In the last few years, I have had the chance to ride mountain bikes with some beginners and in the process discovered that I really like the kind of gentle coaching that brings people up the skills curve. It’s natural, if you love something, to want to share it with other people, so I really enjoyed this little vignette about a mountain bike coach named Maggie.
I filed away more than a few of the little things she says here about how to approach daunting challenges with people. Probably the hardest thing about riding with folks who don’t have your skills or experience is putting yourself accurately in their shoes, right-sizing your expectations for them. This turns out to have a big impact on whether they trust you as a guide or not, and once you’ve lost that trust, not much you say is going to penetrate the surface. I have failed this way more than I’ve succeeded, so these were good coaching tips for me.
There’s a theme here about bringing more women into the sport, and I’m here for that of course, but in the larger picture, what I recognize in this video is just sound advice for helping anyone learn to love this thing we also love.