fancynancy

I really appreciate everyone's input! I'm pretty good at my job, and over the course of two summers, I've taught at least 100 kids how to ski, so I've definitely got a lot of experience to work with. Totally agree with that 95% statistic! And The majority of them can get up fine on their own, it's really only the ones who struggle a lot that I would ski with. I get everything from kids who pop up on their first try and ski around the lake a few times with perfect form and never fall to the kids who take a try or two to get up and are shaky and can only make it halfway down the lake to the kids who stand up and immediately fall. I count all of those kids as successes because they got up for any amount of time, and however long that is is exciting. They're the ones who are likely to come back so that we can work on improving their skills. It's only the kids who can't get up for any amount of time that I want to try the doubles skiing with (and coaching the more advanced kids, but that's just so I'm close enough to talk to them). It's already disappointing for them to not get up, and it's even worse when they watch three of their bunkmates ski around the lake for the first time and they can't get out of the water. I'd much rather do the work for them and give them the confidence to come back and try again rather than turn them off to the sport completely on day 1. During those first few tries, their perception of how they did is so much more important than how they're actually doing. My favorite line: "Look at how far away from the dock you got!!" Who cares that most of the distance was just the boat dragging the kid? Another question, what effect does having a rope tied to the skis have? We use skis that are tied together, and it would be pretty easy to attach a handle. I know that for it to be safe, the spotter would have to hold the other end of the rope instead of attaching it to the boat.

Oh believe me, I hate those jet boats and am constantly campaigning for new ones. We have them for "safety" because they don't have a prop, but I feel like an impeller is way more dangerous. They're fun to play with, but awful for skiing. I did have a little victorious moment when, during a meeting with the camp director and the ski staff, he mentioned that it's impossible to slalom behind a jet boat, and I casually said "Oh, I did that this morning!" My first driver made that boat his baby, and that's why we were so successful getting kids up. That jet surge is exactly the reason why I have to hang behind so many kids as they get up - if they're not leaning back exactly the right amount or are a little too tense, they get pulled over if I'm not holding them back. Thanks so much Todd! I think I'm going to practice that on my brothers a bit :)

Thanks so much for such a quick and detailed response! I already do all of the dryland activities you suggested, and I definitely notice it makes a difference - especially getting kids to keep their arms straight! And I'll take a look at the Instructor program. Everything I know about teaching kids I pretty much learned on the spot, and it's really nice to see that I've already thought of almost everything you suggested. I'm especially excited to try skiing behind the kids, because it sounds like I can do everything I already do in the water, which is keep the kids relaxed and in the cannon ball position, and basically pull them up and ski with them for as long as they need. I definitely prefer getting kids up with as little help as possible, but when there is so limited time, even a few seconds of skiing translates to a massive confidence boost and an awesome letter home to mom and dad. When you ski next to the kid, are you still able to help them resist the pull of the boat? A lot of my job involves dragging behind the kids and holding on to their life jackets to prevent them from getting pulled over by the boat in the first few seconds of the pull up.

Hey guys! I'm new here. I'm a collegiate skiier and work at a summer camp teaching kids to ski. Last summer was awesome, I had an amazing boat driver and with him driving and me in the water with the kid, we got 100% of the kids who tried to ski up for at least a few seconds. This summer, my driver had exactly one weekend of experience driving a boat before coming to camp and our success rate was significantly lower. When I drive, I can get most kids up, but my driver wasn't very good at working with the kids in the water. If we had decent boats, this wouldn't be a problem, but we work with jet boats, and those are tricky to control at the best of times. (I keep begging my camp's director for Nautiques with booms, it's not going to happen :( ). The kids only get about 3-5 tries to get up before it's someone else's turn, and they may only have 2 or 3 opportunities to ski while they're at camp, so it's really important to me to get kids up on that first day. I'm already thinking about next summer, and I really want to experiment with not just sitting in the water keeping the kids in the right position, but putting on a pair of skis myself and skiing alongside them. But just by thinking about how I would do that, I don't know how it would work. I think it would be the most effective for the under 10 crowd. I think for the smallest kids, sitting behind them with my skis on either side of theirs would be the best way to make sure they got up, but I don't know if that's safe. For bigger kids, I could sit next to them and hold on to the handle with one hand and the kid with the other to pull them up, but I don't know if that would actually get a kid up or if I would fall over sideways. Do any of you have experience teaching kids to ski this way? Or any other methods that would work? I got into collegiate skiing because of a camp counselor, and even if none of my kids ever end up skiing competitively, making sure they enjoy the sport and have fun is my #1 goal.