After kicking off the season at Mt. Buller, made it back to Melbourne for an overnight stop, re-packed the car and head to Falls Creek to attend APSI (Australian Professional Snowsport Instructors) Trainers Co-ordination.
APSI Trainers Co-ordination is an annual event attended by the top instructors from every snowsports school in Australia. It is two days of talking all things snowsports, from training instructors to certification and exams.
Proceedings kicked off with an insight into the new, more user friendly website. It is a great step forward to make it easier to sign up for exams and course. The APSI are also getting in on Facebook, to update members much more regularly than in the past. Another addition for 2013 is the NEW Alpine demo video, which covers all the levels from 1 to 4, with teaching, demos and freeskiing section for each. It is a great improvement on the previous edition making a great training reference for any instructor going for their exams.
One of the more intriguing presentations on Day One came from Ant Hill (National Demo Team Member), on indoor skiing at SkiCity – Melbourne. Ant definitely had his work cut out convincing a room of skeptical instructors on the concept and benefits of skiing and boarding on a moving carpet hundreds of kilometers from the nearest resort. By the end of the presentation he had converted the majority that this was a great way to introduce new people to the sport, in a safe, warm and fun environment without the expense and time of going to one of the main resorts. Do not get me wrong this is not a replacement to the real thing but if this makes peoples first day on real snow easier and more enjoyable it’s a definite win. Aside from checking SkiCity out, Ant spent several sessions working with their instructors to come up with a new indoor certification that leads instructors into the APSI Level 1 and Certification pathway. I’m very intrigued to give it a go; it will definitely make for a interesting blog post.
Day Two was planned for on-snow, but thanks to the warmer conditions and rain this was not possible.
The change in plan meant a shorter morning session, on what several of the National Demo Team members have been working on, whether it be in their own skiing or how they had been helping their students.
Tom Gellie’s presentation on the effectiveness of internal and external cues, when giving feedback to students was insightful. There has been a large amount of research in this area and to look at how we as instructors/coaches can give feedback to our students that makes them achieve the desired outcome more effectively was of great benefit, considering giving feedback is a skill used everyday by instructors/coaches and essentially what we are paid for.
Overall trainers co-ordination is a great time to catch up with old friends from all the resorts and talk all things snowsports. It also reinforces that even though we all work in different resorts and get down the hill in different ways, we do all work together, to promote and share snowsports in this amazing and unique environment of the Australian Snowfields.
