Corazza. “Now if I say, ‘Let’s race to the tree,’ he says ‘Momma this is not a race, but if you want to ski beside me, you have to go fast.’” Corazza shares her advice here on how to help kids have a successful
experience on cross country skis. QLower your great expectations: You don’t want kids to feel like they failed if they don’t make it around the whole loop. Make it all a game. For example, since food is key, make a snack tree where kids can race ahead and find the snack. Also, come up with key phrases to help them remember things. For example, for putting on a pole strap, I’d say, ‘the seal comes up through the ice and bites the fish,’ which is the mitten going into the strap. Always create and always make it fun.
flat terrain,” says Oliver. “Since Aria spent so much time creating movement patterns on the flats, she can now handle the steeps.” Once the child knows the mechanics of the movement patterns,
QTo race or not to race: Te kids themselves should tell you whether or not they are competitive, and their preferences come out early. My older son didn’t want to race, because he doesn’t like being restrained by gate training. He’d rather be out skiing powder. My younger one thinks racing is fun.
Q Suss out something fishy: It’s easier to have young kids on fish- scale classic skis. Tey usually struggle on a smooth ski. Make sure that the bindings are easy to grab with mittens on. Also, look for a comfortable-but-supportive boot with high laces and Velcro straps.
FREESTYLE SPECIALIST ADVISES ‘KNOW YOUR AUDIENCE’
David A. Oliver was a two-term freestyle specialist on the PSIA Alpine Team and is assistant training manager for Colorado’s Breckenridge Ski and Snowboard School. He knows his way around big terrain – thanks in no small part to his upbringing in Taos, New Mexico. “Taos has so much stuff you can jump off of, slash, and steeps to ski down that it taught me how to be playful,” says Oliver. “I did the race team but it was too regimented. As an adolescent, I was like ‘no more groomers, I’m going to jump off stuff.’”
Oliver deals with the emotional part of skiing something steeper. “Children are very visual and interpret their world by what they see,” he says. “If they get scared, have them look five bumps or turns ahead, but never the entire run until they get to the bottom and look back up at what they did.” Tough Oliver teaches for a living, he wants his daughters to experience different instructors. “Whoever is teaching, it’s important to stay on the child’s level so they keep their exploratory nature,” he says. “Fun and exploration are what it’s all about.” Here are three
tips Oliver uses to keep skiing fun. QMuscle it: Depending on the age of the child, many haven’t formulated the smaller muscle groups. When you talk to young children, talk about gross muscle movement in order to affect the ski or snowboard. For example, rather than have them roll their ankles from pinkie toe to big toe, talk big muscle groups, like ‘turn your thigh.’
QApply multiple intelligences: Figure out what kind of intelligence the child has (such as interpersonal, intra-personal, naturalistic, etc.). Some visual learners will respond to a cue like ‘paint the snow’ while someone mathematical would respond to ‘make 20 turns before the next pine tree.’ Musical learners love to sing while they’re doing stuff. All these models are addressed in the Children’s Instruction Manual.
QDon’t push poles: Parents and teachers tend to rush children into getting poles and we base it off of the terrain we’re skiing. It would be more beneficial if we held off on poles in order to help kids be more accurate with their skiing. Tey can develop bad habits around poles if they don’t know what to do with them. Give them mountain sense before you give them another apparatus.
SNOWSPORTS EDUCATOR RAISES SONS ON CHALLENGE AND CREATIVITY
To call Dave Schuiling well-rounded is an understatement. Not only has he been a snowboard and alpine examiner, he is also Level III certified in telemark. Furthermore, he taught waterskiing for many years at a sports camp in Maine. Currently he is the education director for PSIA-AASI and previously held a similar role for the association’s Rocky Mountain Division. Schuiling’s diverse multi-sliding background has allowed him
7KH VNL FUD]HG ZRPHQ LQ 'DYLG 2OLYHU V OLIH GDXJKWHUV $ULD DQG &LHQQD DQG ZLIH 6DUDK
Now Oliver and his wife Sarah have two daughters to be playful with. Aria, age 5, and Cienna, age 2, live in Breckenridge. “We’ve been really careful about having the girls develop skills on
42 | 32 DEGREES • FALL 2016
to develop a unique perspective. He and his wife Jackie owned a snowboard shop in the nineties, where they created many items to help teach kids. “Our philosophy was to set kids up from the board up, taking into consideration body types and prior history in other sports instead of the assembly line approach,” says Schuiling. “We took concepts from that time when we were teaching our own kids. We made sure that when they learned, it was all about adventure and fun.” Sammy, age 15, and Andy, age 12, are now accomplished skiers. “Tey both rebelled and became skiers since mom and dad had a snowboard shop,” says Schuiling. “We challenged them to try different types of sliding, which made them more versatile and better sliders in general.”
COURTESY OF DAVID OLIVER
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72 |
Page 73 |
Page 74 |
Page 75 |
Page 76 |
Page 77 |
Page 78 |
Page 79 |
Page 80 |
Page 81 |
Page 82 |
Page 83 |
Page 84 |
Page 85 |
Page 86 |
Page 87 |
Page 88 |
Page 89 |
Page 90 |
Page 91 |
Page 92 |
Page 93 |
Page 94 |
Page 95 |
Page 96 |
Page 97 |
Page 98 |
Page 99 |
Page 100 |
Page 101 |
Page 102 |
Page 103 |
Page 104 |
Page 105 |
Page 106 |
Page 107 |
Page 108 |
Page 109 |
Page 110 |
Page 111 |
Page 112 |
Page 113 |
Page 114 |
Page 115 |
Page 116 |
Page 117 |
Page 118 |
Page 119 |
Page 120 |
Page 121 |
Page 122 |
Page 123 |
Page 124