Peter and I went skiing at Big Bear Adaptive on 1/2-4/12. It was great. Here are a few tips on teaching your child to ski, from an outstanding adaptive instructor named Tommy.
The basic progression is as follows:
1) Teach putting on equipment, sliding on one ski, pushing off with the other booted foot.
2) Parallel skiing down a tiny slope a few feet at a time and being caught to stop.
3) Learning the wedge to control speed.
4) Learning the wedge turn, and use of the terrain to stop (turning uphill).
5) Continuous wedge turns. (Can use the lift at this point.)
6) Wedge Kristies (try to get skis in parallel between turns when skiing diagonally downhill).
7) Advanced Wedge Kristies- getting into parallel immediately after a turn
8) Parallel Skiing-
Do the first part of a turn, not by going into a wedge, but taking a deep breath in and standing up to relieve any pressure on the edges, as a flat ski will automatically turn itself to point directly downhill.
The second part of the turn requires bending at the knee and shifting the weight to the uphill edges by rotating the feet into the hill.
Keep the upper body turned downhill toward your target regardless of the direction the feet are turning in order to store the potential energy in the coiled body for the next turn of the feet in that direction.
Make use of the time you spend on the lifts by practicing the next step in an imitation game format. For example, you can take turns calling out “french fries,” “parallel,” “pizza,” “wedge” position and have everyone then take that position (at first demonstrate immediately, then pause a moment to see if your child knows without imitating you). You can have your child point to downhill or uphill, or practice wedge kristies as together you “turn right, ski parallel, turn left, ski parallel, etc.”
Wow! You are superMom!