To all instructors, help with a problem
Thanks for the advice
@Jeremy: If you start with getting up on the toeside, I take it you start teaching her toeside sideslipping first then? I’ve been showing and telling her about the proper body position, even weight on both feet, etc. I guess it just takes time for her to get a feel for it. She has no problem getting up with my foot under the board or me pulling her up. Once on her own, her balance was just all over the place.
@Mizu: I did tell her to be balanced more on her heels and dig the edge, but I think I didn’t show her with my board strapped on.
It’s fine to teach toeside sideslipping first. Some instructors will even argue it’s better to teach first. Personally, I always teach heelside first. So if they get up on their toeside you have two options: teach toeside first, or if you/they are confident, you can pivot them around to their heelside while holding onto them (that’s usually what I would do). Make sure you hold onto them and talk them through it.
I think that for a newbie though, grabbing a heelside edge when toeside sideslipping can be a real whiplash headache generator, and put a real downer on a fun day if it happens too many times or in a big way?????
I hear what you’re saying but it’s kind of irrelevant. Here’s my reasoning:
1. The instructor would be holding both hands of the student when toeside sideslipping. It’s pretty much impossible to catch an edge and fall during this stage.
2. The student wouldn’t try this on their own until the instructor can see they have found the balance points and know how to stop.
3. Toeside sideslipping is part of basic progression. It should be taught in say the first couple of hours anyway. It’s one of the most basic skills and the students need to be just as competent on their toeside edge as their heelside edge, otherwise they will really struggle with the next steps, leading to basic linked turns.
Ideally, I would teach heelside sideslipping first - it’s just easier that way. But I really don’t see any harm in teaching toeside first, if it’s required for whatever reason, i.e. student can’t get up on their own.
The other solution to all of this is just be patient with the student. i.e. keep helping them up on their heelside until they are at the stage of learning basic linked turns. Some students just need more attention than others. Once they have that dialed, there’s no problem with them getting up on their toeside edge and making a turn on their own. Problem solved.
I usually just ignore getting up on the heel edge, some people do it instinctively others can’t do it at all.
If you do one footed side slipping first people get the feel for sliding on their heel edge pretty well before getting up becomes an issue.
I also tell people not to stop once they start heel edge side slipping as it’s pretty much impossible not to fall over if you do stop.
If the person has reasonable balance they can learn toe edge and a toe to heel turn within about 2 hours and then both edges are available to them.
If people fall on heel edge during the lesson I just walk over and help them up. I don’t tend to wear my snowboard with both feet strapped in for more than about 2 minutes on an average begginer two hour lesson eh…still i like a pleasant alpine walk as much as the next man.
I’m not an instructor but have spent a fair bit of time teaching people to snowboard, my girlfriend was of the opinion she got more out of 10mins with me than the 2hours with the first timer instructor. I am one of those people who struggles to get up on heelside, my achilles and ankle flexibility is near on non existant, it’s something I need to work on but it will never be very good, thanks genetics. I found that even when I’ve been thin as a rake I had great difficulty getting up on heel edge and if I did it too much my stomach muscles would be pretty much rooted by the end of the day and would feel excruciatingly tight the following day.
As a result I try to encourage people to get up on their toe edge, it’s easier for everyone in my experience, that and when they stop it’s easy to get back up again and my girlfriend found it mentally way easier to tackle the steep sections facing up hill rather than looking downhill. Never had any dramas with highsiding either as I would hold both hands up till the point where she looked comfortable holding an edge.