It happens to every kid — you get them on a slightly steeper slope and WHAM — they are pointed straight down hill in an intractable pizza that will not move.
For the next 20+ turns, they will start to point downhill and stop in a wedge, facing downhill, leaning way back, and unable to complete their turn. If they want to perfect the Death Wedge technique, your kid will then sit down. Be prepared as a parent instructor to be frustrated as you sidestep uphill to pick them up, just to see them do it again in their next turn.
Here are a few ways to break out of the Death Wedge. Use them early and often, and get creative yourself, so you do not lose your mind.
Follow your child closely while skiing
Kids ski where they look and where their skis are pointed. They also get scared when they look downhill on new terrain. If your child can follow you really closely (right on your tails), they will be both looking across the hill in their turn and not looking downhill. This can be a great solution if a child is stuck on a hill in a death wedge. Once you have them pointed in the right direction, have them follow you very closely through a series of turns, which should break them of the death wedge habit.
Tips–
I you can ski backwards confidently, you can make eye contact with your child, which is very powerful in terms of getting them to look the right direction. You can also offer to put your open palms against theirs — do not hold tightly, just light pressure — which can get a child unstuck and confident.
Remember that you have the ability to shed speed as an adult by slipping on the snow with micro-movements you might not be aware of. Kids do not have this ability yet. So, focus on turns that only use your edges and pizza to complete, so your child can match your turn shape. The ideal shape will look like a ‘C’.
If following closely is not possible for any reason, you can also draw railroad tracks on the snow with your pole tips and have your child work hard to follow the path you have set down.
Use Ski Games like Flashlights and Laser Guns
These are the crazy things I have heard parent instructors come up with to get their kids focusing on pointing their knees, arms, and eyes to the trees (across the hill) in the second half of a turn to finish the bottom part of the ‘C’ curve of the turn.
Flashlights — think about how cool it would be to have flashlights in your knees. Now point them into the woods after each turn to find squirrels, unicorns, etc. in there.
Laser Guns — these are mounted in the knees and in the hands, and are used to either eliminate monsters in the trees on the side of the hill after each turn, or can be turned on you as you have the kid follow really closely behind you.
I’m sure there are tons of ideas here. The key is to know what your child likes, and figure out a game around it that gets their eyes, arms, and knees pointed across the hill at the end or bottom of their turns.
Get back on easier terrain
The ideas above work great for students that are feeling confident. If your child seems like they are a little rattled, find some terrain that is more open, less steep, less crowded and already has a strong track record. You want to rebuild the muscle memory for turn shape quickly so you are not reinforcing the death wedge. This can be as easy as getting a little further (10-20 yards) downhill from where you are, as slopes often become more gentle the closer you get to the base area. You might be tempted to ski with your child between your legs to get there, but I recommend against this due to the hazard of falling on your kid and hurting them or yourself. Instead try side stepping or kicking off your skis and walking 10-20 yards downhill.
Once you are on more confident terrain, work on completing turns using the tips above, putting a lot of attention on ‘finishing’ turns, which means pointing your ski tips across the hill (towards the trees) at the end of each turn.
Overall
Overall, it is going to take a few runs at a minimum to break out of the Death Wedge, so do not get frustrated. Just keep working creatively at finishing turns and building confidence and you will get there with your child. Just think, if your kid is in a death wedge, they are really close to breaking out into confident blue skiing with a little nudging and coaching. You are almost there — finish strong like the hero you are!
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