Teaching childen to ski

THEDICKBUTCHER

THEDICKBUTCHER

Active member
hey guys, tomorrow I'm going to be teaching my 8 yr old nephew and 5 yr old niece to ski. I've taught two other people before but never kids so im super nervous. Any helpful tips?
 
just be patient with them and try to be creative and funny when explaining stuff to them, but also know how to explain it straight to them. that is what i have found out with 5 years of teaching kids
 
Just take it really easy and try and make it as fun as you can. It's really easy to push kids too hard, especially if they are only 5, they'll probably be stoked just pizza-ing down the bunny hill.

The most banger exercise for getting them to put their weight over their outside ski is 'aeroplane wings', just get them to stick their arms out and tilt their upper body over their outside ski, sounds are optional but encouraged.

Try and get them controlling their speed with turns before you take them anywhere even slightly steep, otherwise they'll get in a death plow and never leave it.

Take loads of breaks, little guys get tired really easily, and they are shit at skiing when they are tired.
 
Dont try to teach them how to turn.

Once they can stop and control their snow plough then just tell them to follow you.

Just make slight turns and they should learn them selves.Once they are making small turns then you can start trying to get them pressuring the outside ski ect.

But if its not working out, dont pressure them and Have Fun :)
 
get them making the pizza shape off their skis in just their boots, then have a few goes skiing down holding the noses together and letting go earlier and earlier each time until they can do it by themselves

make sure they are safe, having fun and learning in that order

kids lessons are so fun to teach, so rewarding and some of the things they say are hilarious
 
if it's their very first time, start at the bottom of the hill, on a part thats almost flat, then work your way up, when they feel completely comfortable there and almost start getting bored, take a lift and start with an easy run, just don't take too big steps when progressing, most important thing is that they feel comfortable on skis and remain comfortable as well ...

also make sure they know how to stop, or at least know how to turn ....
 
just have fun with them...they just want to play in the snow. So at the end of the day if they havent learnt shit and want to come tomorrow; you did your job.

But if you want to know where to start. Show them the snow plow and make sure they can stop with it too. Then procede make them turn in one direction. Then the other. By then, they are tired.
 
Spend a while teaching them things without their skis even on. Have them skate around with one ski using it like a scooter to get used to balance and it lets them feel their edges and how they work. Teach them pizza and french fries in just their boots. Put on their skis and then have them do pizza tons of times before you send them down anywhere. Start on the magic carpet, especially with 5 year olds. Get them doing a gliding wedge, working into making complete stops with a wedge. Once they can stop proficiently in that wedge quickly, then you can take them up the lift. I find that if their pizza technique is perfect, then turning is not an issue at all, they will probably even figure it out on their own for the most part. But don't expect that. Also, you understand what you're trying to say while explaining things, but it all sounds like a different language to them. Explain why pizza is called pizza/french fries called french fries. Don't overwhelm them with a ton of information, only say as much as you need to. Once you start going off explaining random shit that can apply later on or something, they'll stop listening and you've lost them.

Also, good luck.
 
just make it fun and teach em correctly, hate seeing parents with their kids saying "justturn its easy look at me!" you have to tell em how but using words and examples that will make sense to them and even make it a game for em. as soon as i get little ones turning i tell them to pretend they are a police car, kids fucking love that shit.
 
props and toys also work great with kids. i like to get a frisbee and have them hold it in out in front of them like a steering wheel, this gets the forward in their boots and they can pretend they're driving a car. also kids love skiing around cones if you can find some.
 
If you want like the "proper" or PSIA style of teaching this is what to do:Get their explain the environment show verbally where everything is.

After that explain all of the equipment, and why it's there, but be engaging with it.

Do some boot work walk around in them, especially in a figure eight to get the edge initiation without skis. Practice a were by sliding their boots in the snow in the shape of a wedge.

Put one ski on and just glide around, and do a figure eight, do a one ski pizza on flat ground.

Put on both skis and glide around do all that is said above, and be fun with it.

The next step is to side step up a very short ways on the bunny hill and do straight runs

Start working in the pizza still side stepping not on the carpet yet.

Do straight run pizza, hybrid bringing their skis together and apart in on run.

Start trying to do turns, you want to have a plan for this, you need to explain pressure. The most important part of the turn is the tipping and flattening of skis, this will help them progress far faster.

Once they link a turn, link two turns, and so on.

If they are ready you can take two paths: You can keep them on the bunny hill and work on wedge to parallel, or you can take them to the chair and continue to get them comfortable with the wedge.

Just remember kids get cold tired hungry and bored really easily so don't use this exact structure, these are more or less guide lines. And attempt to teach to their skill set, because there are three types of learners, visual, auditory and kinesthetic, so just tamper with them all for a more fun easier session.

hope that helps, if you even read it.
 
hey guys thanks so much for the advice! I'll have a lot of these in mind tomorrow when I try and teach my niece a little more. Teaching them was one of the most challenging things i've done. I did get my nephew to ski like a champ. He hockey stopped during his 3rd run it was amazing. Heres a video of him mid lesson. i'm trying to get him to do bigger turns though he just likes to do tiny turns resulting in a ridiculous ammount of speed.

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