New First Chair Podcasts Focus on Managing Class Splits

Two new First Chair “Boots on the Snow” Podcasts are available for your listening and learning pleasure.

In this series, PSIA-AASI First Chair Podcast Host George Thomas talks to snowsports professionals about some of the common issues they face in their daily lessons, and they share their top tips for helping to address and solve them. These new podcasts focus on managing class splits in your lessons.

You can listen to more First Chair Podcasts on Soundcloud and on Spotify.

Boots On the Snow: Managing Ability and Age Splits with Brenna Kelleher

PSIA-AASI National Team member Brenna Kelleher describes what a class split is and how to overcome working with students in a lesson who want to do different things and have different abilities.

She talks about “lap coaching” and how it provides a good midway point to handling group lessons with different ability levels. Lap coaching works for group lessons but also private group lessons with families.

Splits aren’t just ability-based. They can be age-based, too. Brenna talks about managing lessons with groups of varying ages and how to pair people together in lessons as accountability partners who encourage and push each other.

Boots On the Snow: Managing Psychological Splits with Geoff Krill

PSIA-AASI Adaptive Team Coach Geoff Krill talks about how psychological splits occur among groups in a lesson. Geoff says that some students take lessons to learn and get better, while others are just there to experience the thrill of sliding on snow.

Geoff says that each student’s expectations may create a negative mentality before they begin the lesson. He emphasizes that when instructors focus on each student’s motivation and find out why they are there and what they hope to leave the lesson knowing, they are better prepared to meet that student’s expectations.