How do you know if a kid is ready for poles? When did your kids start using them? When did YOU?
With my older kid, it felt easier because he wasn’t comparing himself directly to anybody else. We skied mostly as a family (covid era), and he was the older kid. When he was in lessons at Smuggler’s Notch one year, and his instructor said he would benefit from having poles, we got him poles, and that was that. Now, my younger kid is 7 and we ski a lot more socially than we did with the older one at this age, plus even within our family he’s the only one with no poles. Most of his friends had no poles last year but now suddenly they all have poles and he’s DYING for some. My plan had been to wait until we were at Smuggs again and see what the instructors there said, since I trust them to know this kind of stuff and it’s an easy way to be lazy about it. But we won’t be there until March, which is an eternity for a 7-year old. He’s in weekly ski lessons closer to home and he asked his instructor if he "could have poles," and the dude said sure, but his instructor at our local hill is much more of a “rando college kid” kind of vibe and so I felt like I’d rather have my own judgment factor in as well versus just blindly following his recommendation. And then I realized I don’t really know when/why kids would benefit from starting to use poles? Or, at least, not be negatively affected by it? So I kind of don’t have the judging ability to be like “yep, he is ready to have poles.”
He skis parallel a lot of the time, links parallel turns, and does easier blacks at this point. He is decent at skating on flats which was the main thing I personally wanted him to get from “no poles” skiing. I don’t see a lot of “need” for poles in his skiing – he isn’t doing moguls or anything like that yet – but I also don’t know if there’s anything else I should be keeping in mind as far as, like, reasons NOT to? Mostly it seems like a hassle, just another thing to drop/wrangle/etc. (I say this as my 10-year old just dropped his pole from the lift for the first time ever, last night!) But he wants them SO BADLY, it’s such a status thing, and if the main reason not to is just the hassle of it then I’ll have him start using them. I don’t remember when I got poles as a kid or why, but I also know we skied with hands on our knees until we got poles which is not how they teach anymore so obviously things have changed.
Anyone with any insight, experience, or anecdotes on this subject, I would appreciate hearing from you!
With my older kid, it felt easier because he wasn’t comparing himself directly to anybody else. We skied mostly as a family (covid era), and he was the older kid. When he was in lessons at Smuggler’s Notch one year, and his instructor said he would benefit from having poles, we got him poles, and that was that. Now, my younger kid is 7 and we ski a lot more socially than we did with the older one at this age, plus even within our family he’s the only one with no poles. Most of his friends had no poles last year but now suddenly they all have poles and he’s DYING for some. My plan had been to wait until we were at Smuggs again and see what the instructors there said, since I trust them to know this kind of stuff and it’s an easy way to be lazy about it. But we won’t be there until March, which is an eternity for a 7-year old. He’s in weekly ski lessons closer to home and he asked his instructor if he "could have poles," and the dude said sure, but his instructor at our local hill is much more of a “rando college kid” kind of vibe and so I felt like I’d rather have my own judgment factor in as well versus just blindly following his recommendation. And then I realized I don’t really know when/why kids would benefit from starting to use poles? Or, at least, not be negatively affected by it? So I kind of don’t have the judging ability to be like “yep, he is ready to have poles.”
He skis parallel a lot of the time, links parallel turns, and does easier blacks at this point. He is decent at skating on flats which was the main thing I personally wanted him to get from “no poles” skiing. I don’t see a lot of “need” for poles in his skiing – he isn’t doing moguls or anything like that yet – but I also don’t know if there’s anything else I should be keeping in mind as far as, like, reasons NOT to? Mostly it seems like a hassle, just another thing to drop/wrangle/etc. (I say this as my 10-year old just dropped his pole from the lift for the first time ever, last night!) But he wants them SO BADLY, it’s such a status thing, and if the main reason not to is just the hassle of it then I’ll have him start using them. I don’t remember when I got poles as a kid or why, but I also know we skied with hands on our knees until we got poles which is not how they teach anymore so obviously things have changed.
Anyone with any insight, experience, or anecdotes on this subject, I would appreciate hearing from you!
