RiderCoach Prep - Getting the MOST out of Training - Part One

I knew from the beginning of my training.......or, actually, before ( I got a long pre-course assignment with my introductory package; Terry, my coworker and sponsor, had also told me about his prep) that this was going to be quite demanding. We had to learn a lot to be able to teach novice riders the two day course designed by the Motorcycle Safety Foundation. Five hours of classroom, ten hours of on-the-bike exercises on the range. I was, well...concerned. It was going to be a big commitment of resources. An hour and a half round trip. My wife and two little ones at home...lots to do! Was I going to do well? What defects do I have in my riding? Who were these guys?

The first day set the tone: serious but good natured; challenging but fun. The two trainers didn't waste any time getting us on the range. Paperwork, introductions, then, "Okay. Grab your gear and meet us outside. Let's get these bikes out of the container." Before we knew it we were puzzling over exercise diagrams and running around with hands full of little rubber cones. Two teams. Who can set up their half of the course correctly first? Look at the cards. Figure it out. Hustle! Ugh! Lost the first one! So many markings on the pavement. Which ones fit each exercise? I got in gear and my team got it done after that - every time.

The message was clear: This was a thinking, doing sort of thing. You had to be sharp and get up to speed or fall behind. No one was going to lay it all out for you. Having to take on the responsibility for our own learning drew us all in and made us realize that we had to be focused, involved. And these guys weren't going to miss a thing. It was obvious that they could glance at the range and just see the whole picture. It was either right or wrong. I think they enjoyed watching us scramble around, too! (I'm thinking they were getting a read on how we were going to perform during the course at the same time. Who would lead? Who would coast? Who was a quick study? Etc...)

Later I would wonder at how patient they were with us. It must have been torturous watching us fumble around with things that were so well established for them. Part of teaching, but still.... more credit to them.

After the ice was broken and we had taken a glimpse of what the range exercises would be like, it was time to get down to brass tacks. The Basic Rider Course...what was it all about? After all, this was really about the students we would teach after the training.

I'll confess that for most of the training I was so wrapped up with my own learning and performance that I lost sight of that for a while. It was fairly late in the game that I focused on the perspective of the nervous, first time rider behind the handlebars. That's when things started clicking about what the whole thing was going to look like. It wasn't just about cones, lines, and signals!

Let's ride. They put us through a condensed version of the entire BRC. It was fast paced and dense. In so doing, they hit upon all the essential aspects of RiderCoaching. They modeled range instruction techniques and classroom best practices. Reflecting on those early experiences later proved to be an immense source of information and was the best guidance for later development. How did we do this exercise before? How did we divide up the questions in the classroom? In short, they showed us how to do it well.

I felt in good hands. Bob and John were obviously incredibly experienced riders and coaches. Their expertise was evident. And to watch them ride the demos was, well...awesome. Like robots...not really robots...it was too fluid to say that. More like....automatic. It's the mastery thing...when someone makes a skill look effortless, perfect. I had to smile.

I felt like I was definitely in the right place. Concerns and guilt about missing work seemed to vanish. I was doing something useful, important, challenging. This was going to be good.