Q: What level are you currently at on the Cycling Award for Young Volunteers Programme?

Q: What do you enjoy most about volunteering?

Q: How do you think being a volunteer has helped you?

A: It has helped me to become more confident because I have been leading groups and meeting new people.

Q: Is there anything you would change about your volunteering experience?

Q: Where would you like your volunteering to take you in the future?

Blog 1: 30^th July

Go-Ride Coaching with the PM

On the 30^th and 31^st of July I helped at two Go-Ride courses run by Mac and Josie, the first at Hillingdon Circuit and the second at The Look Out in Bracknell. There was a third day at Hayes Hawks but I was unable to attend due to the fact that BMXing scare.

This was the first of my two days of coaching and it was at Hillingdon Circuit. I was there as an assistant coach but I arrived early and helped with setting up the club house ready for sign on; unloading bikes from the trailer and placing cones and obstacles around the circuit ready for the skills sessions. Unfortunately by this time it was already pouring down with rain.

Along with Duncan, a coach I know from Hillingdon Slipstreamers, I was helping Barry, a Level 2 coach. We took the C group who were on mountain bikes so we focused mainly on skills such as taking and dropping a bottle, gears and cone slaloms rather than cycling round the circuit. As Barry was the lead coach and the one who found it easiest to make himself heard over the rain I spent quite a lot of time moving cones around and demonstrating exercises. I also spent quite a lot of time standing in various puddles whilst trying to give the rider’s advice, as did most of the other coaches that day. Luckily the group I was with were enthusiastic and not too cold, which made the day much easier for us.

As it was getting very wet and cold outside we had a slightly early lunch in which me and three other assistant coaches from Slipstreamers managed to fill a mug with water squeezed from our gloves and socks.

Fortunately, by the time we ventured outside again after lunch the rain had stopped and it was the groups turn to practise the limbo bar. They were surprised when told they would have to get under it whilst riding their bikes but after a few practise runs everyone managed it, even when the bar was lowered!

After the session ended I helped with some of the clearing up. All in all the day was rainy and because the group were doing skills we stood around a lot, but the kids enjoyed it.

Blog 2: Wednesday 31^st July 2013

Go-Ride Coaching

I arrived slightly early at The Look Out for the second day of the Go-Ride sessions and helped to unload the trailer full of mountain bikes. Then the groups and coaches were sorted out, mostly the same as the previous day except I was with Mark Passey, also a coach at Slipstreamers, and the lead coach was Dave.

As I live just 15 minutes from The Look Out and ride there at least once a month I was at the front of the group. At the Look Out there are three tracks of various difficulties that run through Swinley Forest and Crowthorne Woods. We started on the blue track (medium difficulty). After a very nervous start from the riders, who weren’t used to mountain biking, (with Dave and Mark coaching from the back of the group and me shouting every feature of the track from the front so the riders knew what to expect) the riders started to enjoy the ride.

We completed about four miles of the blue route before heading back to The Look Out for lunch. Afterwards we did a warm up lap on the Green (Easy) route before heading back out onto the blue. The riders were now enjoying the ride as they recognised the paths we had ridden that morning. Soon it was apparent that everyone was getting tired since all talking had stopped, if the riders did speak it was sensible advice. Despite this we made it all the way to the end of the blue route with no major incidents (even ‘Iron Man’ Josh, so nicknamed because he fell off four times but kept riding to the finish!).

This session was definitely my favourite of the two and I enjoyed the ride and the coaching. I had a lot of fun and would be happy to do it again anytime.

Blog 3: Saturday 14^th December

National Youth Forum Meeting 3

The third meeting of the British Cycling National Youth Forum was held on the 14^th December 2013 at the British Cycling headquarters in Manchester. The building was amazing; it was like a cyclist’s heaven. As I didn’t make it to the first meeting I had never been to the headquarters before and I couldn’t believe how much there was there!

The main aim of the third meeting was to organise our presentations which will be shown at the local conferences around the country in March, but we had time for some fun too.  Between designing and practising our reports, we shared achievements from the weeks since the second meeting, played some team building games and even had time to go mountain biking! That was my favourite part of the day and even though some of the road riders looked a little uncomfortable at the beginning everybody seemed to enjoy the experience.

I had a great day in Manchester, although it felt a little strange having cameras filming us all day, which were there to capture what we do at the meetings and our aims. To make the day even better, I managed to grab a third mince pie before I left!

Blog 4: Go-Ride Coaching in the rain!

On the 30 and 31 July, I helped at two Go-Ride courses run by the regional Go-Ride team of Mac and Josie at Hillingdon Circuit and The Lookout in Bracknell.

At the Hillingdon Circuit, I was an assistant coach, but I arrived early and helped with setting up the club house ready for sign on; unloading bikes from the trailer and placing cones and obstacles around the circuit ready for the skills sessions. Unfortunately by this time it was already pouring down with rain!

Along with Duncan, a coach I know from Hillingdon Slipstreamers, I was helping Barry, a Level 2 coach. We took the C group, who were on mountain bikes, so we focused mainly on skills such as taking and dropping a bottle, gears and cone slaloms rather than cycling round the circuit. As Barry was the lead coach and the one who found it easiest to make himself heard over the rain, I spent quite a lot of time moving cones around and demonstrating exercises. I also spent time standing in various puddles, whilst trying to give the rider’s advice, as did most of the other coaches that day! Luckily the group I was with were enthusiastic and not too cold, which made the day much easier for us.

As it was getting very wet and cold outside, we had a slightly early lunch, during which the three other assistant coaches from Slipstreamers and I managed to fill a mug with water, squeezed from our gloves and socks.

Fortunately, by the time we ventured outside again after lunch the rain had stopped and it was my group’s turn to practice the limbo bar. They were surprised when told they would have to get under it whilst riding their bikes but after a few practise runs everyone managed it, even when the bar was lowered!

After the session ended, I helped with some of the clearing up. All in all the day was rainy and because the group were doing skills we stood around a lot, but the kids enjoyed it which is why we all do it.

Blog 5: Nationals at Hillingdon Cycle Circuit

On the 21st of June the National Race came to Hillingdon Cycle Circuit and I was one of the 40 volunteers from Hillingdon Slipstreamers who went to the track to help out with the running of the event.

It was a fairly early start, Dad and I were there at 7:30 and my first job, along with Simon Passey, was helping Mark Dole set up the flags and gazebos at the start/ finish line. We had everything set up for the start of the first race at 10, although we had some trouble fitting the flags together (for future reference, they work like fishing rods).

After putting up signs for the sign on and giving out food vouchers to volunteers I went down to watch some of the racing. We were all very proud of Lorna Bowler, who got first place in the Under 14 Girls! I ended up doing the food run for the judges, always a difficult job for somebody as clumsy as me but fortunately no burgers ended up splattered on the ground.
For the last three races of the day I found myself judging for the first time ever! It was quite difficult, especially with the Under 16 Girls who rode in a huge bunch for the whole race but it was great to try something I had never had never done during volunteering before.

Once all the racing had finished it was time to pack everything away and give out the last prizes for the race winners. We eventually headed home at 7:30 in the evening after a very long day at the track but the Nationals went well, with all the races running on time and no major injuries!