 Poster: A snowHead
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I grew up a skier (snowboarded all adult life) but parents didn’t ski so only on annual school trips from aged 9 to about 14, so naturally every trip was in ski school. But is that normal? Is there a point where practice with mum and dad is just as good? Son was 8 last year and for the first time could keep up. He skis parallel but still snow plough stops. I have booked him into ski school again this year but I’m wondering if they’ll just get it if I didn’t or if he still has a few years to go.
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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I ask myself this too. My 13yo boy has 4 weeks, all with 5 day classes. Week 3 he was still parallel with pizza turns, slow but steady down reds, very slow on some easy blacks. First hour of week 4 suddenly clicked and doing everything. Moved to my ‘advanced’ adult class and easily keeping up with reds and blacks.
So I think if we wanted to, he could do without more lessons and follow me. He’ll be able to ‘keep up’ but I doubt he will learn how to ski properly from me. So I am thinking to keep him in lessons until at least he goes to uni.
There were another two teenagers in our group who had been skiing for around 10 years but still going to classes. So I think that’s the way to go. I’ve seen so many dads and kids ski alone, no more lessons, so I assumed they were pros. But the children look awful skiing. Plus it seems like children like to be with other kids in groups classes rather than following boring parents (me) around.
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Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
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We started the kids skiing when they were 5 and 7. They have done 5 weeks in total, 2 weeks in big ski classes and 2 weeks of private lessons. They are both very good and can ski nearly as fast as me and my husband on different terrains. We don’t tend to do blacks.
They are now 10 and 13 and they beg us not to put them in lessons, they don’t seem to enjoy it and like to ski how they want and be with us all day. I am absolutely fine with that and to be honest it’s nice to do what we want all week and not be limited by the lessons.
I would be led by the child - if they can parallel down red runs and the snow plough has disappeared, they are keeping up, then don’t force them into lessons if they don’t want too. Maybe invest in a private lesson or so each time to top them up if you feel they could do with some guidance.
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Ours went to ski school up to the point where they repeated what they learned the year before (probably when about 8 and 10). This was because there were limited numbers of English speaking kids to make up classes, so those that could ski a bit were all lumped into the one class (rather than divided by ability).
When this happened, we spent the money on a few Private lessons instead - which worked out well.
My Daughter is the only one who has continued to ski and stopped being interested in taking lessons when she got to about 16.....she has skied from the age of about 3.
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Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
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well...my kids started with 2.5 and they still enjoy skiing with a group.
Unfortunaltey i do not skiing, so i cannot help them to improve their technique or something like that.
So i think, at least a week or two week per year they will continue with ski school.
However , probably there will be a point where they will say "no i dont want it any more"...around 12 till 14? no idea...maybe not...who knows
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Mine still have “lessons” (mainly race coaching now) after over a decade. They’ve probably had 1-2,000 hours of a fairly even mix of lessons and coaching each over that period. Once they got to a level that they could ski almost everything we skied, we cut back a bit on lessons whilst on holiday so we could do more family skiing, but they didn’t stop entirely.
Whether practice with family/parents is just as good depends on what you want to achieve. If you want them to continue at a high rate of progression and be able to ski almost anything - race gates, touring, steeps, powder, crud etc then I doubt parents are as good as professionals.
If you enjoy cruising blues and reds and that’s a fun family holiday, and the kids are happier with that than lessons, 4 weeks might be enough.
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Without causing offence to anyone. No one is going to be any good only skiing one/two weeks a year and never dedicating any structured time to learning. Its not just the kids who shouldn't stop lessons, the parents shouldn't stop them either. There's a lot of fun out in the mountains beyond surviving black runs and skiing fast out of control if you carry on learning.
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| Quote: |
Without causing offence to anyone. No one is going to be any good only skiing one/two weeks a year and never dedicating any structured time to learning. Its not just the kids who shouldn't stop lessons, the parents shouldn't stop them either. There's a lot of fun out in the mountains beyond surviving black runs and skiing fast out of control if you carry on learning.
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I completely agree with your point about nobody is going to reach a particularly high level skiing 1-2 weeks a year. But I'd argue that is exactly the reason you can justify stopping lessons. Once you reach the intermediate plateau, even with the best instruction you are probably not going to improve significantly without spending much more time on snow. So better to focus on enjoyment than trying to improve.
