Last Updated28 April 2023

Using, Adapting and Creating Progressions explores the different ability levels of students that instructors regularly teach, along with tools and tactics for how to use the progressions within this resource and even create progressions from scratch.

Choosing Developmental & Corrective Progressions

People learn in varying styles and at different paces. Students who develop faster may be capable of skipping certain tasks in a specified progression and still achieve the same goals. Other students may need to spend more time exploring different options within each activity in order to achieve their goals. A Level Two instructor’s job is to choose and adapt the most suitable activities, and customise the sample progressions, to best cater for their students.

When choosing progressions, it is important to consider whether the student needs a developmental progression or a corrective progression. Developmental and corrective progressions have the same end goal in mind: to help the student progress as a rider. Developmental progressions are intended to build and create skills that are completely new to your student, whilst corrective progressions are intended to change and improve movement patterns and performance with the goal of making the student’s riding more efficient.

The bulk of sample progressions within this manual are developmental progressions. However, many of the same activities can be used to change movements and performance when used within a corrective progression. The purpose and focus for each task may differ and the way you present it will undoubtedly alter; however, the task itself may remain the same. The Activity-Analyse-Adapt cycle is extremely useful when learning how to use an activity or task outside of a sample progression.

Developmental Progressions using Stationary-Simple-Complex-Freeride

Developmental progressions are designed to teach completely new skills. A good formula for how to structure the teaching of these new skills is the Stationary-Simple-Complex-Freeride approach.

Stationary

Introduce the new movement without forward momentum. This can be done with the board off completely, and/or with one or two feet strapped in. Use flat terrain with minimal traffic.

Simple

Attempt the same movement in a very simple activity/exercise, whilst moving slowly with two feet strapped in. Slow speed and a low traffic zone will give the students time to think about their movements.

Complex

Coordinate the new movement within an isolated turn or first attempt at an easy version of the trick. A focus on timing of when the new skill needs to occur will be useful, as this is key when implementing it during sequential turns or performing a new trick on a feature.

Freeride

Time to ride, get mileage and be adventurous with the new skill, taking it to different terrain/features and adapting the new skill along the way.

Example

Your student wants to learn to ride switch and has not attempted it yet. You begin with a stationary task to show how the board can torsionally twist in the opposite way to which they are used to and how rotating their new front leg can assist their steering. You take this into a few simple traverses with steering to use the new sequence of lower body movements whilst travelling in the opposite direction, at a slow speed. You move onto a more complex series of C-turns to combine the lower body steering skills with edge changes, but ensuring they slow down between each turn. You take this to a long green run to freeride switch with different turn sizes and shapes.

Each of the above steps can be considered an “activity” within the Activity-Analyse-Adapt Teaching Cycle. Whilst new skills are often best taught using the Stationary-Simple-Complex-Freeride formula, instructors should still take the time to analyse and adapt at each step, based on the students’ success. As new skills are attempted by a student they are often inefficient as they are typically in the cognitive stage of learning. This may mean using multiple stationary or simple steps before progressing onto complex, or it may also mean moving back and forth between simple and complex steps repeatedly. This formula is a guide and should be adjusted continuously based on the students’ experience.

Corrective Progressions using Whole-Part-Whole

As instructors, it is usually our intention to help students develop new skills; however, almost all lessons will require corrective teaching at some stage. For intermediate and advanced students, corrective teaching is often used from the beginning of the Skill/Adventure stage of the lesson. The main goal of corrective teaching is to help make their riding more efficient by adjusting and adapting their current skills.

A good corrective progression should start with identifying what to correct and knowing why it would be beneficial to correct it. This information may come from the students (e.g. they know they are struggling to commit to their toeside turn when it gets a bit steeper) or it may come from the instructor through the analysis process (e.g. the instructor notices an inefficient toeside initiation on a warm-up lap during the Play stage of the lesson). With either scenario, the instructor must have an ideal image in their mind of what the task or skill looks like.

Correcting a student’s inefficiency may be as simple as slowing down their riding or moving them to easier terrain to reinforce an existing movement or skill. Major stance or movement issues will require a little more attention. Stationary and simple exercises are often useful here, followed up with a complex or freeride task that allows the student to experience the changes within their usual riding.

More experienced instructors may spend time working on stance options and specific body parts, using range, timing and power. This is where the Whole-Part-Whole method can be useful…

WHOLE: Try the whole activity, whether it’s a turn or a trick.

PART: Highlight one area of the turn or trick that can be improved with a stationary or simple activity.

WHOLE: Take the highlighted area straight back into the whole activity that was first attempted.

The goal here is to get back to the “whole” activity as quickly as possible, using the improved movements/skills.

Example

You have an intermediate student learning to ride off-piste. On their heelside turn, they have a tendency to put the brakes on hard and finish in a sideslip, sometimes creating chatter. You take them back to a groomed run of similar pitch and explore different sizes of closed turn with more progressive edging, along with a traverse whilst looking across the hill. Once the student is able to edge progressively whilst using a smaller turn shape, you take them straight back into the same terrain and put it into action.

Note that each element within Whole-Part-Whole can be considered an “activity” within the Activity-Analyse-Adapt Teaching Cycle, and thus it requires analysing and potentially adapting before continuing. Corrective teaching occurs continuously throughout this cycle.

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