Setting up a kids mountain bike club

OK, so me and a mate, with young kids, where bitching about a lack of mountain bike clubs for kids in the local area, which lead us to thinking about setting up our own.

My friend has his own business and would be willing to support such a venture if I look into doing the training etc.

I have quite a lot of experience of running clubs, sports coaching and working with kids of all ranges, but I need a few pointers as to what course I need to go on to be a qualified leader for this type of thing.

I would want to work on getting the kids onto technical stuff, proper singletrack etc, rather than just forest stuff.

I have googled a bit for courses, but am unclear about the various standards etc.

Any help would be greatly appreciated…..

if i was you i’d keep it informal, once you set up anything official you’ll need qualifications, insurance, risk assessments, safety checks on all equipment even if it’s not yours, pre ride visits, accident forms, safeguarding policies and procedures, CRB checks.
if you still want to go ahead with a MTB club might be worth contacting your local council to see what assistance they can offer you and possibly act as an umbrella organisation, try the youth service or for the bigger councils they might have an outdoor activity co-ordinator or even an outdoor education team.

sorry if this sounds negative but having worked in the industry i know the hassle of organising rides for young people and always find it easier to just get out and ride.

What andy7t2 says is all true. What he doesn’t say is that once you’ve got all the paperwork done, got your crb back and recce’d a few routes you’re pretty much set up. Yes, you’ll have to do risk assesments for every ride but these are pretty much generic from ride to ride.

Regarding quals, I’ve got MIAS level 2 and have yet to find anyone to tell me that’s not enough. There’ll be plenty of folk, on here and elsewhere, that’ll tell you there are much better qualifications out there but they can take up to 6 months for you to get qualified and let’s face it, if you’re good at the job does the standard of the qualification matter?

Not sure where you are but raymazey on here runs a 2 day course in Bolton that’ll get you MIAS level 2 qualified, providing you pass obviously.

Get in touch with British Cycling – Go-Ride is what you need for starters…

Where are you based?

Where are you, as you’ll need a venue.

Take a look at the PCC (Peebles Cycle Club), they must’ve +50 kids in their Kids club.

Thanks for the advice, andy7t2, I like the idea of just getting out and riding, but it is not worth the risk with kids nowadays, if something went wrong then I would be toast. Also fancy doing it a bit more professionally to see if there is a future career in there somewhere.

davesmate, good advice, thank you, I think I have found the place, is it http://www.mountainbikeinstruction.co.uk/csleader.asp ? they are based in Bolton, I have emailed them already, so may be a good place to start.

I got in touch with British cycling, problem is they are all about racing, I am totally not into that, I want to get kids into riding properly, there are loads of BC folks around here, but it all appears to be focused on races.

I am based in Holmfirth, I know there are tones of kids who might want to come along.

yeah that’s it. Ray’s a top bloke aswell

beefy – British cycling also do MTB leadership training and coaching courses. Defo not just about racing.

The BC leadership scheme is likely to become the recognised national governing body scheme in the near future (given that BC is the NGB for cycling…). It doesn’t take 6 months to get it!

The Scottish Cycling Trail Cycle Leader would be sufficient for what you want to do, the Scottish scheme is backed by BC and is likely to be amalgamated with the BC scheme soon too.

(Nothing against MIAS BTW!).

BC Leadership scheme: http://www.britishcycling.org.uk/mtbleadership

The Go-ride scheme is a progressive MTB “learn-to-ride” scheme aimed at kids/young-riders, similar to the progression in ski-schools. The kids get badges, etc. as they learn new skills. See here: http://www.britishcycling.org.uk/go-ride/article/goridest-What-is-Go-Ride

I’m already qualified as a MBL (Scottish Cycling), but if I was starting out now I’d definitely do the BC scheme.

Fantastic idea. Go for it.

Yes, there will be lots of pages of risk assessments and red tape, etc. to go through (I speak from experience as ex Secretary aand Welfare Officer at a cricket club – and we had the help and support of Surrey CCC and the ECB to navigate through it all). But without the likes of you good souls, nobody else will do it for you.

