Games are a great way to work on skills in a fun and entertaining way. Games should be part of every practice for young skiers and should also be used as kids gets older as well. There are a few things to keep in mind when playing games.
- Games should be tied to a specific skill that skiers are working on. Pick games to play in advance to be sure they incorporate the skill work for that day.
- Games are adaptable! This is a great list of games, but tweaks need to be made to make the game most effective for your group. Maybe the names can be changed so they fit your environment better and the kids relate to them better by using the local language, maybe the terrain you have causes you to change the distance or time spent, etc.
- Even when playing games the attention span of young kids is short so have a few games picked out. Play a game for 10-15 minutes before moving on to another activity for 10 minutes and then maybe come back to another game at the end of practice.
- Pay attention to kids who love games and kids who are intimidated or less interested. Sometimes it might be best to divide into different groups to play games so those that are shy or intimidated are playing with each other and can feel more comfortable getting into the game without the more aggressive skiers.
Here are a list of games from Maine Winter Sports Center On-Snow Curriculum Guide to give you ideas. However, there are hundreds more that can be created to work on specific skills and many of these games are adaptable as well.
