Methods for introducing kids to course?

[jdk99]

Hope to start the kids in the course next year but have no idea how to ease them in. Do any of you fathers/mothers or instructors have suggestions?

 

 

[fu_man]

Not sure how old your kids are so maybe some of this applies. I have 3 kids. My oldest (10) doesn't like to ski. One of the reasons is that we probably pushed him too much at a young age. Learn from my mistake. Don't do that. My younger two (8 and 6) love to ski. Both can get up by themselves on combos so that is how we have started training them in the course. First get them to go through the course the correct way (1st through the gates, then go right, the left, etc) but only have them ski around the boat guides. Once they have this, have them ski through the mini course. Once they are comfortable going outside the wake, have them sart shadowing buoys. Although my daughter has expressed interest in riding one ski, wait until they are ready. I think kids can learn proper pull position on two skis as well as one ski. I have heard others say the same thing and I have also heard Lucky talking about running the course on a pair of jumpers. I wouldn't start a kid in the course on a single ski until they are very comfortable riding it in the open water and able to cross the wakes with some confidence.

[Wish]

Kinda depends on ages and skill levels and what your course situation is like (short/long setups, mini course buoys available....). What boat will be pulling them. Maybe some more info to start with may get the ideas flowing more specific to your needs. I started my little one behind a flat bottom jon boat with 0 wake.

[WBLskier]

I have a 7 year old and 4 year old daughters. They both started at about age 3 on the boom and progressed from there. My 7 year old started droppping a ski when she was 5 and learned to get up on 1 at 6. By the end of this summer she was knocking down the mini course pretty easily and starting in on the real course at the end of the summer. I agree with fu_man. Encourage the heck out of them but don't push them if they don't want to go. My 4 year old was all gung ho early in the summer so I pushed her a little hard and then she didn't want to go very often for the rest of the year.

 

I started my 7 year old on two skis in the mini course about as soon as she could get outside the wake. I let her just poke around at the buoys and if she didn't feel like going after them, so be it. When she was learning to slalom, I let her pick and if she wanted to ski on two she would. If she wanted to slalom, she would. She was still doing that at the beginning of this year from time to time. I think it helped her to be really solid on one when she finally gave up the other ski for good.

 

It also helped to show her some videos of really amazing kid skiers like Drew Ross' daughter so she could see what elite kid skiers look like.

 

I think the biggest thing is to always have it be fun, encourge them when they do something well, and push them to try something new when they show they want to do it. I guess the only other thing that worked for me is to not make things too intimidating or seem too complicated. We've gotten so many little kids up on one ski lately when they just go into it thinking it isn't that hard to do.

[Bruce_Butterfield]

Absolutely start them on 2 skis as slow as they are comfortable. For light kids you can start as slow as 10-12 mph.

 

I don't think the mini course offers much benefit and can be detrimental in many cases. Use long line and pull as wide as they can outside of 1 ball and cut hard to 2. Forget about the gates until they can run the full pass.

 

Progress on 2 skis will be much faster and they will learn critical concepts (wide, early, generate angle) much better than if they struggle to stay up on 1 ski.

[Intheday]

Agree with don't push them. A kneeboard can get them used to running the course at least that's what we are doing

[mlange]

My step-son was a pretty solid free skier, but we all know that means squat when you make the move to the course. After struggling for a long time and never getting around all 6 I had him spend a day with Jodi Fisher when he was in town. Jodi had him start by ignoring the gates, told him to get one ball, shadow 2-5 and get six ball. After that he added five ball, then four ball, etc... Between that approach, which I wish I had considered a looong time ago for myself, and slowing him down a few mph he was running all six pretty regularly.

 

I'm a firm believer that what works for some may not work for others, but this is one worth giving a shot IMHO.

 

Mike

[MattP]

what @mlange said

[jdk99]

Thanks guys. Great suggestions.

 

@wish: 03 SN196. 2300 foot slalom lake, no islands, decent set ups and 55's but no mini course. 4 kids, 8-13. All are pretty good free slalom skiers. All but the 8 year old can do pull outs with decent glide and leans (Rathbun drills) but they all flatten when crossing the wake and double pull. Had them watch N. Ross video (impressive).

 

Hadnt even thought of having them run 2 skis, long line - will try it. I am sure they wont like going back to 2 though :)

 

all thoughts appreciated.

 

 

[LeonL]

What @mlange and @MattP said. It's far better to get some pulls and turns in instead of falling at one or two. Adding buoys from the far end has been very successful in my observation.

[MattP]

I have seen it work countless times when I worked for Jodi driving/coaching this method and here at home.

[jdk99]

so does Jody have them on one or two skis to start?

[jdk99]

*Jodi

[MattP]

@jeffklop99 I personally have only ever done this method with someone who is able to slalom. I don't see why it would not work for someone on 2 skis.

[sunperch]

We have an 11 and 8 y.o who both compete and love to ski. Both started to ski the course and enter tournaments at 5 y.o. We started my oldest on the course on 2 skis, the younger one we started slalom because he wanted to go straight from trainers to slalom. It worked both ways. One thing that really helped both of them is we drew a slalom course the length of the driveway and had them "run the course" on their scooters. It helped them to always know where they were in the course and to explain how to edge change, backside the ball, quit skiing straight to the ball, etc...... The visual seemed to really help them.

