Tips and Tricks

Morning Routine

Find your flow

Group Management

Frontload expectations and be consistent

  • Piaget's Stages of Cognitive Development

    Photo courtesy of PSIA AASI E-Learning Intro to Working with Children

  • How Children Learn Motor Skills

    Photo courtesy of PSIA AASI E-Learning Intro to Working with Children

  • Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs

PSIA - AASI

  • We want to be safe, have a good time, and leave better skiers/riders. It is not fun if you get hurt because you weren’t be safe.

  • Find creative ways to challenge your students and make things fun for everyone.

Other Helpful Tips and Tricks 

  • Train! Train as much as you possibly can your first season, you get 40 hours of paid training. 

  • Have the cell numbers for the instructors teaching the group lesson above and below you. 

  • Watch how other instructors say things and do things for new ideas. 

  • Do not have your cell phone set to block all unsaved numbers (in case another instructor or someone from the office needs to get ahold of you). 

  • Explore the mountain on your days off! 

  • Ski with other instructors. 

  • Have tuned equipment, we get a discount at the shop and there is a tuning bench in the locker room. 

  • Take advantage of the discounted manuals and handbooks we have available in the office. They have great ideas, games and progression. Some of them can even fit in your pocket!

  • Introduce yourself to instructors who have been here for a while - one of the best things you can do is to ask returning instructors for help or recommendations. Most of us can still remember our first season.

  • Cell phone service varies around the mountain. Verizon tends to work alright in most places, though service is a little less reliable on the Madison side. Texts tend to go through better than phone calls so if you’re having trouble calling a supervisor, try texting their cell phone.