Mountain Bike Holiday Camps for Kids

Mountain Bike Holiday Camps for Kids

Holiday cycling camps in full swing

Every summer I run holiday camps for beginner and advanced young riders. These are a great opportunity for youngsters to get outside during their summer holidays and have fun on their bikes and learn some new skills.

Over the course of an hour and a half we move around the trail at Queen Elizabeth Country Park practising different techniques on different parts of the trail based on the group’s ability.

I usually run a beginner and advanced group so that I can tailor the activity to suit the group’s ability.

This week I have also ran a mixed ability group, the advantage of this was being able to use the more experienced riders to do demos not only did this mean the beginners got a visual representation but the more advanced riders got to talk through how they would approach a trail feature and demonstrate their skills which made them feel more confident in their ability.

Here are a few pictures of what we get up to on camps:

If you would like to book your child onto a camp please contact Hannah.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Visit Pedal 2 Pedal for more information on camps and coaching for adults and children.

Level Two Road Cycling Course

Level Two Road Cycling Course

Last weekend I travelled to Cyclopark in Kent to take part in my Level Two Road Cycling Course with British Cycling.

The two day course started with a development day and then assessment on the Sunday. Before the course start date we had an online learning platform where I completed a online assessment on road cycling (86% yay!) and also has to plan for a 10 minute coaching session on development day. This was also an opportunity to meet the other participants which was very helpful.

I chose countering an attack as my technique and worked on a 10 minute session which included seated and standing attacks as well as countering attacks from a bunch.

On development day we each had a chance to learn as a participant in sessions and to coach our own session. When it came to my turn I decided to leave out my first activity worried that I had packed in too much content. I started my session with an introduction which in hindsight was probably too long and then set my riders off. Sadly my session over ran as I tried to pack in far too much content. My session needed a clearer goal and refining for assessment day but I understood where I could improve it to make a more active.

The rest of the morning was spent being a participant in other people’s sessions this was really valuable as being a rider in a coaching session you can learn different ways of being coached and also look at coaching from a rider’s perspective which helps me to improve my own sessions. It was very wet and cold but the learning experience was so valuable.

In the afternoon we went through how to really drill down and create specific goals that related to types of road races and the components of fitness. This really helped me think about my own sessions and how I can create better coaching sessions with specific goals to be reached by riders by the ends of sessions.

My brain active and full of ideas I went back to my hotel Saturday ready to adapt my session plan ready for the 15 minute assessment on Sunday.

Sunday arrived and luckily the rain didn’t! My assessment went well instead of my goal being around countering an attack I looked more specifically at how riders can gain free speed. I focused on keeping my riders doing the same type of activity with subtle changes and adding in coaching points and checking for understanding as I went along.

My session went very well and I got good feedback from Richard and also lots of ideas on how I could adapt and progress my session further.

In the afternoon we did coach led racing which is different from ‘normal’ coaching sessions as you set up scenarios which could happen in a race, let it play out and then come in and discuss tactics and get feedback from the riders on what they did and how they would improve their performance. This was a really interesting way of coaching and I think with older kids and adults could work very well for coaching road and mountain bike sessions as it puts learning into practise in a more realistic setting.

I am really glad that I passed my Level two Road qualification it was a good weekend and I learnt so much and have loads of ideas for road racing sessions, now all I have to do is put some times in the diary to run some.

If you are interested in road racing coaching sessions in Hampshire and West Sussex please contact me.

Hiring a coach – my thoughts as a coach.

Hiring a coach – my thoughts as a coach.

Should you hire a coach?

Last year I raced the Bike Trans Alp a stage race from Austria to Italy over 7 days, climbing 19,000 metres. I had never raced anything like this before. I had never ridden the distances required on multiple days let alone raced it! Climbing alpine mountains was also a new challenge, but I was excited about pushing my limits and seeing what I was capable of.

One of the key factors in getting me ‘race’ fit was hiring Mark at Velo Coaching. As a cycling coach myself I understood the basic principles of training and the sorts of sessions I should be putting together, to increase my endurance and also my ability to climb economically, however I had no real idea in how to put this together as a training plan that would allow for recovery and the adaptation in my physiology that I needed.

Mark and I worked together to look at my daily commitments like working hours, my own cycling coaching sessions and time to spend with my family. From there we plotted what type of training I could do around this and added in some important recovery time.

Having a plan made it easy for me to focus on a day at a time and not get overwhelmed with the task ahead.

I am a self-motivated person and if I want something I am prepared to make sacrifices to make it happen, having said this, having a coach there to motivate me and analyse my progress was one of the most helpful tools. Every week Mark would look at my training and we would discuss over Training Peaks what was going well and what wasn’t. As a cycling coach myself I didn’t need hand holding through my sessions I just needed the structure to work within.

The Trans Alp bike race came round in July 2016 quicker than ever and as my Dad and I drove to Austria I felt prepared, safe in the knowledge I had put in as much training as I could manage and was as ready as I could be.

It was in the Autumn after returning from the alps I had an email from someone about coaching, they weren’t sure if they were ‘good enough’ to have a coach.

My experience is that having a coach can make a difference to the small things like, for example as I have a lot going on in my work it made the task of planning and analysing my training a weight off my mind, I new Mark was there working that out so all I had to do is put on my kit and go cycling and not put too much thought into the planning stage it was all laid out for me. I think also from a confidence point of view having a coach to say it’s okay if it doesn’t go well every race or you need to work harder on hill climbing.

My thoughts are if you want to get better at something then it takes practise and patients. Getting expert advice whether you’re looking to just feel more confident when you’re out riding with your family or you are aiming for a challenge, anyone can grow as a rider and become better with the guidance of a good cycling coach.

If you would be interested in me helping you, please get in touch.