First Chair: Psia-aasi Podcast

First Chair speaks with PSIA-AASI Adaptive Team Coach Geoff Krill who recently completed a tryout for the PSIA-AASI Eastern division staff Adaptive Team. Geoff explains why he decided to take a cross-discipline approach for this adaptive event and why he asked AASI Snowboard Team member Brian Donovan to join him to be a selector. Listen to Geoff and Brian share their story about how their work together on this event, supports the PSIA-AASI’s National Team “ONEteam” concept that encourages collaboration through learning and growth across all snowsports disciplines.

First Chair catches up with AASI Snowboard Team member Brian Donovan about his riding, teaching, and personal goals for his season, including enhancing his people skills such as verbal communication and building relationships. Brian shares how he focuses on having fun to help him achieve his goals. Learn from his insight and find takeaways for your own approach. Read more about Brian’s goals here: http://tiny.cc/BriansGoals

First Chair catches up with PSIA Alpine Assistant and Development Coach Matt Boyd about people skills, which are one of the three tenants of the Learning Connection framework. People skills are about communicating in effective ways to develop trust and achieve good relationships with your students and your peers. Check out the entire The Learning Connection & Discipline-Specific Fundamentals here: http://tiny.cc/fundamentalsapril7

First Chair catches up with PSIA-AASI Adaptive Team member, Mike Ma, about his season. Mike shares his story about what he did to manage his own knee injury so he could still be on snow this season. Learn how he took an adaptive approach to change and adapt his movement and how this experience helped him become more empathetic and patient.

First Chair catches up with PSIA Alpine Team member, Mike Hafer, about his goals for this season and beyond. He chats about how one of his top goals is to create more patience at the top of the turn so he can effectively work the ski in the shaping phase. He shares how he works towards achieving these goals. Learn from Mike's insight and find takeaways for your own approach. Read more about Mike’s goals here: http://tiny.cc/MikeGoals

First Chair catches up with PSIA Alpine Team member, Josh Fogg, about his goals for this season and beyond. He chats about how he is combining ideas about how he teaches movement with his technical understanding of skiing and how he works towards achieving his goals. Learn from Josh’s insight and find takeaways for your own approach. Read more about Josh’s goals here: http://tiny.cc/JoshGoals

First Chair catches up with PSIA Cross Country Team Coach, Emily Lovett, about her goals for this season and beyond. She chats about why it’s so important for you to provide timely and effective feedback to your students and to your colleagues. Listen in and then take away feedback tips you can use with your students. Read more about Emily’s goals here: http://tiny.cc/EmilyGoals

When PSIA’s seven founders sat down to form the Professional Ski Instructors of America in May 1961 at Big Mountain in Whitefish, Montana, they had one goal: to create a standard of consistency for ski instruction that it would help draw new participants to the sport from across the nation. Now, six decades later, PSIA-AASI teaches everyone how to enjoy more than just alpine skiing; welcoming every snowsports discipline, ability, and person. In part six of this six-part series, listen to Eric Rolls & Matt Boyd discuss what it was like to build the Learning Connection, one of the six of the most notable teaching benchmarks from the past 60 years. Learn how this was the first completely holistic view of snowsports instruction focusing on every aspect—teaching, technical, and people skills—of a lesson. Learn more about PSIA-AASI’s 60th Anniversary: http://tiny.cc/60Years

When PSIA’s seven founders sat down to form the Professional Ski Instructors of America in May 1961 at Big Mountain in Whitefish, Montana, they had one goal: to create a standard of consistency for ski instruction that it would help draw new participants to the sport from across the nation. Now, six decades later, PSIA-AASI teaches everyone how to enjoy more than just alpine skiing; welcoming every snowsports discipline, ability, and person. In part five of this six-part series, listen to Bill Bowness, Katherine Rodriguez Hayes, and Beth Fox, discuss what it was like to pioneer adaptive instruction, one of the six of the most notable teaching benchmarks from the past 60 years. Learn about how adaptive instructors and students now have a technical blueprint specific to their need, and why it’s important to celebrate teaching to every enthusiast. Learn more about PSIA-AASI’s 60th Anniversary: http://tiny.cc/60Years

When PSIA’s seven founders sat down to form the Professional Ski Instructors of America in May 1961 at Big Mountain in Whitefish, Montana, they had one goal: to create a standard of consistency for ski instruction that it would help draw new participants to the sport from across the nation. Now, six decades later, PSIA-AASI teaches everyone how to enjoy more than just alpine skiing; welcoming every snowsports discipline, ability, and person. In part four of this six-part series, listen to Dave Alden and Randy Price discuss the creation of the American Association of Snowboard Instructors, one of the six of the most notable teaching benchmarks from the past 60 years. Learn about the importance of creating the world’s first integrated snowboard instruction entity aimed solely at improving the on-snow riding experience for everyone from beginners to athletes at the highest level of professional competition. Learn more about PSIA-AASI’s 60th Anniversary: http://tiny.cc/60Years

