Steering and slalom
Ready when: Push, step, brakes (b4) done.
What you are learning
Making the bike go where you want: between two lines, round a square both ways, a U-turn and a slalom round cones. The trick is to look at the gap you want to ride through, not at the thing you want to miss.
Words on this card Handlebars, Slalom, U-turn
- Handlebars
- What the hands hold to steer.
- Slalom
- Riding a zigzag path round a line of cones.
- U-turn
- Turning round in a half circle to ride back the way you came.
Set up
Cones or shoes 3 m apart in a slalom; two lines of cones 2 m apart.
Weather: dry ground
Show it first for the one teaching
- Ride slowly between the two lines of cones, looking at the far end.
- Ride round the square, looking at the next corner before you reach it.
- Ride the slalom, looking at each gap and turning the bars gently.
Your part while they practise
Be at the end of the course.
Step by step
- Ride between the two lines of cones.
- Ride round a square, clockwise and anticlockwise.
- Make a U-turn.
- Ride the slalom, looking where you want to go.
How much: 5 laps each 10 min a session 3 days a week
Say one thing Pick one line from "What you will see" for today and say only that.
The game: Follow my line
One rider rides a path through the cones and the others copy it exactly.
Who plays: 2 or more riders taking turns to lead; you judge.
How to play, turn by turn
- Turns
- The leader rides a path through the cones and calls "done"
- Each follower rides the same path
- Next rider leads. 5 turns each
- Fair play
- A grown-up must lead slowly and keep both hands on the bars.
- Points
- A follower scores 2 points for an exact copy, 1 point for one wrong gap; the leader scores 1 point for each follower who misses a gap.
- Fouls
- No points for that ride
- Touching a cone
- A foot down
- The leader rides a path they cannot ride cleanly themselves
- Winning
- The most points after everyone has led 5 times.
- 6 points for 1 star
- 10 points for 2 stars
- 15 points for 3 stars
Easier or harder
Wider cones.
Closer cones.
What you will see, and what to say
- the child hits the cones
Look at the gap, not the cone
The bike goes where the eyes go. - they turn wide
Look across the circle, turn the bars
Look at where the turn ends.
Self-check
The slalom without touching a cone, 3 times.
Fitness for this
Warm up first: how to warm up, at workonfitness.com. For strength and stretching, its exercise library shows each exercise step by step, with an easier version.
This card trains steering, cornering, braking.
awiseathlete.com/sports/cycling/cycling-b5