HISTORY OF THE ACADEMY SKI INSTRUCTOR + GAP STUDENT TRAINING PROGRAMS

HISTORY OF THE ACADEMY SKI INSTRUCTOR

+ GAP STUDENT TRAINING PROGRAMS

The Warren Smith Ski Academy is based in Verbier, Switzerland. Warren has been there since 1994 as a freeskier on the Voelkl team and a ski coach. He’s a Level 4 Instructor and Examiner with IASI (ISIA Card) and Level 4 Coach (IVSI). He’s also a Swiss Level 4 Brevet Federal Instructor and able to ski with clients in off piste areas. He established the Academy in 1999. It is widely known as the first of the British schools to set up in Verbier and one of the reasons so many British school are based there now.

A large focus of the Academy’s coaching program over the years has been to cater for ski instructors and preparing them for exams. The Academy’s coaching method fits well with ski instructor training with much of its fundamentals and methods offering further education to instructors, not only for the performance coaching they needs to pass technical elements of the exams, but teaching methods and biomechanical analysis too. The Academy has been running instructor weeks since it’s beginning. In 2005 however, there was an industry boom of GAP Year 9 week residential ski instructor courses and the Academy began offering these to skiers. Within 2 years the Academy was seeing over 40 students on one single program turn up on the Verbier GAP year course. These courses became well known quite quickly for high pass rates, great employment opportunities and a lot of fun. Many of the Academy team who are now Level 4 Instructors, Examiners and Swiss Brevet Federal Instructors, actually started their pathway on the Academy GAP year residential course. Well over 500 students have gone through the Academy program and many work as ski instructors now.

Although the booming years of the GAP Courses are past, the consistent and quality programs out there continue to develop. We spoke to Warren about what he thinks of how the program has grown and the future outlook.

Warren says, “It’s been fantastic to have the opportunity in a business to run the GAP Year instructor training programs. We’ve met so many lovely people along the way that have become life long friends. We keep in touch with loads of them and I even work along side many of them that have gone one to be senior members of the Academy team running our Level 3 + 4 Instructor program. There is something really special about the groups when they get together and become a family. It’s a bit like a beautiful version of a skiing big brother house.

We’ve been blessed in Verbier with our accommodation set up which is run by Joanna Craig Humphreys. She is probably the most important aspect of the course as the accommodation and feeling at home is essential. She treats our students literally like family members. She runs cooking classes for them and makes them feel part of her home. Coupled with the fact her accommodation is right on the Le Rouge piste in Verbier is a no brainer.

Moving forward for 2022 we already have a lot of booking in and committed students. Switzerland is a safe bet for many people considering courses with COVID still around us and I think this has given people confidence when booking. I’m really looking forward to the 2022 course and meeting the new students. It will be our 17th year of running the GAP year program in Verbier and if you include our summer GAP programs, our 25th GAP. ¼ of a century is something we are all really excited to welcome in.

We are upping the anti with Carving and Race Training on the 2021 program will swap the Freestyle Level 1 for the new Race Coach Level 1 as part of the course and welcome Phil Brown from Impulse Racing into the fold. His experience is massive and he’s a huge part of the British race development scene. Like other years we are giving students Foundation Development, IASI Core Skier Development, Carving, Piste Performance, Steeps, Moguls, Variables and off piste training. It’s a full on program with the Level 1 Exam in week 3, Level 1 Race Coach in week 4 and so much personal development training in all the other weeks. There’s also a first aid qualification, education on skiing off piste, how to service your skis, ski biomechanics training and much more.

Socially the course is busy and Verbier as a town is a great place to be based. Verbier’s night life has a reputation. We obviously keep the focus on the mountain and that’s where the energy goes but we like a social apres every now and again too.

So it’s an exciting time for our GAP year program and we’re all really excited. Look forward to meeting the new gang real soon”.

Former student now Academy team member Ruaridh Stevenson tells us how the GAP program has made many great life developments for himself. “I took part in the summer GAP course of 2013 and have never looked back. I’m now working for the Academy and teach a lot of high end skiers. I am now considering a UIAGM guides qualification and feel firmly established in the ski industry”.

A student from 2009, Matthew Horder, tells us of his experience and some exciting places it too him too with his coaching. “I loved my GAP course. Was the perfect break from working in the city. I met life long friends and even got to work for the Academy teaching the likes of Lawrence Dallaglio and even assisting Warren on Channel 4’s, The Jump”.

If you were thinking of a GAP program for the coming winter and would like to enrol, email theteam@ warrensmith-skiacademy.com. They will then set up a telephone interview with you to give you a good insight into the program and answer any questions you might have. The team are also on the road across the UK in October as part of the ‘Ski Technique Lab’ talks taking place a ski shops and ski venues. At these events many students get to meet the team and talk in person about the program.

The Academy website has the full program details here http://www.warrensmith-skiacademy.com/shop/9-weekinstructor-training-verbier-iasi-l1-l2-ski-instructor-coursel1-freestyle-coach-202021/ If you want to see inside the Academy GAP year course, there is an extensive video library on their youtube channel here, https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=P

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