Signed up last week to this and I did’t receive the logbook with my Welcome pack. I’ve emailed BC twice and they won’t return my calls either.
Has anyone else had problems getting the logbook or communicating with them? I really want to sign up to a course soon too. Not sure what else to do.

BC have been down there with the GNAS Archery Leader award as the worst NGB outdoor leader/coaching course I have done. (I did UKCC L2).

The L2 course, a full half day was given to a child protection course not the L2 it could/should have been.

I was given one 7 minute assessment task. Feedback was “that’s brilliant session, one of the best I have seen. Unfortunately you were 32seconds short of time, so you fail”.

No second task, no other opportunities or rest of course to be taken into account. This is totally different to the other two UKCC L2 and one UKCC L3 courses I have done. And totally different from all other assessments I’ve done.

I was also pulled up for teaching about cone of movement stuff, getting low and pushing front wheel down over small drops, rather than weight back I think. No explaining our discussion, just no.

They’re a pain to work with – assessment cancelled, but didn’t tell me until I had driven to Glasgow early one Sunday.

I turned up to another MTB coaching day, having seen Cycling Scotland car with leader for the day in, pull an overtake in a 30 zone. My son was made to feel small and out of comfort within 5mins of the course starting, and although the website had taken my last minute booking, the coach leader hadn’t checked site in a week so had no idea I and son were going.

They have lost my membership and assessment tasks, not once but twice.

I’ve decided to give up. I had been coaching with local club, but frankly I can ride with my kids and friends without the paperwork. I’m also not giving them any more membership.

It’s frustrating, as I know a couple of excellent BC coaches, who I know the experience with would have been totally different.

Not sure if you’re talking about the same thing Matt – does the OP not mean the BC MTB trail leader course (rather than coaching)?

If it is the leadership course then there isn’t a great deal for BC to get wrong. They do the enrolment and some admin, but most of it is down to the training provider / assessor (e.g. somewhere like Cyclewise who we’ve found very professional as they pretty much wrote the BC course). Just choose your training course provider and give them a ring – they’ll have a direct contact at BC to sort things out. You don’t [/i]have to have all the supporting things in place to do the course (first aid, child protection, logbook etc) as there is an 18 month window in which you can take the assessment. I think the only requirement is that you are enrolled with BC.

Mick
We as a club have gone through the MIAS level 2 which now moves towards coaching as well as leading. It seems to covers us better for actual mountain biking with kids. We have up to 50 kids out each week all year round. BC proved good paperwork to use and we are going to get different insurance. BC awards tend to focus on car park stuff. We have had to seek legal advice due to BC not really being sure how to cover us.

Matt – I’m really surprised by your experience on the Level 2. I’ve done that, and the MTB and CX discipline specifics. While they might mention session length, I’m gobsmacked that they failed you. I’d be taking that up with BC directly. I’ve also had no problem with their admin side of things either.

(This is coming from someone who isn’t a BC fanboy either – I’ve got my issues with them, just not re coaching)

I’d just like to agree with Matt about the level 2 coaching qual. By far the worst course I have ever been on and I’ve been instructing for 20 years.
It sounds like we could have been on the same course and assessment. I failed the practical as I didn’t start my session with the exact words ‘ by the end of this session you will be able to…’. Seriously. There was nothing wrong with my session except the omission of those words in that exact order at the beginning.
Then the paperwork. Triplicate copies of made up RAs and session planners for theoretical sessions you’d never run.
I never completed it, sent a very long and scathing email explains why they’d lost a volunteer coach for life and never heard back from them.
Useless organisation.

Really worth looking at MIAS or equivalent using non BC insurance. It is very practical and focused on progression. Got my certificate in 3 days. You do need a 16 hour first aid course though.

What mick said. I did my MBLA Level 2 with Jules at CyclewildScotland and it went like clockwork.

Mountainbike Leadership qualification is quite different to coaching. I can see a bit of your point Matt in that if you were getting into coaching cone of movement on a leadership course you could be asked why by the tutor… I also coach (BC Level 2 MTB) and find I have to wear separate hats for each.

