videos from the PSIA were badly out of date, although they were helpful and are still useful, especially for students interested in the carving branch of the "Y" model.

I was especially interested in reviewing both the manual and the tape, both from the perspective of a snowboarder who wanted to expand my skills and from the perspective of an instructor who want to bring the best tools to the hill to satisfy the needs of our customers (students). Although brief, (138 pages comb bound) it packs a great deal of information on all the aspects of teaching including: the technical concepts of teaching and learning; the elements of progressions to help students improve and achieve their goals- concepts to improve service to the customer; and information on equipment and kinesiology. The general approach is to try to present the material in a down to earth manner without getting into too much "tecnobabble" and for the most part this was accomplished. There were several aspects that I found especially appropriate. These were and emphasis on safety and on customer service. Areas that could have been improved were more relevant illustrations more closely tied to the action plan descriptions and the section on "Teaching Beginners".

In terms of content, the level of detail is about right for a manual of this size and it contains a very nicely annotated bibliography so that the reader can easily find more material if desired. Specifically there are sections on teaching and learning concepts that are a little sketchy but are the basic essentials necessary to effectively deal with customer needs. The overriding tone of both these sections is safety and making sure that learning is fun. The section on teaching beginners is quite complete, but I was a bit disappointed in not finding any guidelines to help the instructor guide the student in determining which foot should be the ftont foot. The only mention here was "Evaluate whether the student should ride regular or goofy."---But how? I needed to be patient, since a detailed approach is fully outlined on page 71 in the equipment section under "stance". (A cross- reference would have helped.) The service concept section is only 4 pages but it is right on and I think that all instructors regardless of discipline should read these 4 pages. Both the equipment and kinesiology sections are excellent. The same can be said for the sample action plans at the end of the manual. Each is broken down into the how to do it information as well as preceding considerations such as student experience, goal, ideal terrain and safety issues. The glossary, which concludes the manual is very well done and contains the annotated bibliography mentioned above.

Overall, this publication is right on the mark and should be the foundation of every snowboard instructor's library. Hopefully it will be kept up to date as the sport, equipment and techniques develop during the coming years. It does a very nice job in filling in the blanks that have evolved over the last 5 to 8 years.