Interski report
	Norway On Thursday, I attended the Norwegian workshop which was conducted by Johan Malmsten, who is a trainer and examiner with Norwegian Ski Instructors association. The theme of their workshop was very similar to Australia’s, in that we were continually encouraged to have a go!!! Johan elaborated on the content of the presentation given on the Tuesday night. The theme for Tuesday’s presentation, given by Goran Dalhin, was Positive, Practical and Coaching.  This is a model incorporated into the Norwegian Instructor training system that gives instructors the framework of a great lesson. In essence, it is similar to the 9 lesson essentials that the APSI trainers use. Let me explain further, and see if you can see the similarities that I did, Positive        Smiling – Always try and smile from the heart, Positive mindset – be positive with everyone you encounter through the day, Positive learning environment – try to create this in every lesson, Inclusive – always include all your students in the lesson, Engagement – try to actively engage every student in the class Practical       Playfulness – be inventive and playful with the challenges you set Safe – don’t take unnecessary risks, Room for trying – make sure the student get a chance to give it a go, Insight – explain to the student why they are performing the task Self experience – relate to something they may have done before, High Activity – Lots of practice time Investing Time – ensure that students get value for their money Coaching      Good communication skills Empathy Focus on one thing at a time Positive Feedback Creating Trust with the student As you can see there are numerous points that our system shares with the Norwegians. The on-snow workshop Johan conducted gave me the most number of runs of any workshop I attended. He had a goal for us at the start of the lesson and by the end of the lesson this had been achieved, with a lot of skiing too. He gave us very brief explanations of what we were attempting to do, then gave us the whole run to practice what we were attempting (see High Activity). This was the most enjoyable aspect of the workshop for me. This was a great reminder to me of the importance of keeping things simple in our lessons. Adam Hosie Canada The Canadian on-snow presentations at this Interski had two different themes. The first was a perspective of the changes in the coaching system in Canada over the last 4 years, and the second was looking into some of the models and methodology currently in use within the CASI (Canadian Ski Instructors Alliance) system. The first session that I attended was with Pierre Ruel (pictured at the bottom), the technical director for CSCF (Canadian Ski Coaches Federation). During this session Pierre covered several points that highlighted the evolution that has taken place in the coaching system in the last 4 years. These included, Integration with the CASI system to bring parity with terminology used. Sharing of information on technical skiing concepts with CASI. Progression from use of traditional coaching concepts, to a more ‘athlete centered’ approach. Previously the two skiing educational bodies, CASI and CSCF, had very different systems in place to educate their respective participants. Increasingly, they were finding people who were members of one association, were participating in the other association’s courses. Because of the different terminologies being used by each association, a ‘bridging’ course was necessary to highlight these differences. Now that the terminology used is the same, these bridging courses are now redundant. The CSCF has gone away from a more traditional coaching method in recent times, to a more ‘athlete centered’ method. In short, they are getting away from setting courses and having an athlete run them numerous times day after day. It was seen as creating boredom that eventually caused athletes to stop participating in the sport. Now, they’re trying to vary the training methods as much as possible, creating and atmosphere of innovation and competition amongst athletes. For example, instead of the coach telling an athlete he was slow in a particular section of a course, the coach is now asking the athlete where they though they were fast and slow. They believe that this helps the athlete to develop a sense of how they are performing as they are going down the hill, and not always relying on the coach to critique their performance. Pierre believes this philosophy has help lift Canada from 12th   overall in the 2006 season, to 5th for the 2007 season. The second Canadian workshop that I attended was presented by Russ Wood representing CASI. Russ talked a lot about CASI believing more in outcomes of a situation rather than inputs that lead to this. They are teaching their instructors to encourage students to successfully complete a task, even if the student is not quite mechanically correct. He also talked about what they believe makes a great guest experience.  The main outcomes they are trying to attain can be broken down into the following three areas, Controlling speed Maintaining speed Generating speed These outcomes are all obtained by teaching their students 4 basic types of movements common across all three of these areas. These movements are blended together to help the student obtain their desired outcome. The 4 types of movements are, 1.      Stance 2.      Initiation from lower body 3.      Pivoting 4.      Balancing on Edges This idea forms one part of the model that they use to create memorable guest experiences and ultimately return business for their instructors. I really enjoyed both the Canadian presentations, and I now have a much better understanding of their educational system. I would encourage you all to participate in a coaching course this season. These all following the CSCF outline and would allow you to explore these ideas further. See you on the hill, Adam Hosie                                                                       To see more reports please click here.