Leaning Back

[IceCoastisms]

*FIRST TIME POST ALERT*

I'm new to the community and so happy to have found Ski Diva. Question for all the moms of littles out there.... my son is 6 years old and in his third season skiing. This is the first year that he really didn't progress in term of stance and posture and I'm wondering if there is anything that we can do to help him in the off-season and at the start of next season to get over the slump.

What we notice whenever we take runs as a family before or after ski school is that instead of hinging forward he is leaning back in a controlled fashion and snowplowing the entire time. When we remind him he needs to get more forward, he tucks and goes too fast to remain in control. He's also having a hard time getting his hockey stop and french fries down. Now, he's 6. We get it. And I'm actually ok with him taking his time learning and having stayed in the same group level at ski school all year. He, however, is very antsy and wants to get to the next group level, ride the bigger chairs, and ski with poles.

Is there anything that we can do to help him get ready for next season and to jumpstart him when the flakes start to fly in December (aside from logging more hours on the snow)?

 

[J9maus]

Hi there! Great question IceCoastisms! I am a PSIA Certified Instructor (Level 2 Alpine -Children's Specialist 1)-I work for Vail Resorts in the mid-Atlantic. 1st thing-He is 6. Younger children don't have the muscle control that adults and older children have, children develop their motor skills from the trunk and head outward. Their head is the heaviest part of their body. In order to stay centered over their skis, with their heavy heads, they lean back. If you look his shoulders and head they are probably centered of his feet. ITS NORMAL. Now what you didn't say, is how often you ski each season. Mileage and days out on snow will develop his skill. Also when you pick him up from ski school, find out what the instructor emphasized in the lesson and what he needs to work on. Then apply it to the family time. One other note-when children have grown spurts-their muscles take a bit to catch up to the longer bones-think gangly teenagers-so it messes with their coordination.

Activities to help him center on the snow. Jumping- doing popcorn turns (jump as you turn), hands on knees while skiing, keeping him on comfortable terrane (master the new skills on familiar terrane, then take to harder terrane-but not too hard ) Make sure he is turning-many kids go straight down the hill-its a thrill. Speed control is achieved with turning-Power wedging on steep terrane is a bad habit that is hard to break, make him turn. Take breaks and drink water-elevation (if you are out west, is not the east coast and he will tire sooner).

Off season tips-any activity to challenge balance, biking (long-leg, short let, developing muscles (quads) for turning, roller skates-especially in-line skates (check out Rollerblade Skate to Ski program-great for all skiers-you can't lean back on roller blades or you fall down). Set up cones and ski around in a flat area. These activities help develop the feelings of being balanced.

One last thing-check their boot fit (not too tight not too loose) and ski length. Too short a ski is a problem, think at least chest or shoulder height. I had a 4 and 6 y/o brother sister pair with the same length skis (80cm)-6 y/o could not do anything because she was a foot taller than her brother. She couldn't make the skis turn because she couldn't pressure the tip enough-counterintuitive. It wasn't her skill.

This was a lot, but hopefully helpful!

 

[IceCoastisms]

Hi there! Great question IceCoastisms! I am a PSIA Certified Instructor (Level 2 Alpine -Children's Specialist 1)-I work for Vail Resorts in the mid-Atlantic. 1st thing-He is 6. Younger children don't have the muscle control that adults and older children have, children develop their motor skills from the trunk and head outward. Their head is the heaviest part of their body. In order to stay centered over their skis, with their heavy heads, they lean back. If you look his shoulders and head they are probably centered of his feet. ITS NORMAL. Now what you didn't say, is how often you ski each season. Mileage and days out on snow will develop his skill. Also when you pick him up from ski school, find out what the instructor emphasized in the lesson and what he needs to work on. Then apply it to the family time. One other note-when children have grown spurts-their muscles take a bit to catch up to the longer bones-think gangly teenagers-so it messes with their coordination.

Activities to help him center on the snow. Jumping- doing popcorn turns (jump as you turn), hands on knees while skiing, keeping him on comfortable terrane (master the new skills on familiar terrane, then take to harder terrane-but not too hard ) Make sure he is turning-many kids go straight down the hill-its a thrill. Speed control is achieved with turning-Power wedging on steep terrane is a bad habit that is hard to break, make him turn. Take breaks and drink water-elevation (if you are out west, is not the east coast and he will tire sooner).

