Nordic Training Resources

Along with our clinics, you’ll find plenty of resources to help you level up your skiing and teaching!

Nordic First Time Experience Goals *FTEG-Click to Download

To ensure equally epic experiences across all Nordic lesson guests, we have worked with MLC to develop our Nordic First Time Experience Goals. Written out for both Classic and Skate, the goals for a first time up to beginner level lesson are aligned to the left of the table. Goals have been distilled from the PSIA manual and your Trainer’s cumulative experiences.

The center column hosts suggested activities and drills to help you accomplish these goals. These are great to have in your pocket, but the more you teach the more you will know what your students tend to have success with and how to pivot if needed (*hint hint* student centered learning). Please feel free to check out other resources on these pages to help you in finding your own FTEG activities, or the Nordic Teaching Hub for peer submitted ideas!

The far right column has our fundamental movements and skills. See more on this on the Teaching Fundamentals page! These will inform your Movement Analysis and help asses if the activity was successful in teaching the goal.

We highly recommend printing additional copies for yourself and taking notes.

The Professional Ski Instructors of America quite literally wrote the book on how to teach snow sports. As a member ski school, our training stems from the fundamentals and certification pathways they provide. You do not have to be a dues paying member to access some of these materials, though you will need a free account. Instructors do not need to be PSIA-AASI certified to teach at Meadows, but we do have wage incentives for higher certifications, and certifications partially inform call offs.

Click Me! PSIA Cross Country Ski Manual

We are in the Northwest Region, so we are a member school of PSIA-Northwest. There are resources available from PSIA National, PSIA Northwest, Women of Winter, and other affiliated programs in addition to podcasts and other multi media options to consume that sweet skiing knowledge.

ALL First Season at Mt. Hood Meadows Nordic instructors are required to watch three videos to be eligible for employment with us, regardless of intention to pursure certification. As these are a required pre-requisite to employment, this is not compensated time. These make excellent reference videos at any time for any instructor. 

PSIA-AASI Online Videos: https://lms.thesnowpros.org/

Required and Free:

Course for new instructors

Delivering the Beginner Experience — Cross Country

Introduction to Working with Children

PSIA-AASI Northwest

PSIA-AASI Northwest on Cross Country Skiing: https://www.psia-nw.org/education/cross-country/

If you’re looking for more ways to grow as a Nordic instructor, PSIA-AASI Northwest has excellent cross-country education options — from skill-building clinics to certification pathways. Their programs are a great supplement to what we do here and can help you expand your toolkit on and off the snow. They also offer Scholarship Programs in addition to our in house Scholarships for Mt. Hood Meadows Instructors

Cross Country Skiing with Kids

This workbook is for anyone interested in growing their skills as a Nordic instructor, especially those pursuing the Children’s Specialist (CS1) certification. It’s full of practical ideas and insights—and it’s just as useful even if you’re not planning to take the exam.

Children’s Specialist Program – Cross-Country Workbook

Cognitive, Affective, Physical (CAP) Model: Kids develop at different rates and circumstances, but generally, we can break kiddos into age brackets and mark these differences by looking at: physical control and awareness, responding to feedback, interacting with a group (lesson), receiving praise, expressing biological needs, etc.

This handout identifies these age brackets and some key differences in children’s physical bodies, their mood(s), and their processing.