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Why Edgie Wedgies Are The Best Ski Training Tool for Kids

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If you’re looking for the easiest way to teach your kids to ski, an edgie wedgie needs to be on your ski gear list. As a former ski instructor and mom of 5, I’ve taught hundreds of kids to ski. While you’ll see lots of gadgets and gizmos out there promising to make your life easier and your kids ski better, I’ve never found something that works as well as an edgie wedgie. Best of all, you can buy these ski tip connectors for about $12!

toddler skiing

What’s an Edgie Wedgie?

An edgie wedgie is a little rubber connector that links the tips of your child’s skis together. It’s simple but brilliant and works incredibly well to keep kids ski tips together. The idea is to keep their skis from spreading too far apart which is a common problem when kids are learning how to stop in a wedge on skis.

These ski tip connectors also do a pretty good job at not letting kids ski tips cross either. It’s just a stretchy piece of tubing that with clips on each end that attath onto the ski tips. It makes learning how to stop in a wedge really easy since all the kids really have to do is to spread their legs apart and the edgie wedgie creates the wedge shape with their ski tips for them.

Who Should Use an Edgie Wedgie?

Edgie Wedgies are a lifesaver for teaching little kids to ski, especially those under age 6. At those really young ages, kids are just getting the hang of balancing and coordinating their movements, and an edgie wedgie helps them to develop the muscle memory needed to stop on skis.

ski family

For really tiny kids, we always start them learning to ski with an edgie wedgie on their ski tips, but with one goal in mind – to take it off as soon as it looks like they don’t NEED it a lot anymore. For a 5 or 6 year old, they may have it figured out in a few hours. Some kids need a few days or even years.

For toddlers and preschoolers, it’s not uncommon for kids to use an edgie wedgie for years. Our kids started skiing at around 18 months, and they all used an edgie wedgie until they were at least 3. The goal is to make sure your kids have great muscle memory and strength so they can stop without really having to think about it, so they’re prepared for whatever they encounter on the ski hill.

Boys skiing

While edgie wedgies are an amazing ski teaching tool, they’re really only needed for beginners who haven’t mastered stopping on skis yet.

Think of an Edgie Wedgie like a set of training wheels but for skis. It helps them keep the right position without making it a big deal.

How to Get Kids To STOP on Skis Using an Edgie Wedgie

This is likely the easiest skill you’ll ever teach your kids on skis, but here are a few tips to make it easier. You can even do a lot of this in the backyard to make your ski hill transition easier!

Step 1. Before kids get their skis on, tell them to practice making their ski boots small (close together), and big (spread far apart). It’s basically like jumping jacks just for their feet.

Step 2. Put your kids skis on (without the edgie wedgie), and have them practice sliding their feet farther apart and back close together. Tell them that this is how you make your skis big and small.

Step 3. Put the edgie wedgie on. Have your child slide their feet apart and watch what shape it forms. This is a wedge shape, but for our kids, we usually call it a PIZZA! We tell them that when they make their feet big, their skis make a pizza, and when they make their feet small, their skis make french fries. Big pizzas make you stop, little pizzas make you go slow, and french fries make you go fast.

Beyond that, we don’t explain much to the kids. What we’re after is the muscle memory, since most kids just get confused by the mechanics of making a wedge on their own (which often leads to them skiing bowlegged or knock-kneed).

When Are Kids Ready To Not Use an Edgie Wegie Anymore?

The big goal with using an edgie wedgie for kids is to get them to not need it anymore. When you notice that your kids have a lot of slack in their edgie wedgie, and it’s not tight anymore, it might be time to get rid of it. Taking the edgie wedgie off can be a little scary or some kids, so go to a gentle slope when you let them first try skiing without it. Most kids do great, but about 1/3 of kids, can ski without their edgie wedgie, but they need a couple of runs with extra encouragement before THEY know they can do it. Keep it positive and keep telling them how awesome they are!

