USSA’s Ron Kipp (left) gets in the mix at Interski.
INTERSKI IS AN EPICENTER OF INSTRUCTION SO WHAT’S IN IT FOR THE U.S. SKI TEAM?
By Ron Kipp H
eld last September in Ushuaia, Argentina, Interski is the world’s largest gathering of snowsports
instructors. Te event combines the crème
de la crème of teaching from every country, for a skiing and snowboarding instructional IQ that’s off the scale. Interski is all about instruction, and ultimately every PSIA-AASI instructor will find direct or filtered-down benefits from the event. But why would a U.S. Ski Team coach show up, and what would a race coach be looking for? Te U.S. Ski Team’s mission is to be the best in the world. Assigned with this lofty objective, the Team cannot leave anything to chance. If your goals are set high, seeing and experiencing every conceivable concept and idea related to learning in the skiing arena is a must. For instructors and U.S. Ski Team coaches alike, if you want to uncover international insight, Interski in Ushuaia was the place to be.
INTERSKI MEANS LEARNING FROM THE BEST TEACHERS IN THE WORLD As a coach for the U.S. Ski Team, I made the trip to Argentina to learn from the world’s teaching cognoscenti. During on-hill presentations and demonstrations, the first theme to stand out in Ushuaia was good skiing. In the same vein as Yogi Berra quotes, “good skiing is good skiing” was a common refrain. Good skiing (“efficient” might be a more exact term) can be validated by race gates or staying in formation on the demo hill. Ski coaches obviously favor the former, but the best ski coaches understand the challenge of skiing in a prescribed track, as opposed to a self-selected route. Efficiency is getting the job done in a specific environment. Speaking of which, environment was another theme that floated in and out of the conversation during Interski
68 | 32 DEGREES • WINTER 2016
presentations from different nations. Environment can have many meanings: social, such as a teen lesson; equipment, when the students are on fat skis; or physical, i.e., soft snow, ice, or flat and steep slopes. Te physical teaching environment is dependent on goals and available terrain. Tere was a lot of buzz about the physical teaching environment, whether it is imposed, such as with race gates or synchronized formation skiing – or just the available teaching space at a resort. Te on-snow sessions from Slovenia and Japan are two
worthy examples. Te Slovenians used race gates, while the Japanese used a flat and steeper hill to establish their field of play. Te Slovenians have a philosophy similar to the U.S. Ski Team: It’s important to learn or master skiing outside the gates first, then take the learned skiing skills into the gates. To accomplish this, the Slovenian instructors demonstrated
Taking in the Japanese clinic.
how they start with skidded turns and follow it with learning and acquiring proficiency in carving. Tey teach carving, first from the completion of the turn, then the middle, and lastly at the start. Ten they connect the pieces. After this, the instructors have students free-ski in the gates. After some mileage, they encourage more carving in the same progression that they did outside of the gates. Finally, the Slovenians recommend skiing with the same ski
MICHAEL DRAKE
GRANT NAKAMURA
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