[A_B]

We have mini course buoys so,we use them. After running mini course easily, have them pull out to the skier balls with their strong side pull, ie., RFF, go early on gate and then go around 135 skier buoys and mini course 246 and out through the gate. Have them get closer to 246 as the offside gets better.

Seems to give them small victories along the way and you can see them digging hard to get out to 3 and 5.

[RazorRoss3]

I learned a similar way except I was told to start going around the 1, if I could make it to 2 do it if not mini course and continue down the course always trying for real buoys but if I wasn't going to get there take the mini course ball

[jimbrake]

I did what Bruce suggests with my, at the time, 5 year old. He was pulling out wide of one (on two skis) then turning hard and trying to get to 2. We were going around 12 mph. Did this with limited success for a while, then decided to move the boat over and have him run the mini course. He did that easily first try and for several sets afterwards. I'll never forget the day he said "dad, I want to try the big course again". He ran it first try. Moral of the story is I have no idea. I just know that he had fun running the mini course and that made something click for him that helped him run the full course. Maybe it was confidence, improved balance, more turns and pulls, fun. I don't know. We were off an running on the "kid improves every set" path after that.

[Chef23]

Some good advice here. I did start my kids on the mini course and shortened the rope until they were running it at -32. Then I went back to long line and did what @Bruce_Butterfield said. My son who is 14 was running into 28 off at 34mph last year so it has worked okay for him. My daughter isn't as into it but can run the course long line at 26-28 mph.

[ToddL]

This is what we do:

http://www.waterskiaustin.com/Competition/Rules/mini-course.htm

Mini-Course Rules

 

The Mini-Course event is a great way to introduce competition to young skiers who are just learning how to ski. Even the youngest skiers can take a ride down the lake and back and feel like they participated. The main goal of this event is to build the future of this sport by making competition fun for all ages!

 

Rules:

Skiers can start at any even-numbered speed (10, 14, 18mph, etc).

Speed increases by 2 MPH for each successful pass.

Top speed is 26 mph. This bumps the skier out of Mini-Course and into Novice division. Then, the skier must attempt the full course at any slalom speed (15.5, 17.4, 19.3, 21.1, 23, or 24.9mph). The first attempt of the full course does not require the entrance gates. After first successful pass at full course, the skier must used the entrance gates (see Slalom Scoring section).

Skiers are NOT dropped after each pass. They turn around and keep going until they have skied 4 consecutive passes. Judge may make allowance for skier safety.

The "even" skier buoys - require the skier to round the farthest boat guide buoy (a.k.a. go around both) to score the buoy.

 

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These are the "tournament" rules for our "mini" course skiers. In practice we use the same boat and skier path.

http://www.waterskiaustin.com/images/minicourse.gif

 

Be sure to read the driver tips posted at the link above!!!

[ToddL]

FWIW - @Bruce_Butterfield is right about possibly detrimental. This is because the skills, timing, mechanics of skiing the mini course on 2 skis is very different from skiing the full course (even on 2 skis). Just like skiing long line is very different from skiing 28 off. Each approach is very different and transition from one to the next requires re-learning some elements of skiing.

 

However, with kids, it is all about fun and acheivement. Anything, and I mean anything, that you can do to help them have frequent, recurring successes along the way is absolutely critical to keeping them engaged. So, if you need to for your kiddo, then do mini, use two skis, let them skip gates, shadow the first turn after the off-side lean, whatever. Just celebrate the progress at evey moment. Just my $0.02.

 

Oh, and invest in a lightweigh (a.k.a junior) rope for them. Keep it out of the wakes to stay safe. One really bad or scary fall and a young kiddo might stop skiing for a year or so. Also, my son did mini and found that he really preferred -22 off for mini. Then, later when he tried the full course, we went to long line and he quickly found success. Moving to -15 off was a big jump for him. This past year he progressed with minimal lake time. His PB at the start of the season ended up being a slower than his opening pass by the end of the season.

[jdk99]

great posts

[jimbrake]

Yep. It's all about helping 'em have fun. We used to do sets where they'd ski the course for four passes then the last two were about jumping the wakes and getting as much air on two skis as possible. My kids grew up on a private lake in the slalom course and I feel bad for not giving them some of the big lake free skiing that I grew up with. We don't own a boat, so we are stuck at the club. They love it though. When they are little get them to ride as many things as possible on the water - two skis, one ski, slalom, trick, jump, wakeboard, wakeskate, surfboard, barefoot on a boom, even a tube. It will only improve their balance and awareness of what works on the water and what doesn't - except for the tube, which is lame, but they have fun.

[Bruce_Butterfield]

Jim and Todd - good inputs. Agree the importance of steady improvement and having fun. There are no absolute rules, so if something is not working, change and try something else.

 

One of the things my daughter would do when she was about 5 (drove me nuts at the time) was when we circled on the end of the lake, she would pull to the inside and let go - just to bob up and down in the 3' wakes. She absolutely loved it!