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You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
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No real rules here. We did a holiday where girls weren't really ready to not be in ski school but they thought they wanted to ski with us. This was when we went to Sweden and ski school was only 1.5hrs long anyway.
It was good for them to try not being in ski school for them to realise they would enjoy it more. We then went Easter that year and sorted out lessons.
For a while now we have switched to a couple of private lessons as can't find group lessons working at eldests level and youngest is ASD and doesn't get on well in normal groups.
We have had also quite a few lessons on our local dry ski slope especially in the summer as they offer some great discounts and deals then 
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Most of the teenagers (now 14-17 yo) in our half term syndicate stopped taking lessons after HT 2018 (after ~4 weeks on the snow); but one of the dads is more than happy to ski with them on any pisted run—he grew up skiing in Vermont on the Ice Coast with impeccable form in the Austrian fashion; has carte blanche to provide discipline on piste behaviour; and otherwise endorses @Boarder2020’s and @Mother hucker’s view.
By contrast, my kids (@Lad2 and Lad 3) had weekly dry slope race training throughout prep school and Lad 2 and I usually get private instruction for a day or two to work on something specific like, erm, snowboarding. Of course my kids are better at skiing than the other youngsters (and the dads*) and the other youngsters are not going to get better than their dads at this rate, but the one-week a year contingent are having a good time and generally staying out of trouble so c’est la vie. Not everyone is a 
By the way, I really endorse going on hols with other families (assuming everyone gets on), as it means our gang doesn’t “need” ski school to find other kids to hang out with. Probably not for everyone but we’re normally 3 families with similarly aged kids.
* no offence to moms intended, this is just the dynamic of our group.
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snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
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I'd say stop "ski school" when:
a) They are confident and competent skiing parallel. Like learning to drive, better to have someone else teach to that point!
b) Say they don't want to do it. Some will want to drop anything with "school" in the name ASAP but others are social butterflies who actually like meeting new people their own age and making new friends.
And I specifically quotes stopping "ski school" ad the obvious thing to do at that point is swap to some private lessons for the whole family at that point. The children will keep learning and while the old dogs might not be able to learn any new tricks they can always improve the ones they already know.
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And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
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| Dyrlac wrote: |
By the way, I really endorse going on hols with other families (assuming everyone gets on), as it means our gang doesn’t “need” ski school to find other kids to hang out with. Probably not for everyone but we’re normally 3 families with similarly aged kids.
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+1. Last December we were lucky enough to go to same hotel as several of snowheads with older kids as well. My eldest loved going of skiing with them. Missed that this year
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We were a 2-3 week a year ski family. After around the first 5-6 trips in ski school, Jnr would probably go into lessons every other trip. Sometimes he’d ask to, others he’d say he wanted to ski with us (only child). Even after joining a race club, he still sometimes went in group lessons. By this stage, he probably wasn’t learning much more to improve his technique but he was skiing much more varied terrain than he would with us (we’d ski all pistes, but his instructors were just constantly picking out jumps and fun stuff locals know about!).
From about 15 onwards, he pretty much only went on training camps.
I guess it depends on enjoyment. If your kids are reasonable skiers and don’t enjoy lessons, don’t do them. They’re on holiday too. If they enjoy the lessons and they want to keep doing them do.
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You know it makes sense.
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Depends on how strong you want their fundamentals to be. I wish I'd had lessons as a kid -- I'm a perfectly competent skier but I have so many bad habits that would take many expensive lessons to undo. Our kids went through the ESF system through gold level from ages 6 or 7 until 12- or 13, and they are really quite good (ages 16/18 now) despite only skiing 1-2 weeks a year. They just have a really good base for progression to expert if they can afford it (!!) later on, or if not, can ski any red/black run relatively gracefully.
One thing we found is that after the level just below bronze (I forget the name already!) it's much more efficient to do 3 days of 2-hour private lessons (just the two of them with a single instructor over the 12-1400 h lunch break) than a week of group lessons. Our son was able to jump over the bronze level in a week. It saved money in the end and they were really happy to ski together. Plus it left plenty of time for them to ski with me if they wanted to.
