BASI Alpine Level 1 Coach course

A snowHead

If enough people are interested i could be persuaded to type up a course report for the new ISIA APC course i did last week...

A snowHead

skimottaret, I'm interested! wink

Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?

beanie1, Would you fill in the blanks if i did?

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skimottaret, sure.

Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.

Come on then... snowHead

You'll need to Register first of course.

Yes, please do. All the juicy gossip as well. I'm hoping to do this one next season, so details please...

Then you can post your own questions or snow reports...

PS: congratulations to both of you Smile

After all it is free

rob@rar, thanks!

okay here goes, sorry for the very long post Toofy Grin

Course Notes BASI Alpine Coach L1 Sass Grund March 08

This is meant to be more of a course content as opposed to a well written trip report. I will be happy to fill in later with juicy gossip….

First of all this is the “new” BASI and CSCF combined race coach course, not the old Scottish APC or BASI APM which are still running but are very different to this course.

The course is run by BACE a “virtual” ski company run by Duncan Freshwater and Sean Langmuir, both BASI trainers. BACE’s general administration was very poor with incorrect and limited information given IMO.

This is the first year and I think I was in the third session of the course. The Trainer was Ross Green who has done all the courses so far.

Ross proved to be one of the best coaches I have ever had in any sport. Awesome skier (15th in the Salt Lake Olympics, 24th best World cup ranking and one of Britain’s top racers for years) but more importantly a highly trained up to date coach, who was patient, understood all the course material deeply and had a great eye for individual performance improvements. I believe he is the only coach qualified to teach the Canadian content at the moment.

This course is based on a 3 day Canadian CSCF entry level course with additional 2 days of BASI material. I can email the course outline to anyone interested. It is meant to train aspiring coaches to deal with entry level racers typically up to 12 years old.

The group was 10 strong ish skiers, 5 were mountain based instructors the rest part timers who do Interski weeks, snowdome or dryslope teaching. 2 had grade 2 tech passes and 3 or 4 were about to take the 2 tech in the coming weeks. Ross felt we represented a high level student base. Two had failed the APC previously. One older guy was a very average “old school” grade 3.

We had evening lectures every night except the last day and had video feedback 3 days along with DVD from the CSCF showing drills. An ethics lecture and role play which was a pretty big overlap on the Child protection module and a very good ski tuning and waxing session from Ross. No written tests other than “over the shoulder” assessment when filling out workbooks during the lectures. Our session was slightly out of synch with the syllabus as we had a guest trainer the first day as Ross had a job interview.

Equipment- this was very confused as we were initially told we needed SL and GS skis all week along with SL helmets, hand guards etc. In the end we used SL skis on days 1-3, GS optional on day 4 and mandatory GS skis on the last day. Helmets only compulsory on day 5. No need for any SL gear or chin guards in the end as we only ran GS gates on the last afternoon and never did any SL gates.

Course setting is not a part of this course although is reviewed in the literature given out which was very comprehensive CSCF manuals and a DVD of drills for various levels of skiers.

If successful you are a BASI L1 coach and after the course if you take an on line test you receive “trained” CSCF L1 coach status. In order to get “certified” CSCF status you must then be evaluated in the field by a senior CSCF coach. Ross thinks he can do this but has not as of yet done this for the CSCF.

Day 1 was with Guillaume Taillefer a 19 year old French Canadian CSCF Level 3 coach and was meant to be focused on bio mechanics and drills.

Big focus on proper warm up and once ready we did slow controlled med-long radius parallel skiddy turns as a means to get the kids in control and not just bombing down the slope.

We then started carving drills while rotating shoulders and looking backwards while going around the outside of the turn. Quite hard to do at speed on red pitches. We then did this looking to the inside. Lastly did alternating sets of three turns rotating shoulders both inwards and outwards..

Then dispensed with poles and did hands forwards with finger making a “directors” view of the gate ahead.

Guillaume was very focused on the 3 phases of the turn and a great drill for improving early 1st phase initiation was the “J” turn done by lengthening the first phase of the turn 3 or 4 times the 2nd and 3rd stages.

