Snow Skills

Children enjoy learning more when it feels like fun: one fun way to improve their skiing is to use imitation to introduce new skills.
The use of a child’s imagination to learn is based upon activating prior learning. That’s a fancy education term for asking a child to show you what they already know. To apply imitation, give them the idea to behave like something they already know and their self-interpretation will lead to learning in a new way.

In example, let’s set the goal as getting the child to turn more when going down the slope, as opposed to racing directly down gravity. Recall your high school grammar: similes show a similarity between two things, using the word “like.” Tell them simply “Ski like a snake” and let them lead the way. The child will likely imagine the many twisting turns of a snake and begin to ski with turns across the hill. You can reinforce those movements by encouraging the child to “Make the snake even” so that both directions are the same and then later having them “Ski like a big (or little) snake” to vary their turn size.

Other imagination topics could be “Ski like a tiger” (improve edging with the tiger’s claws) and “Ski like a river” (improving smoothness with sweeping changes of direction).

It’s part of a child’s psychology that this technique works so well: they want to play, they want to please others, and they want to show what they know. By building on these positive mental attitudes, you can guide them to new skills spontaneously and in a fun manner.