It's humbling to see riders coming thru the ranks, having partaken in their coaching in Associate guise, then seeing them progress to Trainee Observer and gaining their wings to carry on under their own steam. The two Trainee Observers that I've worked with this year, one has already passed his Observer Test and the other is due to take his when a suitable time slot pops up. Fair to say they both bring an interesting, as in quite different, background to the table. What they share however, is that passion for seeing others improve.
Yes the word passion is perhaps a weird one, I use it freely, for I get a buzz out of watching someone mastering a skill that initially seemed daunting. My task as Observer is to break the learning curve into manageable chunks, and that's perhaps part art and part skill, for each Associate is different. So from an Initial Assessment we then customize the learning curve for the Associate, keeping them learning as quickly as practicable, yet not drag them too far from their comfort zone each time we venture out. The variations on this are obviously endless, on the surface at least. Now in my work environment I've done this for a while, so I'll readily admit that "reading" the responses from an individual becomes easier with time on the task. The first one or two outings a new Associate may show some nerves, so it's part of the strategy to "chill out" the rider to allow them to get the most from a ride, quite apart from keeping it safe for all involved.
What we've been seeing recently, with more riders coming thru the RideForever scheme then following up with IAM, is the starting point of these riders is quite high. This is a huge benefit in taking someone to the Advanced Test in a relatively small number of rides, the downside being the rider needs to master some key skills in a fairly short time as well. One example can be commentary, with a less prepared rider needing 8/10/12 outings to reach cross-check, we're now seeing riders getting to this point in 6 rides or less. Mastering commentary requires a bit of time and practice, so a suitable approach will come to the fore in due course. To be fair, as per suggestion by Geoff James, for CNI we use commentary in demo rides from the outset, which works, we just need to be mindful of the safety aspect. Overloading a new Associate mentally is never a good idea.
Having just partaken in another Observer training weekend, it once again sets the scene for growth, along the lines of many hands making light work. From my point of view the level of enthusiasm and skill is right on the money, we all bring something unique to the table when you look at the group overall, so as long as we can keep that team spirit alive and kicking we'll keep on growing. If anything, we're now temporarily in the situation of having more trainee Observers than we can effectively take thru practical training.
Trainee Observers on December 2018 course.
Another challenging aspect remains, how to recruit more younger riders into the IAM fold. On the one hand it may be as simple as riders not wanting to up skill and become safer until they reach a certain age, on the other hand it's likely we're not (yet) ringing the bell in the right place? The flow of riders from the RideForever system is picking up, so that's very encouraging. Yet the bike shows/expos that I've been to where IAM has had a stand, the number of riders interested in post license skills training seems rather small. I suppose the notion to up skill just isn't cool enough for a good number of riders? Do we need an incentive of sorts to get riders to come thru the system? I don't have the answer, for each approach I've thought of seems to have as many downsides as upsides. The first few years of the RideForever system certainly seems to be saving ACC a chunk of money, so now to take the next step and crank it up a notch? Or is the RideForever system an experiment that's about to come to an end? Certainly hope not!
My year has been more hectic than ideal, to say the least. Full noise at work for several months, which I chose to precede by doing the course to gain my I endorsement, then thru NZTA for the formalities, so now have a pretty licence with an I for all 6 licence classes. Initially this was driven by my job description, now the option of doing some days as bike instructor has materialized, and let's just say it's got me thinking. If there's a difference between trucking and biking for me, trucking has been my profession to date, whereas biking has been my hobby (or passion if you like). Do I want to risk losing the passion for biking by letting the coaching/instructing aspect move from the passion to profession part? Decision coming in near future I suppose. The positive angle is that I've got options, so no need to rush into anything.
As an aside, a fun distraction in the middle of the year has been the removal of all four wisdom teeth, so as my wife helpfully pointed out, I now have no wisdom left. A broken wisdom tooth kicked it all off, with the dentist being professional and efficient in removing the broken tooth, which unfortunately needed slicing the gum and then stitching up. This fun procedure was then repeated on the other side about 6 weeks later, slice the lower gum to remove the tooth and stitch back together, with the upper wisdom teeth being yanked on same day as the respective lower one. To say it's been painful covers it, but more to the point it's been a huge inconvenience for the duration of the healing process, which has at times left me grumpy (or grumpier than usual) and mildly sleep deprived. Glad it's done though and basically back to normal now.
