At the beginning of a persons ski journey they must learn about their ski equipment. Especially if they are in a younger age group. If a student has never been skiing before then you should introduce each part of the ski, ski boot, and other equipment that they might be using.
Boots
To someone who’s never seen a ski boot there are a lot mistakes that a beginner can make, watch out for these ones in particular:
- feet not all the way into the boot, not lying flat
- buckles not buckled, strap not strapped
- boots on wrong feet
- A rule of thumb is that buckles should be on the outside of the feet Anyone at any age can make these mistakes so we must say vigilant. Make sure to ask your students at the beginning and all throughout your lesson if they have any pain in their boots, this may indicate something is wrong about them.
Get familiar with walking in boots
Many students may come to the lesson with their boots already on. However it is a good idea to practice walking, running, and jumping in ski boots. Try and make an effort to practice balance, rotation control, edge control, and pressure control(BERP) while in boots. Boots provide a better external indicators that a student is actually doing what your asking them, than skis. The ability of a student to move in their ski boots will help them be better able to move in their skis.
Athletic stance
The most important part of the lesson is to introduce the Athletic Stance. Be sure that your students know and can show proper athletic stance.
Example Boots lesson
Assessment:
- Get a sense of the student’s athletic capability and familiarity with the mountain
- Ask questions to your students and start thinking about Spiderwebbing
- Point out to students/parents where Ullr, ski patrol, and the bathroom are located
- Tell parents what time lessons are over and where they can pick up their kids
Goals:
- Get the students familiar with the mountain
- Get the students comfortable walking in boots
- Help the students understand the proper Athletic Stance for skiing.
Information
- Demonstrate Athletic Stance:
- Take the Students through BERP to mimic skiing movements without skis on. You don’t have to explain each part of BERP to them but do activities listed in Practice to demonstrate each of these. —
- Balance: Work on walking over varied terrain, moving in different directions, and balancing in different positions in boots.
- Edging: Have the student experiment with opposing and matching edge sets on the boots by moving their knees side to side and in opposite directions of each other on different terrain.
- Rotation: Have the students experiment with rotating their legs in various directions.
- Pressure: Have the students practice pressuring their shins against the front of their boots.
Practice:
- Jump: jumping into a stance can help put a student in athletic stance.
- Race/Duck Duck Goose: have them run around to get used to their boots
- Hokey Pokey: works them through various body positions and movements for balance
- Simon Says: come up with various movements that emphasize different aspects of BERP —
- Team Huddle: Huddle up with your class and practice pushing knees from side to side
- Rope Pull: pretend there is a rope connecting their knees and “pull” on it to make a matching edge set
- Spread the butter: Practice moving from a neutral stance into the wedge or “pizza” stance
- Squish the bug: Press your shins against the front of your boot to create shin pressure
Understanding:
- Students may be uncomfortable in boots and that is OK.
- Double check the boots are on the right feet (SERIOUSLY CHECK THIS) and the right tightness
Feedback:
- Assure kids a little discomfort is okay and make sure their boots are on the right feet!
- Drill their athletic stance so that they don’t have problems later on. Most important aspect at this point that they understand is the pressure on the front of their boot (“squish the bug”) — Techno Jargon: Young kids have underdeveloped muscles and gigantic domes and brain buckets which will make surface butter 180’s to switch truck driver to skull taps very easy but skiing hard. This means that your students will not be perfect preforming many skiing tasks as you move forward through the progression simply because it is physically impossible for them. Look for overall proficiency and a red lining stoke-o-meter.