As per title says really. If you want to book a skill course day, how do you know what your level is?
If you're not a beginner nor a world class rider, how do you now if your average, confirmed, intermediate?
Cheers.
Bike Forum
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Skill course question. How do you know your actual level.
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Posted 1 year ago #
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Always a tricky one. I had a conversation recently with a guy who runs the mountain bike courses at a major outdoor centre. He said that they have great difficulty selling "beginner" courses because no-one wants to define themselves as a beginner!
Posted 1 year ago # -
It is difficult. You tend to rate yourself against the riders you ride with. I had a funny instance a while ago with some people who tried to get a free holiday by offering me lessons because they were absolute experts. On the first descent I was a bit nervous but set off in the lead at full pace, it was all very quiet and after about a minute I stopped and looked back and they were mincing down the hill a long way behind! We had a discussion about it and they said that where they rode they were by far the best and fastest on the hill!
A chat with whoever is doing the course should help you to decide. Maybe discussing where you ride, what you find hard etc should help.
Posted 1 year ago # -
Talk to whoever is doing the course.
You are faster than the average for sure Juan.
Posted 1 year ago # -
I've had very similar experiences Doug!
We ask people to rate their abilities on their booking form. We have a 1-5 scale with quite detailed descriptions of what each level means, with 3 and 4 being based on UK trail centre Red and Black grades and 5 being "I regularly race Downhill". I had a group of folk turn up who had all rated themselves as 5, then unpacked the skinniest XC bikes you've ever seen. They got a bit of a shock on the first trail (having pretty much never ridden narrow singletrack before!).
I think with mountain biking (and with skiing, snowboarding and many other "leisure" sports) it's very hard to get a true picture of your own ability unless you're competing in some form. With rock-climbing, at least the grading systems make it fairly easy to tell where you are!
Never quite had someone try to get a free holiday for "being awesome" though!
Posted 1 year ago # -
You are faster than the average for sure Juan.
Well see i wouldn't say that, as I am the last of my riding group.
[quote]Never quite had someone try to get a free holiday for "being awesome" though! [quote]
See, to quote the dragon warrior "there is no charge for awesomeness". So they should not have said that.Posted 1 year ago # -
It was funny, we all laughed at the end of the day!
Posted 1 year ago # -
Juan - if you're riding technical singletrack trails down Provence way and you expect to get down just about everything without dabbing/crashing/getting off then you're "above average".
Posted 1 year ago # -
Juan - having ridden with you ( well watched you disappear into the distance) Certainly by the standards around here you are well faster than average. I'm not that slow compared to others I see out at Glentress.
Posted 1 year ago # -
Two people have said to me (in all seriousness, not trying to be funny)
"I've done loads of off-road, all the towpaths near where I live and some of the bridleways too." (At G'tress. Think the red may have scared them a bit!)
"I'll be a bit slow, I've not even ridden in six months." (former scottish junior champ who'd been off injured and then a winter of skiing, I could barely keep up with him, and I'm sure he wasn't going flat out)
Very hard to judge your own abilities.
Posted 1 year ago # -
tj stop being a pikey and get a sleazy jet down to Nice for a week end
btw bring Jo matt and onion with you. You will meet proper fast people.Posted 1 year ago # -
Where's my invite Juan? I've not ridden with you but if you were genuine in your description of Laggan Black as "straightforward" (or whatever it was) you are are either a very competent rider or able to "talk the talk".
Oh and btw "pikey" is v. offensive - to middle class non-pikeys.
Posted 1 year ago # -
radcore - scared = truth
Posted 1 year ago # -
The skills days that I've done, the instructors have been very good at assessing riders almost immediately and getting the tone of the tuition just right. No-one is going to try teaching you 10ft high North Shore if you can't even go round a corner; likewise a good XC racer will be shown how to make the most of the power and speed that they already have.
@andrewh - I met up with some girl off an internet dating site for a (bike!) ride once, she'd assured me she did "loads of mountain biking", turned out she'd only ever ridden stationary bikes in the gym! Cue a rapid revisal of my original route plans...
Posted 1 year ago # -
al you are welcome too. Plus Tj knows I think he's a pikey in the tight sense of the term (he after all ride in cheap tracksuit bottoms with socks gaffer taped to it ;))
Posted 1 year ago # -
To echo whats already been said ... let the instructor decide what level you're at. We have to advertise certain courses as beginner, etc but in reality the course may turn out to be something more advanced or vice versa. The only real yardstick you have to judge your riding by, is those you ride with ... if they're good chances are you'll be better than you imagine but it can easily work the other way round.