Iain. Mias has changed their course to focus more on the coaching and progression of coaching. I did the level 1 BC which went well but the process to obtain a MTB level 2 is quite prolonged and didnt cover us for our planned sessions.

dcl, yes, I’d heard same from a mate with Ridelines…

Although I’d be surprised that Level 2 MTB discipline specific wouldn’t cover your needs. We coach a big club on local trails and find it works well.

I’m actually in full agreement with you all about the naffness of the BC skills coaching award – we are a very able MTB family (mrs has raced for GB at 95 and 96 worlds) and the local club coaches are of no use to us 🙂

Just trying not to derail the OP as the BC L2 / L3 leader awards are much better (and teaching something very different – nothing really to do with skills).

We have actually done the leader courses partly to help the local MTB cluster (for very able XC racing kids). There are a few good coaches, and having suitably trained MTB parents to help means we can take them to work in more challenging terrain in a safe manner.

Mick, the leader awards don’t allow the the leaders to coach the kids though…..

However if you are using them to get the kids into the trails and working with the MTB coaches then I agree it works well.

We’re not coaching the kids. I don’t want to coach anyone else’s kids. I personally think good coaches that can develop already able kids are pretty rare (I’m not one). Go watch a National youth race and there are some scary fast and skilled kids who crave pushing to the next level.

But a good coach + leaders means the coach can coach and the leaders are there for all the other stuff or allowing a larger group to be taken out (maybe splitting so a smaller group does a coaching section whilst the leaders ride a loop with the others).

Mick, I agree with all of that !

Cool! Being smoked by your kids on the trails is great (I think…..)

Just to clarify it is the Leadership course level 2 that I want to do and not the coaching. There’s been a few threads that seemed to recommend the BC leadership course as being pretty good. Their admin seems terrible though.

Spoken to one training company who have told me what I already know with regards to First Aid which I’ve already done. I’m confident the First Aid training company covered the areas necessary for the course but am not certain whether they are qualified in the eyes of BC.

Another thing, BC say they can send me a link to an online training package as it also says on their site, “Log evidence with British Cycling of having undergone safeguarding and child protection training”.

So I can’t get the above link, I haven’t received my log book, neither are they verifying that my Outdoor First Aid course is suitable as they’re not answering their phones, not replying to answer phone messages and ignoring my emails.

I guess I’m only posting this to see if anyone had similar issues and can offer advice that’s all. I know the rant needs to be at them but they aren’t there to be ranted at.

Mountainbike Leadership qualification is quite different to coaching. I can see a bit of your point Matt in that if you were getting into coaching cone of movement on a leadership course you could be asked why by the tutor… I also coach (BC Level 2 MTB) and find I have to wear separate hats for each.

I was on UKCC L2 coaching course. The inference was they didn’t like the technique I was coaching.

The separation of coaching and leading, as well as DSU for road, MTb etc cause so much issue, there is overlap, but that’s not ‘allowed’.

Fwiw I had held MBLA MBL, certificate number 00009, done back in 1996 or 97. Now lapsed.

You can do free online safeguarding with Banardos or NSPCC, with certificate.

Mick, indeed 😀 some of the ones we coach have skills way beyond anything I will ever achieve (which isn’t hard TBH). Still good to be able to coach and help them though….. Don’t think Lendl would ever beat Murrray in a tennis match…

Matt, yes, realised I had misread, apologies

OP – did you call the central BC coaching number in Manchester ? I have always found them quite helpful.

Thanks Matt.

Iain, I called 0161 274 2063 which is on all the pages related to that course. If there’s another I’ll find it tomorrow

Matt, reading back. Did you do the L2 Coaching a while back, before L1 came in ? Since L1was introduced, all the child protection related stuff is in the L1 online modules. L2 accepts that has all been done so the 2 face to face days are focussed on coaching skills. On the second day participants are required to deliver a 15 minute session, on a technique from the BC Gears 3&4 manuals, of their choice. You pick the topic on day 1 and have to prepare it overnight. Then you have to do a further 15 minute session on Day 3,which is usually after 3 months of mentored session delivery to your group/club. When I did it, some folk were over or under by a few minutes. I think everyone started with the ‘By the end of the session… ‘ phrase, which is fairly drummed in. The day 3 session plan needs to be right and goes to BC as part of your file.

Cost wise, locally, SportScotland pay about 50% of the overall course costs for L1 and L2 coaching courses.