OK, my coaching course.
I was last certified as a coach in about 1991. Not joking. I worked with that certification until about 1999. It was only an entry-level certification called Level 1.
Because my certification was so old, I assumed I had to start over with the new entry level course, the "EL" course that's meant for coaching 6 to 11-year-olds. I will be coaching 14 to 15-year-olds, where I'm supposed to have the development level certification, but we don't have enough "DL" certified coaches, so an EL will do.
I am stoked. I love this stuff. I'm first to arrive at 8:30 for the 9:30 EL course, and there is a DL course already gathering that I wasn't even aware was running. So I ask, "Is there any way I can transfer into the DL course now?"
They said sorry, no, I couldn't.
I figured.
So I asked at the office if there was anything they could do. They decided they really wanted me to have the higher accreditation if I could weasel my way in. They suggested calling the Alpine Ontario office.
I went back to the guys running the DL course. I explained I needed that course. They called the office for me, the office found my old certification, decided I qualified (probably more because my club desperately needed more DL coaches), and was able to transfer to the DL course.
So all the materials I printed were useless. I didn't do the correct pre-course homework, and I'm flying by the seat of my pants for now, but I'm holding on and looking at the video from the past two days, my skiing is up to par. I just have a bunch of homework.
The best part, though, is that I fell right in front of the coaches today. Training run, in a course, not particularly scary one, but my ski tip hit a gate dead on and I got launched. Spun, landed backwards on my butt and whacked the back of my head against the hard snow. I'm hopped up on Advil right now.
After the fall we went through the emergency action plan and I mostly self-assessed. I had no neck or head pain. I knew who I was, where I was, and today's date. I knew current events, though I was thinking Donald Trump was the president elect and that had me second guessing the concussion thing.
Everything stopped as I took stock of myself and slowly got out of the way. The next run was to be filmed and assessed for pass/fail on a necessary skiing component. I was told my skiing before the fall earned me a pass already, but if I felt well enough I could do the official video run. I did the run. Lots of candidates failed to complete the run. It looked easy but was quite technical.
This is that run:
That was the course that launched me. Seriously. Seems I can fall anywhere.
