Mike Murray
I agree with the idea of having some type of training for beginning racers. The catch is that practically this is difficult for an organizational body to arrange. Someone needs to develop and staff the program. Then there needs to be a method to enforce taking the training, or at least encouraging that. There is also the issue that any such effort will have an inhibitory effect on new participants. Practically, the way this needs to happen is through clubs and other groups doing instructional sessions. This does occur regularly for track and CX racing. There are efforts at some series races to do the same with variable success. Some teams also offer this service but often teams are composed of a bunch of experienced riders that often don't want newbies in their group.
I think part of this is a real change in focus in bike racing training . In the long ago past the focus was on technique; pace line riding, sprint drills, cornering, etc. Now the focus is on power. Watts rule. There are plenty of examples of very strong fast guys who progressed from beginners to elite quickly without actually learning how to ride a bike. Actually you can watch the TdF and see the same effect. Some of those guys are falling when there really was no reason to fall. The system for assigning ability category only assays results. Power trumps skill in getting results.
A counter argument is a lack of demonstration of the effectiveness of instructional session as an intervention to improve safety. Many velodromes have mandatory classes that are required before you can race. Alpenrose is one of the trickiest tracks to ride and we do not require classes. We don't have more crashes than other velodromes.
Mike Murray
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> On Jul 13, 2014, at 7:07, Steve Scarich wrote:
>
> I learned by crashing a lot early on, not a good way to learn. I know this has been discussed before, but I think some kind of training would be good for newbies. I remember when I was District Representative for the beloved USCF, I would ask other riders for input when a rider wanted to upgrade. If I did not know the rider personally, I would ask if the rider knew how to handle their bike.