At the beginning of July Anne-Mai was finally able to attend the IKO Instructor Training Course to get certified as a Level 1 Instructor and start teaching. Was the wait worth it?
As you might remember last year Anne-Mai was not able to take the course together with Triin as she was waiting the birth of her second child. The anticipation for taking the course nevertheless was there all the time! Every now and then she found herself of thinking about it and really wanted to pass it as Triin had hyped it too. To remind Triin’s experience, click here. Finally the long awaited day came and the course began!
Taken out of your comfort zone
The 5-day course’s examiner was the same as last year and Anne-Mai was really happy about it because Triin had given so positive feedback about his teaching methods, it gave a very comfortable starting point. We had four candidates who wanted to become instructors – 3 ladies and 1 guy. And to rush ahead, all four of us are now instructors giving real lessons! 🙂
But talk about gender equality! 😀 Actually it is super cool that kitesurfing sport is evolving so that more and more women riders are hitting the water. It used to be here in Estonia that you go to the beach and see 1 or 2 female riders against 20 guys. But, now, almost everywhere you go, you are able to see at least 4 or 5 female riders vs 10 guys. How cool is that!
Anyways coming back to the ITC, the days flew past as it is very intense training and you find yourself constantly thinking about kiting 😀 The first days where actually bit frightening as we had so much homework addition to our theoretical and practical teaching, but the pace shifted a bit on the second half of the course but then again.. you had the written exam! So lots of learning all the time. If you ask was there any point where you got bit bored, the answer is no. Every time you got too comfortable, you were hit in the face with something new – was it a new tip, fact or even out of the blew you had to give a teaching demonstration on some certain topic. So you were constantly kept awake and in action. No laying back nor waisting any time.
Compared to last year, this year’s IKO ITC was super lucky with the weather. Four days out of five we had solid wind conditions and were able to do all the practical things in water. Also the riding exam was super easy thanks to the weather. It was a little surprise that it was held on our very first day but we had everything that we needed, so what is the difference?
Our examiner told that usually most of the candidates are really afraid of taking the riding skill test but actually it is one of the easiest part of the whole course. We, candidates, of course remained sceptic despite the fact that we all knew that we meet the requirements but still you have the feeling that anything can happen. But in the end we had to agree with him – it took maximum 20 minutes and all the candidates had shown all the required skills for passing the riding test. Just like that! Super easy…
Our examiner told that he had not done so easy and effortless riding evaluation in a very long time. Even mentioned, for sure one to remember 😉 Don´t know if we where so good or was it just the fact that there were 7 riders on water and 5 of them were us. 😀 So plenty of room, easy to watch and you know… just to have fun! After hearing that we all had passed, we just kept riding and enjoying the evening.
Don’t be fooled by boat rescue
On the second day, the only day without wind, we had our boat rescue lesson. We are bringing it out once more, as it is something that we actually do not practice here in Estonia very often (not to say never), because of the shallow coastline. Throughout the course we got again confirmation that Estonia is a very good place where to teach/learn kitesurfing, because of the shallow waters, sandy beaches, wind and travelling distances. Everything really close by! By less than a one hour drive you can hit various number of beaches for different kind of wind directions.
But rescuing by boat was a neat learning lesson with its certain procedure. Again you might have a question what is so new about it? You drive to the person, take the kite and what can possibly go wrong or be so complicated about it? Don´t be fooled, there are some things which you have to keep in mind – how to approach the person who’s waiting for rescue, when to let go off the kite, how to secure the lines and pack down the gear etc. So definitely something which will not run down by side but yeah, we have to find a way to practice it… otherwise we will just forget it! 😀
Real life students, real life lessons
The following 3 days were windy again and after our usual morning theoretical lessons we were able to execute practical part which every candidate awaits for – giving REAL lessons!
On paper again something which seems easy but actually is the most challenging because of the KISS (keep it short and simple) concept and, of course, students motivation and personality. There is a reason why IKO puts lots of pressure on these things. From time to time we find ourselves really thinking through how to give an answer or feedback to a student so that he/she actually gets what we are trying to say! The communication channel has to be point on and exact, so that the progress of learning will meet the expectations. It is so easy to talk about various things about kitesurfing, what to keep in mind, what you should be aiming etc. but is it the same if we will reduce the number of words, lets say to 5? To really reach the goal and pass the idea to your student, not to over confuse things. This is quite tricky, especially if you count the fact that every student is different, with their own learning pace, motivation, what triggers them and their personality.
After every teaching session we had a feedback round. First we were asked to analyse ourselves, how we did and then our students had the opportunity to give their honest feedback. And as you can expect these did not always match 😀
So again we rest our case – people are different, their expectations and styles are different. Don´t get us wrong – mainly we were top of our game but maybe sometimes too harsh on ourselves? Should learn how to take that credit more!
- Prep yourself for the lesson – think through: where, why and what.
- Short lines – less power, less space needed, less stress! Shortening lines is no rocket science, it is easy and quick!
- Adapt according to your student – some achieve their goals by 6h, some by 12h. Try to read your student and adapt to their learning path.
- Trial and error – don´t babysit! Independent rider is the ultimate goal! Encourage to try and let fail. Nobody has said that the path of learning something new has to be easy. If you won’t let them fail, you will not be seeing any success!
- 3C-s – check, compliment, correct.
- Simulations on land. There are many things which you can play through on land (kite flying, trim adjustment, waterstart etc.) and then try it in the water. Don´t limit yourself, there are numerous ways to teach.
Overall experience is for sure worth it! Lots of tricks and tips how to safely teach other people to kitesurf! In addition to practical techniques, Anne-Mai received good new friends with whom she has remained in contact – here’s a shoutout to other candidates Kaileen, Ilona and Karl, you were super cool companions on this journey! Also to Laurynas (our examiner) you are super gripping teacher and all the experience and knowledge, which you are so willing to share with your students, is so thank-worthy!
And now back to the real teaching…..stay tuned!
