22. 11. 2022
What is the best age to teach a child to ski? A difficult question with no single definite answer. Parents who are active skiers are more likely to start teaching their children at a younger age. After all, what could be better than spending active time in the mountains with your family? So should it be at the age of 3, when they learn to kick a ball? Maybe at 6, when children start learning right from left and how to tie their shoes? Or perhaps at 12, when they take part in a school ski course?
It seems that 3 is a good age for the first steps on skis – this is the starting age at many ski schools. Children get used to skis and ski boots and learn how to move in them. When it comes to snowboarding, children under the age of 5 often have trouble mastering the mechanism of standing sideways on the board, and the recommended starting age is 7.
Ski lessons for children
To teach small children, instructors have to delve deep into their world. How children perceive the world, how they speak and which words they understand best. For example, only a few children understand terms such as snowplough, parallel or weighting. For small children, a snowplough looks like a slice of pizza; skis positioned parallel to each other look like chips; and shifting your weight to one side is easier to understand if the instructor tells the child to squash a spider under one foot.
So when skiing, instructors emphasise “Pizza” and “Chips” and introduce a wide range of games such as “Traffic Lights”, “Giant and Gnome” and “Aeroplane”. Learning is fun, easy to understand and educational.
A child should take their first steps with a professional ski instructor. Parents may know how to ski or snowboard, but passing these skills on in a language and manner that children understand can be very difficult. This can result in slow progress, bad habits and negative experiences. And children tend to respect instructors more.
Professional ski instructors at Bachledka have been working for more than three decades to better understand how to teach children in the best possible way. Every instructor is a graduate of a course requiring specialised training in child development, teaching methods for children and communication skills.
Learn to ski with GORGYM!
Our team of experienced instructors can get even the biggest scaredy-cats on skis. Whether you are a preschooler or a pensioner, our always-smiling instructors from Gorgy's Ski School will teach everyone how to ski.
More information about Gorgy's Ski School can be found HERE!