Over the last few weeks with the holidays, we have had lots of children’s group lessons running in our Ski School. Children’s group lessons are for all of our skiers in groups divided by age and ability from ages 6-15 and between levels 1-5.
We had a chat with one of instructors Sandy, who was teaching one of our Level 4 aged 6-8 years groups this week.
Group ski lessons on blue and red runs
Our Level 4 groups are for those who are comfortable turning on blue runs, looking to progress to reds during the week.
“Today was the last day of our group, which is running for 5 days each morning from 9am-12pm. We started at Lac des Vaux, which is a great area of the mountain for wide blue runs, and easier reds.
After a few runs here we had a hot chocolate break together, before skiing over to La Chaux where we finished up the lesson, before coming back down to Medran for the children to meet their parents.
We all warmed up on our skis doing some slow exercises that we had used earlier in the week. These included balancing a pole on the back of your hands, and holding a pole out in front of you, to improve balance while skiing.
For lots of the children in the group today, as it was our last day skiing together, we were completing the tasks for the level 4, so that they would receive their certificate and badge, and be ready to move onto level 5 lessons next time they were skiing. This included:
- Lifting the inside ski during a turn
- Crabbing turns
- Skating on the flat
- Plough-parallel turns
To make our lesson fun, we did different activities through the lesson, interspersed with going fast which always goes down well! We did some fun skiing, went through the park, and also played some games on our skis. It’s important when skiing with children to be as enthusiastic as possible throughout the lesson, to make sure everyone stays motivated and has a good time!
Different languages
This week we had children who spoke different languages in the group. This meant it was particularly important to demonstrate everything clearly, and use simple language to make sure everyone understood.
We also had an issue with three of the children who were twisting their bodies as they skied. In order to improve technique, we did specific exercises using the poles, and also to encourage the balance on the outside ski.
Despite some children speaking different languages to others, all of them were great fun and got on well with each other as a group, and we had a great week together.
