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Proud ski dad here

LiquidFeet

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Airplane Arms: At the end of the old turn, switch the arm positions so that the downhill/new inside arm is up and the other arm is down. This will actually start the turn by default. It edges the skis and causes angulation, which directs pressure to the new outside ski.

Pat the Dog: Same thing, only with only one arm - the new outside arm (uphill arm at the start of the turn).

Angry Mother: Requires more balance control; is advanced since the arms are not out providing help like for a tightrope walker's arms. Do this one later when he's comfortable with the other two.
 
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LiquidFeet

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The confusion comes with thinking in terms of downhill/uphill instead of inside/outside. Unfortunately it's easier to think about uphill/downhill because you can see which is uphill and which is downhill with your eyes. Inside/outside requires referring to an invisible model of C-shaped turns inside your head.

At the start of a turn, the downhill side is the new inside side.
At the end of a turn, the downhill side is the current outside.
That's confusing. It means you need to identify which part of the turn you're talking about when you use downhill/uphill. Tooooo many words, so people leave them out and misunderstanding abounds.

Throughout the whole turn, the inside stays the inside. And the outside stays the outside. At first, it's the "new" inside, then just the "inside" etc.

It's always less confusing to use inside and outside, as long as you attach "new" to each of the terms at the start of the turn. If you don't, the old turn nomenclature gets confused with the new turn stuff.
 

crgildart

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I still remember that day for both my kids, now about 10 years ago. @Old boot was there when the older kid navigated the first REAL green on his own.
 

LiquidFeet

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Another thing you can do with him is have him ski across the hill, facing the trees, between turns. If he spends time between turns doing this, then the "between" time will become evident to him. He'll also notice that he slows down during this part.

That's when he needs to switch arms, when he's going across the hill. It's the end of one C shaped turn and the beginning of the next.

Going across the hill is called "completing your turns." If you can get him to embed this as a habit, he'll be able to control his speed as the pitch of the terrain gets steeper. That time spent going across the hill slows the skier down. He won't feel the need to go into a braking wedge if the speed catches him by surprise and feels scary. You don't want that to happen.

In fact, completing turns deletes the need for a wedge and helps promote parallel skiing. Speed control comes at the end of every turn without the wedge.
 
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Ivan

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Another thing you can do with him is have him ski across the hill, facing the trees, between turns. If he spends time between turns doing this, then the "between" time will become evident to him. That's when he needs to switch arms. It's the end of one C shaped turn and the beginning of the next.

This is called "completing your turns." If you can get him to embed this as a habit, he'll be able to control his speed as the pitch of the terrain gets steeper. That time spent going across the hill slows the skier down.
Okay, I think I see what you mean. I was confused because here, for example, the term "airplane turns" is used for the exact opposite. But when I try what you are saying off the snow, I can see how taking the inside arm up causes angulation. Will try this on the snow next time.

Good point about completing turns. To do that, I would need to make him let me ski in front of him. Yesterday he wanted to be in front, but I'll work on that. Thanks again!
 

LiquidFeet

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The NEW inside arm goes up when you are going across the hill. That's the downhill arm at that point. Later in the turn, when going in the other direction, that same arm will be uphill.

It's so easy to get confused.

You two are doing a great job having fun together. He's going to love skiing for life.
 

Jilly

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You got it @Ivan - go have some fun. You may need to lead, but follow the leader is so much fun to both of you. Make him stay in your path for those turn completions.

Look at this too! Some it too advanced right now, but the hand up and the other on the hip is just a different placement of the airplane turn or pet the animal.

 
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Ivan

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You got it @Ivan - go have some fun. You may need to lead, but follow the leader is so much fun to both of you. Make him stay in your path for those turn completions.

Look at this too! Some it too advanced right now, but the hand up and the other on the hip is just a different placement of the airplane turn or pet the animal.

This is really great, thank you! This forum has been a great place for getting advice on teaching my son how to ski. My dad taught me 25 years ago (and my sister a couple of years later), but since then the technique and gear have changed, we now live in different countries, and my sister and I were older when we started skiing, so it is difficult to rely on his experience. It's great to have a place to ask questions and receive advice.

You two are doing a great job having fun together. He's going to love skiing for life.
I definitely hope so. I grew up in Russia but then moved to the US in 2012 with my wife. My sister moved to France a couple of years later, but she still tried to coordinate her winter vacation with our parents so that they could ski in the Alps together. I'd say that for me, that's the most important thing about skiing: having something that the entire family enjoys and does together.
 
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Ivan

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Here is another update:

It seems that the airplane drill (with the inside arm up, not down) is kind of working. I think my son is gradually figuring out how to load, edge, and carve the outside ski.

P.S. The second part of the video is not as good as the first one, because I was skiing in front of him with my GoPro on my back. Sort of difficult to film when you cannot see what you are filming.
 

LiquidFeet

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He's got it! Cement this into his learning, then you can build more precision onto it.

