Deanna Hoak

I think all of us have talents that others might not know about or even suspect but in which we nonetheless take a great deal of pride. I’m going to tell you about one of mine, and I’d love to hear about yours. I imagine this is something people would prefer to post in their own blog, but please do leave me a comment with a link to your post so that I can check it out.

One of my unexpected talents? I rock at teaching kids to ride a bike. Maybe it’s because I understand balance a bit better from riding a unicycle, but even neighbors come to me for help with this. I’ll detail my process to you.

First, make sure the child is dressed properly: helmet (of course), jeans or other tough pants, and bicycle gloves. The gloves are extremely important, and at a minimum the child should be wearing some winter gloves if you can’t find bicycle ones. I don’t usually use knee pads, because they can make the child feel awkward with pedaling. (Have you ever tried riding a bike with knee pads on? It sucks.)

Next step (after removing the training wheels ;-)): Lower the kids’ bike seat very low. It’s far better for the bike to be too small for them at this step rather than too large or even just right. The goal at first is for them to be able to catch themselves easily when they start to fall.

Now you practice having them catch themselves. This should be a fun game. You have them sit on their bike, with you holding on with both hands, and you show them how when they start to fall, they can stick out the foot on that side to catch themselves. You don’t move the bike forward at all at this stage; you simply stand there with them and lean the bike one way or the other. As the child gets more confident, you can pretend to try to “trick” them by leaning the bike more rapidly and in the direction you don’t think they expect, and laugh with them when they catch themselves that you can’t fool them. I do this until they’ve been catching themselves reliably for a few minutes.

Now prepare the child mentally for riding: You reinforce that they can catch themselves, and that even if they miss, they have on their gloves so that their hands won’t get hurt. Point out the padding on the gloves. Line up on a clear, even straightaway, and emphasize to the child that the faster they pedal, the easier it is to stay up. Tell them you are going to give them a good push to start them out and that they should pedal fast.

This is where I see a lot of parents inadvertently mess up the child’s balance: they hold onto the bike. Don’t do that—your weight and balance is out of the child’s control, and you’ll mess them up. You want to line the child up, give them a good running push, and let go, exhorting them all the while to pedal fast.

The child will still have falls, but with these steps those falls will be minimized. If they catch themselves, praise them for doing so; if they take a full tumble, reassure them it’s okay, point out how their equipment kept them from getting more hurt, and get them to try again.

That’s all there is to it! Some kids can become comfortable without their training wheels in twenty minutes with this, even if they aren’t riding beautifully within that time.