Mountain Magic: How Teaching Outdoor Sports Can Change Lives

Around the world, a “Yankee” is known as someone from the United States. But if you live in the States, a “Yankee” is someone from New England. Yet if you live in New England, a “Yankee” is someone specifically from New Hampshire, Vermont, or Maine. And if you live in New Hampshire, Vermont, or Maine, a “Yankee” is someone who eats pie for breakfast.

I live in Maine and don’t often eat pie for breakfast, but I know it’s important to try new things. So I’m trying new things.

Sometime back in September, my wife came to me and said, “I’ve decided to join Ski Patrol.”

What she means is that at our home ski mountain of Sugarloaf, she intends to become a candidate to learn the ways and skills of ski patrol, take the required classes, awake in the pre-dawn hours, be the first up the chairlift to check trails in single-degree temperatures, and open the mountain. It means logging long hours on the hill, learning the radio patter of patrol, understanding the codes, practicing to control a loaded patrol toboggan, and most importantly, learning how to respond in the event of an emergency.

“So that’s what I’m doing. What are you going to do?”

I thought about it for a bit, and had a chat with our 16-year old daughter. We both decided to join Ski School, and be weekend ski instructors. Each Saturday and Sunday morning, our daughter and I drive up to the mountain, put on our very official-looking instructor jackets, and from 9am-12pm we have private classes.

Our daughter has a group of 4-year olds, and I have a group of 6-year olds. I know that does indeed sound pretty young, but they’re better than you might think. My group can ski most of the mountain, including a handful of black diamond trails, and they are typically ahead of me. I often follow behind the group, since commonly someone will crash and lose a ski. This way, I can be above them and quickly help.

These groups are fixed throughout the season, and we have the same kids each weekend, which means we get a nice opportunity to develop a relationship with each child and learn their personalities. It’s been both more challenging, and more rewarding, than I expected.

Working with youth to develop outdoor skills such as canoeing, skiing, tennis, or any other outdoor activity can have many benefits for both the adult and the child. Some of these benefits include:

1. Improved physical health: Outdoor activities can be physically demanding and can help to improve overall physical health and fitness for both adult and child. My kids are learning that skiing can be a lot easier once you learn to stop snowplowing, and start making parallel turns. It’s much more efficient.
2. Increased self-esteem and confidence: As youth learn new outdoor skills, they gain a sense of accomplishment and pride, which can boost their self-esteem and confidence. One child in my class, riding with another adult ahead of me, had an incident in which the chairlift pushed her off of the loading mat. We stopped the lift, and was no big deal. But it did scare her. Later, she and I rode that chair together, and she conquered that fear.
3. Increased creativity: Engaging in outdoor activities can help to stimulate youth’s minds and inspire new ideas and ways of thinking. Often when riding the chair, we mentally map out where we intend to go. It’s a fun exercise in creative problem-solving.
4. Greater sense of purpose and fulfillment: Discovering new outdoor interests and passions can give youth a sense of purpose and fulfillment, and it can lead to a greater sense of satisfaction and happiness. Adults can also feel fulfilled as they watch the child’s progress and enjoyment.
5. Greater social connections: Engaging in outdoor activities and learning new outdoor skills can open up opportunities for youth to meet new people and make new friends, which can foster greater social connections. Many of the kids in my group are now close friends outside of our class and meet for free skiing and playtime.
6. Exposure to nature and environmental stewardship: Outdoor activities provide opportunities for youth to connect with nature and learn about the importance of environmental stewardship. The kids in my group hear my dismay when I see trash below chairlift, and share my annoyance.
7. Building resilience and problem-solving skills: Outdoor activities often require youth to adapt and overcome challenges, which can help to build resilience and problem-solving skills. Simply skiing on the mountain, in constantly varying weather conditions, is an act of resilience-building.
8. A break from technology: Outdoor activities provide a break from technology, which can be beneficial for youth’s and adult’s mental and physical health. Like, yeah.
9. Quality time and bonding: Teaching an outdoor skill to a child is a great way for an adult to spend quality time with a child, and as the child learns from the adult, they will also build a stronger bond with the adult.

Lately we’re doing quite a bit of work with a company called?One Trusted Adult , and I’m learning a lot about what it means to work with youth in our communities.

These activities don’t benefit only you and the youth you are working with, it also?supports our schools, nourishes our communities, and sets in motion a cycle of health, well-being and connection that creates lasting positive impact.?

In the words of Brooklyn Raney, founder of One Trusted Adult,

“At One Trusted Adult we are on a mission to ensure every young person on the planet has a trained, motivated and committed trusted adult. We are a program dedicated to helping adults build strong connections and healthy boundaries with young people, and helping youth seek out and invest in relationships with mentors, and trusted adults.”

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Our company?Mindscaling , is busy building powerful online micro-learning experiences to drive the human change that propels your team. You can find our catalog of high-impact courses?here . And if you want something more tailored, you can learn about our custom work?here . We have quite a few custom projects in the works right now.?Reach out ?and we can show you some samples of our work.

My book?Small Acts of Leadership, is a Washington Post bestseller! You?can?grab ?a copy here. And if you want to learn to apply some of these ideas and be an effective coach for your team, we wrote a course on that too. It’s called?Coaching for Managers ?available over at UDEMY for Business.

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