[Dirt rider]

I was looking though my local parks and rec guide and I noticed that there was no beginners course for mountain biking so ive been thinking of teaching one come next spring. basicly I want to come up with a for lack of better term a course outline. so if you where to take a course on mountain biking what would you like to see included.

things i would include for sure are: braking,cornering, proper gear selection, climbing/decending basics, flat repair/ manitice.

any imput would be great.

 

[BikeGeek]

A good friend of mine used to teach several beginners clinics every summer. He used the Army "crawl, walk, run" method of teaching. For crawl he'd start out at the trail head with a quick overview of what everything on the bike does, then he'd move on to basic maintenance and then things like body positions (pedals level, ass back on decents, etc.). Walk was essentially a slow ride with stops to demonstrate various skills, for examples, at a hill he'd teach controlled decending and climbing basics, a log would give him a chance to teach crossing techniques and demonstrate some confidence building stuff, and a tight switchback was perfect for teaching cornering and picking a clean line. Run was a bit faster, but with a lot of stops to discuss various things that would come up.