Platinum Profile - Torin

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Q: What level are you currently at on the Cycling Award for Young Volunteers Programme?

A: I recently completed my Gold Award. (36hours) 

Q: What do you enjoy most about volunteering?

A:I enjoy sharing the skills I’ve learnt with others.

Q: How do you think being a volunteer has helped you?

A: Volunteering has helped me to develop skills both old and new.

Q: Is there anything you would change about your volunteering experience?

A: I wish I’d found out about the Cycling Award for Young Volunteers earlier.

 Q: Where would you like your volunteering to take you in the future?

 A: I’d like to carry on developing my skills and gain more experience whilst continuing on my volunteer journey.

 
Torin's first two blogs...

Blog 1: 22/10/2012

Go-Ride Skills Session

 

Every Monday, our club holds skills sessions for children. My role as a young volunteer has been to use the session plan to help with the setting up of equipment prior to the session. Then during the session, along with setting out more equipment, I have been helping the coaches by explaining and giving an example of the techniques and skills being taught.

I feel that this has really helped me to develop my communication skills and to understand the coach’s role in planning the sessions as well as running them. I also found that sometimes the younger riders found it much easier to understand the session after I had given a walk through.

 

Blog 2: 15/11/2012

Turbo Session: Part 1

 

As the winter has drawn in, we have started to run group turbo and roller sessions locally. Recently I ran one of the turbo sessions using my own session plan and explained the session to the riders as well as directing the riders on their efforts and signalling when to sprint or rest using a whistle.

I found this really interesting, as I started off without riders fully understanding me and soon realised that I needed to communicate much more clearly so that the riders knew what they should be doing. Hopefully I will run another turbo session in the near future.


Blog 3: 12/01/13

Cyclocross/MTB SKills Session

As usual the club was running a cyclocross/mountain biking skills session for youth riders, this week I assisted the main coach by putting the cones and markers out prior to the session and by sorting out bikes for riders who needed to borrow them. Prior to the session all preparation went fine, I prepared using the coach’s session plan as a guide and this worked well. I also timed the riders during a timed effort in the session and recorded the results to see by how much the riders abilities have improved in a few weeks’ time.

Blog 4: 17/01/13

Turbo/Roller Session

The club has continued to run turbo trainer/roller sessions recently, this week I ran the session. I used a previously written session that the riders had not used before. I decided that I ought to check that the session was ok, so I rode it a few nights earlier, after making a few minor alterations to fit with the time that we would have, the session plan was ready.

I then ran the session on the night, and learning from my mistakes previously I made sure instructions were very clear, and relied more on the whistle as a signal than my voice. The session went well and I am running the session next week in a similar way.

Blog 5: 24/01/13

Turbo/Roller Session

Once again I chose to ride the roller session a couple of nights beforehand to make sure it fitted with our time, and wasn't too easy or difficult. Unfortunately the session felt really boring and despite being the right length, it felt like I hadn't worked hard enough. This meant I had to pick another session, luckily I had another already written so was able to use that session.

Despite a poor turnout compared to what I expected, the session all went to plan, and the riders enjoyed it. To try and boost the numbers for the next session I am going to promote the sessions though the club website.