Also did teapots with inside hand touching the outside knee or shin to get the inner hip forward.

Tried to get us thinking about pole use and posed some scenarios such as if a student is sitting back does pole planting help get forward?

Did lots of no pole drills and was working on getting us to incline very hard and touch inside hand on snow while carving. All the time focusing on each of the 3 phases of the turn.

Day 2 Ross

Lots of detail and focus on the stages of learning during a coaching session. Warm up, Activation and then cool down.

Warm ups focussed on circulation first the dynamic stretching such as lunges followed by individual stretching.

Importantly the daily warm up also consisted of sensory drills to “feel” the skis once we were warmed up and alert. Lots of side slips, 360 spins, falling leafs and balance drills)

Once warmed up and feeling the skis we were in the “activation” phase when true learning happens. The cool down was not only physical but mental to allow the students to switch off and let feedback sink in.

Drills included:
step and skate turns at speed back up the hill and be able to make a full circle
funnels starting at big radius carves very edgy down to wiggles with flat skis
“horseshoe” turn, at the start of the turn do a rapid pivot on a flat ski twisting the feet sharply into the inside of the turn and back out then rapidly put skis on edge and carve.
Exaggerated Inner tip leads and lags during carving
Short swings
charlestons
Touching snow with inside hand to get inclining
Alternate 10 one footed carves with each foot
Various fore aft balance drills (including jet turns!!)
Lots of “reverse” drills doing opposite moves to “normal” drills like midgets and giants

Mental agility drills with pole planting in odd sequences, first turn single plant then a double pole plant followed by a Norwegian for instance.

Ross was big on isolating movements and being square with shoulders to hips in both planes during the first phase of the turn

Day 3

Warm up and some individual performance feedback

Drills
A very tough one legged drill doing garlands on both the inner and outer ski at slow speed
one legged garlands without poles
“jakeys” short turns with hands splayed out and pole plants wide
Railroad turns
Hop turns
Double tap pole plants during short turns
SL turns with all buckles undone

We videoed both GS and short turns but importantly short turns are not “BASI” demo shorts but more of a short to med radius SL turns with skis carving ALL the time

Individual feedback on performance from the trainer and also a good group feedback where the group at the top critiqued the skier who goes down and the next one down delivers the consensus to the previous skier in front of the trainer.

Day 4

Individual warm ups putting into practice what was learned the previous days and was meant to simulate an athletes warm up and individually prescribed drills.

Ross gave individual feedback during warm up runs and he was very adamant about using this time wisely on drills and not just free skiing.

We then had to give 20 minute coaching sessions with a partner. The trainer and another pair observed and gave feedback with the rest of the group acting as athletes. Each team was assigned a “snowstars” level of student and had to prepare a lesson plan according to group ability. Snowstars goes up to level 7 and they are high level skiers and able to do very demanding drills.

In the afternoon we videod high speed GS turns and were very focused on rolling onto the edges early and eliminating first phase skids.

Then did slowish SL turns looking for good body management.

Day 5

Individual warm up, helmets on and GS skis with binding cranked up!

We got taken to the top station 3200metres and were told to GS turns down to 2000 metres. Took 6 minutes. Once at the bottom told to do it again but this time harder GS turns above drop offs and then “downhill” the steep sections. Everyone was pretty shagged after this and then we got hit with doing it again but this time spacing each person out by 20 seconds and to do the top to bottom as fast as possible. Ross’s view was that an exhausted skier going fast on the edge will find the most efficient stance on the skis…. Scary but only one guy crashed out badly. I almost came off a couple of times, very scary….

We then videod high speed GS turns

Afternoon was doing GS gates, 3 practice goes and then ripping it as fast as possible, great fun.

===========================

Feedback was held in the evening and we all passed!!!

The pass rate so far has been 100% and you only need to average 2’s out of a possible 4 against the Canadian rating scale. (Similar to the BASI 1-6).

Oddly you are not assessed for the practice coaching session but only on GS, SL and freeskiing.

