How To Pass The CASI Level 4: Train To Win

Another season, another opportunity to reflect on what we’ve learned thus far.

Looking back at my progression through CASI has been an invaluable tool for improving not only my own skills, but that of the athletes and instructors I train.

When it comes to the Riding Component of the Level 4 Exam there are so many wonderful parallels to competition that on a whole we don’t talk about enough:

You’re standing, waiting outside the start gate with a dozen of your peers. Nervous. Excited. Confident? Self doubting.

All year has lead to this moment, the summer of training, wanting to feel fitter. Stronger. The preparation all winter, honing your skills, working on your weaknesses. The hours of planning, studying the mountain, looking over recordings.

It’s finally your turn. You look through the start gate. Can see the Judges with their little notebooks, all eyes on you.

Legs start to shake a little. The board feels slippery beneath your feet. Music suddenly stops. The second guessing starts. Have I picked the right line? Can I afford to play it safe? Do I need to go full send in order to win?

It’s time to drop. The panic kicks in. You rush, go too hard, make mistakes, crash, lose.

Sound familiar?

Is this a CASI exam? Or your first time competing in a Slopestyle event?

The level 4 is a competition. There is no other way to look at it. Lucky for us, the only person we are competing with is ourselves.

I grew up playing competitive sports at both a club and national level. Won championships and state titles. Track and field champion at high school. Competition was everywhere.

But snowboarding was always just for fun.

It wasn’t until the first time standing at the top of a perfectly groomed corridor, wearing a numbered bib, that I had to try and perform on my snowboard with all the pressures of competition. How did I even get close?

Unfortunately it took me two years after failing my first exam to work this out. I spent the season following focused exclusively on the Technical when I should have been working on the Tactical and Psychological. My riding improved but when it came to the next exam, it wasn’t my technical skills that let me down, but my ability to perform under pressure.

How do we change this?

The season I passed the Riding component had almost zero focus on improving the technical way I turn a snowboard. I needed to learn how to ride well under the pressure of competition. The best way? Enter competitions and get outside your comfort zone. As often as possible.

I raced boardercross. Entered banked slaloms. Signed up for steeps sessions, riding lines and features that scared the shit out of me. Tried to learn new tricks in the park. Anything I could think of that would require me to perform near my limit and feel uncomfortable doing so.

This didn’t take away the nerves. There was still huge self imposed pressure to perform. I had set big goals for myself.

What all this competition and increased challenge did, was bring familiarity. I understood that feeling standing at the top of park, waiting to do your run, going over the trick list in your head. I knew I could feel those nerves, be scared, and yet still make it through the exposure, turn where I needed and stomp the big drop.

I knew I could ride this corridor down a perfectly groomed run and show what I needed to, even if I didn’t ride at my limit.

6s 7s and 8s. For sure I didn’t ride my best. I made some big mistakes. Crashed in the Carving. Reverted out of a 540 in the Park. Got a little caught up shopping in the freeride one lap, then went a little too hard in the other. But what did happen this season was I taught myself how to perform with the anxiety. This allowed me to start each task with the ability to ride to my potential and not below it.

This brings me to the second big piece that helped me create success in my riding exam and another huge parallel to competition.

You can not win consistently if your best is only just good enough.

Look at any slopestyle or halfpipe competition in the last 10 years and you’ll be hard pressed to find even one example of where an athlete won with a Hail Mary, throwing their hardest trick on every feature. Shaun White is perfect example of showing dominance over the years by staying one step ahead and competing below his limit. He knew his 8/10 run was good enough for a win. This allowed him to push his skill set, learn or innovate new tricks and train at or above his limits.

When it came time to compete, he could ride at a level of comfort and consistency and still see success.

This is the is the key to training to win.

When working on your technical skills in preparation for exams (or any competition) your goal should always be to train to a higher level than you know is required.

I rode bumps every day my second season training for the Level 4. I tried to find the hardest iciest bumps I could and rode them feeling fresh, tired, frustrated, stoked. I wanted to enter the exams knowing on my best day I was scoring an 8 or 9.

The true mark of a Level 4 instructor is that any day, any conditions they ride at the standard. Freezing rain the night before? Doesn’t matter. Best mates birthday and out all night? Doesn’t matter. Tired, distracted, fatigued? All good.

The third thing that without a doubt continues to have a huge impact on my riding is cross training.

If you don’t already, you need a summer hobby. I was fortunate enough to fall into mountain biking as a fun job that used a lot of the skills I had developed in the winters. What started out as a way to get through the summers without spending my days sanding multi million dollar homes, has turned into a passion rivaling that of my love for snowboarding.

Something I didn’t realize would happen, but quickly started to notice was that each winter I would come back to snowboarding and within a couple weeks be riding the best I ever had.

There are so many parallels to how you move, read terrain, problem solve from the one sport to the next. Without noticing, I was subconsciously spending each summer improving my mental and physical ability to snowboard.

It doesn’t have to be biking. Any of the classic summer board sports, climbing, even golf. Anything to keep the mind active, build some balance and range of movement

Lastly, this all comes together as belief.

You have to believe you are good enough. Any time you enter a competition, be it with yourself or against others. If you want any shot at winning, you have to believe you’re capable of it.

I knew I was good enough to be successful. I just needed to show everyone what I already knew.

This is the mindset of great athletes. This should be your mindset too. The level 4 is just the beginning of becoming a great snowboarder, treat it as such. It is not unattainable. It is within reach.

Find ways to feel and process the nerves outside of exam situations. Train as if there’s a level 5. Start cultivating some of those other performance factors, not just the Technical one.