Club training spins - how do you accommodate different levels

michaelm

Just wondering what clubs do to accommodate varying levels of ability on training spins? Do many clubs for example have seperate spins for those whose average speeds would be vastly different and how are beginners and/or new members accommodated?

Captain Havoc

I'm in charge of the beginners section of Marble City Cyclers. It's a very difficult area when you're dealing with a limited population. At the moment our club has just over fifty members of varying levels. One problem we find is, cyclists coming on beginners spins each year and then hanging up the bicycle for the winter when obviously we would like them to develop. One thing I feel is important to our club is the fact we are a leisure club, I think with the limited numbers we have, to make us a racing club would create further segregation of the few numbers we have.

Our beloved chairman sent a few of our guys down to do basic coaching. One of them gave a course to the complete beginners and I feel it helped instill confidence in the newbies. On top of this a few of the more experienced members of the club assist me look after the group. I am how as ever adamant that progression will continue, I have handed out all beginners a training plan and where we're going, they are expected to keep up, I see this as tough love as I'm not prepared to see the progress of many halted by one or two. These spins as they're short take place on Monday evenings, some of the more experienced members show up and are expected to slow down. I know I'm talking a bit tough there but not really, next week we're up to 30kms and the average speed I want for all spins is 25kph (obviously depending on weather etc...) My overall goal here is that a dozen will do the 100km Tour de Kilkenny and hopefully one or two will do the Seán Kelly 160km. The increase in distance is very slow.

We have three more spins going, Saturday morning is an intermediate group with spins up to 100km with the pace high enough, around 30kph. Sunday morning is long could be over 100km with a similar pace to Saturday. There is a second Sunday morning group going which is similar to the Saturday morning group but a bit more relaxed, I will be handing my group over to this at the end of the summer as the spins become too long for the evening.

You'll really need to get the support of existing members, remember if there's no beginners, there's nobody becoming experienced and the club can't grow.

michael196

the most successful approaches I have seen have included every person heading out together . all levels, pace matched to group, then beginers peel off once their distance is covered, tourers then peel off leaving those wishing to race, having had a great warm up, can then let loose for the final stage of the tour !!

michaelm

Thanks for that - it can be difficult to find a structure that suits everyone, particularly if you have a club where some are at Rás level and you also want to be able to attract beginners. It can be vey easy to dishearten the novices and frustrate the more advanced cyclist, particularly in a small club. My own proposal (yet to be put into practice) is of a three tier system: beginners, intermediate and advanced, where everyone stays together for a few kilometres with each group peeling off along pre-specified routes. This allows progression up through the ranks as people feel ready to move to the next level.