Teaching children to ski - exercises

Seeing your child on the ski slopes for the first time is a wonderful feeling to say the least. However, before they master skiing, it takes a lot of practice and patience. In this article, we thought we'd share a handful of helpful exercises that can be useful when teaching your child to ski!

Things to consider during induction

We have addressed this issue in a previous article "How do you ski slalom?". To summarise the content of this article, most children can start skiing at the age of three. However, keep in mind that this is highly individualised and that some children may need more time before venturing onto the slopes.

For the first ride, it is also important to take your time. Let your child familiarise themselves with the equipment. How it feels to put on the ski boots and how it feels to stand on the skis. After that, the main focus should be on making it a fun experience, starting with the basics - teaching them how to balance, go straight, brake and make turns.

Exercises to teach children to ski

When it comes to methods for teaching children to ski, opinion is divided. The methods and exercises that some people think work may be completely different for others. In the end, it's all about finding a methodology that works best for you and your child. Below we suggest a few exercises:

1. start with balance - first and foremost, it is important to train the sense of balance. Teach your child to stand on the skis and be comfortable with the feeling. For the first "ride", it can be helpful to start on completely flat ground. Let the child stand on their own and then use a pole or similar to pull them slowly but surely forwards.

Once they have become comfortable with being pulled on flat ground and also started to find their balance, the next step is to move onto a very gentle slope. At this stage, the child should learn to slide straight ahead on their own. Either beside you or against you. Some people also prefer to ride backwards with their child in front of them.

Find the methodology that works best for you and your child

2. Practising braking - Once they have mastered balance and travelling in a straight line, the next step is to practise braking. At this point, a lot comes down to pedagogy - how you teach. Just talking theory is usually not helpful.

Instead, show how they can plough to adjust speed and make decelerations. Referring to the plough as an ice cream cone or pizza slice is usually both fun and helpful. Remember that a lot of it is about using fun pedagogy that sticks with children.

3. last but not least, practise turns - once your child has mastered both balance and ice cream cones, learning to turn is usually easy. Ask them to "steer the skis" while you demonstrate how to do it. Usually you don't need to say or do much more than that. However, some people prefer to ski backwards with the child in front of them and then help push the ski tips together.

Make it easy - let your kids go to ski school

Something that is also usually beneficial for children's learning and attitude to skiing is to let them attend a ski school. This is partly because they get help from an experienced teacher, but also because they get to socialise and learn from other children. This has been shown to lead to faster learning. And when you choose to visit us at Stöten in Sälen, you can of course let your children attend our popular ski school.

We hope you now have plenty of tips to help your child learn to ski. If you want to have a fantastic first skiing experience together, you can visit us at Stöten in Sälen. We have 50 slopes to suit skiers of all ages!

Stöten in brief

• Stöten has been voted Sweden's best ski resort several years in a row by Freerides readers
• There are 50 slopes with different levels of difficulty
• There are 45 kilometres of cross-country ski trails, 3 km of which are lit
• Stöten is home to Sälen's longest descent - Morsmor's 3060 metre plunge
• Pisten Älvan has previously been voted Sweden's best piste
• Stöten has been awarded Sweden's best ski resort for families with children

Example of good pedagogy that sticks with children: a large ice cream cone slows things down. If you want to stop completely, make the ice cream cone even bigger. To go faster, make the ice cream cone smaller