Quote Originally Posted by Montmorency View Post
99.999% is not enough for you?
Now you are grasping at straws... No, I do most def not feel as connected to asian kid as I would my own kid, just because we share human DNA. You would, or what was your point?

Quote Originally Posted by Sigurd View Post
You are the instructor and I can't say what is norm. But I didn't start my career until I had finished devloping my motory skills and was able to ski on my own. That was the philosophy of the generation of my parents and produced great skiiers like Lasse Kjus and Kjetil Andre Åmot. Then it was all about letting the child keep balance on their own and use no aids.

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

I went up against Lasse when young. We were about the same height, weight and age.
Since I am from the west, we tend to be more focused on freestyle, and I did train with the national freestyle team when in highschool, but I was a bit heavier than the average freestyler and preffered downhill. No one dared to take me on amongst the people I socialized with then. The Navy took me out of active training and I am kinda inactive these days, being a casual skiier... taking a few breaking turns when the ski partol is around
Those both were the generation above me, so we probably haven't met on the slopes then.

Basically, if you can walk you can ski. We have equipment we use today we didn't have when you were young, and we also teach more developed techniques..

Don't get me wrong, a 2,5 yo is by no means optimal, for group lessons I would say 4 yo minimally. But now we talk about a kid having a dedicated personal instructor with a safety harness and skies you can't cross. Kids that small have no weight, so controlling them on a elastic leash is no problem what so ever.

They wont learn short turns anytime soon of course, the main reason I'd take kids that young is that skiing should be something they "just do", it shouldnt be something they "learnt". You basically remove all elements of fear from skiing, which in the long run will enhance their skiing progress a LOT over the years :)

So we who are into skiing doesnt start our kids young to enhance their technique short term, the training is directed towards eleminating fear and making skiing a natural mean of movement rather than something "special you occasionally do".

My dad was a ski instructor, and he changed diapers on me up on the glaciers.