Ah, Those Instructor Misnomers

Keep theAuditory Learner in Mind

by Nelson Wingard

Ever worked with someone's skiing and just not seen anything close to what you are describing? It could be the words you are using. Yep, the words. There are actually of students out there that listen to the things that instructors say. In fact, they rely on the clarity of our directions to further develop their skiing. These are auditory or cognitive learners. Often times this type of learner moves and improves slower than the rest of the group. This is not necessarily a deficiency in the students learning style, but could be imprecise directions from the instructor. Visual cues provide a bail out for poor directions, but a true auditory learner will need the words to match or better define the movement. The following are some examples of what instructors say versus what they mean.

What Instructors Say: "Bend your knees."

Probably the most common saying for ski instruction is "You just need to bend your knees." Is that really what we want? I don't think so. Now hold on, I'm not saying we want to lock out the joint, but look at how the knee functions in ski equipment. Because of the rigid plastic back to the boot and the tail of the ski, the skier can bend exclusively at the knee thus moving the hips backward over the tail. This puts the skier into a "Toilet seat" position.

To stay balanced, the skier must flex the ankle, knee, hip, and spine equally. This keeps the CM over the foot and allows the skier the mobility to guide the skis, engage the edges, and control pressure. Of these, the ankle is the most overlooked. Because the ankle is locked into a hard plastic shell, it tends to be viewed as immobile. However, feeling pressure on the front of the shin and seeing lower leg move fore and aft, clearly demonstrates the range of motion available in the ankle. Yes, good skiing involves bending movements at the knee joint, but good skiing involves even flex in all joints. Good drills for practice are hopping drills, one footed skiing, and skating.

WIS: "Keep your hands down the hill."

Instructors are constantly hounding people to keep the hands in front and down the hill. These students end up with a rigid upper-body and a re-countering move as the skis come across the fall line. They push their hands down the hill while their shoulders and hips stay square with the skis.

WM: "Turn your legs more than your body."

What are you really after? Upper/Lower body separation. If we want the body to stay quiet and move independently of the torso, then the student needs to steer his/her feet in the direction of the new turn without rotating the hips and shoulders. Simply cueing the student to turn the legs would more accurately direct them. Some good activities include:

hop turns with and without skis (see Ellen Post Foster's-Art of Carving, Video), hockey stops (slips and pivots are good, also), short radius tuck turns, and Cowboy Turns (wide stance, flat ski).

Here's a fun game to practice giving directions with other instructors. You need three participants, a demonstrator, a teacher, and the learner. The demonstrator makes a movement without letting the learner see it. The teacher must then teach that movement to the learner without using any visual cues. Try to describe the movement in whole, then provide specific feedback as needed.

Summary

While most of our students (roughly 80%) are visual learners, there are a few that require good audio cueing. In fact, even the visual and kinesthetic learners will benefit from accurate directions and specific focuses. A good question to ask yourself is "What am I really trying to say?" This will help you to provide more clear and specific directions to improve the students skiing. Good luck.