*Ski* the Net with snowHeads

skimottaret, blanks, what blanks?! V good report. But was Guillame really only 19?! I'd have taken a guess at at least 10 years older!

snowHeads are a friendly bunch.

beanie1, the BSA site lists him as 19.... i thought he was older as well...

did forget his synchronisation ski drills which were very good

snow reports

Great report skimottaret. And well done to both you and beanie1 snowHead

Out of interest, have either of you done race training before - the course sounds like it would be good prep for the a APC and ISIA technical...?

PhillipStanton, no not much race training.

It's meant to replace the APC, which was also based on CSF but a good few years ago.

Yes I think it is good training for ISIA tech.

You know it makes sense.

Thanks beanie1.

I think I meant the APM. I blame BASI for all the changes of numbering, etc.

They'll have probably run out of things to rename by next season - so they'll probably start on themselves. SIBA (Ski Instructors British Association) anyone...? rolling eyes

Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:

PhillipStanton, I don't think they're running the APM anymore - this course was originally advertised as the APM when I first signed up for it, then they changed the course, so I don't think the courses are running concurrently. The APC is still being run but is no longer part of the BASI system so no need to do it for ISIA.

A snowHead

PhillipStanton, Like beanie1 says, from what i was hearing the APC was run by snowsports scotland and BASI felt it was out of date. To develop their own coaching module they came up with the APM a few years ago but have now formally licensed the 3 day CSCF course content and added 2 days of what was in the APM to make it a 5 dayer to fall in line with all other BASI courses. This new L1 coach is essential for an ISIA badge.

If you take or have taken the SSS APC you now have to do a 1 day conversion course to get your BASI L1 coach.

THe APM still exists as a standalone course and is a required module as part of the L2 coach badge along with the 5 day freestyle module. From what i have heard it is a very demanding technical course and ISIA tech passes regularily fail it. It is a good benchmark to see if you are ready for a ISTD tech course...

If you are taking the Mountain safety first i would do this one next as it is good prep for the ISIA tech module. Also, you dont need your 200 hours to sign up for the coach course unlike the tech or teach modules.

I had never run a GS gate or had on GS skis before this course but it was cool to run the gates. Cool

A snowHead

skimottaret, thanks for taking the time to do the report. It made for interesting and informative reading. It's sounds like it was pretty tough, and it sounds liked you slipped into using GS skis very easily. When I last spoke to Ross about doing this course he was very encouraging and said the standard required was not that high but I guess everything is relative, partic when you've competed at WC level! I wonder if he upped the ante for you guys as you were all of a high level?

Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?

slikedges, I'd say the standard required to pass is that needed for a Level 2 Instructor pass. i.e you need to be able to carve long radius turns on flat - moderate terrain, you do not need to be able to carve short turns, or carve long radius turns on steep terrain.

The course was tough, but only because Ross was trying to take us beyond the level needed to merely pass the course and help us prepare for ISIA Tech.

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slikedges, i recon you would have a good shot at passing this but it wouldnt be easy. I do think he ramped up the drills for us as he said the group would be a strong ISIA tech class. I was very tired a couple of nights. we generally didnt finish till 7 and needed to tune skis daily and be at lift for 8:45...

I think the standard is middle of the pack BASI L2 pass. but one guy on the course was poor and he scraped a pass getting almost all 2 of 4's. Your skiiing is better than this guys.

I would advise doing an L2 alpine first or at a minimum practice the drills and be very comfortable skiing one legged on both sides with weak and storng leg

Most used SL skis except for the last day and my first go at proper 181 GS skis was very nice i must say.. They gripped loads better than my 165 SL's both in the gates and at speed on the mountain felt really stable and reassuring even when i was about to go off the edge of the piste at 40 mph Shocked

Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.

You'll need to Register first of course.

beanie1, skimottaret, if the standard is middle of L2 it shouldn't be a problem for me. I wouldn't get close to ISIA tech though... I wouldn't say I'm very comfortable one legged skiing partic the cleaner the edge needed and the steeper the terrain demanded but I'm fairly comfortable on either weaker or "chocolate" leg as I heard it referred to this season.

Then you can post your own questions or snow reports...

