At the end of May Triin attended the IKO Instructor Training Course to get certified as a Level 1 Instructor. Here are her biggest takeaways from the course.
1. Every instructor has his/her teaching methods
Our instructor was a Lithuanian guy for whom it was the first time to be in Estonia. From the first practical session it was clear that every instructor has his/her methods. At one point we even felt ourselves quite silly because he asked us if we had done this and that in our AITC, but we had to answer no. But got loads of tips and tricks from him that became very handy in practical sessions.
For example:
- Fly kite on the beach strip as long as possible – the student and you will be feeling a lot warmer. In case of stormy winds do the first piloting while sitting on the sand.
- Trim simulation on land – really simple trick how to do the trim explanation and simulation on the beach while the student is sitting on the beach. Easy to simulate how backlines become shorter or longer and how it affects the kite movement.
- Lines lengthening – how to make the lines shorter. We tried making the lines half shorter as needed for training and then for 6m and 4m that comes extra handy in case of very strong winds. Have used shortening the lines to 4m a couple of times now!
- Wear a helmet while teaching to show good example and make the student not to feel silly alone.
- Using a 5th line while first piloting – if the student struggles while first piloting using a 5th line as a safety line that is attached to the instructor is super handy. The instructor can help the student feel safer during the first piloting.
- Make a checklist of learnt skills to review for students at the end of the lesson – the student will remind what he/she learnt and in the beginning of next lesson you can check what you did the last time. Reminder at its best!
- Let the students fail and learn – after a certain while keep quiet and let them try on their own. They will learn more if someone is not telling them all the time what to do.
Would love to take lessons from other instructors to see what else we could learn. Simple, yet super handy tips and tricks.
2. Teaching from distance
During one of our practical sessions we had a task to simulate that we’re teaching in Tarifa, meaning that we had no possibility to get into water with the students and had to instruct them from shore.
It’s super difficult during light winds. The students dropped the kites in the water and were not able to relaunch. For sure they don’t remember to read the signs you’re giving, they lack patience and try too hard and at the end you have that voice whispering in your mind “you can’t go into water otherwise you’ll fail”.
At the end Triin still went into to the water as it felt a complete waist of time for that student. He was already having the feeling that he cannot do it and that’s it.
3. Understanding and reading the students
As in AITC we also had real students we had to teach in ITC. Some of them were so-called easy students who had studied kitesurfing already at home from Youtube and therefore were much quicker to understand and even a bit too brave. And there were a bit more difficult students with whom you tried different tactics, but still wasn’t so successful. As Estonians are not so talkative and tend to be rather stubborn, then it’s really difficult to read them – do they really understand, are they tired already, why they keep repeating the same mistakes?
As a instructor developing people’s reading skills is definitely a must.
4. Boat rescue
Although I hope I don’t have to rescue anyone from such a situation that they need boat rescue, it was super cool to give Jose (our local fisherman with the boat) some instructions how to save a kiter from the sea. Had seen rescue guys doing their magic in El Gouna, but never thought what’s the so-called official procedure for it.
Also having boat driving license would become handy in the future.
5. Aerodynamics and weather topics are still the hardest
The aerodynamics and weather topics still felt the hardest part even though they were exactly the same as in AITC.
6. Exam is easier than expected
We had a final written exam for 2h. The exam covered everything learnt in AITC and ITC. Was going nuts the evening before to go through all the material, but the exam itself was actually easier than expected.
It consisted of two parts – first part with multiple choice questions and the second with a bit more explanatory questions (even a bit of drawing).
Therefore, there’s no need to overthink as you need at least 70% to pass the exam.
As a conclusion for the training course can say that it’s a very intense five days, but totally worth it even if never plan to become a instructor. You learn so much and develop your own kiting skills a lot.
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