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

A: I have just finished the Gold Award and am working towards the Platinum Award.

Q: What do you enjoy most about volunteering?

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

A: It has helped me to be more confident around others who I don’t really know.

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

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

Blog 1: 13/07/2012

Helmdon Go-Rde Club

I helped my coach with some 1-1 coaching, as one of the riders was having difficulty performing a track stand and dismounting. As the session progressed the rider improved and I feel this was due to our coaching.

I used demonstration skills during this session, to show the rider how a skill show be completed, I also used communication skills to effectively tell him what to do.

This was challenging however as I had to find ways to encourage the rider to be more confident when bringing his leg over the back of his bike. I achieved this by getting him to scoot as part of his mount and dismount. I felt it was important to get him to try different ways of doing things to show him he had options to help his progress.

Next time that I coach at a session I would like to be more active in my coaching.

Blog 2: 2/08/2012

Hazelborough Woods Mountain Biking

I took part in a range of activities to help support this session. I helped to complete the risk assessment of the woods, demonstrated skills, encouraged riders and helped those who were less confident.

From this session I learnt that you have to start easier and make it harder to provide for everyone’s skill level. This also helped to build some of the less experienced rider’s confidence.

A challenging aspect of this session was the course; the original course was the muddiest, wettest place in the woods and following the risk assessment we had alter the route.

I really enjoyed this session and helping riders to develop their bike handling skills, I wish however that I would have spoken up more, communicating with both parents and coaches.

Blog 3: 10/08/2012

Sakey Forest MTB

During this session I helped to deliver MTB skills through a range of demonstrations and games. The focus of the session was to build the confidence of the riders.

The main challenge of this session was providing an environment where riders of mixed abilities could all learn. We tried to keep the group at a reasonable pace and used a rider at the front and rear of the group to control this. Although some people wanted to go faster, you should stay with the slowest rider; some people in the group didn’t like this.

Blog 4: 16/08/2012

Helmdon Olympics Event

I helped out at the clubs Olympics event; I did a range of different things throughout the day. I started by setting up and testing the course, then supported riders during the skills sessions, and finished by being the derny rider for the Keirin race.

I thought the session went well, I did learn however that if you want people to listen to you then you need to be assertive when you’re talking. This might have helped to control the children and help ensure they looked after their bikes, as they weren’t very careful with them. The rest of session went quite well, I encouraged the riders throughout and occasionally had to push some of the riders if they fell behind, but overall they all did really well.

Blog 5: 03/09/2012

Brackly Grass Track

I completed a range of activities, including allocating bikes to the riders, setting up and taking down the course, coaching during the activities, acting as the derny rider during the Keirin and generally encouraging riders when they needed it.

This was a really successful session, I felt more confident in my delivery and everything ran smoothly, the only area of improvement would be having more people to help out. The main challenge during the session was to encourage the riders when they fell off their bikes.