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Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
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| boarder2020 wrote: |
| Quote: |
Without causing offence to anyone. No one is going to be any good only skiing one/two weeks a year and never dedicating any structured time to learning. Its not just the kids who shouldn't stop lessons, the parents shouldn't stop them either. There's a lot of fun out in the mountains beyond surviving black runs and skiing fast out of control if you carry on learning.
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I completely agree with your point about nobody is going to reach a particularly high level skiing 1-2 weeks a year. But I'd argue that is exactly the reason you can justify stopping lessons. Once you reach the intermediate plateau, even with the best instruction you are probably not going to improve significantly without spending much more time on snow. So better to focus on enjoyment than trying to improve. |
i agree with this for adults. I spend the first 2-3 days of my week or two on the slopes every year just finding my sea legs again. But that's OK! One day I plan on taking a season of lessons provided I can retire in good health and with a bit of extra disposable income (younger wife should help with that.  ) but until then I'll just focus on maintaining...and enjoying the mountains. Once or twice in recent years I've spent the fall doing ski-specific gym training and it didn't make any real difference to my technique. You just need time on the snow and good guidance.
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Poster: A snowHead
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Whether is formal ski school or shared private or whatever, everyone benefits from some instruction.
Morning ski school and family / mates afternoon works quite well as a blend of getting better and having fun. Blending onto bit of instruction i.e. shared family private lesson at the start of the week to give them something to work on the rest of the week.
I'm laughing at the "stop when they can ski parallel ok" At that point they should be learning to carve, otherwise they will be a liability on steep or icy stuff or both!
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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Not many skiers can carve steep icy slopes, @t44tomo? Surely the answer is "it depends". What are you trying to achieve? Take swimming. A degree of competence is important but some kids have aptitude and ambition to become really good swimmers. Top athletes never stop "having lessons". I once lapped a nice red slope where two French kids were having private lesson with two ESF instructors. They spent an hour side slipping. It was clearly what their (wealthy!) Parents had ordered. Straight, forward, back. Superb survival skills of course but they weren't one week a year holiday skiers. When family members all moderately competent a family private lesson might be good - with a specific goal such as controlled S- shaped turns down a red slope. Or carving on a wide easy blue. Most of us kid ourselves about how much of a turn we can carve!
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Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
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Thanks this is really useful. Mines an only & has been fine at going because we’ve always used Neilson so he makes friends in the hotel then they take them all. But from this Easter onwards it won’t be with them & I think he’ll hate the idea of going in to a group blind. I like the stick of the instructor will show you way cooler places to go, so thanks for that!
As a both, people ask what the difference is to learn & I say snowboarding is much harder to start with but skiing is way more technical & so I felt you always needed lessons as a skier, (at U.K. recreational once a year level), so thanks for embedding that
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| pam w wrote: |
| Not many skiers can carve steep icy slopes, @t44tomo? e! |
Agreed, the point I made was, if you can carve, you will make a better fist of getting down a steep icy slope using the edges of the ski to get some grip than someone who has just mastered parallel turns.
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Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
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| bartiebat wrote: |
Thanks this is really useful. Mines an only & has been fine at going because we’ve always used Neilson so he makes friends in the hotel then they take them all. But from this Easter onwards it won’t be with them & I think he’ll hate the idea of going in to a group blind. I like the stick of the instructor will show you way cooler places to go, so thanks for that!
As a both, people ask what the difference is to learn & I say snowboarding is much harder to start with but skiing is way more technical & so I felt you always needed lessons as a skier, (at U.K. recreational once a year level), so thanks for embedding that |
On the cooler places to go front, it probably depends on the lessons. We tended to go to Austria. Ski school is 5-6 hours a day. They did a mixture of drills and messing around, having fun. They went everywhere because they had the time to. It’s less likely to be the case with 2-3 hour lessons where the drills will probably be coming thick and fast.
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Ours did ski school until we found friends on the mountain and wanted to have lunches (kids hated ski school lunches). We switched to private lessons and were told last year by the ski teacher that for where we are and when we come ski school would be too easy for ours. Now our youngest has a snowboard lesson every other day and eldest a ski lesson on the other days. Kids work on improving their technique at their own speed and treasure the off days alone with us.
