Be a good coach and check the equipment
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Often coaches take a kids' lack of skills as just that: lack of skill and will drill them up an down the hill all season long, with poor results... often though, it's not as much a lack of skill as it is poor equipment. As a parent and as a coach, you should also be mindful that kids grow quickly and a good boot could turn into a torture device within half a season and a boot that's supposed to last 2 seasons is... way too large right now!
Here's what I check and why - please help me by adding more things to keep an eye out fo, with your comments below.
The thing to check first is normally the DIN settings and binding function (forward pressure). Parents are responsible for that, but if a kid comes out of his skis too much, maybe double-check the DIN and forward pressure and correlate with age/weight/skill. Send them to the technician if it doesn't look right, see more at Choosing DIN settings for ski bindings.
If a kid can't turn - maybe the skis are hopelessly railed. Take their skis off and quickly check their bases - you don't need a true bar, a strait enough pole is enough to see if it needs a base grind or not. Are the skis too long or too stiff?
Are the bindings mounted properly? Do they seem to be in the proper place? What if they're too far back and he can't do much but slide the tails around?
If he's back too much and never comes forward to bend the skis, maybe the boots are obviously too stiff...? The same happens though if the boots are too soft, mind you. Have a quick check: he should be able to comfortably bend the boots when warm, but not easily. Also, the boots may be too high in the front - most newer junior boots have a lower cuff in the front, to ease getting forward to be in balance... you can quickly compare it with that of other kids of similar size.
If she takes forever to turn, can't keep up with a course... Did she get her third hand boots from her cousin and they're hopelessly worn and her feet floating inside? A boot does need to be tight fitting, to give any control over the ski... and the liner should be new(er). If the boot does fit nicely however, she possibly needs canting? Are the skis too long or too stiff?
Knock-kneed skier, too much A-framing going on? Well, first thing to check is the stance, because it's easy: if it's too wide too early in the turn, he will be A-framed and it's easy to correct, see Skiing - the wide stance debugged. But if the stance is fine, maybe the boot is not aligned properly, specifically the upper cuff. Maybe he needs canting on top of that?
Read more about Ski Boot Fitting.
Common parent mistakes
... that you should want ot avoid, of course:
Getting boots that are too large - this is all too common, especially at the lower ages.
Getting used boots - might get away with a good fitting used boot until 10 years of age or so, but not after that. The liners will be worn out even if the boot shell fitting is decent.
Getting boots that are too stiff or too soft for the skill/strength - this one is trickier to judge by the parent, but a competent coach can weigh in. Keep in mind that it is much more common that the boots are too soft. The problem with a boot that is too soft is that it doesn't provide enough support forward and the skier, conversely, will avoid being forward!
Getting skis that are too long
Getting skis that are too stiff
To be continued - in the mean time, read more Ski Coaching Ideas.
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