How to teach children to ski

Winter is not over yet. Especially in the mountains, the season is still in full swing and if you are thinking about the right time to teach your children to ski, read the advice of an experienced ski instructor Gabriel Spak from Tatranská Lomnica.

If you want to give your kids the joy of skiing, you should first take care of their safety. It is best to entrust them in the hands of ski instructors in closed ski school areas.

"For safety reasons, it is better if you have a closed arena during your classes. There are only instructors and their clients in the closed arena, so it's more individual and safer. We have various children's aids, which motivate children, we also educate them, we know colors, animals. It is more interesting for them than on a hill where the instructor would still have to be careful not to hit the child," explains Gabriel Spak, an experienced instructor from the Tatry Motion ski school in Tatranská Lomnica.

According to him, it is important to conduct the entire training in the form of a game. "We always start with a fun warm-up and try to give children the most experience on the slope. Lessons are then much easier and children will enjoy skiing," adds Špak. The teaching itself and its length largely depend on age. "We have the experience that 3–4-year-olds will last a maximum of one hour per day. Older children 5 to 6 years of age learn to ski in two days, some cleverly even do it in one day and can ride the hill. It is, of course, individual because some children are more gifted in movement and some - even ten years - have a problem with coordination of movements. But a week is enough for them to ski the blue or red slopes," says the Tatra instructor.

A ski helmet is a foundation

Instructors take the child to the slope among other skiers only after completing the basic instruction. The safety helmet is already essential for safety, which is obligatory for children on the Slovak slopes. A recommended accessory is also a reflective vest, which increases the probability that the skier will register the child earlier on the slope and can avoid it if necessary.

Some parents are interested in being with the child while they are in the classroom; According to ski instructors, this is not a good idea. "We try to separate it because when children see their parents, they can't focus on those lessons, they don't focus on what they do. Then we try to solve this by giving adults a separate instructor and we pay special attention to children because the methodology of teaching is different," added Spak.