There was a related topic a month or so back – bit wider as it covered structure in MTBing in general – but touched on the need for MTB clubs to build structures to support junior riders .

http://singletrackworld.com/forum/topic/the-trying-hard-club-really

Beefy, ring Mark at Pedalsport, Halifax. He runs a GoRide on Sat mornings at Brooksbank School, Elland. His Dad Mike used to take youngsters out on bridleway rides if they weren’t into the CX side of things. He’ll be able to point you in the right direction. If you do go ahead, give me a shout. My lad could do with some volunteering experience for his DofE, and I may be able to make some community funding suggestions.

… will lead to you being labelled a pervert or paedo?

sadly – that’s exactly why you want to do it by the book. So that god forbid you ever get an accusation of that sort you can deal with it appropriately; and secondly it’s a firewall against sickos who actively join clubs specifically to get access to kids. The clubs that are appropriately organised are more likely to find them out so they target clubs where their structure is weaker.

Thanks again, wow, besides alpins comment, that was all useful stuff.

Will have a look again at the BC go ride thing, I didn’t really want to go down a earning badges, type of route, but I guess without some kind of structure and progression the group could get a bit lost and it would not hurt to have some official backing behind it. Only issue is that it could clash with what is set up already, but I know they are all CX and racing, rather than proper mountain bike skills.

Thanks Scapegoat, I will make an effort to contact him.

Might be worth getting ‘affiliated’ with a school.

Couple of the teachers at my boys secondary school have done the trainign etc and run the club after school one evening a week. They get to use the school minibuses if they need them but if it’s wet/in the winter they tend to get the kids doing obstacles and skills stuff around the school grounds.

[edit] plus you can use their crb checking capabilities to vet members etc. You’d need a sympathetic head to get this involved with the school though.

Maybe combine with some sort of cycle trainign type stuff?

So it’s ‘bike club’ but with an element of mtbing?

Failing school interest help, how about local youth services,ie scouts etc,there again vetting n crb formats to safeguard.

There is also the Go-MTB scheme that was originally set up by Scottish Cycling with CTC. This is much more than just how to ride, but as the youngsters progress it includes things like maintenance, first aid, nutrition, etc. This differs from the Go-Ride scheme as this does not have a MTB focus and is all about skills on a bike and general riding.
You won’t be able to deliver this with a MIAS qualification, but will with a MBLA or CTC qual. (Don’t forget about the CTC quals too, and these can be completed in under 6 months)
As for there being only one recognised qualification in the future… I think that would be a good idea, but unlikely. There are too many accepted quals in the industry already and all talks that have gone on about unifying them have come to nought so far…
It is interesting though that when BC decided they needed a leadership qualification they didn’t just assimilate the MBLA (From Scottish Cycling), MIAS or CTC quals…

I agree about the BC emphasis being too racy.

Have a look at CTC’s qualification, much more geared to progression, teaching style, group management et c.

The BC coaches I’ve worked with have all been geat riders, fast et c. but no use when it came to managing the group or actually teaching.

You need to talk to Dan Cook in Sheffield for the CTC courses, 0844 736 8463 mtb@ctc.org.uk

Cheers, APF

That level 2 MTB leadership course looks interesting – for £300 it’s also reasonably priced…
Furrows brow and starts to become interested….

DrP

DrP – do you live in Brighton? It’s Blatch Mill with the MTB club – might be worth contacting them – I have names etc if you want them – email in profile.

http://cyclewise.co.uk/index.php/mountain-bike-qualification-courses-and-awards/mountain-bike-qualifications-smbla-tcl-mbl/smbla-mountain-bike-leader-mtb-qualification

Agree re avoiding the go-ride scheme being all about getting kids into racing. However it does give you structure and loads of skills based material. There is a somewhat grey area when it comes to the difference between “leading” and “coaching” depending on how your local BC development officer interpreted the guidelines 🙄

This is probably one of the reasons they have introduced their version of the MBL course which was developed by Cyclewise. Seek out your local BC development officer and have a chat with him. BC coaching courses and MBL courses can take a while to complete so you are probably aiming for next Easter. To do the coaching course you may need to link in with a local club to deliver your training sessions.

