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

A: I have recently completed the Gold award.

Q: What do you enjoy most about volunteering?

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

A: Being a volunteer has helped to improve my confidence and communication skills. It has also allowed me to train as a coach.

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 one: 8/9/2013

Co-ordinating and assisting with signing on at a CX event

For this activity I assisted and helped to co-ordinate the signing process and organisation beforehand, for the Stratford CC Cyclo-Cross race.

Everybody got signed on – so it must have gone well!! But next time, I think we will all know what we’re each meant to be doing, so we’ll be much better prepared.  This was the first time signing on for some volunteers, so they were a little unsure of what was happening, and when things needed to be done.

We faced a few challenges; at first we couldn’t find the signing on sheets, and we couldn’t distinguish between the pre-registration numbers and the on-the-day numbers (because some were the same colours). However, we found a commissaire who knew the difference, so he could explain it to us.

I used a number of skills during this activity, these focussed around leadership skills, which I used to explain what we were doing and how it worked to the volunteers, as well communication skills, to talk to the riders who were signing on.

We worked well together because we were all talking to each other and communicating. And we all helped each other if one of us was not sure what to do or couldn’t find something. If I was to do anything differently next time I would get there a bit earlier, to make sure that we had everything and knew what we were doing. But I felt that the whole day was a huge success.

Blog 2: 9.9.2013

Coaching my weekly session

I was given the “new riders” session, which included just teaching them the basic skills, cornering, mounting, dismounting etc. Whilst doing this we assessed them and decided which group they would be comfortable, yet nicely challenged in. And this was the first time I was given the freedom of planning my own sessions, rather than using a level 2 coaches’ plan.

I felt that it went really well and the kids were enthusiastic, also some of the parents came up to me at the end and thanked me for it. It’s also really nice to see the kids improve, as some at the start, were struggling and by the end they doing everything really confidently.

I was really happy with my organisation before the actual session, as I knew what I was doing and felt comfortable with what was happening, and how to interact with the kids. All the kids said they enjoyed the session, and the session goal was met as well.

I completely forgot to set up the warm up oval at the start, but another coach came and offered to “be a cone” whilst I was the other one. This was actually really good, as a lot of the kids found it funny we were acting as cones. And it got them more engaged and aware at the start, because they couldn’t run over the ‘cones’!

I used mainly leadership and communication skills, because I was leading the session, and having to explain the techniques to the kids as well. I also had to think on the spot at times as well, to make it run smoothly and to keep the kids riding as much as possible.

The only thing I would change would be just to remember to set it all up! I thought it went really well, and I can’t wait for next week!