11 points you need to pay attention to
Getting your child into the right and appropriate ski course group is delicate. Grouping is essentially based on the children’s skiing ability, physical fitness, and previous skiing ability. You must think about the skiing skills of your child or your children before booking.
To help you with this, we have created a guide you can read here.
This blog article explains what we as a ski school pay a lot of attention to and what is important when we make the grouping of ski courses.
1) What skiing skills does the ski course participant have?
Upon your arrival at our ski school, having already booked your ticket online or in the ski school office, our staff will inquire about the skiing skills of your child or children. Our office staff will ask you a few specific questions, such as which slopes your child skis on and what the ski guidance is like on each ski slope.
Knowing your own and your children’s skiing skills is also very important when renting skis because not every ski is suitable for every skill and style.
2) Ski school is not the same as school. Numbers are just numbers.
Yes, we assign your child or children to a specific skill level/ski group that follows a specific curriculum. But that does not mean that our ski instructors teach rigidly according to this curriculum. The ski instructors continuously practice and repeat exercises from previous skill levels, as well as try out and learn exercises from higher groups. The ski instructors teach according to the children’s requirements. The ski instructors also adapt their teaching to the children’s needs, as some children require more practice for correct skiing posture and others need to focus on improving their ski edging skills.
Sometimes some children start in the group “J2” and at the end of the week they are at the skill level of „J4“. The group “J4” represents a particular challenge for the children. This group aims to learn to ski completely parallel on blue and red slopes. Dismantling the snow plough position is not so easy and for this reason, most children in this skill level “J4” have to do this group two or three times before they have the necessary skills for the next group “J5”, which already belongs to the „red“ski groups. Children of „red“groups have to ski completely parallel on blue and red slopes and they should be able to manage short and easier parts of a black slope too.
3) Don’t overwhelm your children!
The fact that children are still growing should not be underestimated or ignored, which is a very important thing. Sometimes growth spurts occur over the summer, and when children are on skis for the first time in a year, the skis will be significantly longer than the previous year, which can make it difficult for some children to immediately regain the skiing skills they had before. The children then need a certain amount of time to get used to the longer skis and to skiing in general.
We often prefer to put the children in a slightly lower group so that the children have this time to get used to skiing again and then regain the necessary confidence and technical skills from the previous year. Later, if the children are better than the rest of the group, they will change the group to the next higher skill level after consultation with the ski instructor and supervisor.
Another thing to consider is the mental side. From one year to the next, children can become more anxious. Last year, the kids were able to ski on red slopes without any problems and now suddenly nothing is possible. It is like a mental block. The older the children get, the more they realise that skiing can sometimes be dangerous and this makes them more anxious. You could say that these children simply think too much, similar to adults.
Here too, it is a good idea to let the child start at a slightly lower skill level to regain the necessary confidence.
Other children do not have these fears and would prefer to ski faster and steeper slopes. With such children, you also have to be careful not to group them into levels that are too demanding, because although they have the speed for a challenging and advanced skill level, their technique is not fully developed and still needs to be learned.
Parents should always take care to not overwhelm their children! Overexertion leads to fear and that is ultimately much, much worse than if your child spends half a day skiing in a group that is too easy.
We always try to put your children in a suitable ski group and we make sure that we can let your child learn at their own pace. Our motto is therefore: challenge but don’t overexert!
4) Group size
We always aim to keep the ski course groups as small as possible. Sometimes, and especially at the beginning of the week, this is not always possible for many reasons and it can happen that on the first two days, the group grows to 10 to 12 children per ski instructor. Normally, the groups are smaller from Tuesday at the latest.
By upgrading or downgrading some children, which is usually done after the first morning or after the first day of the ski course, the groups are homogeneous and the skills of the children within the ski course group fit well together. Even the children who have changed ski course groups because they were over- or under-challenged are now in the group that suits them and can enjoy the ski course and learn and improve their skiing with lots of fun.
5) Skiing before the grouping of the courses?
We haven’t done skiing for the grouping of the children for a long time now. There are several reasons for this. For one thing, this skiing needs a lot of time and the children lose a lot of time from the ski course. Another reason is that the children are often on skis for the first time in a long time and need a certain amount of time to get used to the skis again. For this reason, this event is often not very meaningful and the children end up changing groups several times.
Because of these reasons, it is very important to think about the skiing skills of the children before booking the ski course online or in our ski school office and you should be realistic with this assessment.
You are welcome to use our skill level guide.
6) Grouping with friends or siblings in the same ski course group. Is that possible?
Parents often express the wish for siblings’ or friends’ children to be placed in the same group. As long as the children have the same skiing skills and there is still enough space in the ski course group, we are happy to fulfil your wish. However, we also ask that you accept that sometimes this may not be possible for some reason.
