Yesterday, I taught an 8 year old kid who had never flown a dual line kite before to keep the kite in the air (mostly) in about 15 minutes. He was there with his mother and father and a cheap single-line plastic kite that broke apart in its first 10 minutes of flight. He asked me if he could try mine, so I thought, what the heck.
I stood behind him with my hands on his and showed him what to do. I would show him, then he would try it, then I would show him again. After a few dozen times, he would get it.
He was having fun and then asked me about the tricks that he had seen me doing. I had him doing a semi-passeable half-axel in another 15 minutes.
When his mother asked me how much the kite cost and I told her it was a $500 kite, she got a bit nervous and took him away a little while later. He thanked me and then asked his mother to take him to the local kite shop!

I had never tried trick-training like this before, but it really seemed to work. I am wondering if anyone else has tried this method of training? In the past, I've tried showing and telling people how to do things even using the kite as a model, but it honestly has not worked out well at all.
-Tom