Preface to:“Skiing is a Game”
Teaching children to ski is an activity that should be enjoyed by the student and the teacher. This book will assist, guide, and educate the ski instructor on this path.
The authors have been drawn together based on their common desire to find truth in the art of teaching skiing to children. While balloons and colored hoops aren’t really what you think of when you imagine the appearance of a scientific laboratory, they are part of our laboratory. The laboratory where children learn to ski. Specifically it is where children love to ski, and love to learn to ski. Playing and the accompanying movements that aid the child in becoming a skier are introduced and arranged to allow the child to progress at their own indigenous developmental rate. Understanding this, leads us, the practitioners, to an appreciation that children cannot be forced to ski. Skiing is a child like activity. When it is treated as such the love of skiing grows within the child. Everything must be viewed as fun. This comes from the activities that the practitioner applies. While the child sees everything as fun, the games and exercises are progressive and will lead the child to increasingly complex movement pools that will assist them in their downhill adventures.
Science forms the backbone of this book. Some readers will find the term “science” obtrusive or irrelevant to teaching. These readers think of teaching as more of an “art” and find it a more appealing description when talking about teaching skiing to children. The authors couldn’t agree more with this need for the “art” of teaching. Although teaching is nothing without subject matter. This creates the rules in which to guide the teachers artistic presentation. Knowing what motivates the student and how to light up that motivation is the artist’s paint brush. Some teachers have a gut feeling for what a student needs and this is great. What we have attempted to lay out is the truth behind the gut feeling of these great teachers.
The breadth and depth of this books makes it quite unique. Breadth in the sense of the topics presented and depth regarding how detailed that information is. From early childhood development to the physics of skiing to application of games, all are indispensable if the teacher is to understand the entire skiing experience the child is exposed to. These topics are not touched upon lightly. Some might argue that this depth is unnecessary for the ski instructor. We see instructors everyday out on the slope without an extended education. While they get the job done, one must ask, are they doing the job to the level that they could be doing it? With “depth” of subject matter comes an appreciation of what that subject matter contains. Just knowing what to do is good. In fact that is how we all started teaching. Do this then do that. What is missing is why we are doing what we are doing. Do we really know when to progress to the next level? Will we be able to invent a new way to help the child learn how to turn their legs?
Teaching children is one of the most rewarding activities you can do as an adult. It is our hope and desire that through this book you, the ski instructor, will develop a personal philosophy, based upon factual information, to become a truly proficient educator of today’s youth. When the instructor uses all the resources available teaching will yield fantastic rewards. Appreciate the excitement of children and rewards of teaching. Remember “skiing is a game”.
Ron Kipp,
Salt Lake City
Teaching children to ski is an activity that should be enjoyed by the student and the teacher. This book will assist, guide, and educate the ski instructor on this path.
The authors have been drawn together based on their common desire to find truth in the art of teaching skiing to children. While balloons and colored hoops aren’t really what you think of when you imagine the appearance of a scientific laboratory, they are part of our laboratory. The laboratory where children learn to ski. Specifically it is where children love to ski, and love to learn to ski. Playing and the accompanying movements that aid the child in becoming a skier are introduced and arranged to allow the child to progress at their own indigenous developmental rate. Understanding this, leads us, the practitioners, to an appreciation that children cannot be forced to ski. Skiing is a child like activity. When it is treated as such the love of skiing grows within the child. Everything must be viewed as fun. This comes from the activities that the practitioner applies. While the child sees everything as fun, the games and exercises are progressive and will lead the child to increasingly complex movement pools that will assist them in their downhill adventures.
Science forms the backbone of this book. Some readers will find the term “science” obtrusive or irrelevant to teaching. These readers think of teaching as more of an “art” and find it a more appealing description when talking about teaching skiing to children. The authors couldn’t agree more with this need for the “art” of teaching. Although teaching is nothing without subject matter. This creates the rules in which to guide the teachers artistic presentation. Knowing what motivates the student and how to light up that motivation is the artist’s paint brush. Some teachers have a gut feeling for what a student needs and this is great. What we have attempted to lay out is the truth behind the gut feeling of these great teachers.
The breadth and depth of this books makes it quite unique. Breadth in the sense of the topics presented and depth regarding how detailed that information is. From early childhood development to the physics of skiing to application of games, all are indispensable if the teacher is to understand the entire skiing experience the child is exposed to. These topics are not touched upon lightly. Some might argue that this depth is unnecessary for the ski instructor. We see instructors everyday out on the slope without an extended education. While they get the job done, one must ask, are they doing the job to the level that they could be doing it? With “depth” of subject matter comes an appreciation of what that subject matter contains. Just knowing what to do is good. In fact that is how we all started teaching. Do this then do that. What is missing is why we are doing what we are doing. Do we really know when to progress to the next level? Will we be able to invent a new way to help the child learn how to turn their legs?
Teaching children is one of the most rewarding activities you can do as an adult. It is our hope and desire that through this book you, the ski instructor, will develop a personal philosophy, based upon factual information, to become a truly proficient educator of today’s youth. When the instructor uses all the resources available teaching will yield fantastic rewards. Appreciate the excitement of children and rewards of teaching. Remember “skiing is a game”.
Ron Kipp,
Salt Lake City