Work

Snowboard Instruction

I have 10+ years teaching sking and snowboarding to all ages and abilities and am certified Level 3 by the American Association of Snowboard Instructors (AASI). Most weekends through the winter you will find me at our ski school lodge located at Summit Central where I am the snowboard training director and overseeing 60+ instructors and close to 800 students.

Process:

• Evaluate Goals & Ability
• Create Lesson Plan
• Evaluate Progress
• Demonstrate Exercises
• Allow for Personal Exploration
• Questions & Anwers

Sample Clinic/Lesson Plans:
AM Session: Dynamic huh?
This is a warm-up clinic meant to get some runs in but still reviewing some basic movement. There is always room for working on dynamic movements.

• introduce dynamic movements in some core tasks (skating, falling leaf, skidded turns, etc)
• how does speed determine how dynamic you are going to get
• how does turn shape determine how dynamic you are going to get

Exercises:

• hockey stops
• leapers (non-stop jumping through the entire run)
• holding onto your pants at your knees while riding (low)
• holding your hands behind and under your knees while riding (super low)
• what your range of motion? how tall can you stand (turn initiation) and how low can you get (turn completion)

PM Session: Progression Regression
Let's have some fun with some of the basic progression tasks. When in doubt have the group do everything with one foot in... one-foot skidded turns down lower golden nugget? one-footed ollies? one-footed carving? in doing so, be sure to pick terrain that is safe for everyone and work to the lowest ability level in the group.
Skating:

• Skate backwards (with front foot strapped in, tail of board leading)
• Fast plant 180’s
• 1-foot Ollie
• Swan Pose (one foot up in the air, one foot on the board while gliding straight)

Dynamic Skidded Turns:
A quick how-to on getting someone the proper movements for the “cross-under” movement that is so important in dynamic riding.

1. Traverse: have the riding traverse the hill with speed.
2. Pivot: the pivot the board (nose uphill) creating a “speed-check”
3. Ollie: ollie the board while keeping shoulders parallel to the traverse line
4. Complete: the board should snap back to position and continue traverse

Ollie:

• Flat ground
• Over something (glove or snowball)
• Off something (ridge, bump, roller, etc.)
• On-to something (ridge, bump, roller, etc.)

Flat-spin 360’s:

• Pre-wind upper body (above hips) and snap lower body back into position
• Pre-wind lower body (below hips) and snap upper body back into position
• Unified body movement (everything moves as one and in unison

© 2007 Byron M. Baker. All brands and trademarks mentioned on this site are the sole ownership of those companies. I simply worked on or for them to create or expand upon.