Off season tips-any activity to challenge balance, biking (long-leg, short let, developing muscles (quads) for turning, roller skates-especially in-line skates (check out Rollerblade Skate to Ski program-great for all skiers-you can't lean back on roller blades or you fall down). Set up cones and ski around in a flat area. These activities help develop the feelings of being balanced.

One last thing-check their boot fit (not too tight not too loose) and ski length. Too short a ski is a problem, think at least chest or shoulder height. I had a 4 and 6 y/o brother sister pair with the same length skis (80cm)-6 y/o could not do anything because she was a foot taller than her brother. She couldn't make the skis turn because she couldn't pressure the tip enough-counterintuitive. It wasn't her skill.

This was a lot, but hopefully helpful!

Oh my gosh, this was SO HELPFUL! Thank you! We didn't get a ton of time on the snow this year due to wind holds and weather events whenever we could get away and I know that's part of it too.

All of this is super helpful thank you again so much!

 

[Jilly]

Yeah @J9maus. Great info for anybody with littles!

 

[McJoy]

He's also having a hard time getting his hockey stop and french fries down. Now, he's 6. We get it. And I'm actually ok with him taking his time learning and having stayed in the same group level at ski school all year.

@J9maus thank you for that post. I’ll try to incorporate some of those tips.
@IceCoastisms where is your home mountain? I’m guessing east coast based on your handle. We’re at Sunday river and in a similar boat with our 6 year old. She progressed so much last year and ended in a level higher (but the age group younger) than the level she was in all season this year in the 6-7 age group. We skied a lot this year too. She is struggling with consistent parallel and consistent hockey stop. Like you, we’re ok with it. We just want her to have fun. I also think confidence is a component bc she CAN handle a lot of blues on the mountain but gets scared occasionally. She also will play to the level she’s with and we’ve had a lot of lessons this year where the coach reports that there was a kid who was below the rest of the group and it held the group back. All that being said, we’ve signed her up for a seasonal program next season called river runners. Everyone raves about it both for skill building and for the social aspect of being with the same group of similar age kids every weekend. So they make friends and they progress together and get to know the mountain. Plus it ends at 1pm so it leaves a little more time to ski together as a family than the full day lessons. I think a lot of mountains have kids seasonal programs. It may be worth looking into. At Sunday river and you have register now for next year bc they get filled fast so if something like that may work for you, I’d look into it asap. Good luck.

 

[Ms Mia]

I'm not an instructor, but I'm the mother of a 6 year old who also "sits back" and sticks to snow ploughs. Everything @J9maus wrote about centre of mass, heavy heads and muscle control is exactly what I've been told by instructors at my local mountain, including during a recent training I did. Also kids just learn differently from adults. The main thing, is that they have fun and have sufficient control. Turns are super important, snow plough or not.

One really good exercise my daughter's class were doing to practice parallel is to snow plough through the top of a turn, then bring the skis parallel as you cross the fall line. They would call out "go" to go into a snow plough and initiate the turn, then "stop" to bring the skis together parallel as they go across the piste, then "go" to initiate the next turn and so on.

Make everything a game!

 

[Jilly]

When I took my L1, oh so many years ago, that was called snowplow turns with sloppy slide slips. Now it's pizza to french fries!

 

[LucieCZ]

*FIRST TIME POST ALERT*

I'm new to the community and so happy to have found Ski Diva. Question for all the moms of littles out there.... my son is 6 years old and in his third season skiing. This is the first year that he really didn't progress in term of stance and posture and I'm wondering if there is anything that we can do to help him in the off-season and at the start of next season to get over the slump.

What we notice whenever we take runs as a family before or after ski school is that instead of hinging forward he is leaning back in a controlled fashion and snowplowing the entire time. When we remind him he needs to get more forward, he tucks and goes too fast to remain in control. He's also having a hard time getting his hockey stop and french fries down. Now, he's 6. We get it. And I'm actually ok with him taking his time learning and having stayed in the same group level at ski school all year. He, however, is very antsy and wants to get to the next group level, ride the bigger chairs, and ski with poles.

Is there anything that we can do to help him get ready for next season and to jumpstart him when the flakes start to fly in December (aside from logging more hours on the snow)?

If you have an ice rink nearby with a learn to skate program, I highly recommend ice skating as an off season training for skiing.

Our 4yo was progressing fine, but after ice skating lessons, his skiing really took off ... especially his balance.

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[DebbieSue]

^^^^this.
I highly recommend ice skating as a link to skiing for kids. A hockey stop is a great segue to parallel skiing.