New Business Card is Here!

I mentioned earlier that I was in the process of updating my business card to include more personal information. The reason being I would like to be more involved with setting up bookings with students and guests. I've included my personal phone number and email address. Here's what it looks like now. I was going for a feeling of sunshine and blue sky.
I got it done online at VistaPrint. They make it very easy and affordable. I found it was cheaper to upload my own custom design rather than choose one of their "free" designs. It seems they charge you for having a blank back side (instead of their VistaPrint advertisement) with their "free" designs. Anyway I think it cost me around $30 for 250 cards including shipping. And that's with the heavy card stock and glossy finish!

Guest Centered Teaching & Experience Centered Teaching

Horst Abraham, one of the pioneers of teaching method in PSIA, method once known as the American Teaching System, published an ariticle in the latest PSIA Rocky Mountain Newsletter, Instructor to Instuctor (p. 12). (go here for a pdf of the newsletter). He says the purpose of the article is to "review teaching systems from the beginning of snow-play to today, then add thoughts with which [he hopes] to spawn dialogue and continuous improvement and development in our industry."

Without going into a long review of his review, I think he does what he intended in that regard. As I think I've said in earlier posts I started teaching in the late 70's and have the good fortune to actually remember some of the stuff he's talking about. Especially having started my teaching career in the Army, I know very well the "TELL" and "do as I do" teaching style. And sometimes the ghost (or the use) of this teaching style can still be an effective tool in some situations.

But regarding "Guest Centered Teaching" and "Experience Centered Teaching" here's the start of my two cents to help Horst spawn dialoge and continuous improvement in our industry. As I have continued to strive to improve and enhance my own professionaism, GCT has been a corner stone in my development. Understanding the model and building my lessons upon it seems to have worked well for me. ECT looks to me like an extension of GCT, but the focus is more on the shared experience between the instructor and student.

I think the exciting part for me is the WHY that Horst talks about, "ECT requires the instructor to learn about the student’s perceived reality, perceptions, needs, fears, dreams, and hopes, all pieces of information not readily visible to the instructor, thus significantly changing the instructor’s role, as well as the collaborative role of instructor and student." This means really getting into the understanding and perceptions of the student so that you can help him or her.

I'm still in the process of digesting what Horst is talking about, but I feel like GCT, even though it says "Guest Centered" is actually more of a global perspective involving the ski area management, ski school, ski instructor as a product view. ECT is more focused on the actual relationship between the student and the instructor. It is a more intimate relationship not necessarily based on the bottom line.

So if you're really talking about learning to ski/snowboard I would rather be in an ECT situation. Can you imagine a high level trainer (examiner, accredited trainer) really trying to learn about your perspective and also you having the responsibilty to share your perspective so that you can really understand and get it? That to me sounds really great. But maybe there just isn't time and so the more efficient method is GCT, which with an insincere teacher, just turns into lip service meant to improve somebody's bottom line. Please let me know if your perception of this statement sounds too harsh.

MyMonarchSpace Up and Running

So we were asking about getting Monarch email addresses for instructors to help them develop longer term relationships with guests. Well it seems that some department at Monarch has been working on a social network for a little while. I was very excited to hear that Monarch has officially launched its own social network called MyMonarchSpace! It’s very easy to find by going to the Ski Monarch website home page. There’s a prominent link in the right side menu.

One of the interesting things I see is the geographic locations in the member profiles. There are lots of people that are not locals. It may be that even though they live in Chicago or California or where ever, they feel like they have some kind of local connection to Monarch. Perhaps they worked at the area once upon a time or maybe grew up around here and got invited to take a look by friends of theirs that still live here. Well for what ever reason, I think it’s great. Don’t expect too much right now as the site is brand new and still needs to develop some momentum. I’m sure that as the ski season arrives and people are more active on the main Monarch website the participation will soar.

Something else I find interesting is that it seems like there are more snowboard members on the site. I wonder why that is? Perhaps it has something to do with the overall demographics of snowboarders and technology. Perhaps snowboarders tend to be younger and more willing to use or more accustomed to online social networks. Also notice that there is not a lot of information in the profiles yet. Is there a reluctance to place information in profiles to avoid identification? It’s probably because it is so new that people are reluctant to just point ‘em down hill and go. It’s going to be interesting to see how the MyMonarchSpace evolves. Even though I am pretty sure the site is moderated, I imagine MyMonarchSpace will take on a life of its own.

I’m all for being able to add more connections. You’ll find MyMonarchSpace profile there (with a reference to this blog as well). I’m still trying to figure out how we can create our own groups and such on the site. I think it’d be really great to add an “instructor” group to help people find their snow pro. Still no email addresses for all instructors (understandable), but I think savvy instructors could really make use MyMonarchSpace.

Visualization in Sport

This article talks about how we can visualize ourselves to better, or worse, performances in sports, skiing in particular.

read more digg story

I ran across it when I Googled Horst Abraham. I was going to comment on his article in the recent Fall edition of PSIA-RM Instructor to Instructor entitled Experience Centered Teaching. Oh how easily I get side tracked. Anyway, he is quoted in the Visualization article saying, "You can learn to ski in the summer, and you can learn to swim in the winter." I also discovered the website called Suite101 where there are lots of freelance articles about sports, including a few on skiing and snowboarding.

I'll get around to posting about the Experience Centered Teaching article soon.

Guests/Students From Around the Country

Wow I ran across this story in the Macon County, Georgia Telegraph newspaper that talks about how many of Colorado's ski resorts are spending lots of money to improve their areas. (http://www.macon.com/262/story/155557.html) And guess what, they mention Monarch as an area that has opened up lots of new terrain!

I'm looking forward to meeting all kinds of people from all over the country this winter. That's one of the things I like most about being a ski instructor, all the relationships we get to develop. Okay all you people from Georgia, we're waiting for you in Monarch, Colorado. See you sometime this winter! And if you book some time with me, you'll likely end up here in my blog with your picture and maybe some video of your skiing so that you can call home and tell all your friends to see how much fun you're having.

Gun Barrel Anyone?

Jack Sciacca, Monarch Mountain's Ski School Director, invited me to climb Gun Barrel with him as soon as there is enough snow at the area. Way cool! I'm definitely going to take him up on this. I might have to dig up a pair of rock skis somewhere though. He says he's going to climb Gun Barrel every morning at 7 a.m. as soon as there is enough snow. Doing that ought to help get ya in shape for the season! I'm guessing that it's about a 700 foot elevation gain. This is like, hardcore. It's working out at high elevation. It's not quite like going to the gym and doing some arobics during the last month before the season starts. Hopefully there will be enough snow soon. Sometimes it seems like the snow does come to Monarch just untill the last few days before official opening day.

A-Basin Opened Today!

Well A-Basin got to be the first ski area in the nation to officially open today. They said this is the earliest it has ever opened. We're going to Boulder this weekend for the annual Spyder sale. Maybe we'll stop by the Basin and take a few runs on their man made snow. Skiing most of my time at Monarch really spoils me though. Since Monarch only has natural snow I don't get to ski that hard icy stuff too often. It really showed at my level III exam in the Medium Radius Carved Turns manuver on a predominently made made snow surface at Copper Mtn. That's one of the two manuvers I still need to retake. On the other hand, skiing on all natural stuff all the time really showed up in the Variable Terrain & Snow Conditions manuver as well. I passed that one on the first try. No sour grapes, really. :-)