BASI ISIA Level 3 Ski Teaching exam

A few weeks ago I was one of 24 people taking the BASI ISIA ski teaching exam in Verbier.  Having completed two weeks of technical coaching and exams my understanding of skiing and all of the BASI terms felt better than ever.  The real test would be whether I could analyse a much higher level of skier than most of my clients, and whether I could teach.  Unlike the technical exam I felt as though failing would mean that I suck at my job!

The first day was very informal, we went over the course program and each delivered a 10 minute ‘unwatched and unjudged’ lesson to three people in the group.  I did flatland 360’s for a bit of fun, which soon turned into doing this on one ski and then one ski in both directions.  Our trainer, Alex Leaf set a great relaxed atmosphere and I was psyched and a bit apprehensive to see what the rest of the week would bring.

The following four days took the same format, we would each prepare overnight a 15 minute lesson to deliver to the class aiming to achieve the following:

• Keep the class safe at all times
• Develop each individual
• Give specific developmental feedback to each individual
• Make it fun, simple and clear
• Don’t talk too much or too little
• Have a clear aim/goal of the lesson and make sure everyone knows this
• Stick to the ‘TIED’ model – very BASI! Task, Information, Evaluation, Develop… and repeat
• Range of teaching styles
• Acknowledge different learning styles – Visual, Auditory, Kinaesthetic
• Etc…

We would each observe two peoples lessons, giving them feedback on good and bad points using the above criteria and more.

Tuesday – Piste performance lessons

A huge variety of lessons to improve our short and long turns, with all sorts of new and familiar drills in there, the most novel being Tom’s ‘violin drill’ to help with rotational separation in short turns.  This is where you hold one pole horizontally across the hill and the other goes ontop like the bow in line with the fall line.

I looked at rhythm and co-ordination of pole plants in short turns.  Learning from today’s lessons the best thing to do to help yourself was to choose a simple drill you can develop and link back into ‘normal’ turns, and that is easy to spot mistakes in other’s performances with.

Wednesday – Performance thread lesson excluding the technical thread.

Today was a bit of a challenge for most people to fit in the feedback from yesterday, keep it simple and also deliver a lesson aimed at the right level to develop our group in one of the performance threads from:

Tactical

Physical

Psychological

Equipment

Environment

Pretty much everyone in the group choose Tactical, and mostly in the bumps, looking at different lines and speeds you can take to make it easier or harder for yourself.

Being rubbish at bumps, and a keen steep skier I opted to look at the Psychological aspect of skiing steeps while learning to jump turn.  We covered visualization techniques and went through a ‘chaining’ process of learning a jump turn appropriate to steep terrain.

Thursday – Central theme day at Les Esserts (the nursery slope), in the boiling hot sun

Each of us chose a turning phase of the central theme to teach looking at improving our own performances in snowplough, plough parallel and basic parallel.   Again, there were lots of new drills throughout the day and most of us had improved our demos by the end.

Having seen the group plough parallel the other day and spotted a few things I could work on, I chose this.  Matching the skis at any stage we looked at really standing on the ‘new outside ski’ of each turn and trying to correct our individual faults with a buzzer game.

Friday – ‘Crazy’ lessons day

Today each of us had a lesson with a twist to deliver.  Some people were not allowed to talk, others had a class that couldn’t speak or see, and I got ‘nervous old ladies’.

So, yoga skiing it was then, anything to take their mind off the fact they are actually!  Linking breathing and movements to the various stages of the turn and promises of a coffee break just around the corner!  It was the only bit of role play the whole week, which made a welcome change from the Level 1 and 2 exams.

In our group 7 out of 8 of us passed, including me, much to my relief.  Overall it was a fun, relaxed week, I improved my teaching, got lots of new lesson ideas and came out with some things to develop further.  It is one of the ISIA modules I would definitely recommend to a Level 2 teacher with reasonable skier analysis and understanding of how skiing works.

