Interski report
	As stated in my initial report, Nordic skiing was not ‘big’ at Interski 2007, but what was there was of high quality and relevant.  As for Snowboard, Telemark and Alpine, the daily program was usually mornings on snow and afternoons and evenings in the classroom or lecture theatres. Australia, Finland, Germany, Switzerland, United Kingdom and Sweden had representatives.  Finland and Switzerland both gave on-snow sessions as well as classroom presentations as lead-ins.  I gave a classroom presentation on Nordic Skiing in Australia and had the opportunity to present a limited teaching session on-snow.  I chose ‘stationary skills’ and how we teach them.  This was seen as unusual by the Europeans (with the exception of the lone Brit) as they don’t usually deal with people who have never seen snow before turning up for their first lesson and the question that amused me was “why would you need to teach falling down and getting up”.  I leave the answer I gave to your imaginations. Finland gave a particularly good lecture on the development of Nordic Walking in Europe.  This is getting BIG, especially on a commercial basis.  There are literally hundreds of specialist Nordic Walking facilities being developed, mostly in Germany. I looked upon it as sort of ‘fitness golf’ without the clubs and ball.  The “gear” associated with it is trendy and the concept pushes the fitness aspects of the activity. Everything is available from heart rate monitor hire and download service, interactive mapping and GPS, Wifi en-route downloads, special sport drinks, kinky lycra shorts and clever clothing layering systems, specialist shoes and NASA designed poles. One benefit to ski instructors seems to be an added opportunity for off season employment as a personal Nordic Walking coach.  Then again, maybe they are just preparing for the ultimate consequences of Global Warming. Personally, I attended every lecture and keynote address I could.  Particularly, I tried to fit all those on Nordic and Telemark skiing into my program, as they are my qualified disciplines. One bonus was getting some skiing in on the new biathlon circuit being developed in proximity to the Yong Peyong resort.  In truth, it was the only Nordic area with snow and grooming available.  The BASI (Brit equivalent APSI) representative and I, thoroughly enjoyed playing on snow with the young Korean biathletes and skiers, many of whom displayed excellent skiing skills and were quite keen to speak English with us. Ski Instruction in Finland. The four Finnish Ski Instructors at Interski held an on snow demonstration and workshop morning where the development of skills was explained.  The teaching is quite traditional with a strong emphasis on good classical technique, especially development of balance and glide.  They tend to use a lot of single ski scootering drills and develop these into ‘fun’ sessions using pairs of skiers.  We were also introduced to a new technology Karhu brand waxless ski.  Suffice to say it is OK for snow temperatures below -5C and nowhere as universal as Fischer zeros or Peltonen Zetas.  I couldn’t convince them to liquid wax the grip zone when the temperature dropped in wet snow and the bases started to ice up, but hey, Aussies don’t know much about wet snow around zero, do they !! The emphasis in teaching skating is on balance and correct placement of weight and the correct ‘timing’ of the pole push for various skill sub-sets. I felt comfortable with their teaching methodology.  They produce some of the best classical skiers in the world of course. Swiss Snowsport Academy Philosophy The Swiss concept for Ski Instruction was presented at Interski as Performance and Fun for All. Swiss Ski Instruction identifies four types of “Sliding” Ski Snowboard Nordic Telemark  Swiss Snowsports address technically competent sports people who want to improve further in order to achieve outstanding performance in an ideal teaching and learning climate.  They do this by maintaining methodological, pedagogical and didactic baselines whilst developing technical concepts in specific disciplines to produce high level instructors.  Did you all get that lot? What they really do is maintain a similar concept structure for the four disciplines whilst changing the way their baseline concepts are used depending on the bit you have on your feet and the things you hold in your hands. So, Nordic is taught in a way that starts with very basic “core movements”: Orientation (skis parallel, wedged in or out) Rotation (turning moment) Flexion/extension Inclination/angulation Then they proceed to “movement forms”: Turning Weighting/unweighting Edging Gliding All of these core movements and movement forms are practiced in a very “busy” group environment where explanation interaction can be minimal in the case of children or detailed, in the case of developing skiers/adults. Games are used extensively and are designed so that the core movements and movement forms become second nature to cope with “chasing” or “getting away” or “tagging”.  For example, chasing someone or getting away from a chaser develops strong turning and edging skills. I believe the strength of the Swiss system however, lies in the way they develop skills in the environment of Nordic Cross skiing. Most Aussies will only know Nordic Cross skiing from ‘Red Bull’ commercially sponsored events for professionals or the as yet simplistic, NordiX events held annually in Perisher during Race Week.  Both of these are Harem Scarem, fast and furious events, carried out on terrain park style courses.  Swiss Nordic Cross is no such thing. At Yong Peyong, the Swiss Instructors had a Nordic Cross terrain-park built on a gently sloping area about 50m x 75 m.  They must have used about 40 to 50 slalom poles and half a dozen simple metal chairs as props but the whole concept was to have each section of the park contrived to practice a specific core movement and its associated movement forms. As an example, a gentle 25 metre up-hill section with four spaced chairs becomes a real test of skill if you have to ski up it but ski around each chair completely then back yourself on to it, sit down and count 5 before getting up and skiing to the next chair to repeat the drill.  Imagine what skiing skills you have to use to do this when the chairs are facing up hill and you are skiing up from the bottom.  Then, imagine what skills you need if the chairs are facing down hill and you start from the top. Imagine using slalom gate poles to make ‘gates’ and circles of various types and sizes and pushing up snow into a simple ‘bund’ or long mound for skating and ploughing up and down or jumping across.  Having a snow staircase to sidestep up, kick turn over the top and sidestep down is a simple but effective challenge.  Little jumps, cones or poles to control length of skating glide, and tunnels or ‘limbo’ gates are all variations that I found exciting. Don’t mistake this as a kiddies teaching tool alone.  We had a dozen mature, competent Nordic skiers having a ball and actually “learning” where their real skills and shortcomings were.  The best part of it all is its adaptability. Then the competitive element was introduced.  A race around the terrain park?  Yes it was, but with so many twists.  Imagine having a few dummy runs, then being asked to nominate your time for a sprint.  The winner is the one who gets closest to their nominated time.  Sprints in pairs, estimation of time difference between first and second run etc were all variations on the theme of “not just the fastest and best skier wins”. The problem in Australia of course, is getting a closed dedicated area then trying to convince a groomer to help you set it up.  And of course, having consistent cold snow so it works, will always be an issue. An overall snowsports concept that seems to be gaining popularity in Swiss resorts is starting ALL baby skiers (from age 3 or 4) on Nordic skis and having them do two seasons before putting them on to Alpine skis.  The Swiss instructors claim there are immediate bonuses.  Correct stance becomes automatic and balance skills are far superior when they finally put on alpine skis.  Slalom and Freestyle skills are able to be developed more easily from a strong and effective skills base.  They tell me snowboarders get a good grounding for riding as well. Good Luck trying to introduce that here!! ------------------------------------- As a final point, I asked the other nations’ instructors about teaching Telemark and ‘alpine’ turns on Nordic skis. Their universal answer was “why would you want to do that, those turns are for slalom (alpine) or Telemark skis surely?” But then, we all went out on the downhill slopes on our skinny skis and they proceeded to mix up their turns and did it without thinking anyway.  I guess it has something to do with not restricting yourself to one discipline. ----------------------- Thanks to the whole Aussie Yong Pyong Team for a rewarding experience. Warren Feakes For more reports click here.