A bike named Randy

Funny title huh?

Every Bike Lesson is an Adventure

Well, every bike lesson with a 6-year-old is kind of hilarious. They see the world in a way that I can’t remember and it is fun to get reminded of that all the time. Sometimes, we have to put a band aid on a bike because it fell over. Not a band aid for the kid that fell over with the bike. There have been a lot of these moments, but there is one that sticks out from a month ago that is probably my favorite.

The Art of Motivation

Trying to figure out what will help the child get really excited and motivated to learn how to ride is kind of the art to what I do. Just today, I had to tell a five-year-old that needed to learn to keep their feet off the ground to balance, to pretend that he was Superman and fly. Sure enough, he did and then 35 minutes later, he could pedal a bike around a parking lot.

However, sometimes you really have to listen to get the clue to what will work.

Enter a Bike Named Randy…

The first lesson I had with this child went okay. It was not progressing nearly as fast as I thought it would. This child’s whole family rode bikes all the time. They had no car because they lived in a city. Heck, she showed up to the lesson with her whole family on bikes!!! She was on a pull-behind pedaling away and had brought her own new bike with her on a bike trailer. I thought this was going to be a snap. It was not.

She was making some progress but very slowly. It was more of a battle with each step hard earned. I was not really getting frustrated but I definitely was pulling all the tips and tricks out to keep this going. It is important to note that I always start students on my bikes because I know they are safe and set up correctly. I kept moving along and we were gaining some ground but I really worried that I wasn’t getting through. At the same, I had the very real feeling that I was missing something and you know what, I was.

Throughout the lesson, she kept talking about and looking over at her bike which was named…you guessed it…Randy!. I thought to myself “she really likes this bike”. She had named it. She had talked about adventures she had on it with training wheels. She worried that it was alone because it was on the far side of the parking lot by itself. Then in a moment of being less dense, I realized that Randy was her friend and that changed everything. For the next lesson, we STARTED with Randy and I said to her “I think Randy is ready to help you learn to bike” and she smiled and jumped on Randy.

Breakthrough

Fast forward 25 minutes and she is pedaling, turning, braking, and going up hills and having a ball and I was really happy for her. I was also glad that I took a moment to realize that what I was doing was not working and then slowed down to listen to her. Probably would have been better if I had heard her earlier but I am glad we got there.

“Somebody once said ‘you can’t listen and talk at the same time’. They were right.”

Pete Conway

Be awesome like a pirate.