MTB as a Duke of Edinburgh “Skill”?

It’s for Bronze, 14 y/o boys.

What is/can be expected of them and how much structure is required? #1 son and a couple of pals would be starting from a low base mtb experience wise though have good 80/90 minute strength and fitness.

I was thinking a proper lesson now followed by weekly outings, with the end goal of GT7 as a pair or trio.

Any advice greatly appreciated!

Needs to be regular, and they need to keep a record somehow. Diary or Strava maybe.

Set up some ‘baseline’ and a ‘yes we’ve improved’. This can be adult observation of them, maybe on same trail, or could be timing on a trail?

Take a few pics.

Done.

Middle OAB did bikes on road – at silver we timed local 10k route, and finished with father and son 100km overnight around Argyll.

Eldest_oab did MTB, we simply got a friend to sign him off at bronze, wth his diary and pics.

I’ve signed it off as an assessor before.

Regular and shows improvement so start on simple skills and green routes and progress up to reds over a few months.

Log it on GPS as evidence and get someone to do a write up on it.

If they’re doing it as the skill rather than physical section I’d* want to see some kind of measured skill progression. Nothing too draconian, but just going for a bike ride doesn’t quite fit in with the ‘skill’ ethos. Something like learning to manual/wheelie and improve on that could be good though.

If it’s for the physical section then regular participation is all we tend to look for in Bronze, but I’d usually encourage kids to work towards a goal of their choosing.

*I run DofE at my school and often advise kids on what’s appropriate for each section

My institution delivers this but a key component is the maintainance as a skill also.

That helps the progress

Does MTB fit in with the skill section… if 8t does the assessor needs to be a non family member (I think).

Many, many years ago I did road cycling as the physical section for all three (gold unfinished mind, but I did do that bit) Was in a road club, club chairman signed it off to say I’d been doing it regularly and had impoved and whatever else it was they needed, they were happy with that.

I know there’s more skill involved in riding an MTB but would expect it still to count as the physical bit rather than the skills bit? Pretty much what Stevious is saying

The goal would be getting around Glentress 7 in a pair or trio.  Skill and strength (which they don’t possess at the moment) required for that.

Appreciate that ideally they’d join a club but that’s going to be difficult.

The expectation is an hour a week for 12 weeks.  It really is intended to be about the skill not the physical aspects so given each session should probably start with some safety checks (first skill right there – how to do an M check on a bike) and a warm up you might be looking at 20 mins of new skill practice/drills and then 20 mins of putting into practice on a short route than 10 mins cool down and debrief.

If they are genuinely new to it then developing skills is not too tricky and you could take a learning MTB book and work through the chapters.  You don’t need to set a major objective (like a big trip) but building the confidence to do even a short red route would be a major accomplishment for total beginners.

Anything like this in your area?

https://www.cycling.scot/our-programmes/training/go-mountain-bike

My son and his mates fancied doing this a few years back. His mates were into football and rugby, he was rowing and biking. Within a few weeks the “fit” ball players had dropped out most unable or not willing to spend the time getting fit for the intended bothy expedition.

Is there a bike recycling workshop in your area? We often have DofE kids in volunteering to learn maintenance as a skill (or some do it as their volunteering).