Video/Book Review by Ed Kane
It’s About Skiing and Not the Skis
This recently published book is by Jay Eacker from the Walla Walla area. It sounded interesting from the perspective of both the title and the premise. The premise is that a theory of skiing and ski teaching can be developed from the principles of Behavior Theory. I was quite anxious to read it since I was familiar with the work that Jay was doing toward this goal. Unfortunately my initial expectations were a bit disappointing since I had expected to gain some definitive guidance toward using Behavior Theory to improve both my skiing and teaching. Instead, the author took a very academic/philosophical approach and I was unable to find any clearly defined approaches or material that I could use in helping to fine tune either my skills or those of the instructors that I train each year.
To be perfectly fair, I found the book very easy to read, interesting and compelling because it recounts the experiences of a slightly past middle aged adult who engaged in skiing to satisfy family needs and eventually to go on to teaching others the sport as a result of his positive experiences. Sharing these experiences were very interesting and clearly illustrates the vast resources that are available in the Northwest Division to those who sincerely wish to learn to ski and eventually go on to teaching to help spread the enjoyment that they derive from the sport. There was an attempt to relate an early discussion of the principles and laws of Behavior Theory to his later experiences in learning to ski and eventually achieving Level II certification. This relationship, while interesting from a narrative perspective offers very little in the way of information that can help formulate any systematic means for helping other aspiring instructors achieve their ski teaching goals more efficiently.
In these reviews I usually make a recommendation to add this book or video to your personal library. In this case, if the individual has only a limited amount of money to spend on materials that will aid in becoming a more accomplished instructor, I would recommend spending that money on either the PSIA Alpine Technical Manual or the PSIA Core Concept Manual either of which are about the same price as this book. If the reader is interested in reading a very interesting narrative of the experiences of a person who has thoroughly achieved a passion for the mountain environment, then they should add this one to their library.