Ours are 10&12. Both can ski any slope here parallel but our eldest wants to try getting to race level and youngest switch to boarding part time a few years ago.
We ski at least two weeks a year split between school holidays.
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Ours started skiing at 2yrs old. The elder is 13 now and does race training or off-piste/touring as part of our group, while the 10yrs old does ESF competition camps, which are 4hrs per day, starting at 9am. That way they keep progressing and it also leaves enough time for family skiing in the afternoon.
P.S. On average the kids spent 22-26 days a year skiing. I am 46 now and I learned to ski when I was 4. I still take “lessons” with my ESF instructors/guide friends when I can… You never stop learning…
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You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
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When the kids are better than you just let them go and show off and go back to lessons yourself!
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Ah he’s a skier, I’m a snowboarder, so I’m currently safe 
I’m taking him solo for the first time at Easter & hadnt booked lessons as it was straight off the back of another, but reading this I think I’ll try & put him in, even if it’s just a 3 day course (I believe they do that option there)
Thanks all
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snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
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| MouseInLux wrote: |
Ours did ski school until we found friends on the mountain and wanted to have lunches (kids hated ski school lunches). We switched to private lessons and were told last year by the ski teacher that for where we are and when we come ski school would be too easy for ours. Now our youngest has a snowboard lesson every other day and eldest a ski lesson on the other days. Kids work on improving their technique at their own speed and treasure the off days alone with us.
Ours are 10&12. Both can ski any slope here parallel but our eldest wants to try getting to race level and youngest switch to boarding part time a few years ago.
We ski at least two weeks a year split between school holidays. |
Yes mine started snowboarding last year too. We were able to leave his board in the kids club cabin & just switch every few runs, then swap back again. We’re back to first lift last call to fit it all in & I’m 5 weeks in to a 10 week fitness regime to keep going 
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And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
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Pam is correct.
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my eldest (12) has been right through ESF and has done competition level for the last three years. he has made the podium on the open age slalom races and really enjoyed the on piste and off piste coaching.
this year he is doing junior academy with Evo 2 (ESF dont run team rider out of french school holidays.
youngest (9) is doing ESF gold this year after completing silver last year.
ive told him he needs to do either competition or team rider next year and then he can switch to snowboarding or freestyle coaching if he wishes.
they both love lessons, and have got so much out of it that we wouldnt consider not doing them.
my wife and i still get the odd private now
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You know it makes sense.
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@bartiebat, Two things to consider.
1. If he can "keep up" then he's good enough to ski with you but may benefit from the Morning lessons to refine technique.
2. Does your ski "holiday" include quality childless time for you and (I assume) your partner?
If the latter, then ski school would be money well spent. I think we stopped when youngest of ours (x3) could ski all day. She would have been about 8 and is now onto her third season as an Instructor.
Loved @pam w's comment. I have taught 3 kids from a Belgian family for the last 4 seasons. Following my advice, Kids now ski on their own and I have Mum and Dad. 
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Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
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Kids are pretty much the same as adults, stop having lessons or coaching when you don't want to get any better.
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Poster: A snowHead
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I’d say keep them in lessons until they’re the same standard as you, then you can all ski as a family together. Perhaps continue to have some private lessons as a family going forward, so you can all continue to improve.
My children have had private lessons together since they were 4/5 and now at 12/13 still have lessons. Often it’s my wife and daughter that go on the lessons together and sometimes I join them. Despite doing 5 weeks a year my daughter still has a lot to learn, so I’d imagine she’ll be in lessons for a long while yet. My son goes on a different lesson nowadays, as it’s the only way he gets to ski with someone who can push him.
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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My kids started skiing at 3 and 6 respectively and they stayed doing ski school until they had passed their Gold ESF award. The youngest then went on a school ski trip and did one final year of ski school there.
It is not worth cutting corners with ski school as sooner or later your kids will be wanting to spend their days skiing unpisted icy black mogul fields and if like me you don't fancy skiing those with them, it will be good to know they have been taught the correct techniques to ski them safely.
If your son is still doing snow plough stops he is definitely not ready to stop ski school.
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FAQ
