Saturday, December 18, 2004
Those who can't do... can't teach
Today was the first day of my wannabe snowboard instructor's course.
The first thing we did was watch a couple of funky videos (complete with some of the cheesiest electro-pop dance music I have ever heard). The first one was about how great the Canadian Association of Snowboarder Instructors is (oot here in BC, the Association Canadien du Moniteurs de Surf du Niege is pretty much ignored since they only teach Francophone riders). The second video was about the skier responsility code. Despite what it sounds like this does not mean that if you crash, immediately try to blame the nearest skier. Instead it's a bunch of rules about not doing all the stupid things that some people do.
After that, it was time to ride! At which point I found out that I've picked up a number of bad habits over the last couple of years (since my one and only official lesson).
Which brings me to the title of the post.
There is a minimum standard of riding for instructors, and I'm not quite there. Not all the time at least. I hope the problems aren't too big and I can sort them out tomorrow (again, since I nearly had CASI-authorised style just before lunch).
So, at the moment, I'm a little worried that I'll fail. But then I always get worried, even before exams that I rationally know I am likely to crush, so it's no surprise that I'm worried about something I'm not naturally good at.
Worst case, I get a weekend in a small group with two high level instructors. My riding has improved noticeably, even to me, over the course of today, and a full day group lesson costs as much as this course did, if not more.
So hopefully, the title of this post doesn't apply to me. But we shall see.
The first thing we did was watch a couple of funky videos (complete with some of the cheesiest electro-pop dance music I have ever heard). The first one was about how great the Canadian Association of Snowboarder Instructors is (oot here in BC, the Association Canadien du Moniteurs de Surf du Niege is pretty much ignored since they only teach Francophone riders). The second video was about the skier responsility code. Despite what it sounds like this does not mean that if you crash, immediately try to blame the nearest skier. Instead it's a bunch of rules about not doing all the stupid things that some people do.
After that, it was time to ride! At which point I found out that I've picked up a number of bad habits over the last couple of years (since my one and only official lesson).
Which brings me to the title of the post.
There is a minimum standard of riding for instructors, and I'm not quite there. Not all the time at least. I hope the problems aren't too big and I can sort them out tomorrow (again, since I nearly had CASI-authorised style just before lunch).
So, at the moment, I'm a little worried that I'll fail. But then I always get worried, even before exams that I rationally know I am likely to crush, so it's no surprise that I'm worried about something I'm not naturally good at.
Worst case, I get a weekend in a small group with two high level instructors. My riding has improved noticeably, even to me, over the course of today, and a full day group lesson costs as much as this course did, if not more.
So hopefully, the title of this post doesn't apply to me. But we shall see.