PhillipStanton, sorry i was wrong, skimottaret, is right. They are running the APM but it's not part of the ISIA anymore, now part of Level 2 Coach. Though i'm sure that's changed as last time i looked you had to do ISIA Tech for Level 2 coach, now it seems to be the APM.

After all it is free

slikedges, you're not assessed on the drills, only short turns, long turns and free skiing, so doesn't matter if you're not very good at the drills. Though if you were REALLY bad at them chances are the ret of your skiing wouldn't be great either, so may impact the trainer's perception of your skiing. Certainly the weakest member of our group found it hardest to pick up all the drills, others tended to just have one or two drills they were weaker at. For me that's one legged skiing turning on the uphill ski.

beanie1, do you mean downhill ski - as in starting turn on downhill/"outside" edge of downhill ski? I know a couple of obligate one-legged skiers. It's all in the up and down, and being comfortable booting-out the downhill ski (which I'm fairly bad at). Starting on the downhill/"inside" edge of the uphill ski is usually easier as it's more like starting a turn on 2 skis. I'm usually fairly good at most drills - have done enough of them!

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slikedges, i mean the ski that will be the uphill ski in the new turn. It would be harder for most people than one ski skiing on the new downhill ski, as the weight distribution will need to change from normal two legged skiing where more weight will normally be on the new downhill ski.

snowHeads are a friendly bunch.

There was one guy in our group who was pretty handy skiing on the uphill ski, but when he skiied on two skis he had trouble keeping enough weight on the outside (downhill) ski.

snow reports

skimottaret, Congratulations on passing Toofy Grin

>>Guillaume was very focused on the 3 phases of the turn and a great drill for improving early 1st phase initiation was the “J” turn done by lengthening the first phase of the turn 3 or 4 times the 2nd and 3rd stages.

Can you expand on the above a little more ?

david@mediacopy, rather than cranking your skis onto the new edge right at the start of the turn it is a more gradual edge change, with more pressure applied towards the end of the turn to influence change of direction. Therefore the turn shape resembles a J turn.

You know it makes sense.

beanie1, Cheers - what was the context for that, or what was it were they trying to develop in the skiers ?

Out of curiosity how did they describe each of the 3 phases of a turn ?

Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:

Thanks for the great report. No doubt I'll have some questions about it next time we're at MK.

A snowHead

david@mediacopy, the context was racing turns as opposed to nice looking demos... where the first phase is getting on the edges early and controlling direction to get you into the fall line quickly, the second phase was staying in the fall line as long as possible without scrubbing off speed through skidding and the 3rd stage was controlling pressure build up and minimizing speed loss while completing the turn into the next line...

A snowHead

skimottaret, Cheers Smile

Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?

david@mediacopy, not sure i answered your question right. The tactical side of it was as i described but the canadian 3 phases of the turn are broadly (if i remember right)

1. unloading... releasing the skis and getting the upper body ahead of the feet while rolling onto the new edges asap
2. edging... increase the edge angles into the fall line and incline as much as possible
3. loading... manage pressure with weight over the outside ski adding angulation to hold the edges while getting lots of energy into and out of the skis.

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skimottaret, that's a good tactical description of the 3 phases, just for technical reference they are:

Phase 1 - Completion to Neutral (move to flatten skis)
Phase 2 - Neutran to Fall Line (turn into the fall line)
Phase 3 - Fall Line to Completion (bend/angulate to grip)

Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.

veeeight, merci, can you take the Eprep test for me so i get my dual status... wink

would you know to get "certified" as CSCF L1 what level does the examining coach have to be (L2 or L3?)

You'll need to Register first of course.

At least CSCF L3.

Then you can post your own questions or snow reports...

veeeight, do you know if there are (m)any of these working in the UK?

After all it is free

beanie1, I wouldn't have thought so, no.

beanie1, Ross said he was going to check with cscf to see if he was okay to do the certification at Milton Keynes... if not Dave Morris is a CSCF L3 and works out of courchevel and tignes...

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skimottaret, is Ross only L2 then?

Unless a L3 is based in the UK and is able to come and watch you coach at your home club I don't see how they can certify you?

Help!!

BASI Alpine Level 1 Coach course

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