Why is Skiing Great for Kids?

Parents who are considering buying ski lessons for their children should definitely factor in the enormous health benefits that can be derived from skiing both as a sporting activity and as a form of exercise. 

Skiing Boosts Fitness

Although predominantly focusing on the muscles in the legs such as the gluteus maximus in buttocks and thighs and the hamstring, skiing actually offers a workout for the entire body.  It is great exercise for the core muscles, meaning that the muscles governing balance and physical stability are being strengthened every time your child goes skiing.

Skiing Boosts Confidence

Skiing is a great way for children to find their confidence and see themselves making progress at something that they also find fun and exhilarating. Allowing them the freedom to develop and improve at their own pace gives them a sense of achievement and of self-worth that is invaluable as they head into their teenage years.     

In some ways skiing is similar to martial arts in the positive effect it can have on children because they have to learn to concentrate and read situations, reacting quickly and on instinct to external stimuli. 

Skiing is just as much a mental pursuit as a physical one, remembering the correct form to take at any given point on the slope. Recalling how to move their legs when they want to slow down, drifting across the gradient of the hill. It is also important to remember how to speed up, by bringing the skis parallel to each other with legs tightly together, crouching slightly to reduce wind resistance. Learning and remembering all of this can help children with their concentration and focus. 

Skiing is Social

There is also a social aspect to skiing that can be advantageous to children. If they regularly attend ski lessons or a local ski centre, they are likely to meet children their own age and form a friendship group. This will help them to retain their enthusiasm for skiing as well as help them to learn, as they talk to each other and swap tips and tricks for improving their skills. 

This shared interest and growth of friendship groups who share their interests also allows for the development of social skills when face to face in a way that children who are mostly behind a computer screen or console all the time may not figure out to the same extent, or may need longer to work on to reach the same level. 

Skiing is Fun

There has never been a better time for children to learn to ski, there are top quality indoor ski centres all over the UK with their own snow machines which simulate natural snow fall and allow for soft powdery ski runs without having to wait for just the right weather conditions. 

Skiing can be exhilarating, adrenaline-filled and can be an incredibly fun and fulfilling hobby. Kids returning home from a day’s skiing with faces flushed from the cold, and enthusing about their runs, while sipping a hot chocolate with marshmallows will definitely have some great memories from their childhood to look back on fondly.  

Photo by Les Anderson on Unsplash