I'm curious what coaches or ski parents think about disqualifications in kids racing. Our family experience is Salt Lake City region and the the Teton race scene. In both the Wasatch and Tetons missing gates NEVER leads to a DQ. This is for U-12 and younger.
Some of the misses are really out there: missing entire sections of the course (multiple gates at a time). Kids even miss the last gate in front of the announcer and the entire crowd and don't get penalized.
I've asked coaches and other parents about it. The responses are very consistent: "Oh no, that doesn't happen here!" or something like it is the most common response.
If this was an acknowledged thing I wouldn't care. Something along the lines of "Oh hey, its kids racing, we're just trying to get them to have fun and enjoy racing!". But parents and coaches seem very intense on the millisecond results yet miss this.
We were in a Salt Lake region team which coaches cheating. They coach doing the top and bottom properly and missing in the middle. Their results are very good not surprisingly.
I'm finding it difficult to communicate to my kids how to handle this. They race against kids they are far better skiers than who smoke them in races. The other kids often confide they missed gates. It's like someone getting to the five yard line and the results show a touchdown. I have no idea if this is an issue in other divisions but these two areas cover some of the best ski terrain on earth. I struggle to see how this is not just cheating (the team we were in in the Salt Lake city area were overtly cheating).
If this is just a younger kid thing I think its weird but I can make peace with it. I'm curious if anyone knows if this still happens when they are older? Gate judges are a thing does this kick in when they are U-16 or something? My kids love skiing, really enjoy race training, but watching their faces when someone who admits they skipped gates "beats" them is irritating. Part of the problem seems to me that the parents are often VERY weak skiers - or don't ski at all - in these areas. I assume they really don't know what they are looking at. But the coaches know.
Any feedback welcome. You can call me a liar if you want
(although I have two years of video of kids missing gates and getting scored). I'm hoping this turns into a real sport at some age if someone can convince me of that it would be nice!
Some of the misses are really out there: missing entire sections of the course (multiple gates at a time). Kids even miss the last gate in front of the announcer and the entire crowd and don't get penalized.
I've asked coaches and other parents about it. The responses are very consistent: "Oh no, that doesn't happen here!" or something like it is the most common response.
If this was an acknowledged thing I wouldn't care. Something along the lines of "Oh hey, its kids racing, we're just trying to get them to have fun and enjoy racing!". But parents and coaches seem very intense on the millisecond results yet miss this.
We were in a Salt Lake region team which coaches cheating. They coach doing the top and bottom properly and missing in the middle. Their results are very good not surprisingly.
I'm finding it difficult to communicate to my kids how to handle this. They race against kids they are far better skiers than who smoke them in races. The other kids often confide they missed gates. It's like someone getting to the five yard line and the results show a touchdown. I have no idea if this is an issue in other divisions but these two areas cover some of the best ski terrain on earth. I struggle to see how this is not just cheating (the team we were in in the Salt Lake city area were overtly cheating).
If this is just a younger kid thing I think its weird but I can make peace with it. I'm curious if anyone knows if this still happens when they are older? Gate judges are a thing does this kick in when they are U-16 or something? My kids love skiing, really enjoy race training, but watching their faces when someone who admits they skipped gates "beats" them is irritating. Part of the problem seems to me that the parents are often VERY weak skiers - or don't ski at all - in these areas. I assume they really don't know what they are looking at. But the coaches know.
Any feedback welcome. You can call me a liar if you want
(although I have two years of video of kids missing gates and getting scored). I'm hoping this turns into a real sport at some age if someone can convince me of that it would be nice!
but the parents know that and don't expect their little Johnny to be the next Mike Modano. So it's all good. My u7 team was losing Saturday so we put on an extra player at the other team's insistence to make it more fair. That ain't in the rulebook! But everyone was happy.
