By Peter Kray
Achieving advanced certification isn’t easy. It’s not supposed to be. Many members can spend years working for that instructional award of earning advanced certification in any given discipline – especially a Level III cert.
Most instructors will not reach that goal on their first try, or even their second. But according to PSIA-AASI National Team Coach Jeb Boyd, there’s a certain kind of success that results from deciding to put in the work and try out.
“It’s not easy,” Jeb said. “Especially when you’re working to see how you stack up to a standard that’s truly national, and how anywhere in the country, you can perform to that expectation.”
Even when you don’t make it, he said, there’s a certain benefit from simply identifying the goal. “The process itself is a reward,” Jeb said. “But only if you really are prepared to go down that path and are ready to make that commitment.”
Worth the Work
We were talking because Jeb had recently returned from an Alpine Level III exam at Waterville Valley, New Hampshire, which included an entire day of movement analysis to see if candidates really could speak to the phases and fundamentals of ski performance.
One of the many candidates who did not achieve their goal at that exam, Eastern Region alpine instructor Bobby Monacella, had written an especially poignant Facebook post about her experience.
Here, with Bobby’s permission, is some of what she wrote:
“Sitting in the Manchester, New Hampshire, airport, I’m reflecting on the past week and my experience in the first-in-the-nation test of the new 3-day PSIA L3 exam format. While I didn’t pass this time, the experience was invaluable. I learned so much that will make me a better teacher next season and prepare me for my next attempt. Skiing with and receiving feedback from National Team members and examiners helped me grow as a skier, teacher, and movement analyst.
I’m incredibly grateful for the support and encouragement I received: from my wonderful group of BBSGFFs, from my incredible mentor Emily (Spiker), from Mermer (Blakeslee), and from my ProJam group, especially Deanna. She told me, ‘You never know what tomorrow brings, just do it while you can.’ It echoed Warren Miller’s famous advice: ‘If you don’t do it this year, you’ll be a year older when you do.’ So, I went for it.
The L3 process is intense – three days on snow giving it everything you have. I’m not gonna lie, going through the whole thing and not ‘attaining’ was a little demoralizing. I knew that it would be and was prepared to manage that on the other end, but it’s still sucky. That said, there’s no question about it, the benefits far outweigh the downside. And we did manage to have a ton of fun in between!”
Upon Reflection
When I reached Bobby on the phone last week, she told me how she had left Vermont after college to teach kids in Breckenridge, Colorado, taken a semester at the National Outdoor Leadership School (NOLS) to learn outdoor skills, and worked on ski patrol before moving back East. Now, she and her daughter, Katie, both teach at Whitetail, Pennsylvania, which was instrumental in her desire to see her skills progress.
“I decided I really like teaching the most,” Bobby said. “And at Whitetail, certification was a big conversation in ski school, especially with incredible instructors like Emily Spiker, who is such an amazing leader for women at the area. She really encouraged me to continue to learn and go for certification.”
And a couple weeks after her Facebook post, she’s still glad she took the test.
“It has been an incredibly invaluable experience,” Bobby said. “Especially understanding how it all works – what the new format entails, what the examiners are looking for on the teaching day, and how much of that feedback I can really take into next season.”
While she’s not sure if she is going to go again for her Alpine Level III next season, Bobby said if she does, she knows exactly what she’s going to work on next.
“For movement analysis, I really have a much better understanding of how that day works,” Bobby said. “You can’t just study the manual and watch videos. You have to be out there watching skiers on the slopes and talking it through. You have to be ready to put in a good amount of time practicing that.”
Read more “Leveling Up” stories:
Goals, Resources, and Good Advice
Meet ‘Doctor of Snowsports’ Josh Pighetti
Achieving Your Professional Goals as a Snowsports Instructor