CHILDREN’S
PAUL BOWMAN Use children's love of tree runs to lay the groundwork for the skills they can apply all over the mountain.
FROM TREE TRAILS TO TERRAIN: SEEK A NEW ADVENTURE WITH CHILDREN
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h, the age-old thrill of skiing Hully Gully for the 100th time, or dropping from Screaming Eagle, wondering when the excitement of the one-foot runout will wear out. And who doesn’t love the adventure of chasing pint-size
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rippers through tree trails where your skis (and maybe theirs) don’t seem to fit like they used to? But how can we capitalize on the momentous fun of tree trails and use it to catapult our students to bigger, better terrain?
WHEN AND WHY SHOULD WE GO THERE?
Before I answer that question, you might be asking, “Do we need to? Is there value in making our kiddos leave tree trails behind for a new adventure?” Te answer varies with the student.
106 | 32 DEGREES • WINTER 2017
Some students wouldn’t part with tree trails if their lives depended on it. Even though you’ve seen them hurtle between pines at mildly terrifying speeds, perform perfect edge changes to avoid stumps, and demonstrate incredible pressure control through a series of road bumps, they still freeze up any time you suggest heading back out onto that short black-diamond bump run. Tese are students who have the skills, but not the motivation, to take their game somewhere else on the mountain.
Tere is another group who are already asking to explore something new. Tese students may be bored with the routine. Tey may be detached from the choice of runs, disengaged from the thrill of their once-beloved secret passageways. In this case, it’s our role to engage these students in the world beyond tree trails, to show them how to use the skills they’ve built and find their adventure elsewhere. If you think a student has plateaued in their skill development on tree trails or lost their once-frenetic enjoyment of them, it might be time to start laying the groundwork for exploring new terrain. Otherwise, they might get stuck in a rut (literally).
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