We’re big fans of seeing people spend less time in front of a screen and more time experiencing the outdoors. Cookies MTB Coaching is dedicated to just that, reinforcing these habits and teaching bike skills and confidence that will last a lifetime. With mountain bike coaching for small groups or 1 on 1 sessions, Cookies MTB Coaching offers the opportunity to develop skills in a no pressure, fun environment using PMBIA coaching methods. Ali from Cookies shares some thoughts from her youth clinics held over the past summer below. To learn more about Cookies MTB Coaching follow the links at the bottom of the article.
One of my goals this summer was to expose more kids to riding bikes. Teaching sports to children can be a combination of the most rewarding, enjoyable, yet most challenging experiences as an instructor.
As we know, kids these days tend to live in a virtual world. They have an incredible amount of technology at their fingertips – not only for play, but it also plays an important role in their academic education. So keeping them in touch with mother nature is important for many reasons.
First of all, there’s the obvious physical benefits of exercising… but it goes deeper. Keeping kids active in the great outdoors drives their self-esteem, aids their independence, gives them resilience to the elements, teaches them empathy, gratitude and respect, and gives them a real-world way of thinking that will bring other areas of their education to life.
So coming into the summer, I couldn’t wait to start Cookies Kids Days. I knew the biggest challenge ahead of me would be giving these kids a set of skills and fun memories that they’ll take with them for the rest of their lives.
The first difference between coaching adult women and kids is the emphasis I’d need to place on communication. Simplify my verbal instructions, and over-emphasise any physical movements.
But most importantly, every kid learns differently. The way that they respond to instruction, gage their development and communicate differs so much to an adult. The answer (and this is my favourite part!) is creating a super fun and positive learning environment and every skill we learn gets turned into a game!
Take gears for example, racing each other in their lowest, then highest gears not only makes changing gears relevant, but all kids love to have fun racing each other! You should hear the giggles in their first gear races – their legs are spinning out and they’re going nowhere! So my skills days have a huge emphasis on having fun, teaching the 6 key bike skills in a more interactive way keeps kids stimulated without being overloaded by technical information.
Keeping kids safe is always at the for front of my mind, and my mission is to give them the skills they need to stay safe after they leave my supervision, and make sure they feel confident to go out to their local reserve, try new manoeuvres and have fun with their buddies.
I’ve been lucky enough this summer to enjoy the company of some wicked little personalities through my kid’s skills days. On each session a couple of stars will always stand out. It’s the kid who turns up on a BMX with a full face helmet and gumboots who jumps like a champion, or the kid who loves his $15 bike and refuses to ride his brand new one his parents spent a small fortune on because he doesn’t trust the brakes! Or the kid who personally emails you to thank him for the bunny hops.
“hi Ali thanks for taking me out yesterday I had so mach fun because I learnt how to do a bunny hop and thank again for teaching to do a bunny hop.”
Noah Miller, age 7
Cookies Kids Days have been so rewarding this summer, I get just as much out of it as the kids do, and I can’t wait for the next summer full of epic adventures with our next generation of little rippers!
To learn more about Cookies MTB Coaching visit them on the web or on Facebook
