Ski School Shadowing

Now that the dust (snowflakes) have settled after half term we take a look back at the busiest weeks of the season and what this means for our students who take to the slopes for ski school shadowing.

What is shadowing?

Ski school shadowing sees our students leave their trainers and head out with one of our ski school groups to shadow a fully qualified instructor. It is an important part of our courses and a requirement for the BASI level 1 and 2.

Why do BASI require you to shadow ski school?

Instructor training with your peers is invaluable – you’re skiing hard and fast all day with other trainees, and practising lessons for teaching. However this does not exactly replicate real life as a ski instructor.

By shadowing our fully qualified ski instructors students get a real insight into life behind the scenes of ski teaching. You get to see how the ideas and theory they have learnt is put into practice. As New Generation are a full ski school as well as instructor training centre all of this can be done in house, meaning we can support you through the whole process.

 

What do you do?

As the BASI 1 qualifies you to teach low level skiers, our students shadow beginner groups. And, as it is school holidays, they get the chance to shadow children’s lessons too.

This can be a big change. The style of teaching for children is pretty different to the technical chit-chat you can have with adults. How do you help children improve while making lessons fun? This often involved trips through the ‘magic forest’ tracks, games and yes, even singing in the bubble sometimes!

Why it is great?

This can be really good fun and the best way to see what awaits you if you go on to teach over the easter holidays after your course. This is especially important as you’re likely to be teaching children’s groups. Theoretical learning is great, but there is nothing like seeing it in action to bring it to life.

It might also be a taste of reality for those who had not envisaged the hardest part of teaching skiing;  shepherding children up drag lifts, wiping snotty noses and carrying trays of hot chocolates in ski boots (trust us, that takes skill!).

But if you can get stuck in and absorb as much as you can from watching the pros at work you will be amazed at how much this helps you in the long run.