By Nick Lamont in 2020.
Teaching snowboarding has to be one of the most rewarding and satisfying feelings, but trust me, sometimes it’s one of the most frustrating things you could ever do. I’m sure everybody has experienced some level of frustration or negative emotions while teaching, because the list of reasons is endless. Negative thoughts can easily start to enter your head when things aren’t going your way, and this could have a very negative impact on how the rest of the lesson goes. Some may even say their snowboarding goes down hill (sorry). The real definition of frustration is “the feeling of being upset or annoyed as a result of being unable to change or achieve something”. You may not be able to change your students rate of progress and the way they think or act, but you can definitely change your own mental state and turn those negative thoughts into positive ones.
As instructors, we are constantly meeting and teaching people from all over the world who have different backgrounds and life stories. Everybody is different when it comes to physical ability, coordination, fear, intelligence etc, so we must change our expectations based on each individual. Sometimes, as instructors, we just want our students to get better as quick as possible and we let our unreal expectations get the better of us.
If you are getting frustrated because of your students ability, you’re gonna have a bad time. You really need to take a step back and ask yourself why. Why have you let your emotions take control of you? Sometimes you can hear other instructors yelling “THATS WRONG, GO FASTER, JUST TURN, USE YOUR EDGE” and everyone else around is thinking “I’m glad that guys not teaching me”. Why do we let our selves get to that point? This person is obviously going to progress at their own rate and yelling at them is not going to solve the problem, its actually just making the situation worse . You need to keep in mind that this person has come on holiday to learn and have fun in your snowboard lesson. What you find as a “simple” task, may in fact be the hardest thing they have done that month. When you get frustrated, you are no longer that fun instructor you like to think of yourself as. You are now that angry instructor that has the potential to ruin someones day. Don’t be that guy.
It could be the weather. It could be the snow conditions. When you are under-dressed in a freezing cold blizzard and can’t feel your face, chances are you probably aren’t in the best mood and this can show. There are many factors that can affect our mood and this can result in us getting frustrated.
Imagine you have just come out to line up one morning, it’s a beautiful day and business is looking rather quiet. You are almost about to get cut for the day so you can go shred with your mates who have the day off… All of a sudden you hear that a group has just booked in for a full day first timer lesson you are the only one available to teach. In the distance you can see a large group of 12 people walking towards you with their snowboard boots hanging off their feet, they are barely dressed in their gear almost dropping items of clothing and protective gear as they stumble towards you in the deep snow. After meeting them you soon find out that they speak barely any English and have never done any sports in their life. If you don’t then have the ability to immediately change back into “instructor mode” and provide these people with the absolute time of their lives, then you have failed your mission. Maybe you only like teaching adults and you have ended up teaching a 6 hour private to a young child that wont listen to you. Or maybe you’ve just finished an advanced lesson in the park and now you’re with a mother who is terrified of going more than 2ks an hour down the beginner slope. These are things we can all relate to and we must quickly change our expectations to suit each and every individual that we teach.
All frustration comes from expectations
Frustration is the conflict between expectation and reality. For example, I know from my experience that teaching someone a ‘toeside turn’ will give me a little bit of happiness and fulfillment. But when I try to teach someone a toeside turn and they fail repetitively for two hours, some feelings of frustration may start to emerge. Firstly, merely expecting something to happen will not make it happen. And secondly, human beings have a natural tendency to pin their hopes for happiness on fulfilled expectations. Have you ever ordered a steak medium-rare and it comes out well done? Ever drive somewhere and it takes twice as long because of traffic? Expectations can lead to disappointment. When our expectations involve people behaving in a certain way, and they fall short, we’re often left feeling resentment and frustration towards them.
As teachers, it can be a struggle to overcome feelings of frustration and it’s hard to stay positive. Here are 4 easy steps to follow, that have helped me manage my frustrations:
Triggers – Learn your triggers.
- Everyone has different triggers. Identify yours and anticipate them.
- If triggered, take a few seconds to clear your head before acting impulsively.
- Most of the time we cannot simply avoid the trigger, so accepting the trigger and trying to work through it in your own head will help to make you a better instructor, use it as a challenge.
Understand
- Learn to quickly change your expectations of others based on visual and verbal analysis.
- Understand that people can be irrational, self-centered, unfair, inconsistent etc. You can always control your own reaction, but never the other person’s behaviour.
- Always remember that everyone has a different life story and you must be empathetic and patient.
Relax
- Before you act out of anger or frustration, pause and take a deep breath. Count to four slowly as you breathe in, then count to four again as you breathe out. Repeat until you feel calm. Those things that happen when you are stressed such as increased heart rate, fast breathing, and high blood pressure, all decrease as you breath deeply to relax.
- Use positive thinking and visualization to improve your mood or to keep yourself in a good mood. Think about how a bad day on the mountain is better than a good day in the office. Or about all the other ‘bad jobs’ you have worked in your life and how lucky you are to be where you are today.
- Try to find humour in these bad situations. Remind yourself that this will probably make a great story later and you can crack a joke about it.
Never give up
- View your frustration as “delayed success” rather than “failure”.
- Remember what you are being paid for, and that no matter how slow the progress is, or how unpleasant this person or people might be. That you have a job to do.
- Always remember that it is THEIR lesson, and NOT your lesson. They are the ones that have paid for your time and you are there to give them the absolute greatest experience they could only dream of!
- This is not forever, this is temporary. So push through with all your strength and don’t give up.
TURN this situation around.
Snowboarding is fun and escaping to the mountains is a great way for people to take a break from every day life. It’s important to remember why our students are there, to have fun and learn along the way. Becoming frustrated with our students or our circumstances can negatively impact the lesson. Remember from before, frustration is “the feeling of being upset or annoyed as a result of being unable to change or achieve something”. You may not be able to change your students rate of progress and the way they think or act, but you can definitely change your own mental state. So use the TURN method, and I guarantee you will become a better instructor and person.
References
www.google.com/search?q=Dictionary#dobs=frustration
Dodes, Lance (2002) The Heart of Addiction: A New Approach to Understanding and Managing Alcoholism and Other Addictive Behaviors (NY: William Morrow).
Pally, Regina. (2000). The Mind Brain Relationship. (International Journal of Psychoanalysis Key Paper Series). NY: Other Press.
https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/your-wise-brain/201410/accept-them-they-are
Johnson, John A (2018). The psychology of expectations (Why unrealistic expectations are premeditated resentments)
Kane, S. (2018). My Best Ways to Deal with Frustration. Psych Central. Retrieved on June 11, 2019, from https://psychcentral.com/lib/my-best-ways-to-deal-with-frustration/
www.wikihow.com/Cope-With-Frustration
www.stress.org/take-a-deep-breath/
www.uofmhealth.org/health-library/uz2255