BASI ISIA technical exam

Sunday 2nd March 2014 - pre course meeting

Having successfully avoided catching any colds or other illnesses since December - believe me, a true rarity living in Verbier over the winter; I finally caught one.  This morning I woke up on the brink of something and throughout the day it got progressively worse.  During the night I had whole body ache, could barely control my temperature and seriously thought that I would not be able to arrive for the first day of my technical exam tomorrow.  Going to the pre course meeting was bad enough with my lungs not agreeing with the cold air, and feeling awful, what a great first impression I made!

Monday 3rd March 2014 / Tuesday 4th March 2014 - Days 1 and 2

The first two days passed in a blur of feeling ill and skiing in the fog at Savoleyres and Bruson.  We looked at the fundamental elements in relation to the central theme and the strands.

Wednesday 5th March 2014 - Day 3

For the first time this week I had some energy to ski, and the sun came out.  Today was our last training day before the assessment process on the last two days of the course.  Covering the central theme in our warm up, and skiing most of the 'strands' on and off the piste.  A the end of the day we had a video analysis session and a short written exam.

Thursday 6th March 2014 / Friday 7th March 2014 - Days 4 and 5

The assessment days.  Both days took the same format of piste performance in the morning followed by moguls and then variables in the afternoon.  All at Savoleyers and it was very sunny and warm too.  My top tip for this is to get used to skiing the same run over and over again in the exam without getting bored, distracted and waiting with at least the majority of the other people on the exam too - in my week there were 32 of us.

It seemed as if there was a less than 50% pass rate overall, but I don't know the exact figures.  I failed the exam, but achieved my main goals of the season and my main reasons for taking the exam; to learn lots and to improve my own skiing.  Although passing would have been lovely I think if I had done I would have felt like a fraud as I still have great inconsistencies in my skiing, need to consolidate a lot of new ideas and techniques I have learnt this season, and just was not ready to.

I now have the tools and the psyche to work on my mogul skiing, embrace skiing faster and maybe even try some stiffer skis.  But most importantly I still absolutely love skiing and living in Verbier.

As an aside the pistes are quieter now, in very good condition despite the heat in the afternoon.  However off piste the avalanche conditions are not great, all of the usual spring slides are coming down and the SLF have started issuing separate morning and afternoon forecasts.

ISIA performance training course Days 3-5

Day 3 - 26/2/14 - moguls, crazy turns and the central theme

This morning was spent predominantly skiing moguls and short turns.  Lots and lots of moguls along the side of the 'M25' underneath the Chaux Express.  The snow was quite soft, the sun was out, and the main focus was to just keep turning the skis around and getting the tips of the skis engaged and pressed into the snow as you go over each mogul.  With this focus I actually skied some ok rhythmical turns.

After lunch we looked at long turns and bring the hip around on top of the skis.  Then it was time for some agility and balance work, Swedish, Norwegian, Charleston, Tic-tacs and more variations of 'crazy turns' were tried.

On the flatter sections of piste in the afternoon we examined the central theme and progression into plough parallel turns.  This was a great session for me as I could really link the progression here to the piste performance strands of carving and short turns etc... and I think I now have a much better understanding of the basics of skiing.

Fresh snow on the 27th Feb, just in time for some off piste training

Day 4 - 27/2/14 - Variables and Moguls
The morning was spent skiing laps by the side of Lac des Vaux in the chopped up powder.  Our main focus points were a smooth turn transition, looking at how we use our muscles - eccentric contractions, and keeping momentum going from turn to turn.  We even had a few laps with no poles which was all psychological.  A quick morning break and a chance for some feedback before a late lunch.  Skiing over the 'normal' lunch hours 12-1 was great, no queues, empty slopes and lovely light snow.

This afternoon we skied bumps.  A few laps underneath the La Chaux Express from the top to the bottom.  The aims were to ski round turns with skis in contact with the snow keeping a good rhythm and line.  No 'shopping' was allowed.  The top steepest section was meant to be a challenge, the middle section at our level and the last section easy for the level.  So naturally we also did some bumps skiing without poles too, right from the top!  This was harder than the variables skiing without poles, but good fun and excellent training for mind and body.

The pistes today were insanely busy, people skiing everywhere and all the pistes had turned into mogul fields too.  Definitely a day for skiing off piste.

