KCC’s first Cycling Ireland coaching session
On the 19th May KCC’s newly trained coaches invited members’ children to attend the inaugural youth foundation coaching session at Killinchy Community Hall.
There were doubts as to whether the heavens would open and put a dampener on this first session, however the backup plan wasn’t required and at around 6pm the clouds broke for the children and their parents arriving and the rain stayed away.
With a group of 11 children, the coaches started off by demonstrating some basic riding skills such as cornering and pedal positioning.
Once these basic skills were mastered by the young riders, they progressed onto exercises to practice balance and funneling through tighter cones and around a tightening corner to maintain control. The session continued with an exercise in observation over the left & right shoulders, helping the children be more aware of their surroundings.
To finish the night off the children were instructed to ride around the hall itself in a train like format, completing several laps of the hall in both directions to assist in their development of how to position pedals whilst turning and put their cornering training into practice.
The children all thoroughly enjoyed the session and comments afterwards ranged from ‘can we do this every week?’ to ‘can I have my own Strava account please?’ Watch this space as it is hoped to repeat, improve and extend this offering to encourage more children to develop the skills to enjoy safe cycling.
Thanks to all involved, particularly the coaching team and the parents for giving up their evenings to make this a success.