Sometimes it is simply not possible to fulfill such wishes because the children’s skills are too different. The child who is either over- or under-challenged in the group has no fun and the other children cannot enjoy the ski course either because this one child always has to be taken into consideration.
7) Arrive at the meeting point a little earlier
Especially on the first two days of the ski course, you should arrive at the children’s meeting point early. In the mornings, it can be a little hectic because the children don’t yet know their ski instructor. Our supervisor first has to make the grouping to the ski instructor and show them where the ski instructor’s meeting point is.
The nervousness and tension among both the children and the parents is also quite high on the first day because there are lots of things to think about and you don’t want to forget anything. It is also exciting for the children because the ski instructor and the children in the ski group are still unknown people. The children are then busy with questions such as: Do I like my ski instructor? Will I make new friends straight away?
Being at the meeting point early has advantages for you and us. The supervisor can take you to the ski instructor without stress, and the ski instructor also has enough time to greet you and your child and discuss important things (e.g. meeting points, who will pick up the child? allergies, etc.). Perhaps you also have special requests or questions for the ski instructor.
Please also note that the meeting point for the junior ski courses is at the middle station of the ski area Hochzeiger. This means that you should also factor in time for a ride on the gondola. The gondola takes 7 minutes from the bottom station to the middle station. A certain amount of time for queuing, especially during the main holiday weeks (Christmas, Carnival and Easter), should also be taken into account.
8) Pick up your child or children on time
Please always tell the ski instructors who will be picking up your child. It would be best if you picked up your child personally at lunchtime. The ski instructor is responsible for your child and is not allowed to give the child to just anyone. Since the ski instructor already met you in the morning, he also knows that this is your child. If you are unable to make it at lunchtime and dad, grandpa, grandma, etc picks the child up., we would be very happy if you would let the ski instructor know this in the morning.
We also aim to follow our course times as closely as possible and urge parents to pick up their children on time.
9) Language(s) of our ski instructors
We have a lot of local and foreign ski instructors in our ski school. The languages we can offer for the ski courses are accordingly diverse.
Our group courses are offered in German or English as standard. It is not possible to select a specific language for group courses. Since many children with different skiing skills speak for example Dutch, we have to divide our dutch-speaking instructors to all differnet skill levels. This means that we cannot promise that there will be enough space for your child in this ski course group.
However, we still ask you to inform us that your child speaks a specific language either when booking online or when booking at the skischool office, so that we can take this into account if possible.
We would also like to inform you that children learn primarily visually. This means that it is not so bad if the children do not understand every word the ski instructor says. The children watch what the ski instructor is doing and demonstrating and then simply try to imitate it. Furthermore the ski instructors usually speak at least the most important words of the foreign language and are still able to communicate with the children somehow.
You can also see this as a chance for your child to learn a new language.
If you would like your child to be taught exclusively by a ski instructor who speaks the child’s native language, we are happy to offer you private lessons.
10) Think about your child’s or children’s ski equipment.
The meeting point is very busy, especially in high season. The ski instructors collect the skis from their own ski group and put them in a specific place at the meeting point. After all the children have been picked up and some children have been taken to the children’s restaurant for lunchtime care, the skis are left unattended at the meeting point. It sometimes happens that parents want to go skiing with the children during the lunch break and go to the meeting point to get the skis of the children. They take the skis, that they think are the right ones. This often leads to confusion, because the children’s skis almost all look the same. Later, all the children come back to the ski instructor and want to continue the ski course. Then comes the big moment of horror – where are my child’s skis? Most of these mix-ups can be exchanged back at the meeting point, but it does happen that the mix-up is only noticed later because the bindings are no longer adjusted correctly.
We recommend that you take a photo of the barcode on the skis with your mobile phone. This way you can always check whether you really have the right skis. If your child has their own skis, we recommend that you write the name on the skis with a waterproof pen.
With rental skis, the barcode can be used to find out who you swapped the skis with and then swap everything back.
11) Our supervisors are there to answer all your questions!
For each area (adults, Pitzis (3 and 4 year old children), juniors (children from 5 years old) and snowboard) in our ski school we have our own supervisor on the slopes. For the juniors there are even 3 supervisors who you will meet at the meeting point at the grouping.
If you have any questions, your child’s or children’s ski instructor is the first point of contact. If they cannot answer your questions or solve any problems, then the supervisor comes into play. They are your contact when you have questions to the grouping, you want to change the group, etc. and they will be happy to help you.
Conclusion
These points should help you to have a relaxed skiing holiday. The children can learn and improve their skiing without stress and with lots of fun. Our aim is to satisfy you and your children as best as possible and to celebrate successes together with you.
We thank you for your trust in our skischool and wish you all a pleasant stay on your next visit.
