1st Practice

We had our first official practice on August 14.  We tried to practice last week, but the bikes we thought we had were loaned out to other league kids.  For this first practice, we were able to borrow a few bikes from the awesome gang at the Salt Lake Bicycle Collective.   Only three athletes were in attendance because many of the others are still out on family vacations, etc.  The three students were super excited and impressed the coaching staff immensely.

For now, we are not going to use the student's full names on this blog until we have permission from parents. 

We held practice on the nice soft grass at a park close to the school to judge the level of confidence each of the riders had before hitting the trail.  We practiced braking and easy downhills.

And next moved on to slow speed maneuvering using obstacles placed close together.  We took turns weaving in and out.

We did some endurance riding and ended with a game of "Foot Down" inside a makeshift circle.  The goal is to get your opponents to put his or her foot down before you have to.  It hones slow speed maneuvering.

By the end of practice, our coaching staff all agreed, the students were ready for the trail!