Teaching your kids

[Angus]

RE: Leash - I used it on the younger child but she was 3 1/2 - but I found by the next season she was relying on it and got rid of it quickly. It was definitely a "peace of mind" device for me - she wasn't going to go whizzing down the hill into the woods. I know I've read here the warnings of never skiing with your child between your legs. for the younger child - relatively short rides to the ski hill was best and more moderate terrain - wawa, bromley, crotched, ragged, sunapee. definitely lots of breaks for hot chocolate.

 

[Greg]

Holy crap. Your daughter is quite the little ripper! Nice work.

 

[gladerider]

Something to consider, kids will stay on a wedge for a while. Leg muscles are still developing. Their center of mass is lower so the coordination and balance will be a little off.

IIRC my daughter finally made parrallel turns when she was 8 or 9, doesn't seem out or line from what other people have said. Another data point is look at the ski school and race teams, most are in wedges or still have the hint of wedges even with so many days logged. The muscle development to ski parrallel just takes time.

i agree. my kids were on it for a while. they started around 3.5 and 4. muscle development is one thing and the balance is another. very early on, i told my kids to put their hands on their knees, which helps with the overall balance. many people disagreed with me, but my kids are fine skiers now. what's important is somehow guiding your kids to realize how best to utilize what they have. trying to force kids to parallel when their muscle strength and overall balance are not there did not make sense to me. at some point, they understood what up-and-down meant and that was a breakthrough. have patience. enjoy the time with them.....

 

[hiroto]

trying to force kids to parallel

I believe it is not necessary to encourage kids to parallel ski, but if you could discourage them from power wedging, life is much easier. See my daughter wedging at age of 4. It is definitely wedge but her primary speed control is from turing and wedge is already relatively narrow.



Here is an example of BAD wedging. Her brother at age of 4 (wearing the same blue one piece jacket) and his friends. They are all power wedging straight down the mountain. Yeah, sure they could go much faster and were able to go down steep trails. But I could never get him to improve from this way of skiing and took 4 years of season lesson at Wawa to be a decent skier.



This is my daughter at age 6. Still wedging but it is getting quite a bit narrower, and overall, much better balance than when she was 4.



And at the end of that season, it simply clicked without any explicit push for parallel skiing.

 

[legalskier]

Any tips would be greatly appreciated. My daughters have gone about 6 or 7 times now between last year and this and my older one is getting frustrated. She really really wants to ski but is having trouble doing anything besides going straight with a semi wedge. I tried the tip harness for her but that isnt going to help with turning. Not sure the leash thing would help there either. I'm not real good at explaining how to ski, hell, i dont even know what i'm doing most of the time.

they've been in lessons 3 times now but don't seem to get much out of it. If i'm going to shell out that coin but get no more out of it then what i can help them with, i'm thinking of bagging anymore lessons.

anyway, any suggestions would be appreciated.

oh, the younger one, she doesnt care. all she wants to do is go straight and fast or have me hold her in my arms and ski fast. I'm not too worried there, not sure she's really into it. which is fine with me, i'm not pushing anything on them.

So basically she knows how to wedge going straight but can't turn or control her speed. I did some research for you (free of charge); here are a couple of vids to show her:
http://www.trails.com/video_449_wedge-turns-skiing-tips.html
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n-klbujaVhY

Also, the following material appears somewhat dated but steps 5 through 7 have some good tips: http://www.psia-c.org/education/PSIA_AlpineLevel1Guide.pdf

Notice that all three use/recommend gentle terrain, and no one has their hands on their knees (because it puts them in the back seat), and none use a tether. I have seen people use their pole as an outrigger for a child so that they are both skiing in the same direction.
Btw, how old are they?

 

[SKIQUATTRO]

http://travel.nytimes.com/2010/01/22/travel/escapes/22skitot.html?emc=eta1

 

[2knees]

So basically she knows how to wedge going straight but can't turn or control her speed. I did some research for you (free of charge); here are a couple of vids to show her:
http://www.trails.com/video_449_wedge-turns-skiing-tips.html
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n-klbujaVhY

Also, the following material appears somewhat dated but steps 5 through 7 have some good tips: http://www.psia-c.org/education/PSIA_AlpineLevel1Guide.pdf

Notice that all three use/recommend gentle terrain, and no one has their hands on their knees (because it puts them in the back seat), and none use a tether. I have seen people use their pole as an outrigger for a child so that they are both skiing in the same direction.
Btw, how old are they?

Cant watch youtube at work but i'll check this out tonight.

interesting about the hands on the knees cause 2 of the 3 instructors had them doing that.

they're 4 and 6. the 4 year old isnt really into it that much and that's cool but the 6 year old loves it but wants to do more. Until i can get her to control her speed better with some wedge turns, i'm reluctant to take her off the true bunny (magic carpet) runs.

 

[Greg]

Until i can get her to control her speed better with some wedge turns, i'm reluctant to take her off the true bunny (magic carpet) runs.

There comes a point when you just gotta let them go. It can be scary, but you'll be amazed how they control themselves when they really need to. I hope you've gotten off the magic carpet at Sundown. There's hardly any pitch there, and she's not going to get enough speed to be able to make any real sort of turn.

BTW, it looks like I might be up with the family at Sundown on Sunday.

 

[o3jeff]

This weekend I am going to try and get him to do some parrallel turns. What are/did you do to teach them to do some parallel turns? Just get them in a closer stance and unweigh the uphill ski?

After he gets that down he will be as good as me and will need to get him some professional ski lessons!

 

[2knees]

There comes a point when you just gotta let them go. It can be scary, but you'll be amazed how they control themselves when they really need to. I hope you've gotten off the magic carpet at Sundown. There's hardly any pitch there, and she's not going to get enough speed to be able to make any real sort of turn.

