Dave Lyon Shares His Top Tips for Teaching in the Time of COVID-19

PSIA Alpine Team member Dave Lyon continued skiing, teaching, and coaching through the COVID-19 Pandemic, running summer race camps at Mt. Hood, Oregon, and now training coaches at Stevens Pass in Washington.

Here are some of his tips and observations for navigating the season.

• The good vibe is the first thing you notice. Everybody is happy to be on snow and they’re doing whatever it takes to keep resorts open.
• The lifts ops remind people in line without a face covering to wear a mask to cover their nose and mouth. The bottom line is that nobody wants to be the person who ruins it for everyone.
• When teaching, it can be challenging to pickup subtle, non-verbal communications. Since you can’t see people’s faces, remember to keep checking in with everyone. I’ve noticed some of my personal interactions take more work to maintain.
• Implementing the people skills component of The Learning Connection will help you. When teaching weeklong camps, I realized I was asking more questions as the week went on. You migh also notice you become more aware of body language and sounds.
• Your students are probably stressed, so it’s important to make the lesson feel as comfortable as possible for them.