Will short skis help the move to parallel?

Poor old little Snapzzz is having a hard time ditching the snow plough bless her and i am desperately wanting her to progress further.
She is 11 years old and has 3 weeks on the snow and she is getting to a point now where she needs to take a step forward in her skiing or she is going to be stuck forever....

She can ski blues and will even tackle the steeper ones but she frightens the life out of me because she simply does not have the technique to ski safely. On a steep she will traverse once or twice and then just let go and blast straight down half ploughing.
On our last trip she had several private lessons that got nowhere and i spent quite a bit of time teaching her to side slip when the gradient is too much for her ability. I was also trying to get her to step her uphill ski around so she at least finished her turns parallel, she got that a couple of times but not often.

In an ideal world i would put her in ski school for the full week but she simply will not do it. She is an only child and quite shy and doesn't like the idea of being 'dumped' with strangers, she is quite insecure and very sensitive.

So my question is this.....Should i put her on some short skis?
I am thinking that by doing this it would be much easier for her to turn and probably make it increasingly difficult to plough?
Are short skis the answer?

With the greatest respect mate, short skis aren't going to make a great deal of difference. I can't imagine shes been skiing on big long planks so shes probably been skiing on the right length.
Maybe, just maybe, she just hasn't mastered it and does need lessons. But I hear what you're saying about her personality.
Unfortunately some people are just not cut out for this skiing lark, maybe she is one of these. I hope not.

Personally, bottom line seems to me to be get her in more lessons. You'll drive yourself insane with worry trying to coach her yourself, and again with the greatest respect, you're not the right person to tutor her.

Shes got to cut out this desire to plough. I've seen it in a mates young daughter, but she was 6; she would do a couple of turns and then just charge off downhill knees pointing together in a plough at top speed. Not at all in control!!!

Have you tried the pizza and chips analogy? Maybe shes a bit old for that now.

Maybe I'm not the best to give a definitive answer, but I really do think you need to get her more lessons. If she doesn't fancy that, she just isn't going to get anywhere skiing like that.

Must be frustrating for you, seeing as how you've developed so fast.

Do you tend to go skiing just as a family or do you have skiing friends with a similar age child/children who you go with? I am wondering if at your daughter's age a little peer pressure might help. I realise of course that it could have the opposite effect and the ski boot heels will just be dug in deeper!

Tony_H wrote:
Maybe, just maybe, she just hasn't mastered it and does need lessons.

I think you are right mate, its just so frustration as she wants to ski the whole mountain with me but she just can't.

I just thought that the shorter skis will let her turn so much easier and convince her that she can do it.

jastem wrote:Do you tend to go skiing just as a family or do you have skiing friends with a similar age child/children who you go with? I am wondering if at your daughter's age a little peer pressure might help.

I think peer pressure is what she needs, you are dead right.

Snapzzz,

My twopenorth !!

Don't worry, don't rush anything, don't panic, don't spend loads of money.

11yo, 3 weeks skiing and she is happy on most blues? Sounds good to me. :thumbup:

The reality is that for any UK kid getting an odd week here and an odd week there on snow progress is rarely going to be smooth. Notwithstanding that there will be rare and unusual kids who just get it for whatever reason the majority don't.

If it were me I would just focus on enjoying family holidays away together, they will end all too soon. :cry:

I have two reasons for saying this;

1 - push her and you risk her pushing back about the whole ski holiday thing - maybe then you won't get away on your holiday that year as she will either say she's not going or put up so much resistence that the holiday either doesn't happen or is ruined.

2 - she is 11yo [insert swear word, expletive, etc etc of choice], maybe she will ski passionately all her life, maybe she will never go again once the torture of family holidays is over? Who knows? She is 11, let her snow plough and enjoy what she enjoys, enjoy spending time with a happy laughing daughter rather than worry if she will become a "good" skier (whatever that means for us ski tourists).

Snapzzz - please don't make the mistake of thinking you have to "make" Snapzz Minor a good skier, just enjoy the holiday time together. It is highly unlikely that she will wan't to go with you skiing for many more years, please don't spoil what you have by over complicating things.

Andy, i get all that entirely and I'm not a pushy parent, well i don't think i am anyway. She does enjoy her skiing and we all enjoy our holidays and time together but it can get really boring doing the same short green runs day in day out.

excuse awful pun but....snap! (zzz)

My youngest is 12 (just). When we head off to Norway at Easter, it will be her 3rd week on skis. We all had initial lessons (2 x 2 hours) at Castleford before our 1st holiday. We then booked her in for ski lessons at the resort but she hated the experience and only lasted the 1st day. She's a pretty cautious skier and not particularly outgoing but I think after 2 weeks skiing she has got to a reasonable level where she will happily ski greens and blues and will very carefully tackle a red. It's a mix of ploughing and parallel at the moment. She will parallel ski if we 'coach' her along but reverts to ploughing if she picks up too much speed. I'm hoping that we will get her 100% parallel at easter. My eldest daughter (14) is a boarder (apparently skiing is not "cool enough") and whilst cautious, will ski reds and blacks with me.

I'm sure my youngest will get there in her own time, as long as she enjoys the experience. Bearing in mind I didn't ski until I was 43 she's got stacks of time ahead of her!! Snapzzz, I'm sure your daughter will also improve over the next 3 or 4 years. It's just great to be able to share the experience with your children to be honest. Beats a beach holiday anyday :D

Snapzzz wrote:Andy, i get all that entirely and I'm not a pushy parent, well i don't think i am anyway. She does enjoy her skiing and we all enjoy our holidays and time together but it can get really boring doing the same short green runs day in day out.

Yep - sure can !!
But I still hold very firmly to my point - reality is that unless she were an unusual and exceptional little girl she probably won't ski to your speed and standard for years, and then only if she wants to.
Mind you just you wait until she is on her ski season and you go out to visit :mrgreen:

I have seen too many pushy parents over the years, all trying to do what they think is best and "make" their son/daughter ski "properly" or force them into ski school when that is not what they want.

I had from 2002 to 2009 skiing with little ones except for a sneaky "boys" week with a mate - what I did was work with others so that I could get away for a good blast a couple of times a day, either at lunch time or mid afternoon when the youngster was happy to go back for a swim or whatever.

And I got quite good at being selfish in a sneaky way. It was not too difficult to tire out a young teenager so that he was happy to give up at lunchtime and leave me free. Mind you leaving him with his Mum (who does not ski) made this relatively simple.