First Chair catches up with Stacey Gerrish, the host of Tuesday Tea Talks, which are free interactive sessions that feature special guests in the snowsports industry and are hosted by PSIA-AASI. Next week’s episode happens on Tuesday, March 15 at 6 p.m. MT. Stacey will welcome 2006 Winter Olympian, Erin Simmons, nine-time X Games athlete, and three-time X Games silver medalist. This event will stream from both Facebook and YouTube. You can use the links that you’ll receive via email after you register for this event. Register for the March 15 event: http://tiny.cc/TeaTalkMarch15 View previous Tea Talks: https://www.thesnowpros.org/education/tea-talks/

When PSIA’s seven founders sat down to form the Professional Ski Instructors of America in May 1961 at Big Mountain in Whitefish, Montana, they had one goal: to create a standard of consistency for ski instruction that it would help draw new participants to the sport from across the nation. Now, six decades later, PSIA-AASI teaches everyone how to enjoy more than just alpine skiing; welcoming every snowsports discipline, ability, and person. In part three of this six-part series, listen to Marie Shaw and Grant Nakamura discuss the Junior Education Team, one of the six of the most notable teaching benchmarks from the past 60 years. Learn about the importance of providing a focus on kid-specific instruction for all disciplines recognizing that children’s instruction requires different skills and priorities than adult instruction. Learn more about PSIA-AASI’s 60th Anniversary: http://tiny.cc/60Years

When PSIA’s seven founders sat down to form the Professional Ski Instructors of America in May 1961 at Big Mountain in Whitefish, Montana, they had one goal: to create a standard of consistency for ski instruction that it would help draw new participants to the sport from across the nation. Now, six decades later, PSIA-AASI teaches everyone how to enjoy more than just alpine skiing; welcoming every snowsports discipline, ability, and person. In part two of this six-part series, listen to Carol Levine and Megan Bourke discuss equal opportunity for women in snowsports, one of the six of the most notable teaching benchmarks from the past 60 years. Learn about the importance of welcoming women as athletes and instructors. Learn more about PSIA-AASI’s 60th Anniversary: http://tiny.cc/60Years

When PSIA’s seven founders sat down to form the Professional Ski Instructors of America in May 1961 at Big Mountain in Whitefish, Montana, they had one goal: to create a standard of consistency for ski instruction that it would help draw new participants to the sport from across the nation. Now, six decades later, PSIA-AASI teaches everyone how to enjoy more than just alpine skiing; welcoming every snowsports discipline, ability, and person. In part one of this six-part series, listen to Jens Husted and Mike Porter discuss The Skills Concept, one of the six of the most notable teaching benchmarks from the past 60 years. The Skills Concept is a simplified teaching system based on rotary movements, edging, and pressure control that allows instructors to teach to each student’s immediate needs. Learn more about PSIA-AASI’s 60th Anniversary: http://tiny.cc/60Years

When PSIA’s seven founders sat down to form the Professional Ski Instructors of America in May 1961 at Big Mountain in Whitefish, Montana, they had one goal: to create a standard of consistency for ski instruction that it would help draw new participants to the sport from across the nation. Now, six decades later, PSIA-AASI teaches everyone how to enjoy more than just alpine skiing; welcoming every snowsports discipline, ability, and person. Hear from PSIA-AASI Board of Directors’ Chair, Eliza Kuntz, and PSIA-AASI CEO, Nicholas Herrin, about why this 60th anniversary is so important and what the next six podcasts for this series will cover. Learn more about PSIA-AASI’s 60th Anniversary: http://tiny.cc/60Years

First Chair catches up with PSIA Alpine Team member Kevin Jordan, who shares tips on the importance of giving your students a variety of drills and then encouraging them to envision their own training plan. Kevin has found that this approach helps him empower his students to do their own learning. Check out the full article here: http://tiny.cc/kevinsgoals

The new PSIA-AASI National Team will set the standard for snowsports instruction and embody the ski and snowboard experience. In April 2021, PSIA-AASI hand-selected the 37 team members – 8 coaches chosen last season and 29 team members selected spring 2021 – for their range of skills that allow them to serve as inspirational leaders and build enthusiasm for learning and having fun skiing and riding. Meet PSIA Alpine Team member, Bart Flynn, who hails from Jackson Hole Resort, Wyoming.

First Chair checks in with Brian Donovan, a new member of the PSIA-AASI National Team to learn more about what’s been happening during his first-year on the AASI Snowboard Team and what he’s been up to for this season. Last April, PSIA-AASI selected the 37 team members for their range of skills that allow them to serve as inspirational leaders and build enthusiasm for learning and having fun skiing and riding.

First Chair catches up with PSIA Alpine Team member Josh Fogg, who shares tips on increasing your student’s performance and increasing their retention of the learning of the movements. Josh has found that how you say the words vs. what you say has a bigger impact on your student’s performance.

First Chair catches up with extreme skiing pioneer, Dan Egan. Dan starred in 12 Warren Miller movies, including the “cornice break” segment in “Extreme Winter” that became the most viewed ski segment of all-time. Dan chats about why it’s important to ski the snow that’s in right front of you. Learn why he’s been able to adapt to the line he skis vs. the line that he sees and how you can learn to apply that approach and be more intentional about your own skiing.