 Poster: A snowHead
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It's a teaching/learning methodology. It has to do with teaching the skills of the sport, in all the technical areas, in a graduated and coordinated manner. Visiting and revisiting skill areas, building as you go. It's the way I have taken students to high level for many years now. I've written a short article on it, and thought I'd share it with ya'll.
http://www.yourskicoach.com/YourSkiCoach/Spiral_Learning.html
Last edited by Poster: A snowHead on Thu 13-11-08 23:33; edited 1 time in total
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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You must have a way to steer awareness within the spiral, yes? Otherwise one is in more of a Chambered Nautilus of learning?
| O W H wrote: |
Year after year beheld the silent toil
That spread his lustrous coil;
Still, as the spiral grew,
He left the past year's dwelling for the new,
Stole with soft step its shining archway through,
Built up its idle door,
Stretched in his last-found home, and knew the old no more.
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Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
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Comprex, are you speaking of awareness of what one is doing in the present, or where they are headed in the future?
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You need to Login to know who's really who.
You need to Login to know who's really who.
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FastMan, awareness of what one is doing in the present, and awareness that one might lose something as well as gain in any given direction.
Apologies if I'm being thick here.
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Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
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Thanks for the clarification, comprex,
Awareness in the present is one of the the highlights of the system. The broadness of skills learned in each technical area is great. As the student learns to do things in different ways, the sensation of contrast makes awareness of what one is doing in the moment much more acute.
Here's an example. Most have a default balance state they ski in, yet are only vaguely aware of what that state is. As they are prompted to explore new states, they become suddenly aware of if they're fore or aft. These awarenesses begin to expand as skills are broadened in the other technical areas, and individual skill choices in each are combined. Such as: "I'm skiing outside ski balanced, fore balanced, and steering wide track turns",,, or,,, "I'm skiing 50-50 lateral balance, aft balanced, and carving". As the skill base grows in each area on the way up the spiral, the awareness just keeps getting more refined.
Nothing is really left behind. More options are simply added. The only thing left behind are subpar executions.
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You'll need to Register first of course.
You'll need to Register first of course.
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Yes, good to get a view of context in which you're working. But isn't this the way we learn everything? For example when at school, we covered very basic matrix handling when I was about 12, then got progressively more complex each year, until my brains started exploding around 2nd year undergraduate (and then it all got abstracted out of sight to 'apparent' simplicity by PhD - phew).
But the really important question is what's the radius of the spiral, and how do we bend the skis to stay on it....with "zero" blurring of the tracks? 
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Thanks for the comments, GrahamN. Yes, I think you're right, this model is not a new invention in the world of learning. In skiing, however, there are more linear methodologies that bypass developing a broadness of skill base, in favor of a more direct trip to a particular model of skiing. I relate it to shimmying up a flag pole with little around you to support your height.
As far as that radius question,,, please don't diverge from the topic.
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OK, fine, I suspected that could have been the background.
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You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
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FastMan, this is exactly where I see a problem in many of my students: they have been taught a very linear approach with targets to achieve as particular models of turns or positions or run colour achievements. Many instructors seem to completely by-pass any skills-based learning for the unfortunate holiday skier. Thus it reinforces the 'model'.
I had a lady this summer who was trying to hard to do all the right things that she was completely rigid. She'd been told that her feet were too far apart, but no-one had looked at what the cause was ..... she was hanging onto the inside ski so the outside ski was drifting away during the turn .... it's not always easy though to convince people that a bit of work on the basic skills will sort out the problem ....
I think that many ski teachers believe that the student doesn't actually want to learn to ski well (within their own context and limitations). Personally I think this is a mistake, but it does take a lot more time and energy to teach in a skills-based way.
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| easiski wrote: |
FastMan, this is exactly where I see a problem in many of my students: they have been taught a very linear approach with targets to achieve as particular models of turns or positions or run colour achievements. Many instructors seem to completely by-pass any skills-based learning for the unfortunate holiday skier. Thus it reinforces the 'model'.
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That matches my observations, easiski. They're asked to build a house, but not given all the needed tools. They end up living in a makeshift shack, wondering how their neighbor who constructed a mansion ever managed it.
The more limited the skills, the more quickly one comes to meet the proverbial wall.
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