In 10 days time I'll be celebrating 2 years since I stepped into my instructor training and started the best work I've ever done. That said I'm finding little things niggle at me and I just want to rant about them so why not.
It can feel very autonomous and at times you aren't sure if that's good or bad. For the most part instructors are left to get on with it which sounds great but as the years go on it's not very reassuring. It's a very trusting situation, as an instructor you get made responsible for a handful of people during each session and how they experience cycle training/bikeability/cycle skills/safer urban driving/whatever is all down to you and the one colleague you will be paired with on the day. If you aren't passionate about it and driven to deliver good training the temptation to let your standards slide must be huge, if you are driven it's often hard to get regular feedback of how you are doing and where you could improve.
Chasing statistics is a thing and it's extremely rare but can clash with what a trainee wants/needs. An overwhelming amount of the time for the 99%+ of people I'll teach progressing all the way up into high level 3 outcomes makes perfect sense and they have no issues with that. Most will be nervous about it but gradually build up and with the safety net of an instructor with them each step of the way it all goes well. Having then cycled some big gnarly roads with them it's not unusual to then hear "well I won't ever cycle that way down x road again but I'm glad I did it, I've proved to myself I can". I'm totally fine with that, it's been a positive cycling experience and the skills learned will go to good use in other riding they do, I'll have delivered statistics and a great session win win all around. You then have situations where a rider despite all your best efforts using dozens of ways of teaching will gain little more from doing the same activity than a negative experience of cycling. Sometimes it's the timescale you have been asked/planned to achive the outcomes in not fitting the pace the trainee progresses at, sometimes it's linked to a past experience you have no knowledge of, it can be all sorts of things. I personally would take lower statistics any day, be more thorough where the trainee is happy and have them better engaged with the hope they can progress later or as is the ultimate goal they just leave my session and cycle more.
The absolute peril and fear some colleagues have had around SEN trainees to the detriment of the training they recived. Now to be totally open and honest and fair this is across the board in all walks of life. A reasonably large percentage of people, upon encountering someone who they identify as having extra needs, just freaks out. For cycle training where we are so drilled into doing risk assessment for everything the prospect of a new or added risk they don't understand can cause some to recoil in fear, rather than analyse a bit more and work out what's going on so the trainee can still get the most out of the session it's lockdown. Where I can I've corrected this on the spot by doing the extra leg work but it bugs me to no end thinking that it's going on all the time.
Working for the money. I've already started to see instructors come and go, the high hour rate brings them in and the reality that you aren't going to be booked around the clock if your heart isn't in it hits them hard. It's a physically demanding job cycling and on your feet x hours a day and doing that while hitting the right notes teaching is something you really need to be behind.
Being a new instructor. To make it worse starting out you are always going to have a period of earning your stripes, you take the crap jobs nobody wants, the odd hours in odd places, you just need experience under your belt and really you need it fast. I like to think I'm long gone from that stage but the way new instructors are treated often sucks, I got lucky and made friends who took time to explain more, I now make a point of helping when I meet new instructors as it sucks to be in that position with no help. It's often just simple stuff but for whatever reason it's missed them, you see them struggle so why not help.
I'm sure other stuff drives me mad too but that's on my mind today.
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