Will short skis help the move to parallel?

I know this may sound a bit extreme, especially to your pocket, but some of the best improvements I have seen to children when skiing has been when they were with friends.

Is there a possibility that you could invite a friend of hers along on holiday? I know there are all sorts of issues with doing this, but it is possible she may develop quickly if learning and skiing with a friend who is also a beginner.

Just a thought.

I'm no ski instructor but

Will short skis help the move to parallel?

must be a yes (surely?), but there's far more to it. Some of this echos what others have said.

Back-ground information - I have two little darlings, 8 & 10 both packed full of explosive hormones and attitude [you'll guess therefore they are girls ) ]. This year was their first in the mountains, they are more "pizza" than "chips" but transgressing over by the end of the week.

My experience is this:
Point 1
Gave them a few lessons (possibly 7) at a 'real snow' centre spread over 12 months (we live 30mins from Hemel). They had a different instructor every time. At first we we're a bit worried by this but soon realised that every one of them brought a different perspective, some styles suited one kid & vice versa.
Eldest had the same length skis throughout (117s) youngest started on 107s and moved up to 117s. When on 117s youngest struggled. Ski length did make a difference.

Point 2
They did not have lessons in resort. They skied with me (blues & horrid greens (L2A)) every day from 9:15 til 3:45 (30min lunch). The week was "their" week (as I've left them at home and gone alone previously - & I go alone next week!). Youngest was far better, more confident, but mainly because she is younger and shorter.
age 10/11/12 girls look all arms & legs and haven't got used to how long they are..."chips" is difficult until they find their centre of gravity again.

Point 3
Youngest's skis were back to 107s in resort, and fine. Eldest had 120s. This was a mistake but short skis were 'tweetie pie' and long skis were 'roxy'.
3cm longer skis seemed to make a difference (compared to snow centre). BUT At AGE 10 image is everything.

Point 4
is about my OH. She skied at age 11. Did not get on (cannot remember why, just remembers struggling). Was put off skiing for about 20 years, then went once with me an loved it. (then loved me too much :oops: and had kids so stopped again for another 10 years)
at age 11 you can be put off potentially forever.

anyways, that's about all I know, more next year...when one of them will be 11! But they will be in ski school 'cause parents shouldn't teach and they need to be taught.

Far Queue wrote:I know this may sound a bit extreme, especially to your pocket, but some of the best improvements I have seen to children when skiing has been when they were with friends.

Is there a possibility that you could invite a friend of hers along on holiday? I know there are all sorts of issues with doing this, but it is possible she may develop quickly if learning and skiing with a friend who is also a beginner.

Just a thought.

Exactly what I said on page 3, so maybe it is something to consider if someone as experienced as Andy thinks it might be.

:oops:

Sorry Tony, missed that comment.

Well, shorter skis will be easier to put on edge, but unless she is skiing on some long planks I don't think the difference will be so great. Strange that your daughter doesn't like being in ski school - usually kids love it and much prefer it as it's more fun and peer pressure can be helpful too. during my school years I did XC racing and generally prefered to ski with my school race club than with my Dad since I could beat many other kids and with my Dad I was always trailing behind - it was different when I was younger than 7 as my Dad was my teacher then and I started enjoying skiing with him again when I became good enough. having kids of my own age around really helped. My friend is a ski instructor and he says that he much prefers teaching kids than adults - an average child will progress after a week of lessons much further than an average adult. Of course there are exceptions and even kids born and raised in Switzerland might not like skiing at all. a friend of mine is one of those people and she said she was extremely happy to finish school because it meant no more skiing. her parents are expats and neither of them skied so it probably playerd some role too though not a decisive one. She doesn't have a very good balance and is equally bad with skating or cycling. For 3 weeks on snow your daughter is not doing too badly, but unless she's taking lessons improvements will be difficult to achieve. She night have a great milage behind her on snowplough but it will be still a snowplough. The trick is to make her see it this way.

I dont have kids but have skied with an 11 year old niece who didnt enjoy ski school - no amount of bribery could persuade her to go back!
However I do think kids get more out of school than being taught by family - the kids know how to push your buttons and know what they can get away with, whereas in school they cant do that.

In the resorts you go to do they have a "British" ski school - at least one where the main language is English. That way the kids may be less intimidated by the whole lesson thing if the instructor can converse more easily and put across what they are trying to acheive in a more familiar tongue??

acarr wrote:Snapzzy my advice would be to leave the poor child alone. She will come on at her own pace, especially when she cottons on to the fact that snow-ploughing is harder on the legs. I think it's fantastic that she enjoys skiing and you wouldn't want to spoil that. My 11 year-old daughter is also an only child, not big on group lessons etc, so we get private lessons for her. I don't think parents should attempt to teach their children skiing as it only leads to frustration and tantrums (and that's just the parents!)

We do not teach my daughter skiing but we work on what she has learnt in her lessons, this way it seems to bed in very quickley ...... I do not take any nonsense from the little lady as she knows she will end up in baby creche while her mum and dad ski and she is has no illusions that this will happen ....... set the parameters.

My daughter hated ski school when she was younger, mainly because she was always in a class with mainly French kids and she felt isolated.

She skis pretty well now but chooses not to come on holiday with us anymore, she is 15. She seems to have a bit of a "been there, done that" attitude but I am hopeful that she may go back to skiing one day. I think if she had friends who were ski keen, she would probably want to go again (skiing with us old fogies is too boring).

Having said that, my middle son (17) also chooses not to ski, he prefers to go diving, it's horses for courses.

My eldest (19) is the other extreme and did a ski instructors course in his gap year. He is always up for tagging along for a cheap ski holiday (we can't get rid of him, he certainly doesn't mind going with us oldies if we are paying!) Considering they all had the same ski upbringing, they are all very different.

My thoughts are that some private lessons may help to get her over the snow plough but she will no doubt find her own way whatever you do. Don't panic, she seems to be doing pretty well for only 3 weeks on snow.