Coaching: Mountain Bike Skills Camp. 8th & 9th Oct: Scottish Borders - £25
Posted on: 16th August 2011
Article by: Chris Bryant
Following on from our first level 2 mountain bike coach course last year and this year's course, due to be held in September, we will be running a residential MTB skills and drills camp for our club's coaches and leaders. Split over two days at the start of October coaches and leaders are will be encouraged to take part in coaching sessions on a mixture of natural and man made trails in the Tweed Valley. We'll be exploring the differing possibilities of coaching mountain biking and perhaps most importantly giving everyone a chance to ride their bikes, experience coaching and get better at the core skills so essential to mountain biking.
If you've just become a mountain bike coach or would like to be one then this is a great opportunity to enhance your skills.
This course is open to aspiring coaches as well as existing coaches although priority will be given to those already on the coaching pathway. MTB talent coach Paul Newnham, Regional Development Officer for the Highlands Bob Macfarlane and Scottish Cycling's Coach Education Officer Chris Bryant will all be in attendance to offer advice and guidance throughout. The weekend will be predominantly 'on the bike' with some remote journeying so coaches will need to be prepared, both physically and in terms of equipment to ride. A hardtail MTB and "what-ever-the-weather-wear" would be ideal as we'll be riding uphill and down, come rain or shine. If you wish to attend but feel the lengthy cycling element may cause an issue please let us know in advance, it may be possible to arrange 'short cuts' to the practical areas.
This weekend long mountain bike coaching CPD session is subsidised by our coach development programme and will only cost qualified coaches from our volunteer clubs £25 per person.
Scottish Cycling will book bunkhouse accommodation from Friday night, giving those coaches who need to travel the option of arriving Friday night for a Saturday morning start at around 09.30. Hopefully as many coaches as possible will arrive on Friday for pre-sessions to plan activities for the weekend. We'll pack us much riding in as possible and aim to finish up at 4.00pm on Sunday.
Aspiring UKCC level 2 cycle coaches or MBLA TCL / MBLs with valid membership of a Scottish Cycling Club looking to up-skill would still be able to access the course at the slightly less subsidised cost of £35.
Unfortunately candidates not currently associated with a Scottish Cycling club are not eligible to attend.
Full course payment will have to be made to Scottish Cycling at the time of requesting a place on this course. Places are strictly limited so it will be: first come - first served.
Existing qualified volunteer club coaches (UKCC level 1, 2 &3 or Club Coaches) traveling from within Scotland will be eligible to claim back mileage in line with our volunteer rates of 30p per mile although the first 100 miles of any return journey will not be counted (For example; a coach traveling 110miles each way will only be able to claim for 120miles @30p). There is a catch though: If you would like to benefit from this reimbursement we'd really like you to write a blog style entry about your coaching activities back at your club or something more specific so we can use it on our website to help raise the profile of coaching.
This is a great CPD opportunity but attendance will not indemnify coaches to coach in a mountain bike environment without the appropriate discipline specific unit.
L2 MTB discipline specific course for L2 coaches. 17th and 18th Sept: Fife
Places are still available for our level 2 Mountain Bike Discipline Specific Unit (L2 MTB DSU) at Lochore Meadows Fife on the 17th and 18th September. The L2 MTB DSU is for existing level 2 coaches (and coaches holding the Club Coach Award) who wish to coach MTB specific skills in a trail center environment or other technical MTB environments such as natural singletrack.
MTB 4X, DH and XC are all encompassed within the L2 MTB DSU and a qualified coach will be able to extend their group coaching activities to any of these areas.
The L2 MTB DSU is £195 with possible funding available from your local authority or regional sports partnership coaching development team.
