Just Ride!

Good morning! You all look a little chilly.

Sometimes you've got to just get on the bike and go. Today was one of those days. It was cool out and wispy mist hung over the athletic fields. After moving the bikes outside and setting them in the corral, the kids jumped right on their ABCQuick checks. They lit up the LEDs on their helmets, and waited for me to finish taking attendance.

Today's plan: Warm up. Ride. Reinforce skills covered (shifting, weaving, cadence, starting and stopping). Cool down. One of my 7th graders took me under his wing to try and teach me how to bunny hop. I could almost do it!

At the end of the ride I offered a more challenging alternative for kids to get back to school. There is a root-strewn, technical trail that leads back to the fields. A brave few rode the whole thing, but most had to walk at least part of the trail. They were so psyched to have the chance to let loose for a brief moment.

This is a perfect example of the FOCUS that is inspired by mountain biking

The joy and excitement the kids exude as we ride is palpable. We've begun a tradition of riding over a little rock outcropping near the doorway to the school as we wrap up each morning. "Mr. Kovacs! Let's hit the rock!" Today, a 7th grade boy who is often in trouble during the school day made it over for the first time. As he crested the rock he yelled up to me "Mr. Kovacs! Look! I'm making it over!" I stopped and watched and gave him a "woo- hoo!" The smile on his face was a stark contrast to what he looks like when he's sitting in the principal's office. Hopefully he'll be able to tap into his positive feelings from these rides to make his class time at school go a little smoother.

Riding into the sunrise

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And so it begins!

The mornings have been cool and crisp as we kicked off Riding For Focus this week. Fall is in the air, and we have twenty-one rosy cheeked middle schoolers eagerly hauling their bikes "hand over hand" from the storage area to the bike corral each morning. They are motivated to get out riding as quickly as possible, so they manage to be focused and efficient, even at 7:00 am. So far we have been going through the curriculum lesson by lesson, checking off skills as we see them demonstrated. Fitting and checking your bike before riding, fitting your helmet properly, how to start, how to stop, how to shift gears, how to maintain a consistent pedaling cadence. It's brilliant to have kickstands on these bikes so we can create a mobile bike corral wherever we go. Getting kids in close, momentarily asking them to separate themselves from the distraction of those shiny new bicycles, and then releasing them back to their rides after instruction creates the space for clear deli

Putting it All Together

Today was one of those special days when so much seemed to come together. We are in the middle of week #5 of this spring's Riding For Focus session, and we have worked hard on learning about many aspects of cycling. But we have also pushed outside the set curriculum. We have: Ventured onto trails to learn mountain biking techniques Ridden with bike-commuters during Bike to Work Week Cleared trails Shaped and rock-picked the pumptrack Learned basic field repairs Become acquainted with the local trail system Made new friends Today I took my eighth graders out onto a section of the Whiskeag Trail known to the mountain bike community as "Gnarcore." It's an appropriate name for this steep jumble of roots, rocks and skinny bridges. I was sure to bring my Wilderness First Responder first aid kit, and I required kids to drop their seats to the frames. I also spotted them on tricky sections and even had them walk the bikes in the most high-consequence spo

Motivation

Riding bikes at school is so much fun that kids will go to great lengths to get to do it. We are into week #3 and attendance for Riding For Focus has been close to 100%. Anecdotal reports from teachers and parents are that kids are generally calmer, happier and more focused since they began riding. While these aren't scientific findings, they are still worth paying attention to. Over the weekend a friend shared an article with me about youth programs in Iceland. The country had terrible problems with alcohol abuse and disengagement among their teenagers in the late 1990's. Introducing consistent after-school activities over the last two decades that got kids moving, interacting with each other, having fun, exploring their interests and challenging themselves turned the culture around. Today, Iceland has cut their rate of teenage alcohol abuse by 75% and improved the emotional state of their kids as well. In a similar way, Riding For Focus has been a lifeline for some of o

R4F (Riding for Focus)

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