You'd be surprised how many adult learners can't get this right. They keep losing the rhythm with their arms and what was once a new-inside-arm lift morphs into a new-outside-arm lift and they don't know the arms got switched. They can't keep the arm switches going at the same rate as the ski turns. Funny, huh?

Proud dad!
 
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Ivan

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We went skiing this Wednesday, and on our final run he asked me to go to the "big" chairlift (900 feet vertical) instead of the beginner's one. He made it down the long green run from top to bottom completely on his own and seemed to enjoy it. I don't have a video because my GoPro refused to turn on in the cold and because he was skiing before me, but I'll make a video some time soon for sure.
 

AtleB

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:golfclap: @Ivan big kudos to you for heeding advice given! It's clear to see that your kid's skiing improves.
I coach youngsters of about that skill level and up, at practice we never use poles until the kids are quite comfortable with parallel turns.
When working with kids I find the aeroplane excercise to be good, but the naming is not.. An aeroplane would dive headlong to the ground if it tipped the outside wing down, and many of the kids know this.
I also like the hand on the outside knee excercise, and as the kids get more advanced you can have them put both hands on the outside knee.
Another excercise for the arms/upper body is "carrying a tray" have the kids hold their forearms forward with a 90 degree bend in the elbow. Tell them to imagin holding a tray with glasses of water on it, make them try to keep the "tray" level as they ski.
 

crgildart

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Going through my mom's apartment stuff there were a bunch of 3x5 prints we sent her over the years, mostly our kids doing stuff. Really fun to see the kids learning to ski many moons ago.
 
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Ivan

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Skied top to bottom today again (twice; it as a bit cold and windy to ski more), filmed one of the runs:

He needed a bit of help when going through the flats, but otherwise did everything on his own. It's interesting to see how he learns to navigate the terrain (steeper vs flatter sections). I didn't teach him to do that, but he figured out pretty much on his own that he can go parallel on flatter sections but needs the snowplough on steeper ones. An alternative would be to complete the turns to control the speed. I would need to ski in front of him to show him the way, that's probably our next step.
 

LiquidFeet

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He needed a bit of help when going through the flats, but otherwise did everything on his own. It's interesting to see how he learns to navigate the terrain (steeper vs flatter sections). I didn't teach him to do that, but he figured out pretty much on his own that he can go parallel on flatter sections but needs the snowplough on steeper ones. An alternative would be to complete the turns to control the speed. I would need to ski in front of him to show him the way, that's probably our next step.
Lots to be proud of, Dad! Your son is clearly having a blast skiing, and that's all to your credit. He seems to be willing to take instruction well, also kudos to you. What a great time in life.

Looks like it's time for that bolded part now. Lead him. Lead him all the time for a while. When you're leading, show him how he can slow down by pointing his "arrow" (the wedge) at the trees between all his turns. Do this on low pitch terrain where he slows down too much when he does this. Do it enough so he gets deeply aware that going across the hill in that wedge slows him down, even to a point where he needs to "walk" to keep going. Go ahead and have him walk at first.

Then start teaching him to skate during that slow part. Between turns on low pitch terrain is a great time to work on skating. Can he catch up with you between turns by skating? Can he even tag your coat with his uphill/inside hand, the one he is raising, by skating up to you? Spend time working on his skating while playing tag between turns. This can be a fun game.

Then, staying on that low pitch terrain, show him how going across the slope with skis parallel helps him keep up his speed during that part of the sequence. Lead. Work on that low pitch terrain for a few ski days with him behind you, pointing his skis at the trees between turns and either skating or going parallel, until he's very good at getting his skis parallel between all his turns. You'll want him to want to go parallel because the walking is getting frustrating and the skating is exhausting. Your goal is for him to easily switch from parallel to wedge and back to parallel with each turn, and on occasion from wedge or parallel to diverging tips for skating. Gaining that agility with how the skis point is great at this age.

Once he can do that, there are some steps beyond that which should get him parallel. People here will have lots of suggestions for working on getting to parallel. Right now he goes into a very wide wedge to control his speed on steeper terrain and you want to nip that in the bud. If that wide wedge for controlling speed gets deeply embedded, it will be very difficult to purge. Completing turns is the way to control speed, not the width of the wedge. Teaching him that is your next goal.

He can probably lose the arm raise too. It doesn't look like it's doing much for his turns, the leaning-in he was previously doing looks like it's gone, and since the arm raise is no longer functional its timing is getting a little wonky. Delete it as long as the leaning-in doesn't come back.
 
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Tricia

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My nephew skied at that age but due to some changes in my sister's life he hasn't skied much until she signed him up for the ski program at school.
He's going every Thursday night now and she's getting him some lessons.
Age 7
Kid stoke is exciting.
 

Chris V.

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Misha is displaying natural parallicious instincts. Note how much better he's balanced fore-aft than children who are locked in a power wedge. Encourage and support his instincts. Teach him to jump. Take him through all the microterrain features you can find at the edge of the run. Play follow the leader so that he has to traverse far across the slope and find grip. And never show him a wedge. He wants to be just like daddy, so show a good example. Right now to him, you're the greatest skier in the world.
 

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