By Dr. Donald L. Green, 20 September 2022
1) Exercise 1: Motorcycle Familiarization, sets the stage or basis for learning on the range. I often wonder how much effort is put into the OACR process during this exercise. For those students who are unfamiliar with control manipulation, how important could this exercise be for the rest of the course? Something catching my attention is that RiderCoaches should be attentive to actual posture and manipulation of controls… do we take the time to remediate errors and how long do we spend developing muscle memory? Do we spend enough time in this exercise to familiarize what could happen, and how to react?
2) Jason Herheim (WI) recently conducted a professional development for his RiderCoaches the focused a lot on Exercise 2: Using the Friction Zone with some key ideas on how much focus we put on the key motor skill of using the clutch. In parts one and two the range cards clearly state for Part 1: Group Rocking, and Part 2: Power Walking, to “Do not release clutch lever fully” using minimal throttle. How many of us rush through this exercise focusing on the throttle instead of “To it, not through it?” If the phrase of “not through it” is really considered, and students vary speed with the friction zone, could we reduce problems in later exercises by focusing on the clutch manipulation for the whole exercise instead of rushing to Part 3: Riding?
3) Putting three things together. Pre-Exercise 1 Activities (uno) coupled with Exercises 1 (dos) and 2 (tres) set the basic foundation for novice students to bond with each other and the motorcycles in a “High Challenge, Low Threat environment.” If we rush through the exercises before establishing the full expectations of safe riding and learning the primary motor skill objectives, there is a possibility the outcomes will be less than favorable. All students are different and we adjust for their needs, but we also have to provide the foundation before we expect any more from our students.
More next week.
