Teaching Kids To Snowboard Part 3
This snowboard video will give you tips on Teaching Kids To Snowboard. If you love to snowboard sharing that passion with your children will create endless positive memories. Get them to love snowboarding. Other Snowboard Videos on YouTube & Flowing Freeride go over equipment technologies to teach you how to get the best gear. You’ll have access to all our snowboard tutorials when you signup that cover every step and feedback from your coach. We also have some free snowboard videos to prepare for snowboard weather and equipment to bring on our YouTube Page. I recommend watching these snowboard videos; Beginner Snowboard Lesson on Steering, Toeside Heelside Stance, Learn How To Ride The Lifts Safely, How to Snowboard: Balance Twist, Beginner Snowboard Stance, Snowboard Pads, Snowboard Training Hill, Demo Boards, Snowboard Camber, Building Rhythm, Snowboard Freestyle Boards, Snowboard Dynamic Flex & Extend, & How To Size Your Snowboard. Learn to snowboard online with flowingfreeride.com, Take Our Placement Quiz, take a look at Our Blog for more free content, and Learn To Snowboard Right!
I’ve been talking to my brother about taking his kids out snowboarding but they live in Phoenix, AZ. We finally got the chance with the great early conditions this Thanksgiving to get up on the slopes. My boys went out with their cousins. I knew this had a good chance of being successful because I brought several adults along. They were willing parents and grandparents that had a stake in outcome. They helped with the difficult times. A big part of teaching kids is the preparation. Some of the cousins had taken a snowboard lesson with a negative result. One was good at skateboarding. Their parents had prepped them to be excited and grateful. That made it easy for me to teach. The kids ranged in age from 3 to 12 so I was dealing with multiple cognitive developments. I studied child development in college and have my Advanced Children Educator ACE 2 certification. I talk to the kids to see what hobbies/interests they like. If you have knowledge of the shows they watch, sports they play or books they read you can talk about those subjects to get them to relax and not over think snowboarding.
When you have really young kids just be prepared for them to break down. Every child has a unique personality. Get down to there level when teaching them. Some kids are happy and stoked to be out snowboarding while others will throw tantrums and outbreaks. These kids are too young or need extra attention. You might have an idea of difficult kids before you take them on the slopes but you won’t know until you take them up and try. You can use the leash systems or hold their hands but they need to be able to go by themselves. When a child starts crying take a break or call it for the day if it’s a real bad outbreak. Remember this is suppose to build positive fun memories, so that they want to do this with you in the future.
The older kids are more likely to be coachable because their brains and bodies have developed. I will teach things to the group and then let a stronger rider demo things for me. I like to use a reward system or let the children compete amongst themselves. If you can make things a game and fun it will keep them engaged. Some games are to see how long you can ride without a fall. Time them to see how long they can go straight. Who can do the best stop and so on. I know last Easter I brought an egg up with a toy in side. I let my son find it and told him it gave him magic powers to snowboard better. He was so excited and confident. It was his best day snowboarding ever. I might have to teach the skill differently to kids that don’t have much of an attention span or don’t listen. Teach something and then let them discover things on their own. You don’t have to always be teaching, give them time just to practice on their own.
I took them to our shop where I sized their boots, boards and I set up there snowboard angles to 9º, -9º. I’ve talked about how to setup a beginner binding angles in an earlier video. Binding Angles.
To get the kids going we strapped in one foot and skated around doing circles, figure 8’s and straight glides. I taught them that it was important to lift the board up and not keep it flat. Using big strong power moves would make them crash. It took a bit but they started to edge their boards. Get the kids to lift the snowboards up. Practice with them by spotting them so the can get the right balance. I talk about this in some early videos but the twist drill is something you should know by watching this video,
to help teach your kids edging and to twist the board. Once they’re doing that they are ready to practice gliding and stopping. If they aren’t stopping have them practice lifting their edge up. They can drag their toes or heels in the snow to act as an anchor but I’ve found it better to just go right into edging the board to stop. They want to step uphill or towards their uphill edge. Kids want get the board around quick using upper body strength but they keep the board flat and unless they lift the edge up they usually will fall. (crashes)
This first part is where they hike and skate in flat terrain. This are is where you can help kids get their balance because it’s flat and they’re not moving a lot. They will build muscle memory by repeating the drill of skating and stopping. Bring water and take breaks because the kids will get tired. If you have other adults during a break you might get to go take a quick run to get your shred on. After they can stop on toeside and heelside let them start going down the beginner slope. This slope should be fairly flat but steep enough to keep speed. Have them make laps on this area stopping one foot in. Surface lifts are the best for beginners so find an area that has a conveyor belt or a gondola to make laps. Refer to this video to help with lift knowledge.
Getting on and of the chair lift comes later. You may need to help the kids but use caution because this is where they move and more likely to fall. I will have them practice the ankle, knee, hips and spine flex and extension movements for toe and heel stationary and then while they go down the mountain.
You might have to stay on this practice slope for a while doing one foot in stops. When they’re doing toeside and heelside stops strap in the back foot. I will sometimes help spot the kids to transition from toeside and heelside or making C-turns. Get the kids to do that and make sure they can stop with two feet in. If one kid is advancing faster then teach them S-Turns. The focus is steering the board with their front foot, getting the board to across the fall line then parallel to it. Let the board flow down with gravity and focus energy to their ankles/lower body to steer not their shoulders and arms. When they balance on the edges and stop they’re ready for the lift. Check out loading the lift video.
The next Teaching Children Snowboarding video I’ll give tips on how to load and unload the lift safely with kids. You can signup to get access to all of our snowboard lessons, study guides, textbooks, glossary, tests and direct feedback from your coach. Learn to snowboard right online with flowingfreeride.com. My name is Blake Tholen Clark Contact Me if you want to book a lesson or have any questions about Snowboarding.