Creblet col

Day 5 - 28/2/14 - Longs and Moguls
The last day of the course and we were all looking and feeling pretty knackered this morning.  So of course we headed down Chassoure Tortin for a warm up bumps run on our way to Siviez.  The snow was lovely and soft with the moguls getting smaller the further down you skied.

We headed to the Les Chottes area to do some carving practice on flatter terrain.  This was great for me as I needed to fine tune alot of the movements and feelings on something that wasn't steep and busy.  Most of the morning was spent skiing on one ski, lifting up the new outside ski and placing it on it's new edge around a meter uphill of you at the start of each turn.  Once we had acquired this feeling the task was to put it into practice while turning 'normally' both on the slopes here and on the steeper slopes later in the day.

After lunch it was time for some moguls.  We took our weary legs down numerous mogul runs looking to get a smooth rounded turn, with the same 'upwards' leg movement as this morning.  While having quick feet, lots of flexing and extending, and keeping those tips down.

A quick review and we all had a restful weekend to look forward to before exams begin next week.

Overview of the week
This past week of training with BASI trainer Peter K has taught me lots about skiing, the progression and links between the various 'strands' of skiing and more.  Not only do I feel my performance has improved I know that I now have the tools to be able to pass my technical exam, but the true challenge will be to use them well and 'just do it'.

The Nike logo, and our catchphrase of the week

Check my blog out next week to see what success I've had whether it's a pass or fail.

ISIA performance training course - Days 1 and 2

Day 0 - Sunday 23/2/14

Off to a flying start when only four of us turned up to the pre course meeting, and not even the trainer appeared to meet us, even the ski school where the meeting was to take place did not know there was a course on this week, hmmmmmm. Let's just hope that tomorrow we are actually meeting at Medran at 9am.

Day 1 - Monday 24/2/14 - CLARITY, Physicality, Intensity

First off we discovered why the meeting did not happen last night, our trainer was only told on Sunday morning that he was running this course, and that 4, not 6 people were on it.  So BASI admin standards up to normal then!

However, our trainer is great.  Very experienced and happy to answer any question no matter how stupid or complicated it may be.  And this was great for me as I have plenty of stupid questions to ask.  Currently I am still trying to process what the correct inputs are in terms of movement and separation, predominantly because I have been trained to understand and do one thing, which is in fact, not correct, and until now I have not questioned it.  The positive of this is that I am now questioning it, and starting to understand it more.

Our main focus today was piste performance, shorts in the morning, longs in the afternoon.  We were mainly looking at making sure the task was clear, keeping the skis changing direction all the time, and rotational and lateral separation.

Not only did I learn lots, I felt the correct movements starting to come through.  It was a very busy day on the pistes though.

Day 2 - Tuesday 25/2/14 - keep the skis changing direction all of the time

Today we headed to Bruson where it was the busiest I've seen it, but still quiet in comparison to Verbier.  The morning was spent doing carving 'long turns' down a black run.  This was a bit of an eye opener for me as I was expecting to carve down red runs only!  When I focused on the task and really went for it, it went well, but my goodness it was fast.

After lunch the focus changed to short turns, and my performance slowly got worse and worse.  All of my old habits came back until I pretty much gave up all together.  It is definitely true that if you focus on the task and the aim you do it, and I think I have the skills to do it, but for some reason the focus just wasn't there.

So, a mixed day with two runs of variables at the end and despite the mixed success I finished super psyched for training tomorrow, I'm going to try hard, train hard and ski hard too.

