The Fall Seminar was this last weekend. The Seattle session was very well attended...they reported record attendance. I'm always impressed with the large number of very dedicated volunteers who give presentations, serve on the board, and other functions for the PSIA districts--they put in lots of hours and care very much about their organization. And, they have no idea whatsoever that their Emperor has no clothes....
I attended two presentations on teaching, and learned a few things, especially about the different development levels of children of different ages. The keynote speech was about developing a model for feedback. Movements lead to ski/snow interaction leads to good results, with communication tying it all together. Only give positive feedback..."you're doing such and such good, but do more of it." Well, duh, tell me something new.
The best attended presentation was on the new senior skiing certification. I have a couple of problems with their program...no credit for life experience (I'm a gray muzzle skier), and they still do the up-extension turns and rotary steering which are hard on creaky old joints.
I still don't understand how they are stuck in their rut that doesn't even follow their own publications. Their "stepping stones" include retraction turns, but they teach and show nothing but extension turns. Edging is supposed to be as important as rotary movements, but it's all rotary all the time. Their publications say that they teach the movements, not the positions, but, really, they teach the positions. The videos of their summer race camp showing these good skiers (who could become really, really good) doing huge up-unweighting extensions in turns between gates was just sad. And they thought they were skiing very well!
To be a very good PSIA skier, one has three requirements...be in excellent physical condition, no gimpy joints, and do a very good job of selecting your parents so you're born with a huge dose of natural athleticism. To be a very good PMTS skier, just listen to H & D & J & Rich. None of the former three conditions are needed...look at me. I'm good and could be very good if I listen better to the brain trust.
H & D & J & Rich are major league. Max_501 is triple-A. The PSIA-NW tech team, as shown in the videos, is double-A. They can ski much better when they free ski, but when they do, their natural athleticism has them skiing somewhat like PMTS, 'cuz that's simply what makes the ski work best on the snow--but they don't do that on camera where doctrine is king. I was good at the seminar. I tried something new and different...I kept my mouth shut. That wasn't the forum for me to start telling these Level IIIs, technical directors, tech team members, 20 to 40 years of teaching experience, that I know of a better way. (sssshhh...I do.)