BTW, it looks like I might be up with the family at Sundown on Sunday.

They've only been to sundown twice. i took both of them up the sunnyside double for that very reason. carpet isnt enough. at killington, okemo, waterville and ragged, it was basically magic carpet only.

i'm thinking about taking them this weekend. see how sunday's weather plays out. but if you're there, maybe abbey's skiing will open riley's eyes.

 

[Greg]

This weekend I am going to try and get him to do some parrallel turns. What are/did you do to teach them to do some parallel turns? Just get them in a closer stance and unweigh the uphill ski?

I just tell Abby to make "S turns" and ski like a snake. When she does good ones, I tell her to look back up at her tracks. She's still wedge turning. It's time to start getting her to unweight.

i'm thinking about taking them this weekend. see how sunday's weather plays out. but if you're there, maybe abbey's skiing will open riley's eyes.

Certainly won't hurt. I'm sure she'll take a few runs at Sunnyside if we think it might inspire Riley.

 

[bvibert]

BTW, it looks like I might be up with the family at Sundown on Sunday.

I was thinking of trying to get my daughter up there on Sunday too, depending on the weather. Let me know if it looks like you guys are heading up.

 

[Greg]

I was thinking of trying to get my daughter up there on Sunday too, depending on the weather. Let me know if it looks like you guys are heading up.

It'll probably be morning before the rain comes.

 

[jrmagic]

This weekend I am going to try and get him to do some parrallel turns. What are/did you do to teach them to do some parallel turns? Just get them in a closer stance and unweigh the uphill ski?

After he gets that down he will be as good as me and will need to get him some professional ski lessons!

I think the easiest way to get them to start truning parallel is the stem christie. Basically they initiate the turn from the the wedge and then unweight the uphill ski once the turn has started and move the uphill ski parallel to the downhill ski. Try a few runs like that and then he shoudl be able to get the feeling of how he shoudl turn. It shoudl be automatic from there.

 

[Greg]

Mostly I guess she has trouble letting off a little from the wedge to get going, kind of an all or nothing deal. I'd tell to start going and start myself, she'd delay a few seconds, then let up all together and come flying into my pole (which by that point was an inch or so away). Once the edgy thing hit my pole it would stretch out until she came to an abrupt stop and toppled over. Or she would start when I did, but still let up on the wedge too much, causing the edgie wedgie to stretch to it's limits. I'm starting to think that she's just too heavy for that method. Either that or she just hasn't mastered the pizza move enough yet...

She might indeed be too heavy for that method. My little one is 30 lbs. at best and even she can put a fair amount of pressure on the pole. Maybe try an aluminum pole since the composite probably bends. Also, fool around with repositioning the Edgie-Wedgie. Usually, I start with it screwed down on the outsides of the ski so it brings the tips closer. You can stick the pole behind the almost touching tips bending the E-W behind it. The tip of the pole will drag through the snow which can be helpful to slow her down. Kind of like a brake. As she gets better, start putting the E-W right at the tips and eventually on the inside edges so the skis become more independent and she'll need to hold the wedge more herself. You can also get her set up in a wedge and ask her to hold it. Then with the pole under the E-W pull up on it catching it with the top of the basket and use that to drag her out to get started. Just some ideas. Nobody said this was easy!

 

[bvibert]

She might indeed be too heavy for that method. My little one is 30 lbs. at best and even she can put a fair amount of pressure on the pole. Maybe try an aluminum pole since the composite probably bends. Also, fool around with repositioning the Edgie-Wedgie. Usually, I start with it screwed down on the outsides of the ski so it brings the tips closer. You can stick the pole behind the almost touching tips bending the E-W behind it. The tip of the pole will drag through the snow which can be helpful to slow her down. Kind of like a brake. As she gets better, start putting the E-W right at the tips and eventually on the inside edges so the skis become more independent and she'll need to hold the wedge more herself. You can also get her set up in a wedge and ask her to hold it. Then with the pole under the E-W pull up on it catching it with the top of the basket and use that to drag her out to get started. Just some ideas. Nobody said this was easy!

Thanks for the input. As far as the EW placement goes; I'm limited to putting it on the inside since her skis have a thick plastic cap on the tip that the EW doesn't fit over. I've been meaning grind off the cap, but haven't gotten around to it...

 

[Greg]

Thanks for the input. As far as the EW placement goes; I'm limited to putting it on the inside since her skis have a thick plastic cap on the tip that the EW doesn't fit over. I've been meaning grind off the cap, but haven't gotten around to it...

Probably too much freedom of movement that way too early. Try it on the outsides, even if it lays over the ski tips. Again, the ski pole will end up behind the tips. Just be careful it doesn't pop out up at her.

 

[legalskier]

interesting about the hands on the knees cause 2 of the 3 instructors had them doing that.
they're 4 and 6. the 4 year old isnt really into it that much and that's cool but the 6 year old loves it but wants to do more.

That was explained to me by an instructor at Killington. Only stands to reason. My kids always had been told to put hands on knees, but I noticed that none of the kids at Killington were doing it and they were skiing just fine.
Age 4 is a good starting age as it seems to be the minimum age for most children's lessons from what I recall, but it's understandable that she feels differently than your older child. She isn't as physically adept. With little ones, I always tried to focus primarily on having fun on the snow, and mixing in ski learning secondarily, because I figured they would want to return if they associated skiing with fun. (It worked.) I also remember how much patience it required. :sad: I'm glad we got through it.

 

[Greg]

Sunday is a good day to hit up Sundown with the kids:

http://www.skisundown.com/events/index.php?action=detail&id=340

 

[Mapnut]

This thread is very refreshing. I'm surprised to see it go this long without someone showing up to say "You really must get them professional instruction if you want them to do it right." I've always thought skiing is not as technical as some make it out to be.