This past Friday our young mountain bikers all had a great time and I am always amazed by their wonderful attitudes. Every pedal stroke brought a smile to their face, even after some mean climbs ! Their determination always impresses me – especially the first timers.
We don’t give long lectures. Jacques teaches while moving and giving them constant feedback. I always remind them to look ahead and not down at their wheel – this helps them to balance and to go where they want to. And I’m always reminding them to keep left on open roads !!
Depending on the terrain we scout out for natural obstacles and we found-
- LOGS to ride over showing them the correct body position and seeing how big an obstacle we can ride over safely .
- ROCKS to weave around ( just like setting up cones in a line to weave between ) .They start off with the rocks fairly spread out and then bring them closer together as their balance improves. It amazes me how quickly kids pick skills up and how willing they are to try new skills .
Our short mountain bike ride was full of single track, dirt roads, and a few short hills and tricky descents. We took time for breaks for the slower riders while finding interesting spots to practice drop-offs. They all finished off excited and wanting more .We returned them all back to mom or dad without any serious mechanicals or injuries – just a couple of scraped knees and lots of stories to tell !
If you have a chance to send your child to our classes they will have a great cycling experience. We really want to guide others to experience the joy on a mountain bike .