PSIA
The Professional Ski Instructors of America (PSIA) and the American Association of Snowboard Instructors (AASI) are organizations that create skiing/riding techniques and teaching methods based on those techniques, they also certify instructors in their approach. With PSIA/AASI certification, instructors may earn a bit more money and teach higher level lessons at some resorts.
The organization was founded more than sixty years ago on the idea that it would be better to have one American approach to instruction, rather than a marketplace of options for customers to choose. Schools were offering various alternative ways of teaching skiing based on different European approaches. The organization hopes to finally achieve this goal in the next couple of years.
If you decide to pursue PSIA certification for skiing, understand that the approach we use is different. Focus on becoming very good at our approach, and then at some point if you want to get PSIA certified, various clinics are available.
Keep clear the differences in the programs so you can pass your PSIA exam; you will have to be good at both and not confuse them.
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Comparison
PSIA has had a focus on active movements with the new inside ski to start turns such as releasing the edge and steering it with a gradual weight transfer. This subtle sequence of movements is hard for new skiers to make especially children, but PSIA believes it is the foundation for offensive skiing.
It is taught to skiers from a traverse, so the focus is on the top part of a turn first. The skier's
momentum is moving across a gentle slope and has to be directed down the hill with very little gravity to help redirect it. If students can make the moves, they feel a relatively slow response, because momentum is directed more across the slope rather than down the hill.
Our approach has skiers go straight downhill in a wedge with some speed to build momentum and reduce friction. They either turn their feet or flex one ankle to make the bottom part of a very slight turn. Momentum and gravity are working in a similar direction to first load the ski in the bottom half of a turn, and then to quickly and automatically move the skier into the start of the next turn upon release. Right from the start, this teaches skiers to move over the forces of the turn and to control their speed with a minimal amount of turning. So they learn to reduce speed confident that they can move with their momentum, rather than feeling the security of redirecting it across the hill into a traverse for control. This is the key to good skiing. A good finish moving over the turn makes a good start; go with the flow!
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Our approach requires the proper choice of terrain for any given conditions. It helps to prevent rotation and banking at the start of a turn which occurs when making turns so far across the hill that there is little downhill momentum to start the next turn. The response to movements with our approach is quicker so the association between the action and response is stronger.
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This difference in approach is maintained in more advanced skiing. We continue to focus on maintaining momentum through the turn using progressive ankle flex and angulation (flex and tip.) Just turning the feet can even produce ankle flex and angulation when using the front of the ski. However, PSIA has stayed focused on releasing the downhill ski, then steering or edging it to start the turn with a gradual transfer of weight.
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Momentum
The PSIA approach was supposed to create offensive movements in contrast to early weight transfer which was seen as a defensive move away from the turn. But this was not taking into account the role that momentum plays when linking turns if skiers are not moving back and inside, or the direction a skier can project their body. After a few years of involvement with USSA, PSIA is has reintroduced active weight transfer to outside ski as part of their "five fundamentals of skiing." This shift in thinking reverses what PSIA instructors strongly believe, so there is some resistance which could increase depending on how this change impacts the PSIA approach to teaching beginners.
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Trends impact the PSIA approach and the exercises they use. When they shifted away from weight transfer, a key exercise became pivot slips. Long and very detailed list were created in some divisions to describe the maneuver which included things like the skis must be totally parallel with little vertical movement. This is to demonstrate the moves thought to be necessary for offensive skiing, such as release of the downhill edge, simultaneous steering, and a gradual weight transfer. It also makes sure that moves PSIA has seen as defensive, dead end, and out of date are not present like: early weight transfer, extension, and any convergence.
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Our approach uses the uphill christie as a key exercise for more advanced skiers to develop continuous movement over the turn with progressive ankle flexing and tipping. We use the pivot slips to show that the weight is over the center of the skis, and a straight path can be maintain.
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Specific goals
We provide a very specific goals on how to apply Skiing Moves and what the timing should be, it is like a recipe or detailed building plan. PSIA is worried that being specific would create a return to "final forms" that they worked so hard to change with a skills approach which did not specify how to apply the skills. But this is like providing building materials and no building plan, every building will be different.
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PSIA wants to have a very broad approach that can include everything, rather than being a clearly defined teaching "system". This is a contradiction with their more than 60 year goal to have a consistent approach for the whole nation.
The new national certification standards restate the skills approach as five "Alpine Skiing Fundamentals" but still do not offer a specific formula to apply them. Trying to create an approach than can include everything results in a vague complex approach that is not an effective way to train a large organization of instructors who teach an average of thee years and many do it part time. A specific plan for applying skills is needed to teach consistently.
Timeless not tends
Our approach does not rely on technical trends. Skiing Moves are opposite the way people naturally move, so they are challenging to develop and maintain. It requires consistent goals, especially for infrequent recreational skiers. Regularly changing goals make it harder to improve.
Early weight transfer is a timeless Skiing Move. We work on up and down moves to develop timing and rhythm and have skiers link smooth, skidded turns. Like early weight transfer, PSIA has seen these these as out of date and dead end moves that will not produce the carved turns with retraction they have focused on making.
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International Traditions
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PSIA participates in the international instructor conference called Interski which is held every four years since 1951. The focus of Interski is on technical differences between top Instructors of different nations. The organizations work hard on preparing their newest techniques, even though many acknowledge that there is little difference in technique now. But, it is hard to change long standing traditions.
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Interski also tends to focus attention on high end skiing and creating teaching approaches that produce those goals. However the majority of students are recreational skiers who ski an average of six times a year often. They usually lack the fitness, ability, and desire to become high level skiers and they need more skidded turns for control rather than carving skills. Top instructors are enthusiasts who traditionally are concerned with high level skiing and new techniques more that what most of the lesson market needs.
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Our Process
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Is based on using digital coaching software to do more than 20 years of side by side slow motion comparisons between skiers ranging from young beginners to World Cup athletes. Understanding the common ways people naturally move provides a more effective basis for teaching than trendy technical theories that are looking for new differences in high level skiers.
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​Trying to make technique and progressions fit the latest theory is different from making a theory fit how people actually move. Following trends in technique can end up looking contrived because of a lot of complex details that are even hard for instructors seeking certification to perform let alone new skiers.
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Here are some examples of the problems that a lack of consistent technical content creates. At a summer training camp, PSIA team member Johnathan Ballou explained that trainers give so much so much different and at times conflicting feedback because not enough is known about skiing.
He claims the basics are very broad because they will be different for each person. This makes it very hard to train 32,000 PSIA instructors. Without clear and specific goals, there will be confusion and inconsistency among instructors.
PSIA people skills and the learning connection video
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At 18:45 in the above video the claim is made that it is easy for instructors to evaluate and teach the technical content because this is settled, which contradicts what Ballou said, and the experience of many instructors at PSIA events.
Another alpine team member stated before the last Interski, "The consistency of our technical message and how it's assessed is too variable and is one of our association’s biggest challenges”. Again contradicting the comments in the national academy presentation that there is consistency in technical understanding, even when some of the team members do not think it is the case.
PSIA's approach was seen as a change from the final forms of the European schools, favoring more freedom from the rigid progressions. Their skills approach was a way to encompass a wider variety of skiing and teaching. But it is difficult to deal with all that variety when trying to create a consistent national approach. Our teaching system is based on clear and consistent goals that have been proven in years lessons with customers.
