Can a Level 1 instructor teach you well? How principal KAKU trains new instructors

A rider asked principal KAKU on Threads: I had a bad experience once. I trust that you can teach, KAKU, but if the instructor on the day is a Level 1 instructor, how will you put my mind at rest? The question is as KAKU relayed it in the post.

KAKU finds the worry easy to understand. You take time off and fly to Hokkaido, you have paid for flights, accommodation and lift tickets, and you have finally cleared a day for a lesson. Of course you want to know whether the instructor who turns up can teach what you came to learn. The person riding with you that day isn’t necessarily the principal, and however well the principal teaches, the principal can’t teach this lesson for you.

This is Part 5 of the Choosing an Instructor series. Earlier parts covered how to choose an instructor, what certifications prove and why stick with one instructor. This part answers a more specific worry: if the instructor isn’t a senior one, will the lesson still work?

This post is useful if you:

• have already booked, or are comparing a few schools
• are worried that the instructor on the day will have only just been certified
• want to work on carving this trip and aren’t sure whether to say so in advance

What follows is compiled from a thread of two Threads posts by KAKU in November 2026. It is KAKU’s personal view and practice, not the school’s guarantee for every lesson. KAKU’s original “Level 1” doesn’t say which certification system it belongs to; this post doesn’t map it to any system, and doesn’t read it as a Badge Test level either.

Can a Level 1 instructor teach?

KAKU’s answer is direct:

Of course a Level 1 instructor can teach a beginner lesson well. What I care about more is this: between passing the certification and teaching students alone for the first time, did anyone properly mentor them?

KAKU

What KAKU looks at is the stretch after the certification and before teaching alone. KAKU gives two examples of what teaching requires you to learn:

• When a student doesn’t understand, what else can you say besides repeating the same sentence?
• When a student has fallen several times in a row and says “I’m fine”, can you tell that they are actually getting a little scared?

KAKU says these are all things you have to learn in order to teach. That is why, as principal, KAKU can’t rush a newly certified instructor into taking bookings.

Key point: what KAKU cares about is not only the level, but whether a new instructor has been properly mentored.

How KAKU trains new instructors

Below is the approach KAKU describes in the posts; the assistant part is KAKU’s example of one Level 1 instructor.

Season start: practising how to teach. At the start of every season, KAKU invites senior Japanese instructors with twenty or thirty years of teaching behind them to train everyone specifically in “how to teach”.

Assisting in lessons. KAKU writes that some people who took lessons with KAKU last season will probably remember a Level 1 instructor who was often at KAKU’s side as an assistant. This instructor followed along from start to finish, watching how KAKU chatted with students and set up practice, and when KAKU would say: “That’s okay, let’s try something a bit simpler first.”

Then suitable beginner lessons. Only after a period of assisting did KAKU let this instructor teach beginner lessons suited to them on their own.

Watching lessons, debriefing afterwards. After that, KAKU would also go and watch this instructor’s lessons, and afterwards they would talk it over: where did the student get stuck just now? What did you change before the student understood?

Key point: assist in lessons first, then teach suitable beginner lessons, and after that someone still watches and debriefs with you.

To learn carving, find someone who can teach carving

In the same thread KAKU also draws a line: if you can already link turns and this trip is about carving, KAKU should find you someone capable of teaching carving.

Every instructor was new once, and I'm willing to spend time mentoring them. But you are paying to come and learn; you have no obligation to help us practise teaching.

KAKU

KAKU says holding that line is KAKU’s job as principal.

So KAKU’s answer has two halves. For beginner lessons, a properly mentored Level 1 instructor can teach well. If you can already link turns and want to carve, find someone capable of teaching carving. For what carving is, see Carving Lab, Part 1.

What you can do when booking

The following is advice our editors put together from KAKU’s posts and the course rules, not KAKU’s own words.

• Say what level you are at. Describe it by what you can do on the slope, for example “I can already link turns”. For how to judge your level, see Which lesson should I book?
• Say what you want to learn. For example, “this trip I want to work on carving”. KAKU’s line is to match the instructor to what you want to learn, and that only works if the school knows what it is first.
• If you want to request an instructor, check the course first. If you snowboard, can already make stable linked turns and want to carve this trip, the course for you is the Snowboard Progression Lesson, which lets you request a specific instructor. For the Beginner Lesson and the Ski Progression Lesson, the school assigns an instructor based on your situation, and instructor requests aren’t available. Details are in the FAQ.

For principal KAKU’s background, see KAKU’s profile; courses and booking requirements are on the courses page.

This post is compiled from a thread of two Threads posts by KAKU on 7 November 2026. The rider's question is as KAKU relayed it, and the person asking is not named; the senior instructors at the season-start training are not named. KAKU's original "Level 1" does not specify a certification system, and this post does not map it to any. The training and assistant arrangements are the practice KAKU describes, not a promise for every lesson; the booking advice was compiled by our editors from the posts and the course rules.