Why We Love Edgie Wedgies for Teaching Kids to Ski

baby skiing with edgie wedgie
  1. Boosts Confidence: It’s all about making them feel secure and confident out there. Fewer tumbles mean more smiles and more willingness to try again.
  2. Encourages the Right Stance: We all know about the ‘pizza slice’ stance, right? It’s key for slowing down and turning. The Edgie Wedgie sort of guides them into this stance naturally. Best of all, if you can get kids to relax, using an edgie wedgie often eliminates kids who start getting knock-kneed or bow legged when trying to make a wedge shape o their own.
  3. Safety First: While it is possible to teach kids to ski without and edgie wedgie, you have a much higher risk of a runaway skier moment. Having an easy and reliable way for kids to stop on their skis not only keeps them safer, but it keeps other skiers on the hill safer as well.
  4. Quicker Learning Process: Kids who learn to stop using an edgie wedgie, almost always learn to stop faster than kids who learn without tit.
  5. Saves money on ski school: WIth the help of an edgie wedgie, teaching kids how to stop on skis is REALLY EASY! This means that you can teach your kids for the first few days on your own and save your $$ for ski school days where they need to learn advanced skills instead! Ski schools typically cost over $200/day, so a $12 investment is a huge savings!

A Couple of Tips on Edgie Wedgie Use from One Parent to Another

The most important thing you can do with your kids edgie wedgie is to really crank it down TIGHT! Yes, the screws will leave marks in the skis, but those won’t impact performance at all, and will make your life easier. We’ve softened tightened ours so tight that we can hold their skis by their edgie wedgie when hauling them to and from the lodge (the hardest trek of the whole ski day).

Also, keep in mind that with an edgie wedgie on, kids skis can’t move much front to back, so it’s hard for them to shuffle on the flats. On spots like this, we usually push our kids from behind or we try to “grab” their edgie wedgie with our pole basket and pull them along behind us. Neither is a perfect solution, but for the ease that an edgie wedgie provides, it’s worth it.

What a lot of it comes down to is muscle memory.  When little kids are skiing, there are a lot of new things to master and muscle memory is a major part of that.  The Edgie Wedgie is pretty much the best tool around to help kids figure out that muscle memory so they can focus on figuring out the rest of skiing.  As soon as they can consistently make a stopping wedge, take it off.  If might take a day, or like our little Chloe, they might ski with it for almost 3 seasons…either way, it’s all just fine.  When your kids have the strength, confidence, and desire, they’ll be able to get it off (no worries folks, I’ve never seen a 10-year-old who still needs one).

On the downside, with an Edgie Wedgie on, kids can’t walk uphill (sidestepping or duck-walking) or shuffle fast because their tips are stuck together, but helping them with those little things is a small price to pay for how much easier it will make the rest of your day!

toddler skiing with edgie wedgie
About Jessica Averett

Hi, I’m Jessica, a mom of 5 kids and married to my favorite adventure partner. I love to bike, ski, camp and hike. We've visited over 40 countries with our kids, but are equally happy on the road as we are exploring our home state of Utah.

10 thoughts on “Why Edgie Wedgies Are The Best Ski Training Tool for Kids”

  1. I like that – big legs and small legs. Going to use that.
    And we are loving the Edgie Wedgie too. Bought it for our first time on the hill and my husband was blown away with how well it works.

    Reply
  2. great post and all, but why isn’t your child (and you for that matter) wearing a helmet? Knowing how to ski wont be very useful if they get clobbered in the head when not wearing a helmet. I’d love to hear your thoughts on this safety matter.

    Reply
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    Reply
  4. Great article! Edgie Wedgies + Slope Ropes has been the magic formula for us – taught two little ones (one just over two!) this season and that combo saved our backs and our sanity and the kids had a blast!!!

    Reply
  5. Let’s face it, if one of your kids needed it for THREE years, it is not an effective learning tool, even if they started skiing at 18 months. That means at 3.5 years, they are still using the edgie-wedgie? What in the world did they learn to do in 3 years? If you ski consistently for 1 winter without the edgie wedgie and give your kid actual freedom to independently use his or her legs, she will learn how to ski. A Lucky Bums harness to start and some basic instructions worked for me with my 2 year olds. By 2.5, they could ski from the top of one of NH’s most challenging mountains. At 3.5, they can confidently ski any trail on the mountain parallel. I really have never seen better success than that with an edgie wedgie. Anyone who knows anything about skiing knows that independent leg motion is key. I have skied most of my life and can’t imagine having my ski tips tied together at no greater than shoulder width. It’s simply unnatural. Perhaps this works for some, but my guess would be that simply getting your kid on skis consistently (30+ days a season), keeping it relaxed and fun, and letting them figure things out physically, will allow them to learn to ski.

    Reply
    • I’m glad you and your kids learnt fast, it’s a great skill to have, but not everyone lives on a mountain. Something like this makes the week or two a year skiing fun for our little ones and safer as they have the confidence from being in full control of their speed, instead of being scared.

      Reply
  6. Use it for the first few days of skiing then pull it off. Don’t let them get too comfortable with it or you will slow their progress.

    Reply

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