European Ski Academy

Hi All,
I have a 5,5 year old boy that has been skiing for the last two seasons.
Last February, he started skiing Red runs with extreme ease.
Most important is his attitude towards the runs, that amazes me.
My question. Does anyone know of a good ski academy (with school curriculum)for this potential and future ski champion anywere in Europe.

Thanks,
Jose Carlos

There are schools for skiers with proper educational curriculum. The most well known is probably the Stams Academy in Austria. Many ski racers from national teams study here.

Thanks, will investigate.

jcbabo wrote:Hi All,
I have a 5,5 year old boy that has been skiing for the last two seasons.
Last February, he started skiing Red runs with extreme ease.
Most important is his attitude towards the runs, that amazes me.
My question. Does anyone know of a good ski academy (with school curriculum)for this potential and future ski champion anywere in Europe.

Thanks,
Jose Carlos

Sounds like your living your missed youth through your son :shock:

there are several, Stams has been mentioned already, also there is British ski academy in Les houches near chamonix http://www.britskiacad.org.uk/ or there is Ambition racing based in Bormio,http://www.ambitionracing.co.uk/?splashseen=true although getting in to Ambition is purely on an ability basis and due to their successes the level is pretty high


you may be better starting with a few week long camps in the school holidays to see how he copes being away on his own and carting kit round the mountain, for this you could look at impulse racing http://www.impulse-racing.co.uk/ or gravity snowsports http://www.gravitysnowsports.co.uk/

one thing to make sure is that HE wants to do this...these places are not cheap and are pretty hard work

Hi Cem,
Thanks for the information. Obviously, he is still only 5, but he already shows an out of the ordinary competitive instinct, where we will have to keep an eye on that.

jcbabo

both gravity and impulse run sessions at MK and or Hemel so if you are anywhere near them he could go along and get into a group in the minis age category...they have weekly training sessions a good way to get him into the mind set...they offer frequent competitions and offer the opertunity to ski with some top coaches

My children (son now 13 and daughter now 11) were aged around 5 when I asked the same questions. They were both exceptional recreationa skiers for their ages - happily skiing blacks in Europe and double blacks in USA.

I was lucky. I searched around and found the DHO (Down Hill Only) cloub. It is the olders ski club in Britain and has a really good Children;s Racing Club - excellent pastoral care, great ethos, excellent training (Austrian, Canadian and British trainers), and really helpful and welcoming. Have a look at http://www.downhillonly.com/pages/raceintr.html
My kids have developed really well with the DHO and are now in the top 10 in the country for all te downhill racing disciplines.

Best wishes
Tom