Last Updated31 May 2022

Structuring Lessons and Sessions explores how to construct lessons, put together activities to build new skills, structure presentations and delivery of information, plus create longer teaching sessions to explore the mountain and continue to develop skills. This chapter also explores some of the differences between instructing and coaching, and how to structure coaching-orientated sessions.

Activity-Analyse-Adapt Teaching Cycle

The Activity-Analyse-Adapt cycle is the on-going sequence instructors can follow when teaching new skills to their students. This is typically used within the Skill & Adventure stage of lessons. As a tool, it can help the instructor to create a successful learning environment based on the students in front of them and their individual experiences. Although more simplified, this model is based on David Kolb’s Experiential Learning Cycle.

This cycle is particularly useful when working with intermediate and advanced students, due to the more fluid structure of teaching required at this level. Whilst it is still relevant when teaching beginner students, there is less emphasis on how it is implemented, due to the more linear nature of beginner lessons.

Activity

The first activity is usually chosen by the instructor when planning the lesson during the Play stage, taking into account the students’ ability, level of comfort, goals and motivations, as well as the terrain available and snow conditions. Subsequent activities will be based on the students’ performance and their experience gained from the previous activity. These activities may or may not be structured to form a progression.

An appropriate activity can be a variety of different things:

It could be a stationary exercise to highlight a movement option or stance adjustment.

It could be a simple, slow-speed task such as a traverse.

It could be a general riding focus such as encouraging your students to ride faster or slower.

It could be a technical focus such as riding with more flex in the knees.

It could even be based around a tactical or psychological focus such as committing to the turn.

Before students attempt the chosen activity, they need to have clarity of the intended outcome. They must have a clear idea of what a successful outcome is and what the ideal picture looks like on snow. This clarity of outcome is best established when communicating a new activity to the students (using Talk-Show-Feel and What-Why-How), however it can also be established through the feedback process from a previously attempted activity (see Effective Feedback).

Analyse

Once an activity is attempted, some analysis must occur to help improve performance. This analysis can happen internally within the student, but it is more often driven by the instructor.

When watching the student, consider:

What happened when the activity was performed and why did it happen?

How does this compare to the ideal?

Is it affecting their own or others' safety?

Are the movements and level of performance appropriate for the task?

Are the terrain or conditions affecting their performance?

The above questions can be used to create clarity in the instructor’s mind before communicating this to the students through initial feedback. Including both movements of the body and how these movements affect the snowboard is very beneficial here (see Understanding Cause and Effect in Effective Rider Analysis). Remember, they don’t have to be perfect!

The aim here is to create self-awareness in the students so that they can take ownership of the analysis process and eventually self analyse their own performance. A powerful way to help create this awareness is through the use of questioning, guiding the students towards discovering the answer for themselves.

Adapt

When the students’ performance has been analysed a decision needs to be made about what they should do next. Before making this decision, the instructor should ask themselves, “Were they successful or not?”

To determine this, the instructor must be actively listening and watching. The goal here is to incorporate the student as a key part of the decision making process. If a strong, student-instructor rapport has been established, the students will feel comfortable to guide some of these decisions, helping the instructor to keep the lesson student-centred.

If the student is successful in the initial activity, consider these options for how to adapt the current activity:

Add more momentum or speed to the activity.

Adapt the movement pattern slightly or increase the amount of movement being used in a specific body part.

Make use of or modify the environment, such as setting a corridor or placing snowballs on the snow.

Gain mileage on the same terrain, allowing the students to solidify the skill further.

Take the same activity onto new terrain.

Example

Student one tends to edge their board slightly on the heels as they approach a box to do a 50-50, causing them to come off the box early and sometimes fall. Once analysed, you notice they straighten their front leg slightly when they get nervous, and rotate their hips and shoulders as a result. You decide to adapt by going to a similar pitch outside of the park to work on flat base riding while remaining flexed in both legs and rotationally aligned.

Student two slides the box in a 50-50 successfully a few times in a row. Once analysed and are happy no correction is needed, you decide to adapt by having them try moving up and down while on the box.

If the student is not yet successful in the initial activity, consider these options for how to adapt it:

Check for understanding; they may require more clarification of the activity before they can become successful at performing it.

Try the same activity again after the student has received the initial feedback; it often takes multiple attempts at something new before students have a cognitive understanding of it.

Make it easier by changing terrain or slowing down their forward momentum or speed (i.e. rate of descent).

Break the activity down further by using a stationary or simple step.

Once the original activity has been adapted, the cycle continues. At some point a completely new activity may be introduced and thus the cycle begins again.

Hot Tip

Over time, instructors may find themselves using the same trusted progressions over and over again, regardless of their current students’ success. The Activity-Analyse-Adapt Cycle is very beneficial to help avoid falling into this trap. Each step within a pre-established progression can be considered an activity. After every activity, the analyse and adapt process should follow. The adapted activity may become the next step in the progression or it may not, based on the students’ experience and success.

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