I had 3 girls for Junior Development: Matilda Hannaford, Charli Hayter and Bridie Sutton. We rode from 1:30-5pm with a few drink breaks in between. The focal point in our session was to get the girls to 'look ahead' at where they want to ride/want their wheels to go etc. It's an easy habit to fall into looking down at your front tyre all the time.
Our sections all had tricky turns in them as well, as is commonly seen when riding the white splits at a trial. Tricky turns also become easier when you remember to look up/ahead/through the turn! The girls were incredibly enthusiastic (and appreciative), and I thoroughly enjoyed coaching them. I have not had much experience with coaching before, but when I was a Junior I always loved coming down to Victorian trials events for the coaching on the Saturday afternoon (Trevor Campbell did a lot of the coaching, and Peter King was the driving force behind it).
We lived in rural NSW throughout most of my time as a junior, and the long drives were always worth it! The best part is that you get to put what you learned into practice at the trial the following day!
I saw the 2016 Junior Development Program as the perfect opportunity to start giving back to the sport that has been such a large part of my life for the past 10 years. I hope that the girls got (and continue to get) as much out of the Junior Development Program as I did when I was younger, and I hope that more families and kids get on board at future events this year!