Your biggest issue and where most of your “debates” will come from are when your first group mature and less experienced riders want to join therefore slowing the experienced riders etc 🙄 Then there is the “what lower age limit” issue 🙄 Having done coaching in other stuff you are probably aware of this but it can take up quite a bit of meeting time 🙁

The club I was involved with is temporarily in suspension due to lack of volunteers. However we did support other projects which possibly diluted our efforts but for the better of cycling in our area.

We supported this;
SWSCP

From our ashes has risen; Annan youth cycling[/url]

I have quite a lot of experience of running clubs, sports coaching and working with kids of all ranges, but I need a few pointers as to what course I need to go on to be a qualified leader for this type of thing.

I would want to work on getting the kids onto technical stuff, proper singletrack etc, rather than just forest stuff.

You will therefore be aware that the kids need the basic skills before venturing out onto “technical stuff”
Something along these lines[/url]

I like the idea of linking it with a school, as I work at the local secondary school. Could defiantly be worth a thought, although I am currently in talks with a local club about joining with them as there are some members who also want to develop the proper Mtb skills side of things.

We set up a club about 18 months ago.

We’ve used a mix of the British Cycling L2 coaching qualifications and Scottish Cycling TCL course. (The L2 is a bit of a ballache in terms of paperwork). The TCL was really useful, not too hard, but gives you confidence to take a group out.

This means we’ve got both coaching in a controlled environment covered and trail leading covered as well.

We run skills sessions during the winter at a local school and in the summer we do a mix of skills sessions and trail rides. The kids love it, both the skills sessions and the trail rides. Some have tried CX racing this year and we encourage those who want to try racing to have a go, but we’re not race focussed and many of the kids do just love the trail rides in the summer months.

Contact British cycling, having the back up of a big organisation like BC behind you gives you a bit of peace of mind. Having said that every parent has been really supportive, helpful and apart from trying to find somewhere to run our skills sessions it’s been relatively hassle free. It’s great to share the sport with kids, the sound of 15 kids lauhging and screaming through a section of singletrack is great (oh and they love mud as well!)

I’ve met the guys from Team Darenth a few times when they’ve been leading groups on local trails. Seem like a decent bunch, well organised & a good following.

I’m sure they’d offer advice if you contact ’em.

Our local bike club has a kids section. My partners two girls have just joined after being on the waiting list for two years. I think that they have about 60 kids at a session, and last time I heard the waiting list was upto another 90 kids waiting to join.

The club is really active, with many of them competing in local CX and SXC events. The adult section of the club also arranges events which now always have a youth section for the kids. They are also adding ‘development rides’ in both the adult road and MTB sections to try and keep bridge the gap for the teenagers.

I’m not involved in the running of the club in any way, but I think that they setup with alot of help from British Cycling, they applied for (and got) grants for lights and they may have had a financial loan from the main club when they started up. I think that one thing that has been hard is getting a reliable source of coaches. I get the impression that there are plenty of Dads willing to undergo the training, but the time it takes means that a number of the kids either out grow the club, or get into other things, so you lose the dad as well. I think that some good coaches have come from the local uni’s ‘Sport Science’ course as they are around for three years and see the coaching sessions as added experience to their degree.

If you can then I would go for it. There is so much demand out there and it has really helped our girls with their confidence and makes riding a bike into a fun thing to do with friends, rather than just following Dad down the railway track.

if you go “unofficial” you are taking a risky approach as a single false allegation can lead to a whole world of pain

the BC “go-ride” framework gives you a structure and a method of operating that should ensure that you are protected as much as the kids

the BC system doesn’t have to be all about racing, it’s just the emphasis of the groups you have come across. But you need to accept that if you want to take kids out you will need “badges”