Powder day, Faction skis test and general Verbier ski conditions round up

Snow covered trees from snowfall earlier this week

What could be better than having a powder day on your day off?  Other than the fact that I desperately needed to work on my mogul skiing it gave me the perfect excuse to consider one of my main 'ski instructor flaws' when skiing in the 'variables' (anything off the piste except moguls, so think chopped up snow) and that is that rather than keep a good rhythm going down the slope I prefer to turn where it looks good!  So I spent the morning initially making tracks and then seeking out the best skied out off piste to aim to do this:

• perform rounded, linked turns in a variety of conditions on a steep red or black steepness slope
• Show turns of various radii
• Show a high degree of ski performance
• Use effective posture and balance

The view at the top of Tortin Gentianes

As it got busier towards 10.30 I opted to squish in the Jumbo to check out Tortin Gentianes.  Having, unusually, not skied it yet this year I was curious to see how big the moguls under the fresh snowfall were.  They were quite big... after some lovely turns at the top it soon turned into bump snow bump snow bump snow the whole way down.  The wind had blown the snow into the holes between the moguls and hardened off the top of them too.  To make things worse lots of rocks were only just hidden under the surface.

The view down Tortin Gentianes, you can just about make out the different textures of the snow where the bumps are just underneath

Tortin Chassoure was in much better condition, as were the pistes.  Soft snow, busy and sunny.

Faction Heroine skis

Just before a late lunch I took my knackered legs down to the Faction Skis test at La Chaux.  Having only skied piste skis, lightweight touring skis and my new 10% rockered atomic infinity storms I was psyched to try some skis with more rocker on them.

I opted to try out the Faction Heroines, a women's specific, all mountain, rocker camber rocker ski.  I both loved it and hated it, it was fun to play on, good at skidding and rotating, but not so good at carving.  Still it was light and soft and quite easy to control and turn in the 'variables'.

Faction Heroine skis specification

Although fun to ski on, I don't think I'll be rushing out to buy a pair soon as my new Atomic's fulfill the 'good all-mountain' role quite well, but I will be looking into getting a fatter ski with more tip rocker for powder days.  And I still can't decide if I prefer a stiffer or softer ski either.  On an aside note I loved the satisfying click of the marker bindings that were on the test skis!

Tomorrow the BASI ISIA performance training course begins, so bring on the learning, skiing hard and hopefully some more snow.

ISIA Training

Ski conditions in Verbier are great, with lots of fresh snow today the pistes were soft and powdery, and slowly but surely the trees are filling in.  It's still an avalanche forecast of 3/5 and with the recent new snow accompanying strong winds it will be interesting to see what the affects of this are.


This ski season I am hoping to complete my ISIA ski qualification.  Under the BASI / British system, the ISIA stamp is also the Level 3.  To complete this you need the following:

• Level 1
• First Aid
• 70hrs ski school experience
• Level 2
• 200hrs teaching after Level 2
• Common Theory
• Mountain Safety
• Second Language
• Coach Level 1
• Second Discipline Level 1
• ISIA teaching
• ISIA technical

So that makes a total of 47 days of compulsory training and assessment if everything is passed first time.

However it's not just the compulsory courses that will get you anywhere close to the level required.  Over the last four winters I have skied, taught, ran, and read in preparation for my ISIA and am still yet to be 100% ready for the last two exams.

In March I will be sitting my technical and teaching exams, the last on the long list and the ones I know I will find the hardest.  This week will be my last work free one to train in (excluding the optional BASI performance training course the week before the technical exam) and here are some of the things I have been up to:

Monday - shake down day in resort, having been away for three weeks I took the chance to build some leg endurance and work on a few of the things that I had changed and focused on in January.  This was mostly pressure management in the piste performance strand.

Tuesday - focus on piste performance short turns.  Improving body position, pressure control and early edges.  Also working on getting every turn right from the offset, keeping a rhythm down a pitch and through several pitches varying in angle.  Really driving the ski and standing on it early too.

Wednesday - bumps, bumps, bumps.  Focus on the adaptablility of movements to match the terrain, maximum ski to snow contact, linking rhythmical turns in varying corridors from zip line to medium length turns.  Moguls are going to be the hardest part of the exam for me.

Thursday - a bad weather day today so my main aim was to 'try to replicate what I can do in the sun in the fog'.  A tall order but we got there.  By the end of the day I had some good revelations about pole planting and body position.  Now I need to make my pole plant stronger, in the correct place, keep my shoulders stiller in the shorter turns, think more about my body position - not opening up and launching it down the hill!, and more.

So... not a long list at all then!