Stuart
Posted 1 year ago # -
It's very difficult to judge. Some people (like me) have vastly differing abilities across their skill base. So I'm a total novice on a lot of stuff and have barely made any improvement since I started riding a few years ago (despite working tirelessly to improve them)....but on some things/trails, I would say I was intermediate. So people assume because they have seen me riding/jumping/dropping one thing, I will be able to ride something else (even stuff they consider easier)...but actually, my transferable skill base is very limited so I often find myself right out of my depth on trails that people have told me I'll be fine on.
I know when I went on a group skills day, I felt very intimidated by the level of the other guys on the course. I would never consider anything other than 1 to 1 training now as I know I need tailored training to really focus on the stuff I struggle with.
Posted 1 year ago # -
Yes I guess it's maybe worth paying for a one to one. I'll see what I can find in the surroundings, that does NOT involves Karim Amour
Posted 1 year ago # -
The other thing to consider is that what stops a lot of people from really advancing their riding is that they've never looked at the basics in any detail. I see this a lot in snowboarders. Many of them are self-taught or have had minimal lessons, but because they can zoom around the place, they think they're pretty good. Loads of them would benefit a lot from going back and looking at some basic body position and movement skills, but they're not very receptive to it. This completely applied to me. I got a major eye-opener in snowboarding a few years back when I went on the BASI instructor's course!
A lot of mountain bikers would also benefit from the same thing - they're experienced enough to ride fast over most terrain, but then have to slam the brakes on at every corner because they've never looked at basic cornering technique.
This isn't a criticism, it's a pretty natural outcome, especially if you're self-taught in a sport. I'm a big believer in basic skills practised enough to become totally ingrained.
Posted 1 year ago # -
Chat to Jedi, a good guy who knows how to ride properly.
Posted 1 year ago # -
hairychested he's a bit far for a skill course. Unless he's willing to travel down here though...
Posted 1 year ago # -
"We had a discussion about it and they said that where they rode they were by far the best and fastest on the hill!"
I guess that happens a lot, I used to think I was totally s**t on a motorbike because I was the slowest in my group. Turned out to be an ex-police bike instructor, an ex-civvy instructor, an IAM instructor, and a pair of racers.
Also it's your perception of other riders, I'd be tempted to say I'm above average now but I don't think the average is neccesarily very good
Posted 1 year ago # -
i put levels on my site for people to assess themsleves. i treat everyone as a beginner when i first meet them. i also don't coach a set of techniques. every rider is different and i embrace that.
Posted 1 year ago # -
Well how much for a skill course in the south of Fracne Jedi
Posted 1 year ago # -
normal fee plus travel expenses
Posted 1 year ago # -
that's gonna be a very expensive fee LOL
Posted 1 year ago # -
Easy jet to nice?
Posted 1 year ago # -
I think with mountain biking (and with skiing, snowboarding and many other "leisure" sports) it's very hard to get a true picture of your own ability unless you're competing in some form. With rock-climbing, at least the grading systems make it fairly easy to tell where you are!
ah-ha..... but there is....
forgive the grammar and context as the pages have been translated via Google from German. i think i'm at about/entering S4 level. click on the piccies under "Open Album"
http://www.google.com/translate?langpair=de|en&u=http://www.singletrail-skala.de/
Posted 1 year ago # -
yes TJ from burg so you can meet some real above average people
Posted 1 year ago # -
I used to guide and it was always a lottery as to the level people thought they were at.
We also used to send people out an experience questionaire. The thing was that those with an outdoors/climbing background used to say things like 'done a bit of off-road' and meant they were pretty handy while the mtb only types would say 'expert - glentress black' for example and fail miserably on anything slightly bumpy. The first trail was always a tester-outer with loads of options...
I learnt in a previous life to watch how people handled their rucsac and put their bikes together on arriving fresh from the airport and we were normally proved pretty right on the first few trails.
As for the OP, let them know what you want from your trip and if they know their stuff they'll find the trails for you pretty quickly.
Posted 1 year ago # -
I meant for Jedi!
You saying Jojo Matt and Ollie are slow?. I'd love to come down to your part of France to go riding - I had a great holiday in France riding a couple of years ago. we shall see how the pennies go.
Posted 1 year ago # -
TJ, matt, jo and olly are indeed fast, but I am nowhere as fast as them
LOL at the tag too. It was a genuine question. So when I am decided to book a skill course, I can actually book one where I can progress, but not hold the rest of the group back.
Posted 1 year ago # -
ah-ha..... but there is....
Excellent, I like that! Pretty gnarly ratings too.
I remember having a (very tongue-in-cheek) discussion on here about this years ago, having a "G" (for Gnarly) scale for bike trails/obstacles. You could also adopt the climbing terminology of "lead" (with mates, but you went first), "seconded" (with mates, didn't go first) or "soloed" (did it alone). Then this could be like the climbing forums and all you'd have to do would be come on and post something like "DUDE! I totally soloed a G4 today!" for everyone to know how gnarly you are...
Posted 1 year ago #
Topic Closed
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