“For snowboard lessons, children must be at least eight years old. Younger kids can not handle the board and there are no snowboards for three-year-olds. In addition, the children should first learn to ski and then snowboarding … „

Statements like these have in the past, unfortunately, the general opinion about the children’s snow- boarding determined. Experiences from the snowboard practice have shown that in the minds of many dedicated parents, unfortunately, the thought has set, before the beginning of a snowboard career, a ski course must be visit. However, it is time to be rethink!

To make a general statement about the ideal “beginner age” for snowboarders is not easy. It helps to ask the question what sports-related abilities a child should master before attending a snowboard course.

In addition, one should consider the general requirement profile of snowboarding, which is very ver- satile. In addition to conditional aspects such as strength and endurance, coordinative skills and an economically-developed technique are crucial components to be able to implement the overarching goals. In particular, the regulation of equilibrium and the control of speed and direction are considered as superordinate goals. These goals attempt snowboarders in the ever-changing situation (terrain, snow, weather, motivation, etc.) to be achieved by adapting the rooms to maneuver (timing, scope, direction and intensity) in the main movements (head movements, body shifts of emphasis and rotary movements). Initiated be the most important motion features of snowboarding, gliding on the flat asked Brett, stopping, braking and drive curves, from the legs through a combination of foot over the knee to the hip joint (Kaffenberger, Baier & Gramsch, 2013). For a functional control, it is important that the upper body acts as a stabilizing mass and a certain tension in the trunk and abdominal muscles can be maintained. Therefore, the mainly stressed muscles can be restricted especially to the legs and the trunk. The arms usually hang down relaxed on the body and engage only regulatory in the action. Thus, the most important motor prerequisites for preschoolers from three to six years to take part in a (beginner) snowboarding course can be summarized as follows:

• Balance and coordination
• Dynamic strength endurance of the lower extremity (bending and stretching of the Legs)
• Static strength endurance of the trunk and abdominal muscles

From an anthropological point of view, the physical characteristics of preschool children are more and more similar to those of an adult, whereby improved leverage gradually leads to a more optimal trans- mission of musculature, tendon and ligaments, to joint structures (Kornexl, 2005). Thus, the basic requirements for snowboarding are al-ready given. However, peculiarities with regard to coordination,

condition, psyche, emotion and cognition cannot be dismissed out of hand and so special conse- quences or didactical concepts are necessary for the practice:

1. Create situations, in which the four different meanings of movement by group (1976) can be experienced
2. Give ample opportunity to explore and experiment the movement
3. Implicit learning, that is, unknowingly promoting playfully
4. Diverse body, material and device experiences about play and allow movement
5. Repeatedly provide partner and group work
6. Do not impose rigid, binding performance standards
7. Provide integration-promoting tasks

Implementation approaches can already be found today in commercial and scholastic matters, as well as in associations. For example, different snowboard brands have developed the Riglet tool for pulling children’s snowboards and launched the Riglet Tour, where the first child-friendly steps on the snow- board can be rehearsed on and off the snow. Memmert, Kaffenberger & Weirether have published a comprehensive exercise collection on seasonal cross-border basic training for winter sports, the Snow School (2014), which is ideally suited to prepare students for a winter sports school stay in school sports. For the ski school directors in general and the snowboard instructors in particular, the snow- board instructor team of the INTERSKI DEUTSCHLAND this year has a new issue from the series Besser teachings, which deals exclusively with the topic of snowboarding in preschool and in addition to important background information and an adapted methodology for the teacher on the hill. For those who have taken their first steps directly on the snowboard and accordingly have already developed solid basics, offer the shred kids in six locations a great offer from 6 years. The shred kids meet for the whole winter over once a week under professional guidance for common snowboarding. Thus, a connection to the sport is opened without commercial service providers and as an alternative to the classic ski club.

All these concepts are very well received in practice and will certainly be expanded in the future. The hope rise, that statements from earlier are getting less and less, and that children can freely choose regardless of wrong prior information, whether they prefer to ski or want to snowboard right from the start.

Speaker: Stefan Stark, Allgäu, Germany Snowboard