THE 5 Ts

When it comes to teaching skiing and snowboarding, one of the most important parts of any pro’s job is good decision making. The management team relies on your good decisions to help keep your lesson both safe and successful. As part of this process, we use the 5 Ts to help guide our decision making. The following is a list of the 5 Ts, and considerations for each of them:

Tactics

  • Red flags

  • Movement patterns

  • Obstacle navigation

  • Speed

Timing

  • Time of day

  • Time of season

  • On-snow time for guest (1st day vs. 20th day)

Traffic

  • Flow patterns

  • Choke points

  • Location issues

  • Business levels

  • “Know before you go” – What are the traffic issues that you may encounter?

Task

  • Mechanically accurate

  • Why – relevance of the task

  • Does it contribute to the learning focus?

  • What is the desired outcome?

  • Appropriate for skill level, terrain, and traffic

Terrain

  • Appropriate progression – Greens into blues, blues into blacks

  • Obstacles – Stay away or incorporate them?

  • New skills on old terrain – old skills on new terrain

  • Is it appropriate for the task and student skill level?

Surface

  • Snow conditions

  • Grooming report

  • Incorporating different aspects of the mountain

  • Be aware of variable conditions – either stay away or incorporate them

  • Be aware of changes in pitch with regards to snow conditions

By incorporating the above factors into your decision making, you can help you and your guests have a safer and more successful lesson.