The concept for Platt Fields BMX track in Fallowfield, Manchester has been devised through British Cycling’s Excellence programme
attracting new riders and allowing British Cycling’s BMX development to flourish. Supported by Lottery funding through
Sport England, the opportunities pro- vided by British Cycling for people to get involved in BMX are also increasing; the jurisdiction of national-level events being just one part of the jigsaw. Overseeing such events in the UK is an important responsibility for British Cycling. By en- suring that there are national series’ across all disciplines that run smoothly and efficiently, means the sport has the chance to continue on its current trend. British Cycling has clubs in every sphere
willing to put on a number of events throughout the country. These are run by a strong group of volunteers allowing both the development and the perfor- mance side of the sport to flourish.
World-renowned coaching Underpinning this success is the delivery of coaching courses that have seen British Cycling’s methods replicated by the UCI in Africa and South America for world-class coaching programmes of the highest calibre. In the last two years, British Cycling has
succeeded in engaging with the BMX com- munity – thanks to the launch of the Level 2 BMX Coaching Award. Launched in 2009, those who attend this award are able to go back to their BMX clubs and provide structured coaching sessions to their riders. A considerable amount of investment in terms of both funding and manpower was
Issue 2 2011 © cybertrek 2011
GO-RIDE BMX SUCCESS F
rom 2009 to 2011, British Cycling stationed a Go-Ride coach at Platt Fields in Manchester, who set up multiple youth coaching programmes, such as a week- ly youth club and regular holiday camps. After one year of inclusive coaching, six
talented youngsters were in need of additional in- tensive coaching. After attending these advanced sessions, 13-year-old Valerie Zebrokova from Fallowfield in Manchester, won Rounds seven and 10 of the National BMX Series, gained Redline sponsorship and has been invited onto the re- gional talent programme. Valerie’s success shows how structured Level 2 BMX coaching can help to provide a seamless pathway from grassroots to the first step of talent identification.
put into achieving this coaching pathway within a period of four years. The need to deliver discipline-specific
coaching awards at Level 2 and Level 3 was identified within British Cycling’s Whole Sport Plan (2008-2013). The focus of Level 2 is very much on coaching tech- niques to riders, with Level 3 developing this into a race performance context. Thus extending the coaches’ knowledge by covering areas such as how to plan and prescribe training, as well as including more advanced techniques. The Level 3 BMX Coaching Award
is expected to be launched next year, with the ultimate aim of continuing to help BMX riders to achieve success at all levels of competition. It’s also recognised that, as well as
qualifications, coaches require addition- al support; therefore joint programmes between British Cycling’s Coaching and Education Excellence departments are in place to create a community of practice to help BMX coaches develop further be- yond their initial training.
The BMX Coach Academy The development of young BMX riders is vital to everyone involved in the sport, but to British Cycling’s Talent Team BMX coach, Jeremy Hayes, it’s his passion. At the top of his agenda, Hayes is planning a structured coaching pathway to help develop the best crop of youngsters for BMX racing. “The first step of the process is to analyse how coaches are working with young people within clubs,” he says. “The reason being that at the moment we’ve got a lot of coaches who are teach- ing kids at national level and that brings with it new demands.” To deal with these demands, Hayes
has already selected an elite team of 16 coaches in five regions, who share ideas and learn new skills. These are broken down into Level 2 coaching modules to coach talented youngsters as a prelude to their entry onto the talent team. The idea is to create a BMX Coach Academy in each region of the UK. Previously, Hayes ran up to 20 over- subscribed, regional coaching sessions
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