On advanced green or moderate blue terrain: “Hey Julian, where is up hill?” He points. Where is down hill?” He points. “Which ski is up hill?” He points to it. “Can you show me the bottom of your uphill ski?” He falls. “Balance, Julian.” He does. “Can you show me more?” He wobbly tries, eventually showing more and finding his balance. I encourage, “Balance….More bottom.” He’s feeling it. “Awesome! Now, turn to the other side.” With a monster wedge he does. “Now, which is your uphill ski?” He points to it. “Show me the bottom.” He does, lifting it off the snow. “Show me more…. Sweet! You have great balance, Julian!” He smiles triumphantly. “I’m going down to that sign and when you turn from side to side, show me the bottom of your uphill ski after you turn. Which is your uphill ski?” He points. “Right! Watch me, Julian, then you do it and I’ll watch you. What are we going to do?” “Show the bottom.” “That’s right!”
I scramble up the hill far enough that he can see it coming to him. I exaggerate showing my bottoms down to the sign. Barely showing a wedge. “Okay, Julian, Show me your bottoms!” He does. At first he wobbles with ski barely off the snow, then finds his balance through long arcs. I hug him when he reaches me, “That was awesome, Jules!” “I showed my bottoms, he exclaimed!” We did it down the rest of the slope.
On the lift: “Remember when we did Little Piggies with Chelsey’s toes? The piggy that went ‘wee, wee, wee’ all the way home touches the snow really lightly, when you show the bottom. This time, show the bottom and go ‘wee, wee, wee’ all the way around the turn.” He does and he is loudly “wee, weeing” We do that for a while and my heart swells that he was finally loosing that humongous wedge the children’s school was teaching him. (I was program dir at the time and sadly had to leave my boy in other’s hands) We skied like that for a few runs, timing his bottom showing to the trees and then to me. It was working like a charm. I added the last bit, “Jules, I’m going down there and this time when you come toward me, wave at me with your uphill hand. Which is your uphill hand?” He first grabs a handful of snow, throws it, and waves it at me. “Okay, go when I look up at you.” He blows me away!
I am beyond ecstatic, proving that little buggers can indeed have upper and lower body separation.